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vivo V50: Lacks sheer horsepower but shines in the camera department
Summary
The Vivo V50 impresses with its portrait photography capabilities, powered by a 50MP lens and unique modes tailored for Indian weddings. However, its dated processor may disappoint performance-focused users
While flagship smartphones follow an annual refresh cycle, vivo is hyperactive in the mid-premium segment with quicker releases. With two generations of V-series smartphones launched in 2024, we already have the next one—vivo V50 (starting at ₹34,999).
There are a few refinements, but it is also quite similar to its predecessor. Of course, the focus is on its photography chops and myriad camera features—a posturing that mid-range smartphones rarely go for.
I tried the vivo V50 for two weeks to see if the upgrades are exciting enough and if there’s more to the phone than its camera unit.
A conversation-starter design
The vivo V50 largely inherits the design language of its predecessor, the V40, and that’s a good legacy to bank on. But it goes for an even slimmer profile—vivo has shaved down the thickness from 7.6mm to 7.39mm.
The slim profile, the curved display on the front, and the glass back panel together enhance the overall ergonomics of the smartphone and makes for a reliable in-hand feel.
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The vivo V50 offers a unique flair when it comes to the design department. If you prefer a subtle, understated look, go for the “Titanium Grey" variant. But vivo’s aesthetic distinction shines in the other two variants. The vibrant “Rose Red" offers a bold aesthetic while the “Starry Night" one that shimmers with holographic dots when light hits the back panel is really eye catching.
In terms of durability, vivo has upped its game this time around. Instead of just the IP68 protection, it also boasts of IP69 certification which makes the device more resistant to water and dust, even under harsher conditions. This is one of those phones that you can take in the shower—not sure why though—as well as in the pool for underwater shots.
Look at the curves
The vivo V50 embraces a curved display which makes it look as premium as much more expensive smartphones. The curvature along with narrow bezels make for an immersive viewing experience, even though some people aren’t fans of curved displays.
Otherwise, it sticks to the similar 6.77-inch AMOLED display as the V40, with a 120Hz refresh rate. For some reason, vivo has dropped the pixel density from 453ppi to 387ppi. The downgrade is hardly noticeable in everyday usage unless one is pixel-peeping, but the choice is puzzling.
The display is bright, sharp, and vivid—you can switch to more natural colors from the settings, though. The AMOLED panel offers vibrant colors and deep blacks, and the peak brightness of 4500 nits ensures clarity even in direct sunlight outdoors.
ZEISS camera
For a while now, smartphone camera capabilities have been vivo’s marquee pitch. The company also decided to democratize the fruits of its collaboration with German optical systems company, ZEISS, by bringing their co-developed features to the mid-range V series apart from the flagship X series which is known for its photography exploits.
The result is a reliable point-and-shoot cameras in its class. The 50-megapixel primary camera offers lively photos when shooting in daylight—the colors pop with punchy saturation and the dynamic range and the details are pretty good. The skin tones appear to be slightly smoothened, due to the processing. In low light conditions though, there is a noticeable drop in quality as the photos tend to lose sharpness and details. But it isn’t a showstopper.
Even the wide-angle camera captures sharp images without any major shift in colors when compared to the primary camera.
By the way, the V50 also has vivo’s signature “Aura Light" instead of the conventional LED flash, which is brighter and softer than its predecessor. Aura Light lights up the subject with a soft, natural glow instead of a harsh glare to enhance portrait shots. I almost dismissed the feature as gimmicky when it was first introduced, but it really helps in certain conditions.
It’s portrait photography where the vivo V50 truly excels. The phone doesn’t pack in a dedicated telephoto lens, but the 50MP wide-angle lens features in-sensor crop support that enables 2x zoom. The V50 allows you to shoot at different focal lengths—23mm for landscapes, 35mm for everyday portraits, and 50mm for focused portraits.
As we’ve seen in the V series and X series before, the portrait mode comes with a slew of options to choose colors, tone, and types of bokeh. There’s also the “India-exclusive" wedding portrait mode that vivo thinks has many takers in the land of big fat weddings (the media briefing for the smartphone was hosted at a popular wedding venue in Delhi).
The result is impressive, detailed portraits with solid edge detection, on-point sharpness levels, and accurate skin tones. The background blur is neat as well with natural separation from the background.
While shooting photos, the image processing sometimes takes an extra beat. It’s not killjoy, but definitely noticeable. The reason is the internals it packs.
Dated internals
While vivo doesn’t bill the V50 as a performance phone, but packing a dated Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset that also powered not just its predecessor but also the one before it – the vivo V40 and V30. The base variant of the vivo V50 offers 8GB RAM and 128GB or 256GB of internal storage, while a 12GB RAM and 512GB storage variant is also available.
The choice of processor aside, you wouldn’t notice any major lags or jitteriness in casual everyday use. And therefore, it should just be fine for most average users. But frame drops while playing graphic-intensive games or a certain drag during high-performance usage bares the choice of the processor. While vivo stands by the processor, the V50 does fall short compared to some of its rivals in the same category.
The V50 is powered by Funtouch OS 15, the company’s customized UI layer based on Android 15. While not the best software experience out there, the improvements and refinements to the OS in the last couple of years is quite evident. As is hygiene these days, the phone has a bunch of AI-powered utilities for things like image editing, audio transcribing, and translation as well as marquee Android features like Circle to Search.
vivo continues to be conservative with its update promises. The V50 will receive three Android OS updates along with four years of security updates.
Solid battery life
Battery life is a highlight of vivo V50. It can easily deliver over a day and a half of battery life with heavy usage. No battery anxiety!
From 5500mAh battery on the vivo V40, the battery on the V50 has been upgraded to 6000mAh, which is remarkably packed in a slim chassis. Thankfully, it supports 90W fast charging, so charging the mammoth battery isn’t much of a worry. It takes just under an hour to charge the phone from zero to hundred percent with the bundled fast charger, which is impressive—the vivo V50 not only lasts long but also gets ready for the job quickly.
Should you buy it?
The vivo V50 is a compelling offering, but I have mixed feelings about it. Hands down, it is one of the best mid-range shooters, especially when it comes to portraits. But it also skips a telephoto sensor. For the most part, the core experience is pretty good, but the performance skips a beat.
These misses aside, there is significant merit to this device. It’s well-designed and remarkably stunning, packs in dual ingress protection, helps evade battery anxiety, and ekes out consistent camera performance.
Starting at ₹34,999, vivo V50 is a reliable smartphone and a pretty good option on the table. It builds on the strengths of its predecessor with certain meaningful upgrades. Yet there are other options in the market within the same segment that could appeal to those who prefer raw horsepower. Even within its stable, there’s last year’s vivo V40, with little compromises, that you can pick at a cheaper price or go for V40 Pro which has better photography chops than the V50.
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