Vivo V40 Pro review

The Vivo V30 Pro doesn’t look exceptional, but there is a sense of calmness to the design, and the finish on the black variant is quite nice. The Vivo V40 Pro, on the other hand, looks a bit whack at back. The two colour options also now come with glossy, patterned finishes, with the ‘Ganges Blue’ colour option featuring some very cool fluid-like patterns which change colour and appearance depending on where you look at it from and how the light is falling on it.

The camera module is where I’m a bit discomforted. Two cameras are on one circular module with Zeiss branding and the third is on a separate, oval module along with the aura light. This interesting feature was introduced on the V30 Pro, and expectedly returns on the Vivo V40 Pro. The aura light is also a lot smaller, yet considerably brighter. There’s also no separation of aura light and flash - both use the same light component, which has a colour range going from red to white.

The frame and edges are quite similar to the Vivo V30 Pro, while the screen gets curved edges and extends almost entirely across the front of the device. It’s a fairly standard form factor in every other way; the Vivo V40 Pro doesn’t feel too big, thick, or heavy, and feels good to hold and use. The 6.78-inch AMOLED display has a resolution of 2800x1260 pixels (Full-HD+), and is as good as it needs to be in terms of sharpness, detail, and colour accuracy.

While the Vivo V30 Pro is an excellent camera phone, it’s held back a bit by its specifications and overall capabilities. The Vivo V40 Pro takes positive steps in that direction, with a flagship MediaTek Dimensity 9000 series processor powering the smartphone; a decent step up from the Dimensity 8200 on the V30 Pro. 

That said, it is the Dimensity 9200+ processor, which isn’t the current-generation option. For the price, there isn’t much to complain about in this regard; it’s a lot like OnePlus’ approach to how its products are positioned. The V40 Pro usefully gets up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, so it’ll function like the premium (but not quite flagship) smartphone it’s positioned to be.

Other specifications get a slight bump too, with the battery going up to 5500mAh. There is wired fast charging at up to 80W, with the right charger included in the box. You get 5G connectivity on both SIM slots and Bluetooth 5.3, but no eSIM or wireless charging support - once again, you’ll have to step up to the flagship X100 series for these. 

On the software front, it’s the regular package with Vivo’s FunTouch OS 14 based on Android 14. A bit of bloatware aside, it’s a clean user interface which sticks to the Android formula for the most part, and doesn’t feel like it has changes and customisations for the sake of it. This being a premium smartphone, you can also expect frequent software updates and improvements.

 

 

 

 

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Vivo takes its reputation as a camera specialist very seriously, and its ongoing partnership with Zeiss continues to bring it success in this segment. The X-series and V-series put this camera expertise and Zeiss partnership to good use, and the V40 Pro expectedly pushes it further for this product lineup.
The Vivo V40 Pro is once again focused on portrait photography, but quiet improvements and a better processor have made a notable difference when it comes to taking regular pictures. Even if you look past the Zeiss branding and portrait-specific features, the Vivo V40 Pro is a solid camera phone that can take excellent pictures in a variety of conditions. 
Outdoor photography was where I managed to get the best results from the Vivo V40 Pro, both with regular wide-frame photography and with portrait shots. The three 50-megapixel sensors work well together and individually, led from the front by the Sony IMX921 main camera. The Zeiss-tuned wide angle and telephoto portrait cameras also pull their weight nicely, with the latter delivering up to 2x optical and 50x digital zoom.

Expectedly, this also lets you zoom in for portrait shots, therefore giving you a bit of flexibility with positioning and framing. Objects such as flowers and plants were captured nicely, adding just a touch of drama without making the picture look overdone or unrealistic. Regular outdoor and low-light shots deliver a similar level of quality.

Portrait photography is the speciality here, and turns out quite well indoors with people as subjects. Shots of the Stuff India team in our office studio delivered decent results with very little effort. The Zeiss bokeh modes are nice to play around with as well, but only really come in handy when shooting portrait shots against artificial background lighting. Nonetheless, those pictures look rather nice.

While I quite liked the aura light on the Vivo V30 Pro, I’m a bit less impressed with the way it works on the Vivo V40 Pro. The former smartphone had separate components for the aura light and flash, the V40 Pro uses the same component for both, which is a bit disappointing. This is because it’s now too bright to use as an aura light, and even modifying the colour temperature makes very little functional difference to the brightness level.

The brightness may be a good thing when shooting objects in low-light conditions, but it’s also blinding if you have it pointed at your eyes continuously, if even for just a few seconds. This could have been executed better, in my opinion.

Improved specifications - particularly the processor - help the Vivo V40 Pro function much better on the whole, which is a big improvement over the V30 Pro. Thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 9200+ processor under the hood, the Vivo V40 Pro feels fresh, current, and very capable to use for just about everything even beyond its capabilities as a camera phone.

This obviously isn’t a flagship device, and I definitely felt the difference in the way it worked on the whole as compared to the Vivo X100. It always felt a step down from flagship levels, but this obviously isn’t a problem at this price. Of course, it felt entirely capable and adequately powerful for most things, and on par with what I’d expect from a smartphone at this price point.

Battery life is pretty good for a device with a MediaTek Dimensity 9200+ chipset, and even with moderate-to-heavy use, I was able to run the Vivo V40 Pro for over a day, thanks to the 5500mAh battery. Charging is quick as well, thanks to the included 80W charger.

The Vivo V40 Pro is better than its predecessor the V30 Pro in some ways, notably when it comes to performance and camera capabilities for everyday photography. Portrait shots continue to be this smartphone’s forte, and it delivers a good experience on the whole. Battery life, charging, and the display also give you nothing to complain about, making this a very good device for the price.

Perhaps the only complaints are the design, which feels a bit strange as compared to the rather nice styling and finishing of the Vivo V30 Pro, and the aura light becoming a bit too bright since it’s been clubbed with the main flash. If you can get past these, this is a decent camera-focused smartphone that you can live with.