The standard Vivo V30 sits below the mid-range Vivo V30 Pro. At the time of writing, and much like the Vivo V30 Pro, the V30 is only available to buy in limited markets including India. In the UK and US, it is available to buy from Ebay from around $490 / £380.
Amateur Photographer verdict
A very pretty and affordable phone with some cool portrait photography features like AuraLight. It takes quality photos and video overall. Unfortunately, it is not widely available everywhere.- High resolution triple lens set up
- AI-powered Aura Light for studio-quality portrait photos
- High-resolution selfie camera with autofocus
- Screen is easily scratchable
- Limited availability worldwide
- No Macro mode
Key features at a glance:
- 50MP VCS True Colour Main camera, OIS
- 50MP AF Ultra Wide-Angle camera
- 50MP AF selfie camera
- 4K video up to 30fps
- 6.78-inch, 2800 x 1260, 2800 nits peak brightness, 120Hz screen
- Operating system – Funtouch OS 14, based on Android 14
- Processor – Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3
How we test camera phones
We review smartphones from the perspective of choosing one for its photography and camera performance. We look at what the Vivo V30 offers, and the features included for photography and video, paying particular attention to the cameras on the phone, photo editing capabilities, as well as the output from each different lens.
Hardware, design and features
The Vivo V30 has a triple 50MP camera system, which includes a selfie camera with autofocus. The phone can record up to 4K video.
It is extremely pretty. I received the Bloom White colour option to review, the phone’s 3D petal pattern on the back looked amazing in the sunlight. It has rounded edges and a screen that bleeds slightly to the sides of the phone. Other colour options include Waving Aqua, Lush Green and Noble Black.
The Vivo V30 is equipped with a slim frame and a screen with a 120Hz refresh rate. It offers IP54 dust and water resistance It also and has a “Schott” glass for the screen. However, despite precautions, I did manage to scratch the screen slightly in places while it was inside my bag.
The phone runs on Funtouch OS 14, which is based on Android 14, and is powered by 80W FlashCharge and a 5000 mAh (TYP) large battery. You get a USB-C charger with the phone.
Performance
The main camera has an f/1.9 aperture and a 1/1.55″ sensor. It features Vivo Camera-Bionic Spectrum (VCS) technology for more accurate colours that are close to what the human eye sees. It also includes optical image stabilisation (OIS).
The Vivo V30’s main camera produced its best results in good light – gorgeous results even. The word painterly also comes to mind. I particularly enjoyed using this smartphone for taking photos of flowers as it gave relatively detailed and vivid results, as well as some bokeh which can be adjusted during editing.
The selfie camera and Ultra Wide-Angle camera both have an f/2.0 aperture as well as autofocus. The Ultra-Wide Angle camera offers a wide field of view of 119° to accommodate groups of people in photos and videos.
The autofocus came in very handy in both. The Ultra Wide-Angle camera is said to give optimal results when photographing up to three people. I took a group photo using the Ultra Wide-Angle camera with five people in it, and while the result was good, it wasn’t as detailed as some photos I took of just two people.
The four people closest to the camera are rendered much clearer than the rest.
Despite not having a macro mode, my photos had a decent amount of detail, though the phone faltered when it came to focusing on smaller objects such as bumblebees resting inside flowers, raindrops and the occasional ladybug.
The Vivo V30 takes good pictures and video in low-light but while night-time images are on the whole quite light, this is where the phone suffers the most, with a noticeable decrease in image quality and sharpness.
It is worth noting that this smartphone includes a Night, Astro and Supermoon mode.
Where this phone shines is in taking portraits. Like the V30 Pro, the Vivo V30 has a number of features those who do portrait photography regularly will appreciate.
The highlight of these is AuraLight. Basically, the front bit of your phone lights up. It looks like a flashlight but fancier. It can be set on to constantly illuminate your subject and the light can be set to cooler or warmer colour temperatures.
And it really makes quite a difference when taking portraits in low light and at night as it literally lights up your subject’s face. However, you might want to give them a fair warning before turning it on, it’s quite strong!
AuraLight is also available as an option when using the Food and video modes.
There is a lot to like about the Vivo V30’s Portrait mode but I did find myself wanting more than 2x zoom while using this mode to do some concert photography.
Other shooting modes include time-lapse, high-resolution, and a Pro mode, where you can shoot in raw format and adjust settings including the ISO, shutter speed, AF and more. There are three colour options to choose from: Vivid, Textured and Natural.
In terms of video, the Vivo V30 offers up to 4K video at 30fps. The Vivo V30 uses Hybrid Image Stabilisation, a mix of OIS and electronic image stabilisation (EIS) when shooting video.
The phone has an additional MicroMovie feature, which allows you to choose one of several templates like Daily Vlog, Movie Recording Frame to create and edit a short video.
The content creator in me was itching to use some of these, particularly the Movie Recording Frame option for example, which allows you to shoot horizontal video, changes your aspect ratio, and adds an overlay on top of your footage that makes it look as if you’re recording video with a camera.
While you do get these on video editing apps you can download on your smartphone such as CapCut, it’s an option that might save you time while editing.
Video quality was somewhat disappointing when viewed on a larger screen but is more than decent for social media use. While my footage progressively became fuzzier the more zoom I used, it did relatively well in low light conditions provided I did not go too far beyond 2x zoom
The camera app was relatively easy to use and has some useful tools such as intelligent classification, which grouped my images by categories such as flowers, group photos and night.
It was helpful but imperfect – I was puzzled to find a few random photos of non-food items inside the food folder though, and there was only one photo of shoes in the shoe folder (I took several photos and videos of musicians’ feet as they performed on stage).
When editing images, the phone allows you to resize your images and save resized/lower resolution copies. It is particularly handy that it calculates how big your file is as you adjust the resolution and image quality.
Verdict:
All in all, the Vivo V30 is a really good option for photographers. For one, it’s affordable but capable, though sadly not widely available everywhere. Of course, there’s also the mid-range Vivo V30 Pro available at a slightly higher but still competitive price, which shares the three 50MP cameras with the Vivo V30 but includes some extra features such as an additional telephoto camera and Zeiss branding.
Image and video quality wasn’t perfect, but I mostly got very good results with the Vivo V30 and I would be more than happy to continue using it for photography (particularly portraits) and shooting video.
This phone is also very aesthetic and while it is slim and thin, this doesn’t mean a small battery – which is a definite plus.
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