Vivo V50 review: Zeiss camera phone without the flagship price

The Vivo V50 combines sleek style, modest performance, and one of our favorite cameras of any midrange phone, with its Zeiss tuning and capable wide and ultra-wide hardware. If you’ve been eyeing up the Vivo X200 Pro, one of the best camera phones out now, the V50 shares some of the same experiences at a lower price, though unlike it’s predecessor, the V40, it isn’t launching alongside a Pro.

With no Pro, the V50 series is limited to midrange power from Qualcomm – a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 – and no telephoto camera either. It also has a polished plastic frame, though the front and rear sport glass to add a degree of premium to the feel and finish. There’s also a huge 6000mAh battery powering the Vivo V50 and up to 512GB storage, making for an interesting phone with some welcome flagship flourishes .

As tempting as the V50 looks, it has a couple of factors holding it back from the jump. First, there are a lot of excellent midrange phones, with the Poco X7 Pro packing more power and an equally gargantuan 6000mAh battery, the Nothing Phone (3a) dropping soon with oodles of style, and the Redmi Note 14 Pro sporting a mighty 200MP primary camera. The second factor holding it back is availability, which is set to start with Asian and Middle Eastern markets and then, as with the Vivo X200 series, eventually launch further afield.

After two weeks with the phone, though, is the V50 worth hunting down, and can it fend off stiff competition, or is it better admired from afar?

Vivo V50 review: design and screen

The most striking design choice about the V50 I tested is the color. Sure, you could pick it up in the Titanium Grey version, but this copper-burgundy Rose Red option is attention-grabbing, and the blue Starry Night color also takes some risks.

In the flesh, the V50 does a great job fending off fingerprints with its matte glass back, and it also feels surprisingly slim, considering the size of the battery within. Vivo is following the trend of flattening its screens – typically curved on past V series Vivo phones – but the V50 features a flat display with slightly curved glass on all sides, a design element typically reserved for flagships.

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The glass curves into the polished plastic frame, which looks like metal, even if it doesn’t feel like metal, and the curves ensure it sits comfortably in the hand despite the large 6.77-inch screen. Impressively, the phone isn’t too heavy either at under 200g, making it one of the lightest 6000mAh battery devices we’ve tested.

Also impressive, the Vivo V50 is both IP68/IP69 dust and water-resistant, so it can be submerged in water and sprayed with hot jets, adding flagship durability.

While the screen won't win awards with its 1080 x 2392 resolution and 388 PPI pixel density, it looks great in the flesh, with support for HDR10 video, and runs at a smooth 120Hz.

Its peak full-screen brightness of 1300 nits and HDR brightness of 4500 nits are both competitive and make sure it’s easy to make out what’s on-screen in bright outdoor conditions. The picture also looks great, with its AMOLED blacks, vibrant colors, and rich contrast ratio.

Vivo V50 review: camera specs

In a world of triple and quad-camera phones, the Vivo V50 shines with just two cameras around the back: a wide and ultra-wide camera. On paper, the primary camera isn’t class-leading, but unlike much of the competition, both cameras are good.

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23mm wide camera: 50MP resolution, 1/1.55-inch sensor; f/1.9 aperture, 23mm lens with OIS

15mm ultra-wide camera: 50MP resolution, 1/2.76-inch sensor; f/2.0 aperture lens with AF.

21mm selfie camera: 50MP resolution, 1/2.76-inch sensor; f/2.0 aperture lens.

Vivo’s included Zeiss optics in its cameras, and the rear camera mix also benefits from an Aura Light complete with control over warmth and strength, adding a practical level of creative control over shots of subjects.

Both front and rear cameras can record video at 4K, 30fps video, which is exactly what you would hope for at the phone’s price and positioning.

Vivo V50 review: camera verdict

The best thing about the Vivo V50's camera is that there are no duds. Both rear cameras and the selfie camera are at least good for the price, which is in contrast to some alternatives like the Redmi Note 14 Pro Plus with a poor ultra-wide and a pointless macro camera. The fact there's no dedicated telephoto camera isn't a dealbreaker at the price. As you can see below, day or night, the camera can capture a good-looking photo between 2-4 times zoom comfortably.

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In bright environments, JPGs taken in auto mode showcase impressive balance, with rich detail, strong dynamic range that retains shadow detail without overly boosting backlit subjects, and relatively natural color reproduction. To get the colors you want, choose your shooting mode – Vivid, Textured, or Zeiss Natural. Most photos in this review were captured in the default Vivid mode.

It isn't a stretch to say the Vivo V50's daylight shots showcase better balance than some flagships like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, however, where the V50 falls behind is zoom, specifically at night. As you can see below, it still does a good job; however, it applies significantly more aggressive processing to get a good shot.

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What's also impressive about the V50 is its versatility. Flagships like the Galaxy S25 miss out on autofocus on the ultra-wide camera. However, the V50 includes it, and with the main camera doing a good job of nearby subjects, it opens up two means of macro-style photography.

At 2x zoom, the V50 also removes the lens distortion typically seen on wide-angle cameras, minimizes the potential to cast shadows, and retains impressive detail, making the phone a strong option for product photography.

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It's also great to see the Aura Light make a meaningful difference to how photos look. You can see two examples below, with the light's hue reaching beyond close-up objects for versatility over your RAW photo's look.

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Video also looks great at up to 4K 60fps from the main camera. This is where the ultra-wide and selfie cameras fall behind, producing soft detail at night, and weaker stabilization in the day, especially from the selfie camera. There is an ultra-steady mode that saves the day for vlogging. However, these caps capture to 1080p.

Vivo V50 review: performance and battery

The Vivo V50 is powered by a good, midrange chipset, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. Respectable for modest gaming sessions, while it isn't a powerhouse, it still ensures day-to-day tasks, photo editing, and even 4K video edits are handled smoothly.

With either 8GB or 12GB RAM and 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB storage, there's plenty of scope to scale up the V50 experience, and this review is based on the top-spec 12GB 512GB model.

Launching with Funtouch 15 on top of Android 15, the Vivo V50 is future-proofed with three years of major OS updates, taking it to Android 18 and four years of security updates. This falls behind some competition, even at the phone's price, with more brands offering six years of security updates midrange phones.

As for the interface experience, Funtouch OS is fine but never stands out. Home screen management feels like an Honor, OPPO, or Samsung flagship from 2023, and simple tasks like removing a watermark from a picture aren't possible in the editing suite, requiring a manual crop. These oversights age the experience, slightly detracting from an otherwise excellent midrange camera phone.

Vivo doesn't make a big deal about its AI tools like Google, and Samsung do, likely because they're less extensive in its Western Funtouch OS when compared to its Chinese Origin OS; however, scratch the surface, and you'll find a modest, yet sufficient AI offering, with voice transcription within the Recorder app, AI object eraser within the image editing tools, and Google's Circle to Search all present and working well.

The phone also checks almost all our connectivity/biometric boxes with 5G, NFC, an in-display fingerprint scanner, and face unlock. The missing link is eSIM support, which will be a pain for frequent travellers in particular.

With an ultra-high-capacity 6000 mAh battery, a significant 1000 mAh more than most competing phones, the ample battery capacity translates to better-than-day-long power, so you could even get two full days out of it with moderate use.

With 90W wired charging, the phone powers up in around an hour, faster than iPhones, Galaxys, and Pixels, though unlike the flagship mainstream competition, there's no wireless charging for the V50. Nevertheless, at its price point, this isn't a feature we typically expect.

Vivo V50 verdict

The Vivo V50 is a very sensible midrange smartphone. Nothing about it is best-in-class, but as a package, it checks a lot of boxes without costing the earth, and benefits from a very reliable camera system.

The key reason photography enthusiasts might want to pick up the V50 are two-fold. First, Vivo uses well-specced sensors and lenses across all its cameras, and second, its flagship processing which we loved on the X200 Pro has trickled down, and shines on the V50.

The phone's design, display, battery life and performance are also all good to excellent, making the phone one of the smartest options around if it's available where you live. Vivo has a tendency to stagger the global availability, but provided you're able to pick up the V50 for the equivalent of $400-550, depending on memory capacity, it's be a great shout and one of the best midrange camera phones of 2025.