Vivo V30 review: Upgrades all around with massive battery life improvement

Stepping up every few months

It feels like just yesterday that the Vivo V29 was announced, but the new Vivo V30 is already here to replace it. The five-month refresh cycle between each generation is one of the shortest (six months if you count their initial debut dates). However, Vivo has still managed to pack improvements to ensure the Vivo V30 is an upgrade that doesn't alienate its fanbase.

Priced at S$699, the phone comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, up to 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and a large 5,000mAh battery that supports quick 80W wired charging. It is also lightweight at just 186g and has a dual-curved glass design for the 7.5mm thin body.

TL;DR version:

Vivo V30 is built with one purpose in mind: to be great at snapping selfies and live streaming, with an accommodating all-day battery life. 



Vivo V30 officially retails in its Lazada and Shopee storefronts and the physical Vivo concept stores at Bugis Junction, Causeway Point, and Nex.

Vivo has managed to squeeze in a large 6.78-inch display that supports 2,800 x 1,260 pixels resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ and a peak brightness of 2,800 nits. 

However, the cameras are the highlights, with a dual 50MP camera array on the rear and a 50MP front-facing selfie camera. In addition, Vivo claims that the upgraded Aura Light Portrait 3.0 ring flash is 19x larger and 50x brighter than a smartphone’s LED flash.

Prices have increased slightly (by S$50), however, with the phone coming in at S$699 for the 12GB+256GB model. So, is this just another standard midrange phone with some photography and livestreaming gimmicks? Let’s find out in our assessment:-

Glittery goodness in a thin body

The Vivo V30 retains much of the brand’s V-series aesthetic, with curved edges on the front and back glass and some unique colour options. The Waving Aqua option boasts a shimmering texture that reminds us of sand and ripples of water. I reckon the colour is bluer than green. Either way, it's quite pretty without a case.

The glossy back can attract oily fingerprints quite easily, but the shimmery design helps to mitigate it. A low-profile camera bump helps to keep it stable on flat surfaces without excessive rocking. However, such a design makes the phone feel top-heavy due to the cameras, which is more prominent with its overall lightweight build. 

Because the phone is so glossy and thin, it can also get rather slippery to hold. A case quickly alleviates it, but you’ll lose the thin profile and the subtle shimmers of its designed rear.

The 6.78-inch display is nice and bright under all lighting conditions, with relatively accurate colours and added support for HDR10+, an upgrade from the Vivo V29. Bezels are relatively thin and even all around, and viewing content and media on this phone is a pleasure thanks to the additional sharpness provided by the higher 2,800 x 1,260 pixels screen resolution.

The phone also supports a 120Hz refresh rate, although the lowest refresh rate is still 60Hz. You'll see later, however, that it doesn't negatively impact the battery use. 

Vivo has opted to, again, use a single speaker instead of stereo speakers in this phone. It’s not ideal. While the single speaker can get relatively loud, distortion starts to creep in, and the audio just isn’t as crisp and clear as you’d want it to be. At this price point, this is not cool.

Thankfully, there is IP54 water and dust resistance here, just like its predecessor. 

The in-built optical fingerprint sensor does well for a midrange phone, offering snappy, accurate unlocking. Our only quibble with it is that the sensor sits too low on the screen - just like on the Vivo V29. We thought they would've fixed that by now.

The phone does get updates and security patches pushed to it regularly, which is great to see in a midrange device. There’s very little to say about the Funtouch OS skin of Android 14 that the Vivo V30 is running; it works decently, and apps open quickly, although it can take a second for the content inside to load. 

There’s very little bloatware, and during set-up, you even have the choice to untick the one game Vivo recommends. 

Imaging

We won’t cover the Aura Light Portrait 3.0 ring flash too much since it’s not a new feature. The improvements are clear over its predecessor but with a much brighter result thanks to the larger ring light. In dim environments, the ring flash will help brighten up the subject considerably.

If the environment is sufficiently bright, however, the light will not make much of a difference except to provide a bit more subtle fill lighting. 

Moving on to the actual cameras, there’s a dual 50MP camera array on the rear with a 50MP primary shooter and a 50MP ultra-wide, an improvement over the 8MP ultra-wide on the Vivo V29 as seen here. Primarily, having a similar sensor array would mean that no matter the lens used, your shots won't vary in tonality and resolution.

As a result, ultra-wide shots are better than before with more detail and slightly more accurate colours, although they do tend to be a little brighter.

2x zoom samples are also decent, although they get fuzzy and lose a bit of detail. Overall, the photos taken are passable for a midrange device, with good enough colour accuracy and sharpness.

Additionally, there are three shooting colour presets: Vivid, Textured and Natural. You can see examples of all three above, but I predominantly shot in Natural as that was my preferred style. 

Night mode was helpful for very dark scenes, but if there's a decent amount of street light, photos taken in the normal mode also turn out fine.

Benchmark Performance

Even though Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 earlier this year, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor in the Vivo V30 isn't outdated. In fact, the chip is relatively new, having debuted in late 2023 for 2024 midrange phones. 

We’re pitting the phone against well-performing midrange phones like the Google Pixel 8a and the Nothing Phone (2a), so it’ll be exciting to see how the Vivo V30 compares to the competition. 

Putting it to the test

To find out how the competitors line up specs and price-wise, check them out in this link.

To find out more about the tests we conduct and what they relate to, we've jotted them down here.

Benchmark Performance remarks

Compared to other recent midrange devices, the Vivo V30 performs admirably. The benchmark numbers for Geekbench 6 and 3DMark are similar to other midrange devices around the $500-600 range. The gains are quite insignificant if you compare it to its preceding V29, but processor prowess is not a key selling point of the V-series phones anyway.

Battery Life

Our battery benchmark uses PCMark for Android’s Work 3.0 Battery Life test to determine a modern Android-based smartphone's battery uptime in minutes. This controlled benchmark simulates real-world usage with a combination of both web and social media browsing, video and photo editing, parsing data with various file formats, writing (on documents), and more. 

The Vivo V30's battery life has to be the most surprising aspect of the phone; we had to triple-check its readings. Even though we went into this expecting a decent showing thanks to the large 5,000mAh battery inside, I doubt many people would have expected the phone to put up such excellent numbers that beat even the Nothing Phone (2a)’s impressive endurance.

There’s support for 80W wired charging, and Vivo provides a charging adapter and cable in the box. Charging from 0-50% took 25 minutes, with a full charge from 0-100% completed in just 54 minutes. There’s no wireless charging here, which is a bit of a shame for a phone that costs nearly S$700.

Conclusion: Worth considering for the battery life

Vivo smartphones have always tended to be slightly more expensive than their competitors, which can sometimes make it difficult to recommend them when the midrange category is ultra-competitive. The Vivo V30, however, has two exceptional selling points: a powerful ring light and excellent battery life. 

The Aura Light Portrait 3.0 ring flash is unique. Still, we struggle to see how useful it can be for users who don't regularly create content, particularly people not interested in live-streaming. The occasional use case can be for lighting up subjects in dimly lit environments. Still, unless you’re constantly in dark environments, this shouldn’t be a factor to consider when purchasing a phone. A built-in ring light caters to a very specific audience that's either active in dark venues or needs good lighting in a pinch.

The phone’s performance also beats competitors like the Nothing Phone (2a) and the Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G. However, the Vivo V30 is slightly more expensive than either of those options. The jaw-dropping battery life and strong camera performance justify the Vivo V30's higher price tag, as you're trading out higher performance for significantly longer uptime. 

If stereo speakers and wireless charging were included, the Vivo V30 might be one of the best recommendations for a long-lasting phone at this price point. We think it's time they started offering more fringe features to stand out against other options that are also innovating in their own ways, like generative AI tools and stronger imaging chops.

The Vivo V30 is officially available in Singapore in a 12GB+256GB configuration, priced at S$699. It is available in two colours: Bloom White and Waving Aqua. You can buy it online from Vivo’s Lazada and Shopee stores, Harvey Norman, Challenger, Best Denki, Gain City, and Courts, as well as at authorised sellers and telcos.

It is also available in Vivo’s physical stores at Bugis Junction, Causeway Point, and Nex.