Review Verdict: At best, the vivo V50 is an incremental update to last year’s V40, improving on battery life and adding a fresh new colorway. While it is a decent midrange phone, the V50 feels left behind especially with what its rivals have to offer at a similar price point.
Pros
- Excellent battery life
- Ancora Red color stands out
- Aura Light gets improvements
Cons
- Very minor upgrade from the V40
The V50 arrives in the Philippines as the second V series phone from vivo that has ZEISS co-engineering. While almost everything looks the same, vivo made a few upgrades to the V50 to make it stand out from the stacked midrange segment. Is the V50 worth considering?
vivo V50 Review Philippines: Design
Comparing it to the V40, vivo streamlined the design of the V50 with a physically bigger Aura Light, with the top part of the camera module remaining the same. New to the V50 is the Ancora Red colorway, marking the first time that vivo used a red color for the V series in the Philippines. The back panel has a nice satin finish that’s resistant to smudges, and it makes the V50 a fashion accessory.
You still get an IP69 rating with the V50, which is for us a must-have on any phone, especially if you’re spending close to Php 30,000. The button and port layout remains the same, though the frame is less curvy because the V50 switches to a quad-curved AMOLED display instead of the curved panels used on previous V series phones.
vivo V50 Review Philippines: Display and Speakers
Just like other brands, vivo has moved to using a micro quad curved display on the V50. While the V50’s body is still curvy, the switch to a micro quad curved panel makes it easier to find screen protectors and make the display less prone to cracks compared to the conventional curved display.
The V50 uses a high-end panel, as you get support for HDR10 content on Netflix, along with a variable refresh rate that indicates that the V50 is using an LTPO panel. The display resolution is lower at Full HD+ (the V40 had a 1.5k resolution), but we barely saw any difference when using the V50 as our daily driver.
We’re glad that vivo is using stereo speakers on the V series, though we think the V50 deserves better audio tuning–other similarly-priced phones have better audio quality, especially in handling mids at higher volume levels.
vivo V50 Review Philippines: Cameras
The cameras on the V50 remain the same. To recap, the ZEISS co-engineered cameras consist of a 50-megapixel main camera with OIS, a 50-megapixel ultrawide, and a 50-megapixel selfie camera.
Just like our experience with their V40, the V50’s imaging quality is consistent across both the main and ultrawide cameras, even when you go for 2x digital zoom with the main camera. We credit the ZEISS co-engineering that’s carried over from the V40 for giving pleasant colors and good detail in the photos we took. Aside from that, the V50 shines for having the best ultrawide camera in its segment.
The V50’s Aura Light proved to be more useful than ever in giving subjects proper lighting. We like how it is smart enough to adjust color temperature to give photos more accurate colors, even on tricky lighting situations.
Video recording remains the same, where you can record up to 4K footage across all three cameras, making the V50 a great option for content creation–if you prioritize having a better ultrawide camera over a telephoto shooter.
vivo V50 Review Philippines: Internals and Battery Life
Like its predecessor, the V50 is also powered by a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor that’s paired with 12GB RAM and up to 512GB UFS 2.2 storage. vivo has been using the same processor for the past three iterations of the V series, and we wish the V50 used a newer processor. Despite the nitpicking, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 is still an excellent midrange processor option for its asking price.
You get Android 15-based FunTouch 15 with the V50, and it does feel a bit dated compared to other Android UIs out there. Bloatware is kept to a minimum, and while vivo did not disclose the software update commitment for the V50, expect at least two years of major Android updates with it.
The V50 does get a bigger 6000mAh battery inside. You also get faster charging speeds at 90W, and vivo has updated the V50 to support broader charging protocols with USB PPS (Programmable Power Supply). Battery life did get an improvement, as we got 21 hours and 12 minutes in PCMark’s battery benchmark—an improvement of around 20 mins from the V40’s impressive battery life.
vivo V50 Review Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions
The V50 benefits from a few upgrades to make it a decent improvement from the V40. However, it feels a bit left behind, especially with the competition using newer processors and components, all while having roughly the same asking price as the V50. Despite that, the V50 still stands out for having the best ultrawide camera for its price segment.
vivo V50 Review Philippines: Price
The V50 is priced at Php 27,999 for the 12GB/256GB model and Php 30,999 for the 12GB/512GB variant.
