The V-series of vivo has always been an interesting product line for the brand. Aside from being the stepping stone for their flagship device, the V-series distinguishes itself by being the more trendy line amongst the other series (flagship and entry-levels). And while the Aura Light has been a staple on the V series since the vivo V27 launched around this time last year, the V30 series magnified the built-in ring light to waaay larger proportions.
With a revamped Aura Light 3.0, stunning nature-inspired designs, and optics that’s build for pretty much any occasion, is the vivo V30 5G worth your hard-earned Peso? That’s what we’re about to find out.
Geek-sthetic
Let’s start with the overall design. The vivo V30 Series 5G is the series’ slimmest phone to date. At just under 7.45mm thin, the profile is all sorts of sexy – especially when you pair it with a 3D curved glass display. The heavily Southeast Asian Nature-inspired designs is also some of the most beautiful (and quite trendy) designs we’ve seen on a smartphone.
The unit that was provided to us by vivo Philippines is called Petal White. And while a pearlescent back cover isn’t new, the 3D Petal Patterns is. Processed with 13 million tangent lines, 256 levels of cross section and sparse use of dark lines create an optical illusion of textured petals opening up majestically – even though the surface is obviously flat…and matte. Yup, fingerprint magnetic this phone isn’t.
The blooming flower design extends to the new Aura Light 3.0 square softbox just bridge the design elements better.
The other colorway makes use of Rippling Magnetic Particles to simulate soft waves found on pristine beaches. While we don’t have the Green Sea colorway with us, we got a glimpse of the unit during the official local launch of the vivo V30 Series 5G. It’s a timely companion for the beach vacations you would be embarking on this year.
To complement everything, the unit is enshrined in a chromed-out bezel that’s superbly thin. And rounding everything is a 6.78” 3D Curved 1.5k AMOLED screen for more real estate to binge all the media that you’re about to consume with the vivo V30 5G.
Binge-Watching Factor
As mentioned, the large screen lends to the unit being an amazing device to consume all your favorite shows, clips, and movies. The 6.78” 3D Curved 1.5K AMOLED Screen can support up to 120Hz high refresh rate and has a max brightness of 2800 nits – perfect to check your screen regardless of lighting conditions.
And while visuals are spectacularly gorgeous on the vivo V30 5G, the audio is something that needs improvement – especially since it only has a single-firing speaker. While the sound is loud enough that it travels across the unit, once your hand covers the speaker grills, you’ll have a hard time hearing pretty much anything.
For a better immersive experience, we highly suggest you pair the vivo V30 5G with your favorite TWS headset.
Gaming Prowess
The vivo V30 5G is powered by a 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset – pretty much the gold standard for mid-range phones for those using a Qualcomm chipset. This is further supported by a 12GB RAM + 12GB (Extended RAM) setup and either 256GB or 512GB internal storage.
The large RAM allows you to open multiple apps and keep them on standby as you play your favorite mobile games with ease. We tested the unit our usuals – Mobile Legends: Bang-Bang, Asphalt 9, Genshin Impact, and added in the newly released Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis.
For Mobile Legend: Bang-Bang fans, the vivo V30 5G can definitely run your favorite 5v5 MOBA running at high to ultra settings without any slowdown whatsoever. In fact, the unit opens up to these settings on default.
That also means that for games that aren’t as resource-hogging and graphically demanding, you should be able to run them smoothly in max graphic settings like that of Asphalt 9 and Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis. The 120hz refresh rate of the phone also helps ensure that what you see on the screen has zero unwanted flickers, stutters, and visual tearing.
Because of how big the screen is, and the rich color reproduction, cut-scenes for Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis looks like you’re viewing them on the PS system — just, you know, on your phone.
Then there’s Genshin Imapct, the litmus test on almost all our smart devices. While, the unit opens the game on low graphics at default, you can crank it up to higher FPS (we chose 60) and still enjoy the gameplay. There may be some slight slowdown (just a few micro seconds really) when you get mobbed but for the most part, it’s still an enjoyable romp.
Overall, gaming on the vivo V30 5G is enjoyable. And even though the phone is just under 7.45mm thin, the thermals doesn’t go crazy overboard hot. I mean, don’t get us wrong, it will turn hot when you play your mobile games especially when you decide to overclock and crank the graphics way up, but if you put the clear jelly case on, you’d hardly feel the heat.
Geek Photoshoot Capabilities
If there’s one function that the vivo V-series prides itself on, it’s their camera setup and the now-signature Aura Light system that first appeared on the vivo V27 series. For 2024, the brand decided to improve the lighting and increase the Aura Light flash area by a lot!
While only having 2 cameras for its rear camera module, the vivo v30 5G is equipped with a large 50MP vivo Camera-bionic Spectrum (VCS) True Color Main Camera, and a 50MP Autofocus (AF) Ultra Wide-Angle Camera – both of which should be more than capable to handle all your photography needs regardless of lighting conditions. The device is equipped with a hybrid OIS-EIS stabilization as well to ensure that images come of crisp and sharp.
What we appreciate with the vivo V30 5G is despite not having the benefit of a 3rd 50MP camera and ZEISS collaboration unlike that of its Pro brother, you still get the full Studio-in-your-pocket experience.
The software also helps create stunning portrait shots and you still get the a 2x teleportrait zoom despite not having a dedicated Portrait Camera lens.
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- Subject separation and skin tones are replicated amazingly well
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- Aura Light 3.0 working on low-lighting conditions
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- Shoot more around your subject with the ultra-wide camera
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- or go closer to get more out of your subject
For TikTok users, livestreamers, and general selfie/groufie lovers, the vivo V30 5g is equipped with a best-in-class 50MP AF Group Selfie Camera – one of the biggest for this category. It boasts of having an ultra-wide 119° angle autofocus camera.
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- Control color temperature on your selfie flash as well
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- Various filters to play around with like this 80’s cinematic style one
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- …or go ham with this Comic-book filter
The vivo V30 5G also has a host of various photo modes for almost every scenario. Ranging from Food, Panoramic Shot, Sports Mode, High Resolution, and even a Supermoon and Astro mode (for those wanting to take in varying heavenly objects at night).
Oh, and did we mention the robust filters that they have as well? All-in-all, the camera setup of the vivo V30 5G alone is already jam-packed with features to cater to your creative whims, what more when we venture into the Pro version! Whew! Exciting stuff!
Everyday Reliability
With such a slim profile, we’re happy to see that vivo didn’t find the need to reduce total battery capacity on the vivo V30 Series 5G. On the vivo V30 5G itself, the phone has a large 5000mAh battery with a fast 80W FlashCharge capability. This means that you can charge your vivo V30 5G from 0 to 100% in just under 48 minutes.
According to the brand, the vivo V30 enjoys a whopping 50-month Super Experience Certification from SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance) – a Swiss testing & verification company. This guarantees that the vivo V30 will run as perfectly intended for more than 4 years before showing signs of degradation. That’s one of the highest we’ve seen on a smartphone device (as the most that we’ve seen only has up to 48-month fluency rate). This also helps ensure that what you’re getting is a quality product and worth your monetary investment.
On top of this, the vivo V30 5G is also IP54-rates for dust and water resistance. While not an IP68, the IP54 offers splash water resistance allowing you to use the device even with wet hands.
Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict
With robust photo features, best-in-class chipsets, and stunning summer-ready designs, the vivo V30 5G is shaping up to be a solid choice for the year. The upgraded studio-in-your pocket with its large Aura Light 3.0 Softbox makes easy work of Portrait Photography regardless of lighting conditions. Then, there’s the price as well. The vivo V30 5G starts at Php 24,999 for the 12GB +256GB configuration and just Php 27,999 for the 12GB + 512GB configuration. It’s one of the best priced smartphones with rich features for this category.
Despite not having the ZEISS-coated lenses of the vivo V30 Pro 5G, the vivo V30 5G already has the complete package. This is something we appreciate with this series release. The Pro will undoubtedly push more creative options for Portrait Photography but if you don’t see yourself tinkering with the ZEISS filters, opting for the base model does not feel like a major downgrade in any way.
vivo V30 5G Specs:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 (4nm)
- Adreno 720
- 12GB RAM (+12GB Extended RAM) / 256 GB Storage or 512GB Storage
- 6.78-inch Curved AMOLED 1.5k display, 120Hz refresh rate, Schott α glass
- Rear camera: 50MP f/1.9 VCS main with OIS + 50MP Super-Wide-angled Camera (Optical angle of 119˚, 109.2˚ after distortion correction),
- Front camera: 50MP f/2.0 AF Group Selfie
- 3G, LTE, 5G Dual SIM
- WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, under display fingerprint scanner, gyro, USB Type-C
- 5000mAh battery with 80W Flash Charge support
- Android 14 with Funtouch 14
- Pearl White, Green Sea
- PHP 24,999 / Php 27,999