Flagship Digicam With out the Flagship Value

The mid-range Android smartphone market has been fairly aggressive for the previous few years, particularly with the releases of telephones just like the Pixel 7a, Xiaomi Redmi Notice 13 Professional+, and OnePlus 12R. Nonetheless, vivo has stood out on this section. Final yr, the vivo V29 Professional impressed me with its wonderful digicam at an reasonably priced value.

The corporate is now again with the vivo V30 Professional, providing a bigger battery all whereas sustaining a glossy design and introducing the premium ZEISS digicam partnership to the mid-range section. I have been utilizing the V30 Professional for the previous few weeks, and I imagine that is one of the best mid-range digicam smartphone of 2024. Here is why!

Value and Availability

The vivo V30 Professional was introduced on February 28, 2024, and has been launched in some Asian markets like India, Malaysia, and Thailand since then. It begins at a value of Rs. 41,999 (~$500) and goes as much as Rs. 46,999 (~$560) for the very best finish mannequin with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage. Nonetheless, this smartphone isn’t but accessible in Europe or North America. Nonetheless, we’ll replace this web page in case vivo decides to deliver it to these areas in a while.

Design and Construct

Beginning with the design, the vivo V30 Professional retains a really related look to its predecessor, the V29 Professional. Curved back and front panels make a return with rear digicam modules tucked into the highest left nook with the brand new Aura ring mild system slightly below it. The brand new ZEISS branding can be seen within the digicam module.

The vivo V30 Professional is available in 4 colours: Bloom White, Waving Aqua, Lush Inexperienced, and Noble Black. We examined the Black variant, which contains a very related end to the House Black variant of the V29 Professional. Bloom White contains a 3D-etched sample resembling flower petals. Each Lush Inexperienced and Waving Aqua have distinctive finishes as nicely.

When evaluating the V30 Professional to the V29 Professional, you will discover it is only a tad wider and taller. However, surprisingly, the load stays the identical (188 grams) even if the brand new vivo V30 Professional contains a significantly bigger battery. The curve on the sides can also be much less pronounced this time, which makes it simpler to carry, and the show is less complicated to see as nicely.

When it comes to sturdiness, the V30 Professional comes with IP54 mud and water resistance — one thing that the V29 Professional lacked. Nonetheless, vivo nonetheless is not utilizing Corning Gorilla glass for entrance glass safety. As a substitute, they’ve chosen Schott Alpha glass to guard the display screen. Nonetheless, just like its predecessor, the vivo V30 is a bit slippery, however the excellent news is that vivo gives a clear TPU case within the field.

Show

Having a look on the entrance, you get an enormous 6.78-inch AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh price and 1260 x 280-pixel decision. This show helps HDR10+ playback and has 2800 nits peak brightness. And sure, it helps correct HDR10 playback on common apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Prime Video, because of appropriate Widevine DRM certification. There is a 50MP punch-hole digicam on the middle high and an under-display fingerprint sensor on the backside.

The perimeters of the display screen are curved once more, though much less noticeably this time. Nonetheless, this curvature could cause some slight colour shifting on the edges, which may be noticeable. Regardless of this, the general show expertise is satisfying, boasting spectacular sharpness, deep blacks, wonderful distinction, and vibrant colours.

Digicam

And now, onto the star of the present — the cameras. vivo’s V-series smartphones have at all times been closely targeted on cameras — actually, the earlier technology V29 received our “Greatest Reasonably priced Digicam Cellphone” — and now, with the V30 Professional, vivo has introduced the ZEISS partnership, which is normally reserved for flagship X-series telephones, to the reasonably priced lineup. The consequence? This partnership takes the already spectacular digicam setup to the following degree.

Going over the {hardware}, the vivo V30 Professional contains a triple-50MP digicam setup with a 50MP major lens, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and a 50MP telephoto lens that permits 4x optical zoom. And the way does it carry out? Exceptionally nicely. In daylight lighting circumstances, the digicam captures a few of the most stunning pictures with vibrant colours, sharp particulars, and wonderful dynamic vary. There is a consistency throughout the photographs as nicely, which I recognize.

Each the telephoto and ultra-wide lenses ship high quality just like that of the principle digicam. There may be, nevertheless, a slight colour shift you could see. However, general, you will be impressed with the pictures from the opposite two lenses as nicely. However now, let’s shift our focus to the portrait mode — which is really excellent.

The vivo V30 Professional churns out a few of the best-looking portrait photographs of all of the smartphones on this section. The sting detection, background blur, sharpness, and general look of the portraits are merely superb. Plus, with the ZEISS branding, you get entry to a spread of ZEISS portrait types like Zeiss Biotar, Zeiss Sonar, Zeiss Planar, and extra.

I used to be pleasantly shocked by the standard of low-light pictures too. The sensor captures loads of mild, and the post-processing enhances the pictures properly. The place the flash is required, it’s best to use the brand new Aura Ring Mild system, which now has a sq. form as a substitute of a hoop on the V29 Professional. It does an excellent job of balancing mild on the topic, particularly in auto mode. It additionally helps be sure the digicam exhibits the topic’s colours precisely. However sufficient discuss — let the digicam samples under converse for themselves.

Software program and Efficiency

Shifting onto the inner {hardware}, the vivo V30 Professional is powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 8200 processor, the identical chip used within the V29 Professional. Whereas we’d have liked to see an improve right here, the Dimensity 8200 is a dependable chipset and performs easily on the V30 Professional. That is paired with as much as 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Efficiency-wise, it is just like the earlier mannequin—apps launch shortly, and on a regular basis duties run easily.

Concerning the software program, the V30 Professional runs on Funtouch OS 14, based mostly on Android 14. The UI has obtained some tweaks in comparison with the V29 Professional, which ran on Android 13. The notification bar and fast settings now have a clear blurred background. Furthermore, vivo now makes use of its personal apps for apps like Cellphone, Messaging, and extra, though you’ll be able to nonetheless obtain Google apps.

Sadly, the gadget comes with a whole lot of pre-installed bloatware, which we’d have most popular to not see within the first place, though you’ll be able to nonetheless uninstall it. On the brilliant aspect, vivo guarantees two main OS upgrades and three years of safety patches for the V30 Professional.

Battery

Now onto the battery and charging, I’ve good issues to report right here. In contrast to its predecessor, the V29 Professional, which struggled to final a full day on a single cost, the V30 Professional comes with a bigger 5000mAh battery that simply lasted me by means of a day of heavy utilization. I put the telephone by means of its paces, doing every little thing from watching sports activities and taking part in video games to creating calls, texting, and scrolling by means of social media. Even with all that, the telephone managed to final all the day.

And when you by some means handle to empty the battery earlier than the day ends, vivo contains an 80W wall adapter within the field. vivo says the V30 Professional can totally cost the telephone from 0 to 100% in simply 46 minutes, and in my expertise, that declare held true. Whereas there is no wi-fi charging possibility, having the quick charger included makes up for it.

Verdict

So, is the V30 Professional value shopping for? Effectively, when you’re searching for a glossy smartphone that additionally presents nice battery life, clean efficiency, an excellent show expertise, and a very good digicam expertise with ZEISS optics, then the vivo V30 Professional is a stable selection. Although there are a couple of annoyances like solely a single speaker and a few pre-installed bloatware, the V30 Professional stands out as one of many high mid-range choices accessible at this time.