vivo launched its V29 Pro smartphone in India this week, as the successor to last year’s V27 Pro. This has large 3D curved AMOLED display, improved cameras, 80W fast charging while retaining the Dimensity 8200 SoC and the battery. Is this the worthy upgrade to the V27 Pro? Let use dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- vivo V29 Pro 12GB + 256GB version in Himalayan Blue colour
- Clear Silicon case
- USB Type-C Cable
- 80W FlashCharge wall adapter
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick start guide and Warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The vivo V29 Pro sports a 6.78-inch (2800×1260 pixels) 1.5K 20:9 aspect ratio, 452 PPI 55° curved AMOLED display with Q9 Luminescent material and 120Hz refresh rate. The display is bright, thanks to, up to 1,300 nits brightness, and the sunlight legibility is good as well.
You can select from standard (default), professional and bright screen colour modes. You can select smart switch that can switch between 60 Hz/90 Hz/120 Hz, 30 Hz or force it to 60Hz or 120Hz. It has 300Hz touch sampling rate and 1000Hz instant touch sampling rate. The phone has up to 2160Hz High-frequency PWM dimming. Visual enhancement optimizes the color and contrast in apps like YouTube, Netflix and Prime Video for more vivid display effects.
It also has HDR 10+ support, which works for YouTube and Netflix. The phone doesn’t have a notification LED, but this has an always-on-display that shows contextual info and notifications all day or as per schedule.
The phone has a 50MP front camera inside the punch-hole. There is an earpiece on the top edge which doesn’t work as a secondary speaker.
There is a small chin below the screen. It has an in-display optical fingerprint scanner. The haptic feedback is good as well.
Coming to the button placements and ports, the phone has a power button and volume rockers on the right. The bottom part is crammed with a dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and a speaker grill. The secondary microphone is present on the top. The phone is just 7.46mm thick.
The Himalayan blue version that we have is inspired by the grandeur of the Himalayan mountains uses an innovative 3D Magnetic Particles and nano-scale Magnetic Particles to create a Floating Mountain texture.
To achieve the effect of rolling mountain ranges, vivo said that it undertook a challenging process and pioneered an industry-first innovation. This innovative technology utilizes invisible magnetic forces to control 15 million magnetic particles, forming specific patterns. The varying size and orientation of these particles result in distinct refraction paths, creating vastly different light and shadow effects.
During the process, designers tested over 400 material formulations and eventually selected three types of magnetic powder with diameters ranging from 10 to 40 microns. They precisely controlled the angles of reflection of 15 million magnetic particles to create a layered light effect. After three rounds of high-temperature baking, with careful timing of each step within 30 seconds of each other, the final result showcases a multi-layered and natural interplay of light and shadow.
Camera
- 50MP camera with f/1.88 aperture, OIS, Sony IMX766 sensor, 4K 60 fps video recording
- 8MP ultra-wide sensor with f/2.2 aperture
- 12MP portrait camera with Sony IMX663 sensor with f/1.98 aperture, Aura light
- 50MP autofocus front camera with f/2.0 aperture, 4K 60 fps video recording
In addition to flash, there is an Aura Light (15.6 mm in diameter) that creates a three-dimensional lighting effect, nine times larger than a standard flash, 36% increase in brightness compared to V27 Pro, 1800K warm light to 4500K cold light adjustment.
The camera UI is the same as other phones running Funtouch OS 13. It includes several features such as AR stickers, Pro Sports mode, double exposure, dual view, 50MP mode, Moon mode and more. Even though the phone has a 50MP rear camera, the final output is 12MP in size after pixel binning, and the front camera output is 12MP after pixel binning.
Daylight shots came out well, and with HDR the dynamic range is better. 2X is decent, but once you zoom after that the quality degrades since it is digital zoom. The portrait mode with 12MP sensor is brilliant with good edge detection. There is an India-exclusive, multi-style portrait option with 3 different LUTs (which can be rotated by tapping on the UI icon) that have been specially designed, keeping the Indian wedding color palette in mind.
Low light shots are good with a lot of details and less noise, and the OIS helps as well to stabilize the images. The night mode automatically enables ultra dark mode if there is very less light, and that makes it better, but it takes a few seconds to process.
The 50MP AF front camera is also good in daylight. The portrait shots from the front camera were also good with a good edge detection, even though it uses software.
Check out some camera samples below
It can record videos at 4k resolution at up to 60 fps from the front and rear cameras. It has standard and ultra stabilization, but the resolution is down to 1080p in ultra option since it crops the content. OIS does a good job in stabilization. You can adjust the aperture manually for portrait video, but this is limited to 1080p 24fps.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the phone runs on Android 13 with Funtouch OS 13 on top. It has Android security patch for September 2023. Like the previous vivo V series phone, the V29 Pro should also get two years of Android updates and three years of monthly security updates.
Funtouch OS 13 brings new personalization options, privacy and security measures, and control functions for a smoother, uninterrupted experience.
Out of 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, about 11.17GB is usable, out of which 7GB is free when the default apps are running in the background. There is additional 8GB RAM expansion feature. Out of 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, 225GB is free out of the box. We got about 1837.17MBps sequential read speed.
Apart from the usual set of utility and Google apps, it comes preloaded with a lot of apps such as Facebook, Spotify, Amazon, Netflix, LinkedIn, PhonePe, and Snapchat. These apps can be uninstalled, but they come back after reset.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an in-display fingerprint sensor which immediately unlocks the phone just by keeping your finger on the sensor. There are different animation styles that display when you unlock, which you can disable. The phone also has face unlock that can unlock the phone in seconds, but it is not as secure as fingerprint.
Music and Multimedia
The default Music Player also has equalizer and DeepField sound effects. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. Audio through the mono speaker is decent, but not the best. Audio through the headphones is good as well.
This has Widevine L1 so that you can play HD content on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and other streaming apps. It also supports HDR content on Netflix and YouTube.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with support for n1/n3/n5/n8/n28A/n41/n77/n78 bands. Jio and Airtel 5G work out of the box. It also has dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5.3, GPS + GLONASS, but doesn’t have NFC support. It also has USB OTG support. The phone also has carrier aggregation. We did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume is good, even though it is present on the top edge.
The vivo V29 Pro’s body SAR is 0.77 W/Kg and head SAR is at 1.17/Kg which is less than iQOO Neo 7 that has the same chip, and is well under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
It powered by the latest MediaTek Dimensity 8200 4nm processor, same as the V27 Pro. It has 1x Cortex-A78 @ 3.1GHz, 3x Cortex-A78 @ 3.0GHz and 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2GHz.
The Mali-G610 MC6 offers a smooth gaming performance even in graphic intensive games, and has a large Ultra Large Vapor Chamber Bionic Cooling System and 35,227 mm² cooling area.
The phone gets a bit warm on intensive gaming, but it doesn’t too hot. We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games like COD with 90Hz, BGMI and Genshin Impact. It reached maximum 38º C in our testing indoors in Wi-Fi, but this might vary outdoors in 4G or 5G.
It has 300Hz touch sampling rate and 1200Hz instant touch sampling rate. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
As you can see in the benchmarks, the V29 Pro powered by the Dimensity 8200 chip outperforms several phones, but there are phones with better chips like Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 and even Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 at a cheaper rate.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 4600mAh (typical) battery, same as the V27 Pro. Even with a slightly smaller battery compared to other phones in the range, it can easily last for a day with heavy use and for more than a day with typical use with 5G enabled and multimedia, thanks to the optimization. I got close to 5 hours of screen on time with 2 days of mixed Wi-Fi and 5G use.
Since the phone has support for 80W fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in about 20 minutes, and 100% takes close to an hour. The company says that it can retain 80% battery health even after 1600 charge-discharge cycles with the smart charging algorithm.
Conclusion
At a starting price of Rs. 39,999, the vivo V29 Pro is priced slightly on the higher side if you consider the specs to price value, but the camera performance including the front camera with 4K 60 fps recording is brilliant. It is also good for gaming, and the display is brilliant. Wish it had stereo speakers, NFC and IP ratings to justify the price.
Pricing and availability
The vivo V29 Pro is priced at Rs. 39,999 for the 8GB + 256GB model and the 12GB + 256GB model costs Rs. 42,999. It is now available for pre-order from vivo.com, Flipkart and offline stores will be available from October 10th.
Alternatives
The OnePlus 11R is a direct competitor that offers better performance, and almost similar rear camera performance, but it can’t match the portrait and front camera performance.
Pros
- 120Hz 1.5K AMOLED HDR display is brilliant
- Good front and rear cameras with 4K 60fps recording
- Smooth performance and good gaming performance
- Sleek eye-catching design
- Decent battery life with 80W fast charging
Cons
- No stereo speakers
- A lot of preloaded apps