I was able to review the vivo V29 5G in September last year and found it to be a great device. Of course, I jumped on the opportunity to get early access to its successor, the vivo V30 5G. Can it follow in its predecessor’s footsteps? Can it surpass the high bar the V29 set? Let’s find out.
Design: 5/5
The vivo V30 is quite eye-catching. The review unit we had sported an artistic back panel in the Petals White colorway which features a 3D matte petal pattern. While vivo has a great track record of producing great looking phones that make me question my preference for minimalist palettes, I daresay that I like the V30’s overall look more than its predecessor, the vivo V29. The main reason I say this is because of the clean and truly premium look of the V30’s camera section. While the V29 featured noticeably circular modules, the V30 sports a square camera and lighting hump with rounded corners. The two rear shooters are on the upper black camera island—the ultra-wide on the upper left corner and the main camera on the lower right corner—while the flash and Aura Light 3.0 are on the bottom island which is likewise colored in Petals White.
The phone’s face is occupied with a 6.78-inch AMOLED curved glass screen with slim bezels all around. The punchhole selfie camera is at the top, along with the completely invisible call earpiece. The in-screen optical fingerprint reader is at the bottom. Along the top edge is the microphone pinhole; the right edge has the volume rockers and power button; the bottom edge houses the dual nano-SIM tray, another microphone pinhole, USB Type-C port, and single speaker grille; and the left is completely bare.
The V30 comes in 0.01mm thinner than the V29 at 7.45mm versus the latter’s 7.46mm while retaining the same weight and easy-to-hold profile. vivo has taken steps to ensure that though the phone may look slim, it is robust enough to be a daily driver. The screen is protected by durable Schott Alpha glass. The phone’s frame is made out of plastic but features reinforced sides and aluminum alloy corners. Lastly, it is rated IP54 for dust and water resistance.
Hardware: 5/5
Running the show for the vivo V30 is a 4-nanometer, octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 with a clock of 2.63GHz for the fastest A715 core, 2.4GHz for another three A715 cores, and 1.8GHz for four A510 cores. This particular chipset claims to be 15% faster in terms of CPU performance, 50% faster in GPU performance, and 20% more power efficient versus the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. This CPU is paired with an Adreno 720 graphics renderer, 12GB of RAM, and either 256GB or 512GB of non-expandable storage.
As mentioned, the phone has a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with a Full HD+ resolution of 2800 × 1260px, equating to a display density of 453ppi. vivo stated that the screen can go up to a respectable maximum brightness of 1200 nits. Moreover, the display’s refresh rate can go from the standard 60Hz to as high as a silky smooth 120Hz.
Camera-wise, the V30 is equipped with two rear cameras and one front-facing camera. The back shooters come in the form of (1) a 50MP camera with a 1/1.55-inch sensor, an aperture of f/1.88, phase detection auto focus, optical image stabilization (OIS), and a maximum video output of 4K resolution at 30fps; and (2) a 50MP ultra-wide camera with a 1/2.76-inch sensor, 119-degree field of view, an aperture of f/2.0, electronic image stabilization, and a maximum video output of 1080p at 30fps. Meanwhile, the selfie shooter is a 50MP f/2.0 affair with a 1/2.76-inch sensor, maxing out at 4K resolution at 30fps.
While the vivo V30 comes with the standard white LED flash bulb, it is also equipped with an Aura Light Portrait 3.0 module. An upgrade over the vivo V29’s circular Aura Light 2.0, the 3.0 in the V30 takes the form of a larger square, which can provide much-needed fill light in less than ideal lighting situations.
Lastly, the vivo V30 is able to pack a whopping 5000mAh battery in its svelte 7.45mm-thick body. It comes with an 80W vivo FlashCharge power brick and Type-C cable out of the box.
This combination of hardware should equate to reliable everyday performance even in demanding tasks, games, and lighting situations, while also meaning the battery will not die on you in the middle of the day.
User Experience: 5/5
I was able to spend just over a week with the vivo V30 as a daily driver I had absolutely no complaints about it. It’s great for mobile gaming, content consumption, internet browsing, and mobile photography—basically all the things you need from your smartphone. Its beautiful, premium-looking exterior is the icing on the cake.
The vivo V30’s display is expectedly great for anything and everything visual you will be doing, from binge-watching online videos to scrolling endlessly on social media. It gets reasonably bright even in direct sunlight. The 120Hz refresh rate makes the whole experience buttery, as long as you are okay with the resulting shorter battery life. In the sound department, the single speaker configuration does a good enough job of getting loud while still maintaining decent quality at maximum volume.
Moving on to benchmarks. The vivo V30 scored 5,418 on the 3D Mark Wild Life test, 9,595 on the PCMark Work 3.0 benchmark, 1,147 on the Geekbench 6 CPU single-core test, 3,160 on the Geekbench 6 CPU multi-core test, and 3,354 on the Geekbench 6 GPU OpenCL test. Meanwhile, storage speeds averaged 441.52MB/s and 562.45MB/s, respectively, for sequential write and sequential read on the Cross Platform Disk Test. In real-life use cases, the vivo V30 was more than capable of handling everything I threw at it, even with the 120Hz refresh rate setting permanently turned on. MOBAs such as Pokemon Unite and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang were expectedly no problem to run even with all graphics settings tuned up to the highest. Shooters like Call of Duty Mobile were likewise easy pickings for the V30. Even more demanding titles such as NBA 2K Mobile, Diablo Immortal, and Genshin Impact were also no problems to run despite maxing out all graphics options. Though the phone noticeably warms up a bit, the V30 does not thermal throttle thanks to its Ultra Large Smart Cooling System.
What use is a powerful phone if it only lasts for a few hours, right? Good thing the aforementioned combination of the power-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 and 5000mAh power pack is able to drive the vivo V30 for hours on end. On the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test, it was able to last for over 17 hours. In daily use, the V30 was easily able to muster close to 10 hours of screen on time with mixed use, Wi-Fi always on, and screen brightness around half. vivo claims that the V30 is able to go from 0 to 100% in just 48 minutes using the 80W power brick it ships with. My actual charging times from dead to full took around the same time. Better yet, vivo says that the phone’s long-term battery health has also been improved. The company says that it should have a battery capacity of over 80% after 1,600 charge-discharge cycles, which means that the V30 should still last respectably long even after four years of standard use.
For the cameras, not only do the physical camera-flash modules look aesthetically better this time around, but they are also very capable. Images from the main 50MP shooter come out great, with nice sharpness and dynamic range and without too much artificial post-processing, even with the Vivid shooting preset applied. It’s also quite good in tricky lighting situations, pulling additional details from darker areas without too much noise. The 50MP ultra-wide angle camera ain’t a slouch either, producing nice looking landscapes, albeit with the expected loss of sharpness off-center. Videos are likewise as good as the stills, with the OIS helping avoid the artefacting that comes with electronic stabilization. The Aura Light 3.0 system is on hand for both photos and videos, serving as a convenient, soft, ring-light alternative when your subject is not ideally lit. Software-wise, the cameras are quite snappy with no concerning shutter lag.
My only real complaint is the slippery body which makes handling a challenge for those with sweaty palms. But it’s only really an issue if you plan on using the vivo V30 ala carte. Thankfully, there’s an included transparent jelly case in the box which mitigates this fall risk.
Value: 4.5/5
Overall, the vivo V30 offers standout performance across the board. Display, battery, cameras, performance — all were top-notch and really put it in the upper echelon of its class. Coming in two colorways, Petals White and Green Sea, with a price tag of PHP24,999 and PHP27,999 for the 256GB and 512GB variants, respectively, the vivo V30 may not necessarily be the cheapest midrange phone out there, but boy, does it bring everything you want in one sleek package. That by itself makes the price of admission something that is hard to beat.
Interested? Test out the vivo V30 by visiting your nearest vivo concept store or kiosk, and order it on the official vivo website or the official vivo Shopee, Lazada, or TikTok pages.
Specifications:
- Display: 6.78-inch, 2800 × 1260px FHD+ AMOLED 3D Curved Screen with 120Hz refresh rate
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3
- OS: Funtouch OS 14 (Android 14)
- RAM: 12GB + 12GB Extended RAM 4.0
- Storage: 256GB/512GB
- Camera: 50MP f/1.88 with a 1/1.55-inch sensor, PDAF, and OIS (main rear); 50MP f/2.0 with a 1/2.76-inch sensor ultra-wide (secondary rear); 50MP f/2.0 with a 1/2.76-inch sensor (front)
- Connectivity: 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, GPS, NFC, OTG, USB 2.0 Type-C, dual nano-SIM
- Battery: 5000mAh, 80W vivo FlashCharge
- Others: Aura Light Portrait 3.0, In-display Fingerprint Scanner, IP54 dust and water resistance
- Dimensions: 164.36 × 75.1 × 7.45mm
- Weight: 186g
- Colors: Petals White and Green Sea
- Pricing: PHP 24,999 (12GB RAM + 256GB ROM); PHP 27,999 (12GB RAM + 512GB ROM)
What’s Hot:
- Aesthetic camera modules with great outputs
- Runs everything without a problem
- Long battery life with short charging times
What’s Not:
- Single speaker system
- Grippiness is an issue if going without a case
Bottomline:
The vivo V30 is beauty and brawns rolled into one sleek-looking device.
Reviewed by Chris Noel Hidalgo
Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE April 2024 Issue