vivo, one of the official sponsors of the UEFA EURO 2024 happening in Germany in June is back with another great smartphone, the vivo V30 5G. I’ve been using this smartphone for a week, and I’m impressed. First of all, the major noticeable change is the Aura light has changed shape to a rounded square and both the camera lenses are under one glass cover. So, strap in for my full review.
Let’s start with a quick unboxing. The phone comes with a flexible clear phone case, 80-Watt charger, USB cable, some paperwork and a SIM ejector tool. I will reveal the price at the end of this video.
You can watch this review in video format below.
Design
The vivo V30 embodies a slim curved body with a long battery life. I say long battery life because the battery has been upgraded from 4600mAh on the vivo V29 to 5000mAh. This higher battery capacity has pushed the weight to 189 grams. Check my vivo V30 charging experiment article see how long the 80-Watt charger takes to fill the battery with fast charging.
I have the Peacock Green version of the V30 that’s made up of the sparkling greenish back cover that is very smooth. The phone’s surface transitions from a deep green to a tranquil blue color when exposed to UV light. The back cover and display have a 3d curved design towards the edges with the minimalistic rounded corners.
The ports and connectors on the bottom of the phone include the speaker outlet, USB Type C port Microphone and finally the SIM Tray that can hold 2 Nano SIM cards. At the top of the phone are the words professional portrait right next to the secondary microphone.
The rectangular camera module is a view catcher. It’s made up of a dual camera module made up of 2.5D Glass lens connected to the aura light ring in a one piece cloud step design. The seamless integration of the camera and the back of the phone creates a unified and sleek look. The camera lens is also scratch resistant and very easy to clean for the perfect shots. Another interesting this I noted is that the ring light also lights up with the Flashlight. This effect looks very cool indeed.
Frankly, the V30 combines the 3D Curved Screen with a slim design, resulting in an elegant, powerful, and comfortable aesthetic.
Camera
Watch my full camera review from 02:09 in my review video above.
The V30 comes with a dual rear camera setup comprising of a 50MP main lens and a 50MP Ultra Wide-Angle.The main lens is a 50 MP VCS True Color Main Camera featuring vivo Camera-Bionic Spectrum (VCS) technology, which enhances color accuracy to closely resemble human eye perception. The new aura light is a bigger square shape with rounded corners. This means that you will get more light on your subjects. At the front is a 50MP dot in in display lens.
The VCS technology allows for enhanced details and colours in low light conditions. You can see the clear difference between a competitor’s phone and the vivo V30. The OIS feature minimizes blur caused by hand movements, ensuring high-quality pictures.
The Aura Light Portrait Video mode enhances video clarity in low-light conditions. By enabling the Aura Light, portraits become clearer and night scenes brighter. With Hybrid Image Stabilization (OIS + EIS) shooting high quality stabilized footage is now a possibility.
Photos from the front and rear cameras speak for themselves. They can be played on a big screen TV with no problem at all.
The maximum video recording quality is 4K @ 30 fps. That’s for both the front and rear cameras. The other qualities are 1080p at both 30 and 60fps. The new Vlog Movie creator feature comes with some various effects for fast shooting and editing. This can be found in the Micro Movie feature. You can select whatever theme you like, apply filters, focus, stabilization and even music. The end product is a video you can upload directly to TikTok or Instagram reels.
The 50 MP Ultra Wide-Angle Camera best works for landscape portraits, such as close-up shots with high-rise landmarks. Buildings and even larger landscapes will just show up when you turn ON this feature.
Finally in video recording, there is a microphone input selector. Apart from the default dual mics on the phone, there is the Bluetooth that is self-explanatory and peripheral inputs that you connect to the USB port. It’s too bad that the Bluetooth input only supports vivo headsets.
CPU
The V30 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 platform, which offers a balance of high performance and low power consumption. The official 12 Gigabytes of RAM can be extended to 24GB. The fast CPU and extended RAM offers a balance of high performance and low power consumption, ensuring a smooth user experience for everyday tasks and powerful gaming performance. This allows for seamless multitasking with more apps running in the background. This ensures a smooth user experience for everyday tasks and powerful gaming performance.
Offline games start in mere seconds while the heavy games performance is also superb with very little overheating. If you’re looking for a gaming device that doubles up with great looks, then this here is your answer. Because these specs are too high for normal social media viewing and browsing.
Display
Speaking of viewing, let’s talk about the display. The V30 boasts a of a 1.5K Ultra Clear Sunlight Display with a resolution of 2800*1260 and a high 120 Hz refresh rate. This provides an immersive, clear and smooth visual experience. The display can reach a local brightness of 2800 nits and a maximum overall brightness of 1200 nits. This means that the V30 is usable even in bright sunlight.
OS
The Funtouch OS 14 operating system is clean and free of Ads and very easy to use. It offers a smooth experience and I particularly love this new feature called background stream. It’s activated while on YouTube by sliding out the panel on the edge and it enables listening to YouTube videos in the background and even with the screen off. If you’re not aware, this is a paid feature on YouTube premium.
Battery
The new bigger battery capacity can last even longer while gaming, shooting videos and general use. I conducted a fast-charging experiment and I got up to 26% in only 10 minutes and 71% in half an hour which is very fast. To fully charge the phone I recorded a time of less than 45 minutes. Watch my vivo V30 charging experiment video.
Price & Outro
The price of the vivo V30 is 64,999 Kenya shillings. What do you think of this price? Is it just the right amount or is it a little bit pricey? Let me know in the comment below.
In conclusion, the vivo V30 5G exceeded my expectations. From the great specifications, camera performance and general design that gives us a premium look.