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Vivo V50 carries a sleek body with Zeiss cameras and other basic features that people seek in a mid-range phone.
The new V-series phones gets a sleek design but the same hardware
Vivo has shown its premium credentials with the X200 series recently and now it is time to see its value and focus in the mid-range segment the V50 that has launched in the country this year. The V-series has evolved from becoming a selfie specialist to a wedding photography gear in the last few years, thanks to the Zeiss Optics integration in the sub Rs 40,000 range.
But the company is also keen to overhaul its design language without compromising on essentials like battery life and the overall endurance. So, what does the Vivo 50 bring to the table for its Rs 34,999 price tag and does it have enough in the tank to become another stronger contender in this segment. These are the questions that we will answer here.
Classy And Stylish Design
Vivo has been making some good looking devices in recent years and the V50 is an extension in that direction. This is a sleek device with a tall profile but the overall weight balance makes it easy to use with one hand. Purely talking numbers, you have a 7.4mm thin phone packing a 6000mAh battery and still weighs under 200 grams.
Generally you find sleek phones becoming delicate but Vivo has covered those corners with IP rating (both 68 and 69) for the V50 and also made sure the engineering keeps the phone robust against the daily wear and tear. The frame is made of plastic but that doesn’t come in the way of its style.
The busy round camera module at the back has been tweaked a bit with a bigger Aura light ring sitting below the Zeiss optics sensors. When it comes to the design, the V50 shines in more than one way.
The Year Of Quad-Curved
Quad-curved displays have become quite common in the last six months and Vivo is the latest to adopt the technology for the V50.
The new model has a marginally smaller 6.77-inch AMOLED screen with all the bells and whistles and the quality of the colours produced along with crisp details and brightness shows its worth. The screen gets diamond shield glass protection which does the job of keeping the scratches and dents to a minimum.
The Old Hardware Conundrum
Vivo continues to use the same hardware for its new model which usually will be fine if you can see it run the long mile. But to see the same Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset across three generations of the same series does not make sense, especially if there are better options available in the market. And you see these concerns pan out with the benchmark scores of the V50 which sits below its current peers in the range.
The general performance does not face any issue but when you are buying a phone for over Rs 30,000, you would expect the hardware to last for 3-4 years if not more, and we are not sure if the V50 can handle the load that long with the 3-year-old chip.
The device gets Android 15 out of the box with the Funtouch OS 15 version which has its good points but the number of preloaded apps is one of the highest that we have seen in this range but these include the ones from Google.
The actual third-party apps are five. The V50 will get 3 OS upgrades and 4 years of security updates, which is in line with the competition. There is not a lot to complain about the OS, and the addition of some useful AI features makes it a better all-round deal.
The Zeiss Effect
The Zeiss lenses are back in business with the V50 and while they are not as good as the X200 Pro, they are decent. The images shot in bright conditions are sharp with natural tones and contrast.
The portrait-taking ability is definitely a highlight of the V50 but we feel the camera can do even better with a few tweaks. The low light shots also impress in some cases but the night mode adds grains which isn’t ideal. The front camera is also quite good, able to give you shots with fair details and no whitening the face business.
Sleek But Not A Slouch
Vivo has managed to pack a 6,000mAh battery unit into a 7.4mm thin device. This is definitely a feat for the brand and for the segment as well. You get it with support for 90W charging speed which makes the package the best you can get for the price.
The phone’s battery can easily hold its own for over a day with medium usage which is what most users seek from their daily drivers. The PC mark score of over 22 hours is another indication of the phone’s thermal efficiency which delivers these numbers. Even with this large brick of a battery, you get fully charged in under 40 minutes which is acceptable for most people.
Vivo V50 is a solid device with a big battery packed into a sleek body, and the Zeiss cameras offer enough promise that can make it better with updates. The performance side is decent but the use of a 3-year-old chipset doesn’t make sense to us. The phone will last the whole day and then fully charge back up, and you get up to 4 years of update support.
- Location :
Delhi, India, India
