Vivo V30 Review: Is Vivo’s Stylish Mid-Ranger Better than the Motorola Edge 50 Pro?

The Vivo V30 series was unveiled in India last month, bringing two new smartphones to the fray. While the Vivo V30 Pro offered some major camera gains, it was the Vivo V30 that caught our attention.

With a starting price of Rs 33,999, the Vivo V30 face still opposition on India's sub-35K smartphone market, particularly with the recent launch of the Motorola Edge 50 Pro, which goes on sale in India today. However, despite the competition, we still believe that the Vivo V30 brings a ton of upgrades and makes a very compelling case for those looking for a versatile mid-range smartphone. So without any more delays, let's dive into our full Vivo V30 review.

PROS

• Brightest OLED Display in the Segment
• Superb Camera Performance Across the Board
• Powerful Mid-Range Chipset
• Excellent Battery Life
• Super-Fast Charging Support

CONS

• Stylish Design isn’t Comfortable to Grip
• No Stereo Speakers
• UI Experience Could be Better

Design and Build

As with past generations, the Vivo V30 puts the emphasis on style opting for a sleek design with a color changing back panel. The phone features a 3D curved screen and a curved back panel. The camera bump, which barely protrudes, blends perfectly into the rear panel, giving the phone a subtly stylish look.

Our version of the Vivo V30 came in the Peacock Green shade, which combines green and blue together with a visually appealing textured pattern. To add an extra layer of flare, the green turns into vibrant blue shade when exposed to UV light. As compared to the design, the build doesn't feel that premium.

Yes, the phone gets glass protection on both the front and back, although the Vivo V30 uses a glossy plastic frame. However, this doesn't add any heft to the handset, leading the Vivo V30 to weigh a meager 186 grams and measure just 7.45mm thick, despite housing a massive 5,000 mAh battery. Lastly, the phone has an IP54 rating for resistance to mild splashes of water and dust.

The Vivo V30 also features a volume and power button on the right, while the speaker grille, SIM tray, and USB Type-C port sit at the bottom. Our model opts for a matte finish on the back that's quite resistant to fingerprints and smudges. In the box, there's a charger, transparent case, and SIM extractor tool.

As you can see, our opinion about the Vivo V30's design hasn't really changed. The sleek design is not for all and does have a negative impact on usability. However, putting on the included silicone case makes it easier to grip. Overall, we think the Vivo V30's design and build feels premium, although we don't recommend using it without a case.

Display

For the display, the Vivo V30 sports a 6.78-inch 1.5K AMOLED 3D Curved screen with a peak brightness of 2,800 nits and a pixel density of 452 PPI. The panel also features a 120Hz refresh rate and a 300Hz touch sampling rate. The display also supports 100% DCI-P3 and 105% NTSC color gamut coverage.

Overall, the display on the Vivo V30 is excellent for entertainment with good viewing angles and color reproduction. The panel also gets plenty bright and is easily visible outdoors, even under direct sunlight. It also features 2160Hz PWM Dimming and SGS Low Blue Light certification.

The Vivo V30's panel also supports HDR10+, Widevine L1 DRM, and Full HD streaming with HDR10 across various platforms including Netflix. Under this display, sits a very responsive and snappy fingerprint reader, although it is nowhere near as good as the one on the flagship Vivo X100 Pro (Review).

Performance

The Vivo V30 also debuts as the first smartphone in India to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset. Our model of the Vivo V30 arrived with 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. Let's take a look at some real-world results. In Geekbench 6, the chip managed a single-core score of 1160 points and a multi-core score of 3203 points.

The phone also scored 3556 points in Geekbench 6's OpenCL GPU test. We also ran Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends on high settings on the Vivo V30. And after 30 minutes of playback, we didn't experience any slowdowns or major drops in frame rates. This might be down to the 3002mm2 vapor chamber and Vivo's software-based Ultra Game Mode.

In terms of performance, the Vivo V30 does fall short of the competition, although the use of TSMC's 4nm process ensures solid gains in power efficiency. On balance, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset is more than sufficient to handle everyday tasks smoothly, while allowing you to easily run most mobile games on high graphics.

Cameras

In terms of optics, the Vivo V30 features a 50 MP 'VCS True Color' primary camera sensor with OIS and a 50 MP ultrawide lens with a 119-degree Field of View with Autofocus. Up front, there's a 50 MP selfie camera with Auto Focus. Now, let's look at some real-world results.

In daylight, the main camera captures a ton of detail with vibrant colors, although this makes shots look oversaturated at times. Vivo has retained some of the features from the X100 Pro, so if you are not a fan of saturated colors, you can toggle to the Natural or Textured mode. Dynamic range and exposure on the main camera were good.

The high-res 50 MP ultrawide lens maintains color consistency with the main camera. The new 50 MP ultrawide also has minimal distortion on the edges and outputs detailed shots. The ultrawide lens didn't quite fare as well as the main camera indoors. However, this is inarguably the best ultrawide camera we've tested in the segment.

The Vivo V30 also impressed in low light as night mode brings in more light in the scene, while improving the detail. Objects in the darker areas of the scene are also well exposed, so long as you have sufficient ambient light. The main camera can churn out decent-looking shots in the absence of ambient light.

Quality does dip when switching to the ultrawide lens at night, but results are usable so long as you have sufficient ambient light in the vicinity. The Aura Light that sits under the camera island does a good job evenly distributing light for portrait shots. The selfie camera is quick to focus on subjects and captures detailed shots with accurate skin tones in daylight.

The Vivo V30's main camera can record 4K video at 30fps or 1080p video at up to 60fps. The 4K footage reproduces vibrant colors with excellent detail and no over sharpening. The stabilization on 4K footage was good, although the Ultra stabilization mode drops the video quality.

The ultrawide lens is limited to 1080p video recording at 30fps. On the flip side, the selfie camera can also capture 4K video recording at 30fps. The Vivo V30 also features various camera modes including Micro Movie, Dual View, Astro, and more. The overall camera experience on the Vivo V30 was nothing short of exceptional, highlighting the benefits of quality over quantity.

Battery

Vivo has equipped the V30 with a large 5,000 mAh battery that can easily last a day on a full charge under moderate to heavy usage. PC Mark's battery test saw the phone manage a run time of little under 18 hours, which was quite impressive. During my week of testing, I was often left with at least 10 to 15 percent of battery life to take into the next day.

Those with battery anxiety will be happy to hear that the Vivo V30 5G supports 80W fast charging, so even if your battery is down to zero in the morning, it will take you less than 50 minutes to hit that 100% mark. Moreover, the phone offers a 50% charge in around 25 minutes.

Vivo claims that despite the super-fast charging, the Vivo V30 offers double the battery lifespan as a traditional smartphone. The Super Battery Saver technology is touted to ensure fluid battery performance for four years. The battery life on the Vivo V30 was excellent, while charging support isn't far behind.

Software

On the software side, the Vivo V30 runs Android 14-based Funtouch OS 14. The software on the V30 is relatively clean and light, Vivo has minimized the bloatware and you don't get bombarded with ads any more. The software experience on the Vivo V30 wasn't too different from that on the Vivo X100 Pro. However, there's still some bloat to contend with here and the V-App Store leads the list.

You can't uninstall but you can turn the notifications off, or you'll be hit with a ton of ads. Funtouch OS 14 also brings various privacy features like Voice Isolation, Smart Mirroring-Privacy Protection, and Hidden Photos as well as a myriad of customization options. Moreover, Vivo promises two major OS upgrades and three years of regular security updates with the V30 5G, which does feel underwhelming.

Verdict

With a price tag of Rs 33,999, the Vivo V30 faces stiff opposition in India's mid-range smartphone market. However, despite the competition, Vivo manages to carve out a nice niche and standout from the competition. The Vivo V30 has one of the best sets of cameras we've experienced in the sub-35K segment. The rear camera setup delivers quality and consistent results across the board.

Moreover, it also features a unique curved design, which gives it a more premium look. The Vivo V30 also has one of the best displays in a segment that is already overflowing with 120Hz OLED screens. The Snapdragon chipset here is capable of handling just about any game or task you throw at it. However, Vivo V30 is not without its caveats.

The premium design is yet down by the lack of comfort while using the phone and software support could be better. The phone is also letdown by the mono speaker, plastic frame, and inferior IP rating. Caveats aside, we'd still recommend the Vivo V30 as it can go toe-to-toe with the Motorola Edge 50 Pro in nearly every area, while only just edging it in the camera, display, and battery life departments.