The vivo V40 Lite makes for a good all-rounder 5G smartphone

The vivo V-series line of smartphones has been known to be focused on mobile portrait photography device for as long as I can remember. The latest in this line-up is the vivo V40 and the vivo V40 Lite, the latter being the 3rd in the line to be released in the Philippines.

There are actually two models and 3 variants of the vivo V40 Lite. There’s the 4G version and then a 5G version. What we’re focusing on in this article is the vivo V40 Lite 5G since it is the one that we’ve had on hand for quite some time now.

One of the more impressive and consistent features of the V40 Lite from across several generations, and in fact it also applies to the V-series, is how vivo has managed to keep the design profile very thin and manageable.

For example, the V40 Lite is only 7.79cm thin. Despite that, they did not compromised on the battery capacity which remained at 5,000mAh. I don’t know how vivo’s engineering is doing but they managed to make every millimeter count in this case. And again, it’s not just for this year’s model of the V40 series but in previous models as well.

Second, we already touched on the battery so let’s go into that right now. Again, we’re talking about a large 5,000mAh Li-Ion battery here on the V40 Lite. At this capacity, I think it’s already an acceptable level and generous considering the thin profile of the device.

And one more thing, the V40 Lite supports a charging power of up to 80 watts. That’s pretty fast! But of course, we tested it out to see how fast it can go. In the first 30 or so minutes, we were close to the 60% battery life. At around 50 minutes, we got it to 100% charged. That’s better than most phones we’ve tested this year.

In fact, anything that fully charges in under an hour is already very fast charging in our book. So, the vivo V40 Lite ticks that checkbox as well.

Also worth noting that the V40 Lite comes with a 4-year battery health and Smart Charging Engine 2.0 features. This not only guarantees that your V40 Lite’s battery is intelligently managed for repeated fast and safe charging to ensure it will last and stay healthy for at least 4 years and even longer.

We also noticed that vivo chose a Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset for the V40 Lite 5G. This is a fairly new chipset release din 2023 and is known for its power efficiency. Sure, the V40 Lite isn’t built for hard core gaming, per se, but what it lacks in power, it sure does make up for power efficiency.

What does that mean? Well, it already has a large 5,000mAh battery and fast charging capability but when you pair that with a very power-efficient chipset, you’d end up with a much longer battery life on typical case use.

Again, we had to test this theory so we ran a couple of battery life tests on our own so see how it looks like. And, we were impressed that the V40 Lite manages to do over 30 hours of video playback in our video loop test. That’s just on a single full charge.

Of course, using the Snapdragon 4 gen 2 chipset does not mean you can’t comfortably play games with this device. On the contrary, it can handles a lot of the popular graphics-intensive games just fine in medium or low settings.

As part of our battery test, we played Mobile Legends for hours on this phone. And it lasted a little more than 9 hours of game time. As for the performance, we actually set it at “High” frame rate (that’s 120Hz) and in “Ultra” graphics mode — everything felt smooth all the way.

And since we’ve already talked about gaming and playing movies, let me just point out that the V40 Lite also comes with a large 6.67-inch full HD+ AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate. Frankly speaking, this is an ideal display configuration for most folks out there.

Again, you get an AMOLED technology for best colors and deep contrast that great for watching movies, a full HD plus resolution for crisp and detailed picture, and the 120Hz for smooth operation, especially when gaming.

Lastly, you can enjoy the 50MP AI main camera and the AI Aura Light Feature on the vivo V40 Lite — whether you are shooting sceneries and landscapes or taking group photos and selfies. Check out the sample shots we have here:

New vivo V40 Lite owners will also have options to go for either 8GB or 12GB RAM and when you combined it with Extended RAM, you can go up to 24GB. Then for storage, you get a generous 256GB or 512GB of storage. And if that is not enough, you can expand that up to 2TB via microSD card. As mentioned earlier, there’s also 4G or 5G variants depending on which you prefer.

When we evaluate a smartphone like the vivo V40 Lite 5G, we look at the entirety of the package and not just one aspect. When you consider how all of these components are tied up together, you have a better understanding of its focus, strengths and overall usability. If you look at it that way, you will know that the vivo V40 Lite is well-thought out – a smartphone focused on efficiency, endurance and user-experience.

To learn more about the vivo V40 Lite, check their page here 16. You can now pre-order the vivo V40 Lite from October 19 to 31 and you will get a free Limited Edition vivo TWS 3e (worth Php1,999USD 34INR 2,888EUR 32CNY 248), additional Php1,000USD 17INR 1,445EUR 16CNY 124 off the retail price, and a vivo Care Plus VIP Card with a 50-month battery warranty. The vivo V40 Lite has a starting price of Php 13,999USD 239INR 20,223EUR 227CNY 1,737.

vivo V40 Lite specs:
6.67-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) AMOLED display @ 394 ppi
120Hz refresh rate, 1,800 nits (peak brightness)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 (4G), Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 (5G)
8GB, 12GB RAM
256GB, 512GB UFS 2.2 storage
microSD card support (hybrid slot, up to 1TB)
50MP main camera (f/1.8)
2MP depth sensor (f/2.4)
Aura Light flash
32MP front camera (f/2.45)
Dual stereo speakers
5G, 4G LTE
Dual nano-SIM
Wi-Fi 5
Bluetooth 5
GPS
USB Type-C
Fingerprint sensor (in-display)
Funtouch OS 14 (Android 14)
5,000mAh battery
80W fast charging support
IP64 rating for dust and splash resistance
163.23 × 75.93 × 7.79mm or 163.23 × 75.93 × 7.95mm (dimensions, varies with colors)
188 or 190 grams (weight, varies with colors)
Black, Silver, Violet (colors)