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Vivo contacted us and they very kindly sent over their new releases, the Vivo V40. The Vivo V40 was released on the 23rd August of this year. It is the latest in Vivo’s update of their midrange phones.
The last time we reviewed a Vivo phone was four years ago! Here’s the link if you’re interested: Vivo X50 Pro.
Currently, you can get these phones via physical stores here and through Shopee as well. Current retail price on Shopee is SGD$649, which is more than reasonable for a midrange phone. There’s two colours, Stellar Silver and Sunglow Peach. I have to admit that the Sunglow Peach is really quite good-looking.
Vivo V40 – the deets!
The Vivo V40 is co-engineered with Zeiss. If you have been living under a rock, Zeiss is the company that is one of the leading manufacturers for camera lenses. Every single lens that is used in the Vivo V40 is using a Zeiss lens. In fact, looking at the website itself, I’m quite impressed by the claims that Vivo is saying about this phone. I find myself excited to try out the camera and see whether the quality is really as claimed.
Aside from the main claim on having a powerful camera, there are other tests that we would have to run too. But, first, let’s watch the unboxing!
Edit: In the video, I called it the V40 Pro 5G. Correction, the phone is V40!
I love the Sunglow Peach. There seems to be reflective particles in the phone itself that gives a slight shimmering look; perfect for the girlie girls! The Vivo V40 itself is about 164.16mm x 27.93m x 7.58mm and weighs about 192g. Compared to my current phone, the Vivo V40 is definitely much slimmer and lighter yet, slightly longer. Is that a problem? I don’t see why it should be honestly.
Here’s the specs for the phone itself:
- Display: 6.78″
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon® 7 Gen 3 Mobile Platform
- Rear Camera: 50MP ZEISS
- Front Camera: 50MP ZEISS Ultra-wide Angle
- Operating System: Funtouch OS 14
Now, let’s get on to the benchmark tests!
Benchmark Tests
We started off with the 3DMark Stress Test. The test itself proved that the Vivo V40 has one of best stability scores among the few phones I have reviewed this year. In fact, while running the test, I was simultaneously running the Stress test on another phone and let’s just say, the difference was extremely noticeable. While the images, changing of apps and videos were incredibly smooth on the Vivo V40; it was clearly laggy on the other phone. So if you’re worried that the Vivo V40 might not be able to handle your Call of Duty or Mobile Legends; I believe your games will just run fine.
Next up was the PCMark tests; the battery life and the Work Performance.
The battery life test result was satisfactory to me as it lasted about 20hours before reaching 20%. I am not very nit-picky about battery life as I usually would have either a portable charger with me or my own personal charger at work. When out and about, I tend not to use my phone much seeing that I have two children that needs my attention more so the 20hrs battery life is quite long-lasting for me.
Moving on to the Work Performance; hmm. While it is not exactly the best result that I have seen this year, it is also not the worst. Does it make me feel like this is a deal-breaker though? For the price point, not really. I mean, the phone is a midrange phone so expectations should not be extremely high. Of course there needs to be some give-and-take in this particular situation.
Let’s move on to the actual test that I was looking forward to; the camera test!
The Camera!
So if you were to go to Vivo’s website, the first thing that you would see is this banner here:
It gives me this tingly feeling where my inner child is squealing and chanting, “Camera Test! Camera Test! Camera Test!”
However, I exercised patience and did all the necessary tests first. Upon first impression, I was not blown away to be frank. I had very high expectations for the camera quality and it did not seem to reach those heights.
Of course, the caterpillars had to make an appearance. I choose to take the caterpillars mainly because I wanted to see whether the camera would be able to pick out the little details on the plant, leaves and the creepy-crawly. Disclaimer: I did not adjust the camera settings manually so if you take a look at the bottom banner of the pictures, the ISO and shutter speeds are different. This is a personal preference where I liked the pictures to be sharper and the second picture, somehow did not exactly impress me as it looked a little soft and smooth. This could be due to the different shutter speed and ISO so, if you know how to change the settings manually, this should not affect you so much.
Next up, I was able to put the night mode to the test in comparison with the normal settings. The picture on the left was using the night mode while the one of the right was without. You could clearly see the difference in sharpness between the two. While I did initially tried to focus on the cat, I realised the best comparison was actually the plants itself. Using the night mode, the green of the plant is sharper and brighter than the one without the night mode. Take a look at the background, you can actually see the details at the opposite block!
Second impression, the Vivo V40 is definitely reaching my expectations.
On the way home, I realised the moon was extra bright! It was the hunter’s moon! Here’s a chance to try out the “Astro” mode on the phone! I did zoom in but, hmm. I was little disappointed in how it looked. It’s not the best but it’s not the worst either.
The last and final test I was looking forward to; the daily life shots.
Daily Life
Since the Vivo V40 claims to give “Portable Professional Portraits,” I was really looking forward to trying it out while with my family. After all, part of the reason most consumers buy a phone is to take good photos that we could either post on social media or keep as memories.
I am not going to show my children’s face on here, but I did like how the pictures at the outdoor playground and in the arcade turned out. The colours were sharp and crisp in the photos, the group photo also turned out really great with all our faces in focus.
This is my favourite photo of all that I took. Although my son was blurry (because he was moving), the other parts of the photo was simply stunning to me. My husband and the motorcycle in focus with everything else out-of-focus yet still having that neon lighting. The contrast of colours here is *chefs kiss*.
The last photos that I really liked? The sunsets. The contrast between the pinks and the dark blue of the sky was simply stunning. I do have to point out that you would need to be mindful of changing between the normal camera settings to the night settings. However, as it’s just a matter of scrolling, I don’t feel like it is going to be a huge hassle since the settings itself would be automatically changed.
Final Thoughts
I truly enjoyed using the Vivo V40. While it is not necessarily the phone for me (I am considering a different phone that I recently reviewed, lol), I imagine that this is a great phone if you’re looking to not spend thousands.
As a phone itself, there’s no issues with changing between apps or playing games. The camera is also a great pull factor if you are considering this. I love the fact that Vivo has that small banner at the bottom telling you the settings that was used to capture a particular photo. You do have the option of turning it off so if you don’t like it, there you go.
Would I personally recommend the Vivo V40? Yes, provided that you actually have specific requests such as budget and camera preferences. But of course, you should go to the stores and test the phone out and see if it meets your liking before making your final decision. However, if you feel like just ordering on Shopee and saying, nah I’m fine with not testing it out; I say go for it!
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