Only a few months after the launch of the V60 Lite, the company followed that up with the V70 and V70 FE — two high-end but still mid-range smartphones — in South Africa.
Whether they’ll be able to justify their audacious R23,000 and R17,000 price tags is a mystery. Judging by the specs on offer, it looks like it’ll come close, but just miss the mark. We won’t know for sure ’til we’ve got the devices in hand, of course. But from the outside looking in, it seems like Vivo has misunderstood the average Saffa. Again.
Viva la Vivo
If you can stomach the price for either device without first being tempted by something a little… more (the Galaxy S26 launched at R21,000), it likely won’t disappoint. That 120Hz-ready 6.59in OLED display on the V70 will likely suit whatever you can throw at it, owing to its HDR10+ support and maximum brightness of 5,000 nits.
Bring your budget down, and Vivo will reward V70 FE buyers with a larger 6.83in AMOLED. It’s not quite as accomplished, capping brightness at 1,900 nits. It’ll compete in other areas, though, offering HDR10+ support as well as a 120Hz refresh rate. That should make for some half-decent gaming, assuming the chip can handle it.
While neither chipset looks fantastic, they likely won’t hold you back in your pursuit of doomscrolling. The Vivo V70 is kitted with a 4nm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 that honestly could be a little more premium. As for the V70 FE, it handles a MediaTek creation, the Dimensity 7360 Turbo. Again, not fantastic, but it’ll get the job done. Vivo didn’t confirm which RAM and storage variants we’re getting, though a 12/512GB model seems unlikely.
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One area in which the Vivo V70 FE outclasses its more expensive kin is battery life. At least on the surface. A 7,000mAh battery makes the even-midder-range option an easier choice for South Africans. The V70 is no slouch, though. It utilises a 6,500mAh battery that may benefit from a more competent chipset inside.
As ever, it seems Vivo’s blown the budget to stick a Zeiss lens inside the V70. It leads the way with a three-camera setup, with two 50MP shooters handling the phone’s main and telephoto needs. A third 8MP lens, also Zeiss, handles the ultra-wide stuff, while a 50MP selfie camera sits on the phone’s front. The V70 FE isn’t nearly as qualified, throwing up a 200MP main shooter and 8MP ultrawide. A 32MP selfie camera sits shotgun.
That’s about it for Vivo’s latest offerings. Despite all our complaints, the V70 ever-so-slightly justifies that higher price with an aluminium alloy frame, while the V70 FE is stuck with a plastic body. The metallic V70 arrives in Sandalwood Brown and Authentic Black (as opposed to?), while the V70 FE keeps it simple with Titanium Blue and Ocean Blue.
