vivo V70 Review | Geek Lifestyle

Recently, the vivo V70 was launched in the Philippines, a premium mid-range smartphone that packs a bunch of impressive camera features, along with a design and UI in collaboration with POP MART.

Over the years, the vivo V series has given us some good premium mid-range smartphones that put an emphasis on cameras. A few years ago, vivo’s V series phones packed the mini ring-light-style Aura Light Portrait system for extra creative control for portraits. Starting with the V40 Pro though, vivo finally gave the phones in this series ZEISS cameras.

For the vivo V70, we once again have a ZEISS-branded rear camera setup. Instead of just highlighting the main 50MP camera, vivo also put a lot of emphasis on the telephoto shooter. Specifically, this phone packs a 50MP 3x telephoto that’s supported by software processing to give users lossless quality even when zoomed in 10x (or even more). On top of the cameras, the V70 has a stylish look, as well as a promising chipset and a large battery.

Given its features and hardware specs, the vivo V70 has all the makings of a great premium smartphone option for users who are interested in splurging on a phone but still want something more affordable than a standard flagship. So, does the vivo V70 deliver in this regard? Here’s what we think.

Geek-sthetic

Before we talk about cameras and performance, let’s first check the V70’s design. This new vivo V series phone features a notably different style compared to the previous V60. If you ask us, we quite like the V70’s look a bit more, as the squarer camera module and flat edges make for a more pleasing device to look at. It also helps that the phone feels nice to hold, though the flat side edges do feel slightly slippery (we recommend using the included clear case).

For colors, the V70 has a couple of options, though the Golden Hour colorway is the phone’s signature hue, and it looks quite nice in person, especially when light hits the back at certain angles.

As mentioned above, vivo collaborated with POP MART for this phone. While there’s no POP MART branding, the Golden Hour color option was said by vivo to be made to match the popular character ZSIGA.

The color isn’t the only POP MART element in the phone though. It also has Flip Cards that “animate” the lock screen when you tilt the phone to the side. By default, the V70 has ZSIGA as its Flip Card. While you can change it if you’re not a POP MART collector, this should be a nice treat for fans.

What we’re sure everyone would like is the phone’s screen. This new vivo phone packs a 6.59-inch display with a 1260 x 2750 – that’s a bit higher than a typical FHD+ screen. What you can also see when you look at an image of the display above is that it has incredibly thin bezels that make it look very much like a flagship. These slim bezels, coupled with the fact that the screen is a bit smaller than other phones in the market, make for a phone that’s comfortable to use with one hand, all while being a bit more portable.

Binge-Watching Factor

The display has an AMOLED panel, and coupled with the higher resolution, it is definitely a great partner for binge-watching. In our time with the phone, we enjoyed watching various movies and shows on it thanks to its sharpness, along with its vibrant color output. The slim bezels are also nice in this use-case, as it makes for a more all-screen look when you’re watching a movie or series while on the go.

If you’re out and about and want to watch the latest episode of your favorite anime, we do recommend getting headphones (you’ll need a wired pair as this has no headphone jack), but mostly so that you don’t disturb others around you. If you’re just at home and want to watch something casually, the phone’s onboard speakers are pretty decent. While we would’ve liked a bit extra thump on the lower end, the quality overall is not bad. Plus, it gets decently loud at near max volume without completely cratering audio quality.

Gaming Performance

For this new V series phone, vivo went with a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset paired with 8GB of RAM. Based on our experience, this Snapdragon SoC should be quite capable of handling not only popular multiplayer games but also more demanding titles. As such, we tried MOBAs and shooters, along with a more hardware-intensive title (at least for mobile standards) like Genshin Impact.

When it comes to multiplayer games, the vivo V70 passed our test with flying colors. With games like League of Legends: Wild Rift and Call of Duty: Mobile, the phone ran the games smoothly, even at High to Max graphics settings. We also had no issues when it came to connectivity – important for titles like these.

As for Genshin Impact, the vivo V70 also delivered. The game’s recommended setting for the V70 is the Medium preset, and the game did indeed run well at this setting. We found that you can tweak some settings a bit higher and still get playable framerates, though for longer sessions, we recommend going with Medium.

Speaking of longer sessions, we also liked that the phone didn’t get uncomfortably hot even when playing for a while. Thanks to this, the V70 should be a capable gaming partner for most users.

Geek Photoshoot Capabilities

The vivo V70’s rear camera setup includes a 50MP main, a 50MP 3x telephoto ultrawide, and an 8MP ultrawide shooter. Meanwhile, at the front is a 50MP selfie camera.

As the V70’s cameras come with ZEISS branding, we had high hopes for the image quality in the photos. After testing the phone’s shooters, we were not disappointed by the results.

As expected, daytime shots taken with the main 50MP shooter are excellent, as they retain plenty of detail and have fairly natural colors, especially if you use the ZEISS natural color mode. Indoor shots are also quite good, even if the lighting isn’t the most optimal.

For low-light photos, the V70’s main camera also works well. Even when you shoot in extreme low light (such as the image on the right above), the phone turns out a bright and detailed image. Night Mode shots do have more vibrant colors than natural, but they should look fine overall for social media shares. If you want a more natural-looking photo, Auto Mode shots still look quite good.

Previous V series phones were great for portraits, and the latest one is no exception. The vivo V70 captures good portrait shots, with a wide array of bokeh effects to choose from. We like that we still get the various ZEISS lens bokeh effects (as shown in the three images above).

Similar to the previous-generation V series phones, the V70 has an array of AI portrait options. It was fun testing out AI Magic Weather, as it can turn a tropical setting into a snowy scene, but if you ask us, we much preferred the AI Magic Landscape feature. This lets you choose what the sky looks like, meaning you can get a dramatic sunrise or sunset photo even when it’s an overcast day. We think the results here are quite natural-looking, making it a nice feature to have for portraits and landscape photography.

Another feature that vivo highlights with the V70 is its Stage Mode, which is designed to take good photos of concerts and other live events. Whether or not you use it though, we can say that the phone’s 3x telephoto shooter is quite good, enough that even 10x zoom shots look detailed. Yes, even at night, photos taken at 10x zoom (with Night Mode) look nice. Of course, the software/AI processing does a lot of heavy lifting here, resulting in a slightly processed look. Still, we’re impressed with the capabilities of the telephoto shooter.

Finally, selfies are of good quality on the V70, even when you’re shooting at night. It also helps that the selfie mode still gives you plenty of ZEISS and other filter options. As a bonus, the selfie camera has a slightly wider view option, giving users who want to take group photos extra flexibility to take the perfect shot.

Everyday Reliability

As an everyday partner, the vivo V70 is a great device. Using the phone for daily tasks and productivity is nice, as it is fast and snappy when going through menus and switching between apps. At no point during our time with the phone did it experience any slowdown. This isn’t too surprising, considering that it has a capable processor.

We also quite like OriginOS 6, as the UI is easy to navigate and is quite pretty to look at. It also has some nifty features like integrated Circle to Search by Google, along with a bunch of other AI enhancements like a writing assistant and on-device language translation.

Another thing we like about the phone is its battery life. Thanks to the large 6,500mAh battery, the vivo V70 can easily last for a day of heavy use on a single charge. In our time, we had the vivo V70 last for around 2 days with medium use. If you do need to charge, the V70 has 90W wired fast charging support, meaning you can reach 100% in well under an hour.

Final Geek Lifestyle Verdict

After some time with the phone, we can say that the vivo V70 is a good daily driver option, especially for users who prioritize photography. This is thanks to its capable ZEISS camera setup. It also has a high-quality screen, a good-looking design, long battery life, and solid performance for gaming and everyday use.

At its starting price of PHP 31,999 (for the 8GB+256GB version), it is a bit of an investment, though it’s still well below flagship phone pricing. Thus, if you want a premium phone that’s flagship-like in many aspects but don’t want to shell out too much, the vivo V70 is well worth taking a look at.

vivo V70 specs:

• 6.59-inch (1260 x 2750) AMOLED display, 120Hz refresh rate, with Schott Xensation Core
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor
• Adreno 722 GPU
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB storage
• Rear cameras: 50MP main + 50MP 3x optical zoom telephoto + 8MP ultrawide camera
• Front camera: 50MP
• 5G, LTE, Dual SIM
• Under display Fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C port
• IP68/IP69 dust-tight and water resistant
• 6,500mAh battery with 90W wired Fast charging
• Android 16 with OriginOS 6
• Price: PHP 31,999