Vivo’s V-series targets camera enthusiasts and people looking for a solid package in sub-Rs. 40,000 price segment. The brand
Vivo V29 Pro daylight primary camera samples (tap to see full size)
The portrait camera performs well in daylight; it does not over-sharpen like the primary camera and maintains the colour scheme. 2x optical zoom helps you take shots that are a little difficult for the primary camera, and it still manages to take pretty detailed images. Portrait mode images out of this one are quite good; they are processed quite a bit, and you will notice the colour shift instantly. But the result sometimes looks better than the primary camera. I shot multiple human portraits with this one, and I was impressed by the background effect and subject isolation. It keeps the original skin tone intact and recognises the edges pretty well.
Vivo V29 Pro telephoto camera samples (tap to see full size)
The ultrawide camera on the Vivo V29 Pro is a mixed bag; the 8-megapixel resolution sometimes produces very soft images, and the processor tries to sharpen those, which produces a worse-looking image. It works well in daylight, maintains good sharpness levels across the frame, and has good colours. But the distortion on the edges is noticeable.
Vivo V29 Pro ultra-wide angle camera samples (tap to see full size)
The smartphone performs well in low light. I recently took some really good shots at an event with the primary camera. It tends to ramp up the saturation levels, but the pictures have good details. You will sometimes find yourself with flat-looking images, but mostly, the nighttime shots clicked with the primary camera will look great. The portrait camera works just fine in low light; in portrait mode, the bokeh looks excellent, and the colours are pleasing to the eyes, too. They’re not true-to-life but do not look cartoony as you might expect. It does not hunt for focus at night, either. The ultrawide camera lacks quite a bit in low light; you will see a lot of grains in your shots if they’re clicked in less-than-ideal situations. If you need great-looking ultrawide shots, you should be able to hold the camera still for quite some time and shoot at longer shutter speeds.
Vivo V29 Pro nighttime camera samples. Top to bottom: primary camera, ultra-wide-angle camera (tap to see full size)
Vivo has emphasised its Aura-light flash quite a bit and does a decent job at separating the subject from the background, but it isn’t perfect. I found myself with shots that were not lit enough most of the time. But it is a good addition for whenever you do not want to use the main flash and need a different-looking portrait.
Vivo V29 Pro Smart Aura Light camera sample. Without Smart Aura Light (Left), With Smart Aura Light (Right)
The smartphone can record videos at up to 4K 60fps without any stabilisation. Video capturing resolution drops as you select one of the stabilisation levels. The videos look good in general but are a little over-sharpened. Videos at night come out softer than usual.
For selfies, the smartphone uses a 50-megapixel camera with autofocus. It clicks images with good details in daylight and nighttime shots. But the default setting where the smartphone thinks I need to click a portrait with the front camera each time I open the selfie camera is annoying. The front camera can shoot videos up to 4K 60fps that look good in daylight but lack details in low light.
Vivo V29 Pro Selfie camera samples
Vivo V29 Pro Review: Battery and Charging
The Vivo V29 Pro sports a 4600mAh battery, which is impressive considering how slim this smartphone is. The smartphone does a pretty good job of handling day-to-day tasks like playing music at 50 percent volume through TWS for a couple of hours, browsing the internet, playing videos online, some gaming and using productivity apps with 120Hz refresh rate enabled with around 50 percent screen brightness throughout the day. The Vivo V29 Pro lasted for 17 hours and 15 minutes in our battery loop test, which is quite impressive.
The smartphone comes with the 80W adaptor inside the retail packaging, which is a plus, considering most smartphones do not come with it nowadays. It charges very fast with the bundled charging adaptor; in our testing, the smartphone charged 66 percent in just 30 minutes and 100 percent in less than an hour, which is excellent. Surprisingly, the smartphone did not overheat while charging at such speeds either.
Vivo V29 Pro Review: Performance
It ships with MediaTek’s Dimensity 8200 5G SoC at heart, which is a good processor when it comes to handling graphic-intensive tasks. We ran all the required benchmarks on the Vivo V29 Pro, and the results were quite good for this price. It scored 9,19,960 on AnTuTu v.10.1.0, 1,213 single core and 3,931 for multi-core for Geekbench 6.
I played a couple of graphic-intensive games, including Call of Duty: Mobile, in which I did not see a lot of frames dropping during the gameplay. The gaming session was smooth, and I could play with high graphic settings enabled. Real Racing 3 was smooth, and the animations did not lag during my entire session. The smartphone did get a little warm after each session, but it was negligible. The Vivo V29 Pro comes loaded with Funtouch 13, based on Android 13. It has many pre-loaded apps, but they can be deleted at will, which is a plus. The overall user experience of the smartphone is lag-free, and it does feel like a premium smartphone.
Vivo V29 Pro Review: Verdict
The Vivo V29 Pro is a good smartphone with a starting price of Rs. 39,999 that checks all the necessary boxes, including a good display, a great set of cameras, a premium build quality and a good battery life with insanely fast charging speeds. It offers most of the premium features that a consumer looks for in this price range. The smartphone offers a premium in-hand feel, and the Himalayan Blue colour stands out. It justifies the starting price, and the 12GB RAM variant is priced decently well, too. The smartphone does fall short with average ultrawide camera performance, and no IP rating. If the latter matters to you more, I suggest you go with the Google Pixel 7a (Review), which has a better ultrawide camera performance, is IP67-rated water and dust resistant and is protected with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, at a slightly higher price of Rs. 43,999.
