Introduction
vivo has once again raised the bar in the mid-range smartphone segment with the launch of the vivo V30 Pro. This very capable all-rounder offers some nifty upgrades over the vanilla V30, such as a more powerful chipset, a dedicated portrait lens, ZEISS portrait styles, and faster RAM and storage. The question is, is that worth the difference in price? let’s find out.
Design and Build Quality
vivo V30 Pro boasts a premium design that exudes sophistication and style. Its curved edges and the nature pattern on its rear panel create a stunning yet understated look. The device feels solid and well-built, thanks to its metal frame. The glossy finish on the sides is a fingerprint magnet, but that shouldn’t be an issue with a case. Like the V30, this also has IP54 rating to protect it from splashes and dust, though I wish the ingress protection was better.
What’s more impressive is that the phone, despite the capable hardware that it packs inside, only weighs in at 188g, making it easier to hold and use, especially with one hand.
The device has the same display at the V30 – a 6.8-inch 1.5K AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, and up to 2,800 nits of peak brightness. You get rich colors and deep blacks, which makes it an excellent device for media consumption.
Camera
vivo V30 Pro has a triple rear camera setup headed by a 50MP Sony IMX920 main shooter with OIS and VCS technology, ensuring sharp and detailed images even in low light. The 50MP JN1 ultra-wide and macro unit offers versatility. The device allows you to select from three photography styles – ZEISS Natural, Vivid, and Textured.
Camera samples show excellent levels of detail and sharpness, as well as good color accuracy. Like the V30, the ultra-wide camera on the vivo V30 Pro also offers almost a similar level of performance with the main camera.
The 50MP Sony IMX816 Telephoto Lens with 2x optical zoom delivers stunning bokeh effects with the dedicated ZEISS Portrait Style function. This feature allows you to mimic the iconic bokeh rendering of ZEISS’ legendary Biotar, Planar, and other portrait prime lenses. While not perfect, edge detection is superb for a midrange device.
Despite the absence of a periscope camera, zoomed in photos still look very good in terms of detail even at around 10x, and still decent at the maximum range of 20x.
The 50MP front camera is equally impressive, delivering high-quality selfies. vivo’s imaging software offers a plethora of features, including night mode, ultra-wide mode, and various filters and effects, making the V30 Pro a delight for both casual users, and those aspiring to up their mobile photography game.
On the video side, all of the vivo V30’s cameras can record up to 4K 60fps, which is good news, especially to those who want to create content using the front shooter. Stabilization is also very good at up to 4K 30 fps.
Performance
Powered by MediaTek’s 4nm Dimensity 8200 processor, the V30 Pro delivers excellent performance for both day-to-day use and gaming. With 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
Diablo Immortal for example, runs at High Resolution, Very High Preset, and 60 fps enabled with no issues, smooth. Honkai: Star Rail, on the other hand, runs smooth for most of the time in Medium to High preset with 60 fps enabled.
As for thermals, the phone did get very hot at some point during the benchmarking process (almost to the point of being uncomfortable) getting to as high as 46 degrees Celsius. You’ll notice that at about halfway into the test, the phone’s performance falls sharply as the temperature increased. Something to note is that this happened when the phone was subjected to a stress test for 20 minutes – Heavy load for an extended period of time.
I tried playing Diablo Immortal for 20 minutes straight, and the performance was pretty much consistent with only a few stutters here and there.
Battery Life and Charging
On PCMark’s Work 3.0 benchmark which simulates tasks such as data manipulation, web browsing, photo, and video editing, the vivo V30 Pro managed to score an excellent 16 hours. In real world usage, it should be an easy 1 to 2 days of light to moderate use.
On the charging side, the device also supports 80W FlashCharge technology, with zero to full only taking less than an hour, ensuring minimal downtime between charges.
As with the V30, vivo claims that the battery can retain a capacity of above 80% even after 1600 charge and discharge cycles.
Audio Quality
While a lot of other mid-range devices have gone for a dual speaker setup, the vivo V30 Pro still sticks to a single speaker at the bottom.
To be fair, this speaker can get loud without audible distortion. As for the sound quality, you get a decently balanced output with some low-end, good clarity on the vocals, and enough sparkle on the treble. It won’t compete with the best ones out there, but it works fine.
Software Experience
Running Funtouch OS 14 based on Android 14, the V30 Pro offers a smooth and snappy experience with no lags when swiping through menus and home screens.
As with the other devices running this Android skin, it offers a good amount of headroom to “personalize” the device to your liking. Apart from the Always on Display, you can customize things like the graphics for charging, when connecting a USB-C cable, the fingerprint icon animation, and many more.
Then of course, there’s the Smart Sidebar, which gives you access to your favorite apps, and Game Sidebar, which lets you choose a performance profile, lock the brightness, and a lot more, when in-game.
vivo V30 Pro: Verdict
With its impressive camera capabilities, powerful performance, long-lasting battery, and sleek design, the vivo V30 Pro is an excellent choice for those seeking a well-rounded and capable mid-range smartphone.
If you’re into photography, this is an excellent choice. Especially if you do vlogs or content using the front camera or the ultrawide unit, as this can shoot at a higher frame rate and resolution, not to mention you get access to ZEISS portrait styles and color science.
On the flip side, it has the same downsides as the V30 – it only has an IP54 rating, and it only has a single speaker. There are also those annoying notifications from native vivo apps that really need to go.
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
