A new phone arrives within the vivo lineup, touted as the company’s most advanced portrait flagship smartphone to date – introducing the new vivo V50.
Succeeding the previous V40 phone, the vivo V50 is the latest addition to vivo’s midrange portrait-centric smartphone series, with some updated changes to the overall device. Here’s what users will get with vivo’s newest smartphone.
New Design And Features That Make a Splash
First thing of note with the vivo V50 is the new design. The device now comes with an updated modern look, decreasing the bezels to 1.86mm and adding a sleeker quad curve design for the 6.77-inch AMOLED display.
Durability has also been improved to go alongside the new design. The phone comes with Shield Glass protection on the screen, which gives it greater resistance against drops and defends against scratches from objects like keys. But possibly its greatest durability feature is the fact that it has both IP68 and IP69 water and dust resistance.
The IP69 rating, in particular, is something we don’t often see in smartphones. A representative was on hand to demonstrate its effectiveness by pouring some hot coffee over it, which the device was able to brush off with no issues after a wipe. Coffee attacks aside, the more interesting use of the Vivo V50’s water resistance is underwater photography.
Underwater photography is its own mode in the camera app, with the vivo V50 able to capture both photos and video when soaked in 1.5 metres of static water for up to 30 minutes. Using it is also a little different, with the volume buttons used to take shots or record.
Battery also sees an improvement. The V50 comes with a larger 6,000 mAh battery—its high capacity is made possible by the second-generation silicon-carbon anode whilst retaining the device’s slim form factor. Additionally, users will also be able to utilise a faster 90W charging to get it back up to speed when the battery is exhausted.
Internally, the vivo V50 retains the same Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor with 12GB RAM as the V40, which is par for the course for a budget-centric phone.
Zeiss Cameras
Given that the V series is all about portrait photography, all eyes are of course on the camera system.
Every camera lens is 50 megapixels, which offers sharp image quality across the main, ultrawide, and front selfie cameras. But the highlight is that all of the lenses are made with Zeiss optics. Zeiss lenses are typically used for some of tech’s biggest products, such as the Apple Vision Pro, so their name being here is a huge deal.
Included with the rear camera system is the return of the Aura Light – a small circular ring light that acts as a fill light for photos. Compared to using flash, the Aura Light adds more softness to the image; 143 times softer to be more precise, according to vivo. For the V50, the Aura Light also emits 100% more light than the V40.
There are several bokeh styles to choose from for portrait photography and two cinematic portrait lighting styles in the form of Rembrandt Lighting and Butterfly Lighting are newly added to the slate as well. Users can utilise Rembrandt Lighting’s dramatic, three-dimensional effect with a subtle side-fill light effect, while Butterfly Lighting focuses on the subject’s facial contours.
Availability
The vivo V50 is widely available now, with two colour options offered. Satin Black presents a sleek, metallic look while the Ancora Red variant brings sophisticated elegance.
The device can be purchased for S$699 from vivo’s Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok online shop platforms as well as authorised retailers in Challenger, Courts, Best Denki, and Harvey Norman.
Photos by Russell Loh of the DANAMIC Team.
