vivo V30e Review | Geek Lifestyle

After launching the base and Pro models, vivo finally introduced the vivo V30e in the Philippines, a more affordable Portrait Master.

Back in March, vivo launched its V30 series in the Philippines featuring a base and a Pro model, and they proved to be quite intriguing offerings. With the V30e, vivo promises to deliver a premium mid-range experience with a price tag that’s much easier on the wallet.

Sure, this phone may be the most inexpensive one in the lineup, but it still features vivo’s signature Aura Portrait system which give the powerful flash the function to change color temperature from warm to cool, meaning users can get creative night photos. What’s more, the phone has a large AMOLED screen and packs a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor which should be interesting to test out for gaming and everyday use.

So, is the vivo V30e a worthy addition to the lineup? Find out here in our review.

Geek-sthetic

Before we get started with its photography and performance capabilities, let’s first take a look at the phone’s design. For the V30e, vivo wnet with a sleek design that looks quite elegant. From the back, the circular camera module that houses the phones’ dual rear cameras take much of the attention, with the circular Aura Light flash module also being inside the module.

It’s interesting that vivo went with their previous circular flash for this phone instead of the square one found in the base V30 and the V30 Pro. Still, it works well enough based on our photography tests (more on that below).

In the Philippines, the phone is available in two colorways: Coco Brown and Cloud White. The unit that we reviewed is in the Cloud White colorway, and while it looks sleek and plain at first, when light hits the back, you’ll see a unique pattern throughout the back.

For us, this phone is quite a looker, enough that we are tempted to go caseless when using the phone. It also helps that the phone is really quite slim, not to mention that it has curved edges that surprisingly make for a comfortable grip. Of course, the phone comes with a case inside for extra protection if you need it.

The curves can also be seen (and felt) in the display as its edges have a slight curve which gives it an extra premium touch. Its display is also quite eye-catching with its slim bezels and tiny holpeunch notch at the top.

As a bonus, the phone packs Schott Xensation glass protection for its screen. While it’s usually Corning glass that’s more well-known, Schott is also a respected company when it comes to cover glass. Thanks to this, the V30e should be better protected from scratches; nice to have if you often put your phone in your pocket or bag with other items like keys that can scratch the screen.

Design-wise, there’s a lot to like here as the phone looks and feels great. Even though it’s the most affordable V30 phone, it doesn’t feel like it in person.

Binge-Watching Factor

Speaking of the display, the V30e’s 6.78-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen is a great partner for watching movies and shows. As always with AMOLED screens, colors are vibrant and blacks are deep, making for a better binge-watching experience, whether you’re going on a movie, TV series, or anime marathon. While the holepunch notch is visible if you go full screen, we didn’t find it to be all that distracting.

Display quality is one thing, but what about the speakers? Well, the V30e’s onboard audio sounds pretty good which should work in a pinch if you’re watching something. As always though, we recommend external speakers or headphones when watching movies or shows for the best experience. Also, take note that the phone does not have a headphone jack, meaning you’ll need a wireless audio device for it.

Gaming Performance

Aside from its cameras, the phone’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset had us interested the most as it is part of Qualcomm’s revamped branding for its mid-range SoCs. But does it exceed the performance of Qualcomm’s previous 600 series chipsets? In our tests, we were not disappointed.

To start, we tried out popular MOBAs and FPS games like League of Legends: Wild Rift and Call of Duty Mobile. Both games ran smoothly at 60FPS on the High graphics setting. Of course, you’ll need to bump the graphics settings down if you want to play at higher than 60FPS to take advantage of the phone’s 120Hz refresh rate.

For Wild Rift, 90 FPS is playable, though you’ll need to go to Medium or even lower. Still, that’s not a bad result for a phone that’s not design for gaming.

As for more demanding games like Genshin Impact, the vivo V30e’s Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 held up quite well as it ran the game fairly smoothly at 30 FPS on the default Medium setting. We were also pleasantly surprised that the phone did not get noticeably warm while playing this game. After all, other mid-range phones can get quite warm when playing more demanding titles.

Overall, the vivo V30e worked quite well for games, especially for a phone that’s not billed as a gaming machine.

Geek Photoshoot Capabilities

Now, let’s move on to the cameras. The vivo V30e packs a 50MP main + 8MP ultrawide dual rear camera setup that’s complemented by a 32MP selfie shooter at the front. It’s interesting that it only has two cameras as most phone brands put a macro camera to call their phones triple-cam devices. Though if you ask us, macro cameras aren’t the most useful, so it’s not a feature that most users will miss with the V30e.

The V30e also packs the Aura Light 3.0 system, though its flash module looks more like the 2.0 found in the V29 series. Still, it has the color temperature feature which we quite like.

To start, the 50MP main shooter (with a Sony IMX882 lens at that) takes pretty good photos in daytime, with images having good color and plenty of detail. At its price point, the main cameras daytime capabilities won’t disappoint.

: Vivid

: Textured

: Natural

What’s more, the main shooter also has three main color options, though in practice, we preferred to keep it at Natural or Vivid as the other option seems to punch up the contrast a bit too much.

At night, the phone also takes great shots when using the dedicated Night Mode. It’s also nice that you can use the powerful Aura Portrait flash module to get a clearer shot of a subject.

Meanwhile, the V30e does not disappoint for portraits. As you can see in the samples above, night portraits look great as the subjects are well-lit while the background blur effect looks fairly natural. Yes, you also have lots of options to tweak portraits such as blur strength, blur type, and of course, the color temperature change option with the Aura Light system.

The ultrawide camera is also pretty good for daytime as photos have a good amount of detail. At night, you’ll need to stick with the Night Mode to get bright shots. Sure, there is a dip in quality, but the low-light ultrawide photos are still pretty decent overall.

Finally, selfies with the V30e’s 32MP selfie camera are good quality and should be social media-ready with minimal to no edits. Though take note that the default beautification setting is quite strong, so you’ll want to tweak the settings or turn it off entirely for a more natural-looking selfie (if that’s your preference, at least).

Everyday Reliability

The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 platform isn’t just good for gaming as, in our time with the V30e, the SoC also had plenty of power to enable the phone to run smoothly. At no point during our time with the V30e did the phone slow down, whether it’s working on emails, browsing social media, or light content creation.

When it comes to software, the phone’s Funtouch OS 14 was also okay for everyday use. While we would’ve preferred less pre-installed apps, the OS didn’t really become an issue during our time with the phone.

What did impress us is the phone’s battery life. Thanks to its large 5500 mAh battery, the V30e is a proper all-day smartphone even when playing games and taking lots of snapshots. You can even make it last longer if you’re not a particularly heavy user. In fact, we typically saw the phone last for a day and a half of use, at least in our case.

As a bonus, the phone has 44W fast charging support. While not the fastest, it still charges the phone pretty fast. Plus, faster charging speeds are usually reserved for more expensive phones.

Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict

Combining its good performance, long battery life, and vibrant AMOLED display, the vivo V30e is a well-rounded mid-range smartphone that offers a lot of value at its PHP 17,999 price tag. What’s more, the V30e’s cameras deliver on vivo’s promise of great portrait photography capabilities.

As such, this phone is well worth considering if you’re looking for a new affordable mid-range phone and want to prioritize cameras. Best of all, the V30e doesn’t have any major drawbacks in other areas outside photography.

vivo V30e specs: