vivo launched its V39 Pro smartphone in India earlier this month, as the successor to last year’s V29 Pro. This has an improved AMOLED screen, improved cameras and a better battery while retaining the 80W fast charging and the Dimensity 8200 SoC. Is this the worthy upgrade to the V29 Pro? Let use dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- vivo V30 Pro 12GB + 512GB version in Classic Black colour
- Clear Silicon case
- USB Type-C Cable
- 80W FlashCharge wall adapter
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick start guide and Warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The vivo V30 Pro sports a 6.78-inch (2800×1260 pixels) 1.5K 20:9 aspect ratio, 452 PPI 55° curved AMOLED display and 120Hz refresh rate. The display is bright. The screen has up to 1200 nits brightness in HBM mode, up to 2800 nits peak brightness, so the sunlight legibility is good. The colour output good as well since it has 1.07 billion colors.
You can select from standard (default), professional and bright screen colour modes. You can select smart switch that can switch between 60 Hz/90 Hz/120 Hz, 30 Hz or force it to 60Hz or 120Hz. It has 300Hz touch sampling rate and 1000Hz instant touch sampling rate. The phone has up to 2160Hz High-frequency PWM dimming. Visual enhancement optimizes the color and contrast in apps like YouTube, Netflix and Prime Video for more vivid display effects. It has Schott Xensation α glass on the front for protection.
It also has HDR 10+ support, which works for YouTube and Netflix. The phone doesn’t have a notification LED, but this has an always-on-display that shows contextual info and notifications all day or as per schedule.
The phone has a 50MP front camera inside the punch-hole. There is an earpiece on the top edge which doesn’t work as a secondary speaker.
There is a small chin below the screen. It has an in-display optical fingerprint scanner. The haptic feedback is good.
Coming to the button placements and ports, the phone has a power button and volume rockers on the right. The bottom part is crammed with a dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and a speaker grill. The secondary microphone is present on the top. The phone is just 7.45mm thick.
The Classic Black color that we have has an AG glass back with a matte finish that is slippery to hold without a case, and the phone also comes in Andaman Blue colour.
This uses a Magnetic ink process, with the texture transitioning smoothly from bottom to top. Gently rotating the phone causes the particles to shimmer, creating a Sparkling Water Ripple Effect, said the company. The phone has IP54 ratings for dust and splash resistance.
Camera
- 50MP camera with 1/ 1.49″ IMX920 VCS bionic, f/1.88 aperture, OIS
- 50MP ultra-wide sensor with f/2.0 aperture
- 50MP 2x telephoto portrait camera with Sony IMX816 sensor, f/1.85 aperture
- 50MP autofocus front camera with f/2.0 aperture, 119° FOV
In addition to flash, there is an Aura Light, which is now 19 times larger, and its light is 50 times softer compared to the previous generation, and it identifies and adjusts the color temperature, extending the range of adjustment by nearly 20%, says the company.
The camera UI is the same as other phones running Funtouch OS. It includes several features such as AR stickers, Pro mode, long exposure, 50MP mode, supermoon, and more. Even though the phone has a 50MP rear camera, the final output is 12.5MP in size after pixel binning, and the front camera output is around 14MP.
Coming to the camera quality, the daylight shots are brilliant, and it is recommended to enable HDR option which automatically switches on HDR according to the shot, so that the dynamic range is good. The camera can focus quickly. The 50MP ultra-wide camera does a good job, and it can also shoot macro. The portrait mode with the 50MP sensor is brilliant, with good edge detection. The phone has ZEISS optics and 6 ZEISS Style Portrait options.
Low light shots are good with a lot of details and less noise, and the OIS helps as well to stabilize the images. The night mode automatically enables ultra dark mode if there is very less light, and that makes it better, but it takes a few seconds to process. There is also supermoon mode with up to 30x zoom, compared to 20x in the normal mode. The supermoon option is a good addition, but you can’t compare it to flagships.
The 50MP AF front camera is also good in daylight. The portrait shots from the front camera were also good with a good edge detection, even though it uses software.
Check out some camera samples below
It can record videos at 4k resolution at up to 60 fps from the front and rear cameras. It has standard and ultra stabilization, but the resolution is down to 1080p in standard and ultra options since it crops the content. OIS does a good job in stabilization. You can adjust the aperture manually for portrait video, but this is limited to 1080p 30fps. There is a ZEISS cinematic portrait video option.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the phone runs on Android 14 with Funtouch OS 14 on top. It recently got Android security patch for March 2024. The phone will get 2 Android OS updates and 3 years of security updates, same as the older V series models.
Funtouch OS 14 brings Smooth Experience, Visual Smoothness, Enhanced Multitasking, improved Personalization, including custom Kinetic wallpapers, custom lock screen clock style with three layout styles and eight font styles.
Out of 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM about 11.16GB is usable, out of which 5GB is free when the default apps are running in the background. There is additional 12GB RAM expansion feature. Out of 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage, 463.5GB is free out of the box.
Apart from the usual set of utility and Google apps, it comes preloaded with a lot of apps such as Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn, PhonePe, Netflix and Truecaller and Snapchat. These apps can be uninstalled, but they come back after reset.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an optical in-display fingerprint sensor which immediately unlocks the phone just by keeping your finger on the sensor. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. There are different animation styles that display when you unlock, which you can disable. The phone also has face unlock that can unlock the phone in seconds, but it is not as secure as fingerprint.
Music and Multimedia
The default Music Player also has equalizer and DeepField sound effects. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. There is audio super resolution, and super audio features. Audio through the mono speaker is decent, but not the best. Audio through the headphones is good.
This has Widevine L1 so that you can play HD content on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and other streaming apps. It also supports HDR playback on Netflix and YouTube.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with support for n1/n3/n5/n8/n28/n40/n77/n78 bands. Jio and Airtel 5G work out of the box. It also has dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.3, GPS + GLONASS, but doesn’t have NFC support. It also has USB OTG support. The phone also has carrier aggregation. We did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume is good, even though it is present on the top edge.
The vivo V30 Pro’s body SAR is 0.975 W/Kg and head SAR is at 0.990/Kg which is less than V29 Pro that has the same chip, and is well under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
It powered by the latest MediaTek Dimensity 8200 4nm processor, same as the V27 Pro. It has 1x Cortex-A78 @ 3.1GHz, 3x Cortex-A78 @ 3.0GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2GHz.
The Mali-G610 MC6 offers a smooth gaming performance even in graphic intensive games, and has a large Ultra Large 3002mm² Vapor Chamber Cooling System and 35,141 mm² cooling area.
If you play intensive games like Genshin Impact, it will heat up quickly, but with normal use it doesn’t get hot. In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 64%, and the temperature shot up from 30 to 45 degrees, which is too much.
It has 300Hz touch sampling rate and 1200Hz instant touch sampling rate. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see in the benchmarks, the V29 Pro powered by the Dimensity 8200 chip outperforms several phones, but there are phones with better chips like Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 and even Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 at a cheaper rate.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 5000mAh (typical) battery, a major upgrade compared to 4600mAh in the V29 Pro and the V27 Pro. It can easily last for a day with heavy use and for more than a day with typical use with 5G enabled and multimedia, thanks to the optimization. I got 5 and half to 6 hours of screen on time with over a day of mixed Wi-Fi and 5G use.
Since the phone has support for 80W fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in about 25 minutes, and 100% takes close to 50 minutes. The company says that it can retain 80% battery health even after 1600 charge-discharge cycles with the smart charging algorithm.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 41,999, the vivo V30 Pro’s camera performance is top-notch, making it the best camera phone in the segment even though the price is slightly on the higher side. The display is also brilliant, it offers good battery life and it offers a smooth perfomance. However, the phone still lacks stereo speakers and NFC support, which was the case for the V29 Pro and V27 Pro.
Pricing and availability
The vivo V30 Pro is priced at Rs. 41,999 for the 8GB + 256GB model and the 12GB + 512GB model costs Rs. 46,999. It is available from vivo.com, Flipkart and offline stores.
Alternatives
The OnePlus 12R and the iQOO Neo9 Pro are direct competitors that offer better performance, and good main camera performance, but it can’t match the ultra-wide, portrait and front camera performance.
Pros
- 120Hz 1.5K AMOLED HDR display is brilliant
- Good front and rear cameras with 4K 60fps recording
- Smooth performance
- Sleek eye-catching design
- Good battery life, 80W fast charging
Cons
- Still no stereo speakers and NFC
- A lot of preloaded apps