Vivo, a brand known mainly for its mid-premium segment smartphones, is seeing 
Vivo V50 ultrawide camera samples (tap images to expand)
The ultrawide camera snaps 12-megapixel binned images, and the results are average at best. There’s noticeable lens barrel distortion around the edges of the image and plenty of purple fringing in the brighter areas. The colours are alright, but there’s some oversharpening and aggressive noise reduction, which produces flat, oil-painting-like textures even in daylight. In low light, there’s reduced dynamic range, meaning there are little to no details visible in the shadows. Noise is under control, but just like the daylight captures, it comes at the cost of horribly reduced resolved detail.
Vivo V50 super macro camera sample (tap image to expand)
The same camera is also in charge of macro photos and can be accessed through the Super Macro mode. And this is where the ultrawide camera makes itself a bit more useful. It does a decent job of snapping macro photos, letting you get really close to your subject, but the images lack resolved details. In short, they appear fine until you zoom in and check for detail, where you are greeted by an oversharpened mess. The primary camera lets you get about 10-15cm away from the subject, but its shallow depth of field means the fall-off is a bit excessive, leaving a very small patch to focus on.
Vivo V50 daylight camera samples. Top: 1X (primary camera), Middle: 2X (digital zoom), Bottom: 2X (digital zoom) (tap images to expand)
The primary camera, too, does an average job when snapping photos under daylight. The dynamic range and colours are fine, but the captures are low on resolved detail and sharpness. Shooting at 2X digital zoom sees better and sharper output, resulting in usable photos when snapped in daylight. However, in low light or under artificial light, the resolved detail is a little lower, leading to photos that appear flat. This also applies to the Portrait mode.
Vivo V50 low-light camera samples (tap images to expand)
The main camera’s low-light images are surprisingly good. They come out sharp and clear, packing good detail and dynamic range. This is probably down to the camera’s Night mode imaging algorithms, which also take a bit of time to process once an image has been captured, making you wait for a few seconds until you can capture the next shot.
Selfies in low light (pictured) come out really well, thanks to the Aura ring light. Daylight selfies are also sharp and pack in good detail with good edge-detection (tap image to expand)
Videos recorded at 1080p at 30fps come out a bit soft but have good colour and stabilisation. 4K 30fps videos are also well stabilised but only manage a marginal improvement in terms of detail. Videos captured from the selfie camera have blown-out backgrounds when shooting in bright outdoor environments, so it’s best avoided.
In low light, 1080p video recordings appear a bit too soft and lack both detail and dynamic range. 4K footage manages better detail along with good stabilisation. Things are far from ideal, as there’s visible noise, and dynamic range isn’t handled well, with blown-out highlights in bright areas and missing details in the darker patches when shooting street-lit scenes.
Vivo V50 Battery: Downright impressive!
- Battery capacity – 6,000mAh
- Wired charging – 90W
- Wireless charging – NA
The Vivo V50’s battery easily lasted me well over a day with casual use and mixed connectivity, which includes staying connected to 5G and Wi-Fi networks. Indeed, battery life is not an issue with this phone, whether you are a casual user who just scrolls through social media apps or a power user who is constantly on calls, switching between several apps, including camera usage and gaming.
The Vivo V50 measures just 7.5mm at its thinnest point but somehow has a 6,000mAh battery stuffed inside.
In our standard battery video loop test, the phone managed a solid score of 29 hours and 12 minutes, which is impressive even for a mid-ranger. Charging is also surprisingly fast (for a device with a 6,000mAh battery), with the Vivo V50 managing a 56 percent charge in 30 minutes and 81 percent in one hour, completing the charging just 5 minutes later.
Vivo V50 Verdict
Vivo’s abnormally quick product release cycle for its V series makes it obvious that many may hold off on upgrading to the new V50 despite its advancements over the V40 released last year. Given last year’s release schedule, we can expect a Vivo V60 to be launched in the next 5 months, well before the year ends. Even if the upgrades are minor, they will still matter because we expect the pricing to stay the same.
We have nobody but Vivo to blame for this conundrum. Those who own a Vivo V20 can now finally upgrade to the V50, which offers a big jump in overall performance. Vivo V30 upgrades also benefit from improved battery life and a better set of cameras.
If a sleek design and battery life matter most to you, then the Vivo V50 is a good choice for the average consumer. But if performance matters, then you are better off with devices like Realme’s GT 6 (Review), which is priced a wee bit higher, or even the Poco F6 (Review) that’s priced a lot lower than the V50. Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 14 Pro+ (Review) is also a solid contender (at a much lower price), as it offers better battery life than the Vivo V50.
