You know how smooth floor tiles feel? That’s how we felt with the Pro. Never have we thought we’d get to touch something that premium.
Just a few weeks ago, Vivo invited us to the Manila Hotel to see the grand unveiling of the newest phone in the V series, the V30 and V30 Pro. We initially did not expect anything as we stopped receiving letters from them for a while, so we are satisfied that we did get an invite. Filipino actress Anne Curtis, the current brand ambassador, was also present during the event.
The Vivo V30 series is also the brand’s best-selling smartphone on Shopee. Quite deserving of the title actually. The V-series has been the mainstay of the brand and has defined the early era of Filipino smartphone history since 2013.
The launch event happened a day before the selling day and the day of the supposed “Live Facebook Event”. It officially launched in the Philippines on March 20th with a surprisingly decent price tag and the return of the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 for the V30. This was a good choice on their part because unlike the Snapdragon 778G present on the V29, it was more powerful and slightly more advanced. By the way, Zeiss Top Marketing Manager Marisa Weiss also made a guest appearance.
For those who were wondering, yes the iconic aura ring light is present. Though, it’s less of a ring, more like a square surrounding an LED flash. Also, by the way, only the V30 Pro has the quirky ZEISS branding. Don’t worry, we’ll get to that as soon as our unit arrives. Yes, you read that right! We are reviewing the V30 Pro. Stay tuned!
For now though, let’s explore these two phones because there is definitely a lot to tell, starting from the design alone. Also, we got to talk to one of the brand’s leading marketers and he got some strong insights to give us.
VIVO V30:
The Vivo V30 looks like the V30 Pro… without the obvious ZEISS branding on the camera hump of course. It also has one less camera than the Pro. So yes, they really made the V30 Pro… well, for the Pros, as in professionals who would rather have something less bulky than a DSLR.
Aside from these obvious changes, the V30 is relatively similar. Its display has been upgraded, specifically, now it is a 1.5K display (2800x1260px) instead of FullHD+. AMOLED is used here. Refresh rate remains unchanged at 120Hz.
The V30 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, the newest 7-series chip from Qualcomm again manufactured and fabricated by Samsung’s foundries. It’s been two weeks since the launch and you probably know that this phone costs PHP 24,999 (12/256). There’s also a 12/512 version of the phone that would cost you PHP 27,999
Before we forget, we actually got to hold both the V30 and V30 Pro. We especially like the back panel. It has that smooth floor texture, almost paper-like in feel. We never heard or felt this type of aesthetic on other smartphones before so props to Vivo for being unique! The V30 comes in Green Sea and Petals White. Petals White is the main colour but the Green Sea looks beautiful in person too.
The Vivo V30 comes with a typical 5000mAh battery and 80W fast charging. It’s not surprising to say the least. It, of course, has an in-display fingerprint scanner, 5G services, a USB-C port, and a single speaker. Vivo’s head marketing told us that a second speaker is unnecessary based on where the V-series is focused on but they may reconsider it in the next line.
The most important part of this smartphone, the cameras! The Vivo V30 is equipped with three 50MP cameras. Two at the back and one at the front. The primary camera has OIS, as boldly and proudly labelled at the camera hump where the “ZEISS” branding is supposed to be. This primary camera uses a Sony IMX890 sensor. The other is an ultrawide. At the bottom of this camera island is an LED flash surrounded by the squarish Aura Portrait Soft light.
The phone is available almost anywhere the brand has authority to sell, including third-party retailers, in Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop, and its own concept stores and kiosks nationwide. Yes, Home Credit is accepted.
SPECS:
- 6.78″ 1.5K (2800x1260px) AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 (4nm)
- CAMERAS:
- 50MP (Primary), Sony IMX890
- 50MP (Ultrawide)
- FRONT: 50MP
- FunTouchOS 13 based on Android 13
- 5000mAh, 80W fast charging
- USB-C, In-display fingerprint sensor, Single Speaker, Virtual RAM
- 5G services, 4G LTE, Dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, Dual SIM Card Slot
- Petals White, Sea Green
- PRICE:
- 12/256: PHP 24,999
- 12/512: PHP 27,999
VIVO V30 PRO:
We apologize in advance first if we don’t have that many photos of the V30 but the V30 Pro is the main highlight here. It’s also the phone with the highest number of demo units in the Manila Hotel. For the PHP 34,999 (12/512) that this phone is priced, is it worth it? Maybe. We’ll see soon. We’ve got a lot of reviews in queue and we can only handle so much.
During the event, Vivo did not really expand much on the V30 series apart from the camera systems. This part comprised about 80% of the entire event saying how good it really is and how partnering with ZEISS was the best thing since sliced bread. You probably don’t need to hear about the other things. After all, it is a photography-centric device.
Anyway, precursor. We really like that new aura ring light. We preferred the old circular shape being a literal “ring” light but square works fine too. We like how you can change the temperature of it in the camera settings. And yes we did check the camera app during the demo, it does have the notable ZEISS camera configuration including ZEISS Natural Color. According to the brand, this is the third iteration of Aura Portrait. The first was seen on the Vivo V27 series.
The phone is highly similar to the V30 in many respects with some differences made for its camera system obviously, including a 50MP telephoto that is absent on the vanilla phone, and the return of the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 first seen on the Vivo V27 Pro. It still has that 80W fast charging and 5000mAh battery. Nothing much has changed here.
In terms of colors, there is only one, Petals White. This phone is also available almost anywhere you can think of that is authorized such as third-party resellers, vivo’s concept stores, and of course, through e-commerce platforms like Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok.
SPECS:
- 6.78″ 1.5K (2800x1260px) AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+
- MediaTek Dimensity 7200 (4nm)
- CAMERAS:
- 50MP (Primary), Sony IMX890
- 50MP (Ultrawide)
- 50MP (Telephoto)
- FRONT: 50MP
- FunTouchOS 13 based on Android 13
- 5000mAh, 80W fast charging
- USB-C, In-display fingerprint sensor, Single Speaker, Virtual RAM
- 5G services, 4G LTE, Dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, Dual SIM Card Slot
- Petals White
- PRICE:
- 12/512: PHP 34,999
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