Vivo V30 5G review: Reliable phone with elegant design

Vivo on Thursday (March 7) unveiled the new V30 series 5G phones in India.

The company is offering the V30 in two variants -- a regular V30 and a top-end V30 Pro -- with prices starting at Rs 33,999.

I have been using the V30 (12GB RAM + 256GB) for a week and here are my thoughts on Vivo 's latest premium Android phone.

Design, build quality and display

It flaunts a sleek design language with a curved screen that cascades up to almost the mid-rim of the frame on both the left and right sides.

On the back, Vivo V30 features a rectangular camera module vertically aligned with a unique square-shaped aura LED flash set-up.

. The device is super slim and so easy to carry around. Thanks to ergonomic design, it offers a good grip for the fingers to hold onto the device. It measures just 7.45mm in thickness and weighs 186g.

Our review unit is the Peacock Green variant. The company has incorporated Fluorite AG (Anti-Glare) Glass on the rear side. It is silky smooth and shines bright when sunlight hits the back panel.

The new gorgeous Vivo phone is capable of changing colours under direct sunlight. It turns from dark emerald green to dark ocean blue within a few seconds.

. Notably, it does an amazing job of repelling the sweaty finger smudges on the panel. It's impossible to stain the phone.

On the front, the screen is protected by a Schott Xensation α (alpha) glass shield against scratches. Also, the company has used custom aluminium alloy for the frame around the screen.

Inspired by air-raid shelter curves, the company says that it has crafted a protective shell with a soft and sturdy structure to survive the impact on the hard surface during accidental drops.

This design ensures that impact forces from drops bypass electronic components, transferring to the sturdy frame to disperse force and minimise the damage inside and exterior too.

. Additionally, the device comes with an IP54 rating, meaning it can survive water splashes.

And, Vivo offers a free soft transparent silicone cover case with the retail box. The see-through design ensures the phone's beautiful back panel is visible and also protects the device from getting cracked or dented during accidental drops.

Besides Peacock Green, the company also offers the device in two other colours -- Andaman Blue, and Classic Black.

One qualm with the Vivo V30 is that the SIM slot at the base is placed right beside the microphone. Customer has to be careful while using the ejector tool and ensure he/she places the pin in the right slot (extreme left) of the SIM tray and not the hole beside the Type-C port.

. On the front, it features a 6.78-inch full HD+ (2800×1260p) AMOLED screen with 20:9 aspect ratio screen. It supports HDR10+ and 120Hz refresh rate.

The company has used really good quality AMOLED panel. It supports peak brightness up to 2,800nits. It excels in delivering a good viewing experience.

When playing a motion picture, it reproduces near-natural colours of the objects bright and vibrant in the scene. When watching nature documentaries, one can notice how good the display is.

The display is very responsive to the touch input and thanks to the high refresh rate, it delivers a smooth browsing experience.

. It also supports the eye comfort feature to reduce the harmful blue light emission. It can be scheduled to get activated in the night too. The feature reduces the strain on the eyes while reading e-books or watching multimedia content in a low-lit environment.

The in-display fingerprint sensor works without issues as long as the finger is clean and dry.

. Performance

It is powered by 4nm class Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 octa-core with Adreno 720 GPU, 8GB / 12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB / 256GB UFS 2.2 storage.

During the entire review period, Vivo V30 worked smoothly without any pressing issues to complain about. It can handle everything, not just day-to-day tasks such as switching between apps, operating camera, streaming videos from OTT apps and playing graphics-rich Asphalt 9: Legends.

And, the phone doesn't overheat as such. It may get slightly warm while recording 4K videos, but not overwhelming enough to complain about.

The company has incorporated a large vapour cool chamber (3002 mm²) with 11 temperature sensors to ensure efficient heat dissipation and prevent the device from getting overheated.

Also, with 'Extended RAM' feature, the user can double physical memory. It is turned on by default on the device. With 12GB + 12GB (virtual) RAM, the device responds faster. The apps load quicker than they usually do.

. Switching between the apps is also smoother and the user can resume exactly where they left off before moving to another app.

It runs Androi d 14-based Funtouch OS 14. It has a few third-party apps such as Amazon , Netflix , Snapchat and all the core Google apps.

The company is offering the base storage model with 128GB and the top-end variant with 256GB. This is more than enough for regular smartphone users. There is plenty of user-available storage to install hundreds of apps and store photos and videos with the camera app.

It comes with a 5,000mAh battery. Under normal usage, it consistently delivered more than a day of battery life. Even with extreme usage with three hours of video playback (offline), a session of gaming and a couple of scrolling on social media platforms, the device still had more than 25 per cent at the end of the night before I retired to bed.

. Also, the company is providing a free 80W fast charger with the retail box. The device can get fully charged from zero to 100 per cent under 50 minutes.

Vivo V30 comes with just two nano SIM slots and both support 5G. And, it also features a speaker at the base. The device performs well in delivering good audio output with less distortion even with volume put to the max.

It supports dual-band Wi-Fi (2.5Ghz + 5Ghz), and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity, but there is no Near Field Communication (NFC) feature.

. Photography

It houses feature-rich dual-camera module--50MP(with 1/1.49-inch sensor, f/1.88 aperture, OIS: Optical Image stabilisation) + 50MP ultra-wide sensor (f/2.0, 119-degree field-of-view) + 2MP portrait camera (with f/2.4) with aura LED flash.

. The phone's camera also boasts proprietary Vivo Camera-Bionic Spectrum (VCS) technology, which ensures the colour of the objects captured in the frame come off as accurately as perceived through our eyes.

. It does manage to get the right results concerning the human face to an extent, but when capturing flowers, there is a noticeable colour boost to make it warmer. I don't find any issue to complain about here, as the photos look amazing and the minute details are finely captured.

. Compared to the previous iteration, the latest V30 series phone features a bigger and better aura LED light to offer studio-quality portraits in multiple lighting conditions. It does great in capturing human faces with fine details of the skin tone even at night.

. With night mode on, the Vivo phone excels in balancing the light coming from street lamps and other sources in the vicinity. It also ensures the night sky remains dark and natural in the scene captured by the camera. This is way better than other rival branded phones that turn the black sky to dark blue like it is taken in the evening.

. With ultra-wide angle mode, it can accommodate a wide expanse of the landscape with a good amount of details and colour accuracy.

. The highlight feature of Vivo V30 is the portrait mode. It does an amazing job of keeping a sharp focus on the subject and naturally creating a bokeh blur effect in the background.

. It can record 4K videos up to 30 fps (frames per second). The video quality is good and on par with rival branded phones under Rs 40, 000 price range.

. On the front side, it houses a fantastic 50MP autofocus camera with f/2.0 aperture and dual soft LED flash. It does an amazing job of smoothening the skin. Even if you have acne scars, it can clear them instantly and make them photogenic.

. There's more. The native camera supports numerous filters and tools to adjust cheek size, eyes, and even nose, to get a perfect photo for display picture (DP) for social media platforms.

. With a 92-degree field-of-view capability, it supports group selfies. Even those with short hands can take group photos of around four to five people without hassle.

. Final thoughts

Vivo's latest V30 is a reliable mid-range phone. Like the previous iterations, the device continues to stand apart in terms of design language with a magical colour transformation effect.

Performance-wise, it works smoothly without any pressing issues to complain about. It delivers good on long battery life.

And, concerning the photography, it does an amazing job. The photo quality is top-notch. It can give premium phones (in Rs 50,000 price range), a run for their money.

. With good built quality and protective features such as customised aluminium alloy in the frame, IP54 rating, display shield and free cover case, the company has ensured the device serves the customer for several years.

The company is offering Vivo V30 in three configurations-- 8GB RAM + 128GB storage, 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage-- for Rs 33,999, Rs 35,999 and Rs 37,999 in India.

The top-end V30 Pro model, which comes with a more powerful processor ( MediaTek Dimensity 8200) and better camera hardware will be available in two models--8GB RAM + 256GB storage and 12GB RAM + 512GB storage-- for Rs 41,999 and Rs 46,999, respectively. It is being offered in two colours-- Andaman Blue and Classic Black.