Following the base V40, vivo launched the vivo V40 Lite in the Philippines, a phone that’s more affordable yet still promises to be worthy of the Portrait Master name.
The vivo V40 is a big development for the V series as it’s the first base model in the lineup to get ZEISS-branded cameras. With this, the phone featured the ZEISS portrait and cinematic modes that we rather liked from the vivo X series and the V30 Pro that was released earlier this year. Of course, as this feature is still very much premium, the vivo V40 Lite does not have it, though it does pack the V series’ signature Aura Light Portrait system.
What’s more, the vivo V40 Lite has some other premium features like blazing-fast 80W fast charging and a Full HD+ AMOLED screen. Based on the specs sheet, the V40 Lite is promising, but does it deliver in real-world use? Here’s what we think in our vivo V40 Lite review.
Geek-sthetic
Instead of sharing a similar look the base V40, the V40 Lite has its own design that looks a bit more “usual” as its cameras and Aura Light Portrait module are laid out vertically. Even though it’s not as instantly eye-catching as the vivo V40, the Lite model still looks quite nice. Plus, the phone comes with three colors, with the Dreamy Violet colorway being the most unique of the options. That’s the model that we got to review.
What makes the Dreamy Violet color look more eye-catching is its wavy back patter. More than the looks though, we liked the fact that vivo went with a matte finish for the V40 Lite. This not only makes it resistant to fingerprint smudges, but it (along with the flat edges) also helps make it feel nice to grip, even when the phone or your hands are damp.
If your hands are a bit wet, you won’t have to worry about damaging the phone as it has an IP64 dust and water resistance rating. This year, we’ve seen more and more mid-ranges get better IP ratings, and it’s nice that the V40 Lite also has this. After all, extra splash protection is a must-have given how strong the rain gets during the PH typhoon season.
Moving to the front, we have the phone’s 6.67-inch display that has a tiny holepunch notch at the top. This type of display and notch combo has been pretty much the standard over the past couple of years now, though there are still some mid-range phones with chunkier edges and bigger notches. On that note, it’s nice to see the V40 Lite have slim edges and a tiny notch.
Binge-Watching Factor
As mentioned above, the vivo V40 Lite packs a 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED screen. As is the case with phones that pack AMOLED displays, the vivo V40 Lite is a great device to binge-watch your favorite movies and shows. This is thanks to the vibrant colors and deep blacks that it produces, meaning letterboxing on widescreen movies are much less of an issue. What’s also nice is that the phone gets plenty bright, meaning you’ll still have a good view of the screen even when the sun is out.
The display is just one thing for binge-watching as audio is also important. With this in mind, vivo packed the V40 Lite with stereo speakers. Plus, the phone packs the Audio Booster which can “boost” the audio to 300% volume. In our experience though, the Audio Booster distorts the audio a bit, though we did find the 100% volume to be loud enough. As for quality though, the onboard audio sounds okay as it’s clear, though the bass is lacking.
For the best experience, you’d want to use headphones or external speakers, though you’ll need a wireless device as the phone does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack. We would’ve liked to see the phone retain the 3.5mm connector as that’s still useful in this price range.
Gaming Performance
For this new V series phone, vivo went with a Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset coupled with 8GB of RAM for the 5G version. There is also a 4G version that comes with a Snapdragon 685 platform.
The V40 Lite isn’t billed as a gaming phone, though its processor should be able to handle today’s popular multiplayer titles. Thankfully, that was the case as the phone held up in our gaming tests.
Even though the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 isn’t the most powerful chipset out there, it still had enough oomph to run games such as League of Legends; Wild Rift and Call of Duty: Mobile fairly smoothly. Of course, you’ll have to go with Medium settings to get a smooth 60FPS, but at least the phone can run them without any hiccups or heating issues.
What’s also nice about the chipset choice is the 5G connectivity. In the last couple of years, 5G connectivity has become widespread, meaning it’s highly recommended to buy a 5G-capable smartphone if your budget allows for it.
Of course, it’s worth noting that the V40 Lite’s processor is not made for heavy gaming, and as such, you shouldn’t expect it to run the most demanding games well such as Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail. On the flip side, if you’re not much of a gamer, or if your mobile gaming time consists mostly of MOBAs of shooters, the V40 Lite should be a good partner, provided you’re fine with not maxing out graphics settings for games. Plus, the phone’s large battery should give you plenty of gaming time (though we’ll talk about battery life more later).
Geek Photoshoot Capabilities
Now we’re going to talk about the cameras. Even though it doesn’t have ZEISS branding, the V40 Lite still promises to take good photos thanks to its 50MP main + 8MP ultrawide dual rear camera setup, along with its 32MP selfie shooter.
To start, here are some samples taken with the 50MP main camera:
As you can see in the samples above, the V40 Lite captures great photos in daytime and indoors. The phone’s image processing is also good enough that it can produce good results even when shooting against the light (as you can see in the fifth sample). Generally, main camera images also have good colors, though the shots do tend to punch up the saturation and brightness. While this is nice for social media posts, you may want to tweak the settings for more true-to-life colors.
At night, images are also bright and detailed courtesy of the phone’s Night Mode. While Auto Mode shots are okay in low-light, we highly recommend using Night Mode as you get better shots overall, though make sure you stay as still as possible given that camera shakes can affect the sharpness. Of course, images aren’t as sharp as with the base V40 in low light, but the results are still nice overall.
Portrait photography lovers will also appreciate the return of the Aura Light Portrait System, complete with its color temperature tweaking function. The images above show that you can get drastically different color temperatures when you tweak the settings, meaning you can get creative with this. If you prefer though, you can set it to Auto and the phone will tweak the flash’s colors for you. Plus, the bokeh effect is nice and clean, even in night portraits.
For the ultrawide, images in daytime are quite good, though they also exhibit the same vibrancy as the main camera images. At night, the phone’s Night Mode also helps a lot to produce detailed photos, though there is a noticeable dip in quality in low-light, as expected from an 8MP ultrawide shooter.
Finally, we have the 32MP selfie shooter. Selfies taken with this camera are quite good, though the AI beautification filters can be a bit strong, so we recommend turning it off or down.
Speaking of AI, the V40 Lite also packs some nifty features like the AI Eraser which can remove people in the background of photos. In our tests, the results are impressive.
Everyday Reliability
Even though the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset isn’t made for the most demanding Android games, it is powerful enough to make the V40 a reliable daily driver. At first, we were worried that the processor may be a bit slow, but after some time with the phone, we found it to be fast and snappy for everyday use. As such, if you use the phone for messaging, social media, school/office work, and watching videos, the V40 Lite should have no issues keeping up.
The out-of-the-box experience could be a bit better though as the V40 Lite comes with a lot of pre-installed apps. These didn’t noticeably slow down the phone, though these pre-installed apps pushed too many notifications for our liking, so we had to take time to remove them or turn off notifications for them. This isn’t a dealbreaker, but it’s something to consider if you prefer a cleaner OS experience.
What we liked the most about the phone when it comes to daily use is its battery life. With its 5,000mAh battery, lasting for a day of use on a single charge is an easy feat for the V40 Lite. In fact, we routinely saw it last for over a day and a half. Your mileage may vary of course, but for most users, this should be an all-day phone.
To top it off, the V40 Lite has an 80W fast charger, meaning it can fill up to 45% in just 15 minutes. This is always a great feature to have, especially for days when you forget to charge your phone.
Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict
The vivo V40 Lite is a worthy mid-range smartphone to consider as it has a good design that should also be durable thanks to its IP64 rating, coupled with great battery life and a vibrant AMOLED screen. On top of these, its cameras a pretty good for its class, especially when it comes to portrait photography.
Perhaps the only thing to think about is its performance. While it works well for daily use and gaming, other phones in its price range have more powerful internals. Still, at PHP 15,999 for the 8GB + 256GB 5G model, the V40 Lite is well worth considering if you’re looking to get a new phone that’s priced at around the PHP 15k mark especially if cameras and design are your priority.
vivo V40 Lite specs:
- 6.67-inch (1260 x 2800) AMOLED display, 120Hz refresh rate
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 processor
- Adreno 613 GPU
- 8/12GB RAM
- 256/512GB storage
- Rear cameras: 50MP main + 8MP ultrawide dual rear camera setup
- Front camera: 32MP
- 5G, LTE
- Under Display Fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C port
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 5.0
- 5000mAh battery with 80W wired Fast charging
- Android 14 with Funtouch 14
- Price
- 8GB + 256GB 4G: PHP 13,999
- 8GB + 256GB 5G: PHP 15,999
- 12GB + 512GB 5G: PHP 18,999