Vivo V50 5G review – Déjà vu

The Vivo V50 5G has officially come to South Africa after the Chinese company ultimately skipped a local release for the V40. No matter. We haven’t missed much since Stuff tested out the equally incorrigible V30 5G a little under a year ago, which somehow includes the same ageing innards that didn’t exactly interest us two phones ago.

You might think the V50 is a premium offering, because technically, it is. You’ll need to fork over R20,000 before you can take home the V50, much like Samsung’s flagship efforts this year, but that’s where the similarities end. A pair of cameras powered by Zeiss may give Vivo some unearned bravado in a market saturated with smartphones, but in reality, this is a mid-range device suffering an identity crisis.

Pretty Pimpin’

It’s not all doom and gloom. The V50, despite our incessant complaining, does have some decent qualities, and the design is certainly one of them. If you’re brave enough to leave off the out-of-the-box cover, you’ll be rewarded with a reasonably comfy grip, even if Vivo hasn’t ditched the slim Samsung look yet.

That shouldn’t be much of an issue. The V50 boasts an IP69 rating — a massive improvement over the V30’s IP54 protection. Otherwise, it all feels a bit too familiar with its thin, metallic edges and wraparound display — though Vivo has endeavoured to trim off some of the curve, resulting in a flatter, more comfortable profile.

It’s a plain affair around back, and one that’s noticeably improved by the circular two-shooter array on the rear, made prettier by the ‘Aura’ light Vivo has grown so fond of in recent years. The body at least matches the premium pricing, even if we do tend to lean toward the newer, fatter look that other companies are turning to.

Another upgrade comes in the form of the technically smaller (by 0.1in, but who’s counting?) 6.77in 1080 x 2392 AMOLED display that retains the same 120Hz and HDR10+ abilities, but with a superior 4,500 peak nit brightness that made Netflix a breeze during load shedding — and thrashes the V30 in that regard. Hold onto that feeling. It won’t last forever.

Occasionally capable (again)

So far, so good, right? Wrong. Three smartphones later, and Vivo saddles us with the same chipset we reviewed nearly a year ago — and it wasn’t exactly new then, either. We’re talking about Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, which struggled to keep up with our expectations then, and hasn’t improved since.

For the average user, the 4nm chipset will hardly ever make its presence known. If you’re sticking to the basics, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 is more than capable of handling the tasks you throw its way. Overload that sucker with a couple of games and some YouTube playing in the background, though? You’ll notice a lull that’s more irksome than anything else.

We ran it through two benchmarks — Geekbench 6 and 3DMark’s Wild Life test — and the results are exactly what we expected. Geekbench 6 pulled down a 1,176 single-core score and an equally disappointing 3,206 multi-core score. It wasn’t much better on 3DMark, which returned with a score of 5,887. The V50 chugs along just fine, for most purposes.

The V50 does recoup some of that ill will with a standout 6,000mAh battery we had to properly hammer before it would succumb to the ignominy of temporary death. More impressive was the device’s 90W charger that brought it back from the brink in just a couple of minutes and fully charged the phone in an hour. Unless you were on a mission to, you’d struggle to kill this thing within two days. That’s an easy win.

Mom! Carl’s aura-farming again

Fortunately for us, the V50 had something special to fall back on — the Zeiss name. We didn’t have the pleasure of meeting Carl on our last go-around, so it’s nice to see that Vivo has at least tried to justify the R20,000 price tag and very nearly succeed at the same time. The dynamic duo on the rear here are easily the star of the show, with two 50MP shooters handling your primary and ultrawide needs, while another 50MP sensor dominates the front.

Vivo may have ignored tradition with a dual-camera setup on the back, but it’s easily worth the loss of some 2MP macro shooter that would’ve held our attention for five seconds. Far more entertaining are the two Zeiss 50MP lenses Vivo opted for here, both of which provided us with some excellent imagery when all was said and done.

The V50 needs some convincing before you can take full advantage of the 50MP main sensor on the rear, but it’s worth fiddling in the settings, even if you take a hit to storage for the ability. The result is an image brimming with detail, sharpness, and lots of natural colour — something you can thank Zeiss for once again. We did, however, struggle to shoot anything further than a couple of metres away without a proper telephoto to fall back on.

Despite Vivo recycling the same ultrawide sensor, again from the V30, it still holds up among some very tough competition. It, like the 50MP selfie camera on the other side, provides more than enough detail to be getting on with, and handles colour equally well. Enough to earn itself a spot on our social media at least, even if we never followed through with the plan.

Surprisingly, the Zeiss-led trio worked best at night, thanks to that Aura Light Portrait System Vivo’s become so truly fond of. And for good reason. We’re still a little disappointed that Vivo’s flagship offering, the X200 Pro, can’t quite match the V50’s ability to immediately warm up the scene through the simple expedient of what is essentially a customisable ring light stuck to the back of your phone.

Vivo V50 5G verdict

The Vivo V50 5G very nearly justifies the R20,000 price with Zeiss-branded cameras and a 6,000mAh battery that just won’t quit. Throw in the reasonably comfy design, plenty bright display, and this should theoretically knock it out of the park. Unfortunately, it just can’t compete with the competition where it matters most.

A recycled Snapdragon chipset, particularly one from two devices back, was never going to cut it, especially when you’re asking the average Saffa to part with a sizeable chunk of their income. While it may prove a worthy purchase for any aspiring smartphone photographers, it isn’t nearly a compelling enough offering for V30 owners.