Vivo’s V series has continued to consistently be a leader in the midrange camera smartphone category in recent years and the V30 carries on with that tradition.
Vivo V30 succeeds the V27 and V29, its predecessors from last year with a better camera setup, powerful chipsets, better design, even brighter display and bigger battery. We’ve spent much time with the phone and here’s our in-depth review.
TL;DR: Watch the video review below.
If you’re looking for a midrange phone to upgrade, run don’t walk to get yourself the V30. It’s going to take a while to topple this class-leading device. It’s already gunning to be my favorite smartphone this year and I’m looking forward to seeing how it kicks this year’s smartphone lineup – its fellow midrangers, flagships and foldables.
UNBOXING
Vivo V30 comes in a white box that includes paperwork, a transparent back case, an 80W charging brick, and a Type-C cable, and the phone has a pre-applied plastic screen protector.
DESIGN
Vivo never plays around with the design of its V series. Vivo V30 features a curved back design that blends with the curved screen. It has a slim profile characteristic of the V series which I really love as it’s easier to hold on the hand. Plus it’s lightweight enough for one-handed usage.
They revamped the aurora light shape from a circle to a square shape right below the square camera housing that has the two lenses which we’ll talk about later on in this review. The LED flash sits inside the aurora light. It’s worth noting that the aura light can glow from white, and yellow to red.
Vivo V30 features a curved back design that blends with the curved screen. It has a slim profile characteristic of the V series which I really love as it’s easier to hold in the hand. Plus it’s lightweight enough for one-handed usage.
V30 comes in beautiful and stylish colours featuring different finishes including Lush Green(colour changing), Waving Aqua(Rippling Magnetic particle effect), Bloom White and Noble Black(Fluorite AG glass).
My unit has a matte finish so it won’t slide when using it.
It comes with an IP54 rating meaning it will handle inclement weather without issue. It is dust resistant and water resistant so a little water splash or rain will not be an issue.
Coming to the front is an impressive 6.78-inch 10-bit OLED curved screen with thin even bezels with a small interruption with the punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera. The panel comes with FHD+ resolution(1260×2800 pixels) and supports 120Hz refresh rate and widevine L1 certified. 2800 nits of peak brightness is really good enough to be usable under direct sunlight when you’re out and about.
This is a beautiful panel and a perfect canvas for all your multimedia needs – streaming movies on Netflix in HDR and watching YouTube videos. The highlights are dazzling, with deep and detailed blacks. The single speaker does a decent job too.
The curved screen is protected by Schott Alpha glass.
It comes with a single speaker that sounds really good even at high volume.
Overall the design is really appealing and stylish and you’d be proud to lay it on the table either screen up or down.
PERFORMANCE
Vivo switched things up with the processor in the V30, choosing Qualcomm’s newest chipset, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 instead of the Snapdragon 778 5G chipset of its predecessor. The V30 was among the first phones to ship with this latest chipset.
The processor comes paired with 8GB onboard RAM and 8GB virtual RAM plus 256GB storage.
This combination provides incredible power and performance while also being power efficient when it comes to battery life. Multitasking and gaming are buttery smooth with no lag or stutter. The phone is also plenty quick enough with simple daily tasks like scrolling social media, watching YouTube and browsing the web.
Out of the box, you get Funtouch OS 14 and Android 14. It will get 2 years of Android OS upgrades and three years of monthly security updates. The company has been timely with the OS and monthly upgrades as the V29 and V27 got Android 14 two months after it was officially announced so we expect the same trend this year and that the V30 will get Android 15 by December or earlier.
BATTERY LIFE
Vivo V30 has a 5000mAh battery that supports 80W fast charging. Both are improvements over the smaller and slower capacity of the V29 which carried a 4600mAh battery and supported 67W fast charging. The charger comes included as mentioned above.
80W fast Type-C charging means you can top up your phone to full charge in 45 minutes. To assure consumers, vivo assures 4-year-long optimal battery health so that after 1600 charging cycles, the phone will have 80% battery health. Yes, vivo has a neat battery health section on the phone.
For q quick charge, 15 minutes will get you to 40%. 30 minutes will get you to 75%.
The increased capacity and highly efficient processor mentioned above means that the phone was lasting a full day and then some on a single charge.
CAMERAS
V30 comes with two main cameras at the back – a 50 MP OmniVision OV50E primary with OIS and a 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1 ultrawide camera. You also get a 50MP selfie camera. Video recording is capped at 4K 30fps. The ultrawide lens is the same one found in the flagship Vivo X100 series.
The whole setup is very capable and wipes the floor of every midrange and flagship device(Android and Apple) I’ve had the chance to check out. If I’m going to pick a camera smartphone, I’m ditching the iPhone’s, the Pixel’s or the Samsung’s and picking this bad boy.
You’ll be getting clean, sharp, well-detailed, vivid, contrasty, saturated and colourful shots including video even in challenging lighting scenarios. You’ll have no doubt taking a pic knowing the shots will turn out great and worth sharing on social media.
It’s amazing at taking selfies, portraits with perfect edge detection, food and drink photos making the V30 perfect to be your social media smartphone. I can’t sing any more praise for this phone.
I was taking comparison pictures with its rival midrangers and flagships and I would make an audible wow with each shot at how great they came out – the dynamic range and detail even at night were unbeatable. This is the phone I’m picking for nightouts and events for sure.
Just take a look at some of the shots.
VERDICT
If there’s a phone I’ll highly recommend going for this year that not only beats its fellow midrangers and flagship devices is the V30. Its beautiful and curvy design, bright and gorgeous curved screen, ultrafast charging and long-lasting battery life, outstanding cameras, and powerful performance tick all the boxes and redefine what you’d expect in a premium midrange smartphone and more.
Vivo managed to balance all these features with no compromise as the V30 is an exceptional all-rounder.
Run, don’t walk to get yourself a unit right now. These bad boys run out of stock so fast so hurry up if you’re in the market for one.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
Vivo V30 5G goes for Ksh 64,999 available on Vivo’s official retail stores countrywide and partner e-commerce sites.
Vivo V30 5G has a 2-year warranty period and 100-day free screen replacement.
