Vivo, a brand known mainly for its mid-premium segment smartphones, is seeing increasing competition with every passing year. While it was difficult to find features such as a good camera and battery life in this segment a few years ago, the competition has now caught up. Xiaomi's Redmi Note 14 Pro+ (which was earlier a part of its budget series of devices) is now delivering good value priced from Rs. 30,999. And the same applies to brands like Poco and Realme, which have gotten increasingly aggressive with pricing. With Vivo now fully aware of the competition, inching closer with every passing year, it has now come up with what we believe is a tolerable successor for its mid-range V40 series. The Vivo V50 has plenty of upgrades over the previous models, and for once, some of these actually make sense.
Vivo V50 Design: Quad-curved display done right
- Dimensions - 163.29 x 76.72 x 7.57mm
- Weight - 199g
- Durability - IP68 + IP69
Unlike its predecessors, the Vivo V50 has a slim, rounded design that looks and feels premium. The phone comes in three finishes—Titanium Grey, Starry Night and Rose Red. The glass rear panel of the Rose Red unit we received has a smooth matte finish. It's nice to see that the odd keyhole-shaped camera module does not stand out as much because it, too, has been given the matte-finish treatment. Vivo's Aura ring light has grown bigger in diameter, providing better coverage than the previous implementation.
The Vivo V50 has a smooth, satin-like finish for its rear panel but packs a solid IP69 rating for dust and water resistance
The rounded pebble-like design is very comfortable to hold, and the chrome-finished polycarbonate frame (also the chassis), apart from helping reduce weight, also makes the phone easier to grip. The phone still has a heft to it at 199 grams, but you need to keep in mind that it packs in a 6,000mAh battery.
Unlike most smartphones we have seen in the premium segment, Vivo indeed got the micro quad-curved display right with its V50. With most micro-quad-curved display panels, the deal is to make the content appear a bit immersive without the content sliding too far into the curved sides and hence appearing distorted. The upside of using this tech is that even the display border appears thinner if done right. On most premium smartphones (usually by Chinese manufacturers), micro-quad-curved panels are typically accompanied by mid-frames with flat sides, which breaks the flow of the design by pairing rounded and flat surfaces.
The Vivo V50 has well-rounded, quad-curved panels and a curved mid-frame, which lend it a very comfortable grip and hand feel.
Vivo managed to pull this off well. Thanks to its unique combination of a quad-curved rear panel, a curved mid-frame, and a quad-curved display, it has a seamless look and feel. It reminds me of the older all-metal iPhone models, such as the iPhone 6, which also had a flat front and back but rounded sides.
My only nitpick about the Vivo V50's design would be the slightly sharp cutout for the USB port and speaker grilles at the bottom.
This splendid design is backed up by a solid IP68 and IP69 rating for dust and water resistance, meaning you could take this phone for a swim in freshwater. However, do keep in mind that Vivo's warranty (just like most manufacturers) does not cover damage caused by liquid ingress.
Vivo V50 Display: Looks great, and works great!
- Display size - 6.77-inch, 2,392 × 1,080 pixels, FHD+ (387 PPI)
- Display type - AMOLED, 6-90-120Hz
- Display protection - Schott
Looks aside, the display has thin borders all around, and the curved edges also mean more reflections when viewing the display outdoors, which can get distracting. Outdoor legibility, thanks to the claimed 4,500 nits of peak brightness, was not a problem, and the same can be said about the display's colours, which appeared natural in all types of lighting conditions. The display also supports HDR10 content, and it appeared as expected.
Obvious downgrades aside, I also noticed that the quad-curved panel introduced this year does lose a few pixels. The Vivo V40's curved-edge display had a resolution of 2,800 × 1,260 pixels, while the new model offers a slightly lower 2,392 × 1,080 pixels. The differences in sharpness will be minor, so it will be hard to tell the difference.
The Vivo V50's quad-curved display produces some unnecessary reflections when viewed outdoors
The display is of the adaptive variety and switches between 60, 90, and 120Hz depending on the application or content being viewed. During the testing period, I noticed random instances where the refresh rate of the display would drop to something well below 30Hz, leading to some supremely slowed-down, sluggish animations when using the phone. These were quite random, and the phone would sort itself out in about 5-10 seconds. However, after a recent bug fix and security update, I did not face the abovementioned issue.
Vivo V50 Software: AI add-ons
- Software version - Android 15
- Software - Funtouch OS 15
- Software commitment - X years of software, X years of security updates
Funtouch OS has now moved on to Android 15, making it Funtouch OS 15. The mobile operating system remains typically Vivo, with a focus on customising the minutest of details that other manufacturers usually don't bother with. The OS with Android 15 is now a lot more stable and smoother (except for the random hiccups I experienced) and comes with some minor visual enhancements like icon and theme customisation.
The main chunk of Funtouch OS 15's add-ons comes with new AI tools. On the V50, I experimented with the AI Erase tool in the image editor but found the results unsatisfactory, as the tool struggled to perform even the most basic image edits successfully (or up to expectations). Next, I tried out the AI Call Translator tool, and it surprisingly worked well both for Hindi and Marathi callers, provided the caller spoke fluently.
Vivo's Funtouch OS 15 has some new AI-infused features but these don't work as expected. Customisation features (pictured) are a big plus.
Vivo V50 Performance: Gets the job done
- Processor - Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3
- RAM - 12GB (LPDDR4X)
- Storage - 256GB (UFS 2.2)
Quick product refresh cycles are a thing with most Chinese smartphone brands, especially in the budget and mid-range smartphone segments. Vivo is no stranger to such product release cycles, and so we saw the Vivo V30 and the Vivo V40 getting launched just 5 months apart! With such quick release cycles, it's common for brands to retain design elements along with camera hardware while upgrading the processor and battery/charging performance.
And so we end up with Vivo's processor of choice, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, which has been used in the past two generations of the V series. While I'd expect it to be tried and tested and reliable, I did find its performance a bit lacklustre while playing FPS games like Call of Duty Mobile, where the phone just could not maintain a smooth or steady frame rate. Even at the highest settings, Asphalt Legends: Unite performed smoothly. The display was just about tolerable in terms of sensitivity, so if you are into mobile gaming, this isn't the phone for you.
The Vivo V50 gets two rear-facing cameras accompanied by a larger ring light than the V40
In terms of benchmarks, the Vivo V50 does not fare well when stacked against the competition, as better-performing smartphones with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoCs are available at and around this price point.
| Benchmarks | Vivo V50 | Realme GT 6 | Poco F6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chipset | Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 (4nm) | Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (4nm) | Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (4nm) |
| Display resolution | FHD+ | FHD+ | FHD+ |
| AnTuTu v10 | 8,20,958 | 14,05,190 | 14,57,491 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 10,496 | 18,828 | 15,743 |
| Geekbench 6 Single | 1,121 | 1,944 | 1,835 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 3,110 | 4,895 | 4,693 |
| GFXB T-rex | 60 | 60 | 120 |
| GFXB Manhattan 3.1 | 60 | 60 | 112 |
| GFXB Car Chase | 42 | 60 | 71 |
| 3DM Slingshot Extreme OpenGL | Maxed Out | Maxed Out | 5,481 |
| 3DM Slingshot | 8,289 | Maxed Out | 4,655 |
| 3DM Wild Life | 5,251 | Maxed Out | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life Unlimited | 5,468 | 11,325 | 11,734 |
The stereo speakers can get very loud at full volume, but the sound lacks any bass whatsoever. The resulting audio is clear even though it does not sound full and rich. Haptic vibrations are far from crisp. Given the smartphone's price tag, I expected better.
Vivo V50 Cameras: A mixed bag
- Primary camera - 50-megapixel, f/1.8, AF, OIS
- Ultrawide camera - 50-megapixel, f/2.0, AF
- Selfie camera - 50-megapixel, f/2.0, AF
Vivo V50 ultrawide camera samples (tap images to expand)
The ultrawide camera snaps 12-megapixel binned images, and the results are average at best. There's noticeable lens barrel distortion around the edges of the image and plenty of purple fringing in the brighter areas. The colours are alright, but there's some oversharpening and aggressive noise reduction, which produces flat, oil-painting-like textures even in daylight. In low light, there's reduced dynamic range, meaning there are little to no details visible in the shadows. Noise is under control, but just like the daylight captures, it comes at the cost of horribly reduced resolved detail.
Vivo V50 super macro camera sample (tap image to expand)
The same camera is also in charge of macro photos and can be accessed through the Super Macro mode. And this is where the ultrawide camera makes itself a bit more useful. It does a decent job of snapping macro photos, letting you get really close to your subject, but the images lack resolved details. In short, they appear fine until you zoom in and check for detail, where you are greeted by an oversharpened mess. The primary camera lets you get about 10-15cm away from the subject, but its shallow depth of field means the fall-off is a bit excessive, leaving a very small patch to focus on.
Vivo V50 daylight camera samples. Top: 1X (primary camera), Middle: 2X (digital zoom), Bottom: 2X (digital zoom) (tap images to expand)
The primary camera, too, does an average job when snapping photos under daylight. The dynamic range and colours are fine, but the captures are low on resolved detail and sharpness. Shooting at 2X digital zoom sees better and sharper output, resulting in usable photos when snapped in daylight. However, in low light or under artificial light, the resolved detail is a little lower, leading to photos that appear flat. This also applies to the Portrait mode.
Vivo V50 low-light camera samples (tap images to expand)
The main camera's low-light images are surprisingly good. They come out sharp and clear, packing good detail and dynamic range. This is probably down to the camera's Night mode imaging algorithms, which also take a bit of time to process once an image has been captured, making you wait for a few seconds until you can capture the next shot.
Selfies in low light (pictured) come out really well, thanks to the Aura ring light. Daylight selfies are also sharp and pack in good detail with good edge-detection (tap image to expand)
Videos recorded at 1080p at 30fps come out a bit soft but have good colour and stabilisation. 4K 30fps videos are also well stabilised but only manage a marginal improvement in terms of detail. Videos captured from the selfie camera have blown-out backgrounds when shooting in bright outdoor environments, so it's best avoided.
In low light, 1080p video recordings appear a bit too soft and lack both detail and dynamic range. 4K footage manages better detail along with good stabilisation. Things are far from ideal, as there's visible noise, and dynamic range isn't handled well, with blown-out highlights in bright areas and missing details in the darker patches when shooting street-lit scenes.
Vivo V50 Battery: Downright impressive!
- Battery capacity - 6,000mAh
- Wired charging - 90W
- Wireless charging - NA
The Vivo V50's battery easily lasted me well over a day with casual use and mixed connectivity, which includes staying connected to 5G and Wi-Fi networks. Indeed, battery life is not an issue with this phone, whether you are a casual user who just scrolls through social media apps or a power user who is constantly on calls, switching between several apps, including camera usage and gaming.
The Vivo V50 measures just 7.5mm at its thinnest point but somehow has a 6,000mAh battery stuffed inside.
In our standard battery video loop test, the phone managed a solid score of 29 hours and 12 minutes, which is impressive even for a mid-ranger. Charging is also surprisingly fast (for a device with a 6,000mAh battery), with the Vivo V50 managing a 56 percent charge in 30 minutes and 81 percent in one hour, completing the charging just 5 minutes later.
Vivo V50 Verdict
Vivo's abnormally quick product release cycle for its V series makes it obvious that many may hold off on upgrading to the new V50 despite its advancements over the V40 released last year. Given last year's release schedule, we can expect a Vivo V60 to be launched in the next 5 months, well before the year ends. Even if the upgrades are minor, they will still matter because we expect the pricing to stay the same.
We have nobody but Vivo to blame for this conundrum. Those who own a Vivo V20 can now finally upgrade to the V50, which offers a big jump in overall performance. Vivo V30 upgrades also benefit from improved battery life and a better set of cameras.
If a sleek design and battery life matter most to you, then the Vivo V50 is a good choice for the average consumer. But if performance matters, then you are better off with devices like Realme's GT 6 (Review), which is priced a wee bit higher, or even the Poco F6 (Review) that's priced a lot lower than the V50. Xiaomi's Redmi Note 14 Pro+ (Review) is also a solid contender (at a much lower price), as it offers better battery life than the Vivo V50.
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