vivo V30e 5G Review

Earlier this year, we got to try out the new V30 series – the V30 Pro 5G 100 and the V30 5G 112. If you haven’t seen our review of those phones, well you can check them out.

Between the two, the vivo 17 V30 Pro 5G is easily our favorite, especially with all the major upgrades made from its predecessor. There’s a new, more powerful chipset, an improved display, and the best upgrade, a Zeiss co-developed camera.

But along with the enhancements vivo made, there also came a price increase. It was quite a big jump in price too, with the V30 Pro 5G (12GB+512GB) now retailing at PHP 34,999. For reference, its predecessor, the V29 5G (12GB+512GB) retailed for only PHP 26,999, making it a bit out of reach for those on a tighter budget.

It’s a similar story with the V30 5G. Fortunately, the vivo V30 line isn’t just composed of the V30 Pro 5G and the V30 5G, there’s also the more affordable vivo V30e 5G. But since it’s more affordable, does it mean it’s down on spec? Well, let’s find out.

Design & Construction

Style has always been subjective, but we all agree the vivo V30 series looks nice. However, the V30e is the only one that looks different from its more powerful sibling.

Unlike the V30 Pro 5G and the V30, the vivo V30e features a round camera housing, which helps distinguish itself from its siblings. If you don’t recall, the V30 5G and the V30 Pro 5G have rectangular camera islands located on the upper left corner.

The camera module also comes with a fluted bezel design, which is inspired by luxury watches. It’s not as prominent as other smartphones, but It’s a nice subtle nod to luxury watches like the Rolex Datejust and Day-Date. More importantly, it does make the phone look a lot more premium.

The unit we have is in the Cloud White colorway which is nice and clean, and it even reminds us of the color of the V30 Pro 5G. The back panel can even change colors depending on how sunlight hits it, giving it a goldish hue. If you want something more subtle, there is the Coco Brown colorway as well.

The vivo V30e features a curved body, which makes it nice and easy to hold. It’s quite slim and light, measuring just 7.65mm thick and weighing only 179g, making it easily fit in your pocket. More importantly, it won’t bulge and be noticeable even if you’re wearing skinny jeans.

The button layout is the same with the volume rocker and power button on the right side. At the bottom, you’ll find the USB-C port, dual-sim card slot/microSD slot, and a single loudspeaker.

Not to mention it’s quite sturdy and resilient too. The phone comes with IP64 protection against dust and water. But of course, try not to drop your phone or go swimming with it.

Display & Multimedia

Since the vivo V30e comes with a curved body, naturally, you also get a curved display. It features a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with 2400×1080 resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and nice even borders all around.

This AMOLED panel gives you beautiful colors with nice hues and deep blacks. However, do set your expectations, it’s not as nice as the display of the V30 and V30 Pro we tried out earlier. But honestly, it’s fine since this phone is a lot more affordable than the other two.

In the settings, you can adjust the color mode and color temperature to your liking along with eye protection. Since you get nice vivid colors and a 120Hz refresh rate, it is more than adequate for binge-watching videos on YouTube, Netflix, or your favorite streaming service. It’s protected by Schott glass too.

The display is bright with 1300 nits of peak brightness, making it easy to see what’s happening on screen even under the sun. Paired with a very loud and clear speaker, you can be sure everyone watching will hear what’s happening on screen.

But that’s the problem, you only have one. So while it is loud, you can easily block it with your finger. Sadly, vivo hasn’t fitted dual-stereo loudspeakers onto the V30 series yet, even though some of the more affordable models have them as standard.

Aside from watching videos, the nice display makes it easy to review all of the content you have captured using the V30e’s cameras. Since you have accurate colors, this makes it great if you want to edit some photos in post, and more.

Meanwhile, gamers will also be able to take advantage of the 120Hz refresh rate when playing games on the vivo V30e. With the bright screen and high refresh rate, playing games on this phone feels nice, even if you’re out and about.

Cameras

What we loved about the vivo V30 Pro 5G was the new cameras. Specifically, the V30 Pro’s cameras were developed in collaboration with Zeiss, allowing users to capture amazing images. And let’s not forget about the new Aura Light 3.0 system.

On the vivo V30e, you don’t get the Zeiss camera system. In fact, you don’t even get a triple rear camera setup. Instead, it comes with a dual-rear camera highlighted by a 50MP main shooter with PDAF and OIS and an 8MP ultra.

But vivo didn’t just put any run-of-the-mill 50MP main camera. Instead, they used Sony’s IMX882 sensor, which is very capable, and is typically found on more powerful and expensive smartphones.

Even though I set my expectations low, the results were a lot better than I expected. You get sharp and clear images, especially in well-lit environments. The colors are not only accurate but also vibrant, but it’s not so vibrant that the photos end up looking overly edited. That’s when you’re shooting with the main camera though.

With the 8MP ultrawide, you can capture nice landscape or group photos, but the drop in quality is very noticeable. The images aren’t as sharp, and the colors aren’t as nice. You can easily see the lack of clarity too when you zoom in.

At night, the Sony IMX882 sensor allows users to take some great low-light photos. There’s not a lot of grain, and at the same time, the details are retained. The phone’s algorithm does a great job of capturing the scenery too, and it doesn’t look like the typical night mode photos taken by other phones at this price point.

Like its siblings, there’s also Aura Light 3.0 to brighten up the subject and scenery, and you can adjust the color temperature to your liking. It’s a great help when you’re trying to capture moody photos with very light light.

If you love taking selfies, there’s a 32MP front shooter with F2.0 aperture. With the high megapixel count, you can capture a lot of details. This also means if you take group selfies, you can clearly see everyone in the photo, even those in the back.

But aside from photos, the vivo V30e also records stunning video at up to 4K@30FPS. There is also a stabilization mode but only works at 1080P@30FPS. If you want to start your vlogging journey, you can also use this phone to do so. You have various features like micro-video and dual-shooting mode to your advantage.

With that, I recommend shooting at 1x zoom most of the time and not using the ultrawide unless the subject is well-lit. To give you a better idea of photos and videos, check out the gallery below.

OS, Apps, and UI

The vivo V30e runs on Funtouch OS 14, which is based on Android 14, similar to its siblings. And as you would expect, it’s more or less same features.

You get simple personalization options, which help you customize the themes and the layout phone to your liking. You also get split screen and floating windows if you are one to multi-task. For gamers, there’s even a game mode to help boost performance.

But of course, as with most vivo smartphones these days you do get a bunch of bloatware pre-installed. These include the Hot Apps and Hot Games folders, which you will likely end up deleting anyway. Aside from that, you get some of vivo’s apps including their app store.

Once you’ve removed the bloatware, the OS is nice and simple to use.

Performance & Benchmarks

Under the hood, the vivo V30e is powered by a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1. Our review unit comes with 8GB of RAM, which can be virtually extended by another 8GB and 256GB of internal storage. If you find the storage lacking, you do have a microSD card slot to work with.

The chipset is more than capable of handling all your everyday tasks and more. Whether you’re browsing the net, watching Tiktoks or IG Reels, you won’t experience any lag whatsoever even if you leave multiple apps running in the background or using features such as split screen and small window.

In terms of gaming, it can easily run light games such as Mobile Legends and Asphalt 9. But even on graphic-intensive titles like Genshin Impact, it can run the game smoothly. We didn’t experience any frame rate drops or lags when playing Genshin with the graphics set to high and at 60FPS.

This is surprising considering that the phone didn’t have the highest scores on Antutu. For reference, we ran Antutu, and it garnered a score of 558K, which is a decent score given the price point of this phone.

However, it’s not perfect. The phone does heat up quite fast when you’re playing games. It didn’t seem to affect performance, at least with Genshin. However, it is hot enough that you will be concerned about the phone itself. So do keep that in mind when you plan on gaming with the vivo V30e.

As for the rest of the benchmark scores, you can check them out below.

Antutu Benchmark V10: 558,025
Antutu Storage Test:
Read Speed: 998.0MB/s
Write Speed: 828.0MB/s
Random Read Speed: 535.0MB/s
Random Write Speed: 320.0MB/s

3D Mark: Wild Life – 2,379

Geekbench 6 CPU: 942 (Single), 2805 (Multi)
Geekbench 6 GPU: 1351 (OpenCL), 1757 (Vulkan)

PC Mark Work 3.0 Performance – 9,700

Battery & Connectivity

So you might be thinking, the vivo V30e might not last a long time especially if you plan on capturing content. However, that’s not the case. The vivo V30e comes equipped with a 5,500mAh battery pack, which is even bigger than that of the V30 Pro 5G. According to vivo, the phone can last up to 22 hours of continuous video playback and around 9 hours of gaming.

From our time with the V30e, it does last quite a while. At 79 percent, it told us we still have more than 2 days of battery life left. Even when we used it for an entire day of capturing photos and videos, running benchmarks, and playing games, it still had around 42 percent battery life to spare.

When you need to recharge, you have a 44W FlashCharge fast charging. Vivo says it can recharge the phone to 100 percent in just 48 minutes when using the provided power brick and cable.

In terms of connectivity, you get the usual suite of 5G, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, and GPS.

Conclusion

Overall, the vivo V30e is a decent phone, but it is easily outshined by its siblings, particularly the V30 Pro 5G. But as mentioned before, the V30 Pro 5G is now a lot more expensive (starting at PHP 34,999) than its predecessor, making it a bit out of reach for budget-conscious buyers.

For comparison, the vivo V30e retails for PHP 17,999 for the 8GB+256GB variant. For reference, its predecessor the vivo V29e retailed for PHP 18,999, making it even more affordable than before.

At that price point, it’s hard to complain about the vivo V30e for everything it can offer. You have nice cameras, a beautiful AMOLED display, a stylish design, and a capable chipset that can run graphic-intensive titles. Still, it’s not perfect. There’s the heating issue when playing games, and the lack of stereo speakers.

But what do you think of the vivo v30e? Would you consider it over the V30 Pro 5G if you lack the budget or save up a bit more? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

What we liked:
Affordable price
Capable chipset
Decent Main camera

What we didn’t like:
Lack of stereo speakers
Heating issues when playing games

vivo V30e 5G specs:
6.78-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) curved AMOLED display
120Hz refresh rate, 1,300 nits (peak brightness)
Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset
Adreno 710 GPU
8GB RAM
256GB UFS 2.2 storage
microSD card support
50MP (f/1.79) Sony IMX882 main camera with OIS
8MP (f/2.2) ultrawide sensor
Aura Light
50MP (f/2.45) front camera
Dual nano-SIM (hybrid slot)
5G, 4G LTE
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.1
GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS
USB 2.0 Type-C
Fingerprint sensor (in-display)
Funtouch OS 14 (Android 14)
5,500mAh battery w/ 44W fast charging
IP64 rating for dust and water resistances
Red – 16.436 × 7.475 × 0.775 cm | Blue – 16.436 × 7.475 × 0.765 cm (dimensions)
Red – 188 grams | Blue- 179 grams (weight)
Velvet Red, Silk Blue (colors)