vivo’s V Series has been the home for the brand’s camera innovations for the mainstream. While I initially doubted whether this was the case, reviewing the vivo V27e removed that doubt for me. When I heard that the ZEISS collaboration was coming to the V Series, the thought of reviewing one excited me! Does the vivo V30 Pro bring a good smartphone experience and good cameras? Find out in my review.
Disclaimer: vivo Philippines sent the vivo V30 Pro review unit in Petals White. It arrived on April 9, 2024, and unboxed it on the same day. I’ve used the V30 Pro for over a week as my main Android phone.
Design and Build
When it comes to making capable phones with slim and light designs, vivo is one brand I can think of. The V30 Pro is a great representation of slim and light weighing at 188 g and being 7.45 mm thin. I rarely feel this phone in my pocket despite its big display. I also like this frosted/matte glass back with a petal-like pattern. (The color of the V30 Pro I’m using is Petals White.)
Even if I find the back slippery, the glossiness of the frame and its thin profile make up for it.
Display and Speaker
Yes, you read that right. The vivo V30 Pro only has a single speaker. While I would tolerate this on a phone that costs P10,000 to P12,000, it feels like a major omission here.
It’s especially apparent when you have a good display on the phone. The V30 Pro has a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with a 1.5K resolution that has all the usual bells and whistles. It has a 120Hz refresh rate, a 300Hz touch sampling rate, 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and up to 1200 nits of global peak brightness.
The display looks nice in most scenarios (it’s just okay under direct sunlight) and the colors it shows are pretty accurate. I just wish this had dual speakers for a more immersive media experience.
Performance and Software
One thing that’s not controversial at all is this phone’s performance. The V30 Pro uses a MediaTek Dimensity 8200 processor with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. I mostly did the usual day-to-day stuff while reviewing this phone and I wasn’t able to play a lot of graphics-intensive games. I was only able to play Pokémon UNITE, and it ran smoothly on this phone. However, I can confidently play Honkai Star Rail or Genshin Impact in at least Medium settings based on its performance in benchmarks.
In case you need those benchmark results, here they are:
The V30 Pro runs on Funtouch OS 14, vivo’s UI skin based on Android 14. Not once did the phone bother me performance-wise or software-wise. My favorite feature of vivo’s UI skin is its Mini window feature where you can enable a small window to float on top of the current app you’re looking at.
Battery Experience
Another thing that the V30 Pro excels at is its battery experience. While it may seem normal to have a 5000 mAh battery and 80W fast charging support in a P35,000 phone, vivo’s optimizations make the most of these specs.
While getting 13 hours and 39 minutes in the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test seems like an average score, my real-world use makes this phone a battery champ in my book. I typically get a day and a half of mixed-use (mostly social media, taking photos, and watching YouTube videos). For a slim phone, that’s impressive in my book. Charging this phone from 20 to 100% takes less than 45 minutes, which is more than enough for me.
Cameras
Let’s face it: it’s okay for the other parts of a camera-focused phone to be good enough. But great smartphone cameras need these components to be great too: the processor and the image processing. On paper, the vivo V30 Pro has probably the most compelling set of cameras in a midrange phone. This phone consists of these cameras:
- ZEISS Triple Main Camera
- 50MP VCS True Color Main Camera (Sony IMX920 sensor + vivo Camera-Bionic Spectrum, f/1.88 aperture, OIS, 84° field-of-view)
- ZEISS Professional Portrait Camera (50MP) (f/1.85 aperture, 2x optical zoom)
- 50MP AF Ultra Wide-Angle Camera (f/2.0 aperture, 119° field-of-view
- 50MP AF Group Selfie Camera
If you noticed, vivo used 50MP sensors for all of its cameras with varying apertures and functionalities. Do all of these cameras combined with vivo’s image processing bring a great camera experience? Let’s find out together!
Click on the photos for full-resolution versions!
If there’s one thing vivo’s really good at even in the midrange segment, it’s their cameras. The overall quality of these photos rival those of flagship cameras! I love the photos coming out of the V30 Pro so much that I recently used it to take photos for an upcoming review.
The biggest thing that impressed me about the V30 Pro’s cameras is how consistent the color reproduction is. I would only notice color shifts when the light source is different. The more surprising part is that the 2x zoom photo has a different color from the others.
Aura Light Portrait 3.0
Another highlight of the V30 Pro’s cameras is Aura Light Portrait 3.0. This was the feature that led me to have a positive experience with the V27e. Even with its small circular light, it already produced better photos than those shot with a normal flash. We get a 19 times bigger Aura Light that’s 50 times softer than the previous generation. You can even take advantage of Smart Color Temperature Adjustment!
Aura Light Off
Aura Light On
While the feature isn’t perfect, it’s a nice-to-have feature for those edge cases where you need more balanced lighting with a fill light.
One thing I discovered while taking food photos was the presence of Food Mode. It shows up in the Camera app when it detects food. I just had to see the difference when enabling the mode. It generally makes food pop out more which helps make the food itself more appetizing.
I just had to try the mode out on different kinds of food. (Here’s hoping this doesn’t make you hungry!)
The best thing about the cameras of the vivo V30 Pro is how liberating it feels to not worry too much about camera settings. I can count on this phone to give me the best possible photos no matter what situation it throws at me.
It’s especially more apparent in how this phone handles faces and portraits. This phone does a good job with more natural colors of faces regardless of which camera is used.
I’ve had the most fun taking photos using the vivo V30 Pro. Not once did I think to edit any of the images I took. The ZEISS optics and expertise came into play to bring one of the most versatile cameras I’ve ever used in a midrange phone. Here’s hoping vivo brings more of the ZEISS technology to all V Series phones in the future.
Should You Buy The vivo V30 Pro?
In vivo has come a long way in bringing a great smartphone camera experience. I thought I wouldn’t see the day that flagship-quality cameras would arrive in the midrange segment. After using the vivo V30 Pro, I can say that bringing ZEISS technology is the most significant update to the V Series.
At P34,999, this phone is for the smartphone photography enthusiast. If you need a phone you can count on to take great photos without spending flagship phone money, the V30 Pro is for you. Most of what this phone offers is great for an upper-midrange phone. While having a single speaker is baffling for a P35,000 phone, it doesn’t prevent me from recommending this phone for the cameras alone.
Pros
- Slim and light design with a nice patterned back
- Good AMOLED display that’s bright enough outdoors
- Good performance thanks to the Dimensity 8200 + 12GB LPDDR5X RAM + 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
- Funtouch OS 14 feels fast and fluid despite the bloatware
- Great battery experience with its 5000 mAh battery and 80W vivo FlashCharge
- ZEISS Triple Main Camera system is great for photos
- Even the 50MP front camera quality is excellent
- It is good to have 4K 60fps video recording in a midrange phone
Cons
- The matte finish on the back can be slippery
- Having just a single speaker
- A lot of bloatware for a P35,000 phone
- This phone’s rear cameras lean more towards photos than videos
The vivo V30 Pro comes in Petals White with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for P34,999. You can get one in all vivo concept stores nationwide and online via e-commerce partners Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop.