Vivo V25 Pro review: a camera phone with style

You’ve got to love the V-Series smartphones of Vivo, that’s for sure. It’s a company that loves to use gimmicks, smart (or even innovative) ideas to improve them year after year and the Vivo V25 Pro (and V25) series appears as perhaps their best work so far (as per our review). The Chinese company has practiced a lot in the camera features of these devices during the previous years. Starting from phones with dual selfie lenses, pop-up cameras to even a hybrid solution of dual pop-up selfie camera (!), their R&D department seems always busy.

However, this year the Vivo V25 Pro boasts an impressive, curved display, a multicolor back side and a different 32MP Selfie Camera sensor – a step down from the huge 50MP selfie snapper of its predecessor (V23 Pro). The mid-range device arrived in Gizchina HQ along with its budget brother (V25) and we got to play with them for several days.

Check out here our thoughts on these two beauties in this review.

Main features

• Impressive Main camera functions
• Curved Display with 120Hz refresh rate
• Color changing back cover
• Decent battery life

Vivo V25 Pro technical specifications

• Brand: vivo
• CPU: MediaTek Dimensity 1300 (6nm)
• Display: 6.56-inch 120Hz AMOLED
• RAM: 8GB/12GB
• Storage: 128GB/256GB
• Battery: 4830mAh Li-Po
• Ports: USB-C 2.0
• Operating System: Android 12, Funtouch 12
• Front camera: 32MP, f/2.5, wide
• Rear cameras: 64MP, f/1.9, wide / 12MP, f/2.2, ultrawide / 2MP, f/2.4 macro
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS
• Dimensions: 158.9 x 73.5 x 8.6 mm (6.26 x 2.89 x 0.34 in)
• Colors: Pure Black, Sailing Blue
• Weight: 190 g (6.70 oz)
• Charging: 66W Fast-charging
• IP Rating: None

Vivo V25 Pro Design

It’s a beauty as per our review. Especially the back side of the device can do miracles when left under UV light (sun) for just a few minutes. The back color changes to darker shades and it’s easy to create some works of art if you have the necessary transparent plastic covers. Note however that this feature applies only to the Sailing Blue color variant. When UV lights turn off, the effect disappears and returns to its previous accent.

The Vivo V25 Pro comes with impressive curves on its sides, adding up to a sleek design. It’s easy to hold in your hands, it weighs a mere 190 grams, and with a size of 158.9 x 73.5 x 8.6 mm it’s no hassle to carry it either. Even though it’s a mid-range device, I loved the build quality, and how comfortable it was to hold in my hands during work or leisure.

It seems delicate though, be careful not to let it drop or else… havoc could break loose.

Vivo V25 Pro Display

Equipped with a 6.56-inches AMOLED panel, V25 Pro delivered a rich viewing experience during our review; Impressive brightness, healthy color depiction and excellent viewing angles thanks to the curved edges and the extra thin bezels. I used the phone under direct sunlight for all sorts of tasks - from daily social media browsing to binge watch shows and was quite impressed.

One of its main characteristics is the 120Hz refresh rate, something found mostly in flagship models of other competitors, and a sharp fingerprint sensor – quite quick with almost 85% success.

My only issue with the screen brightness is that it tends to get too dim when set on automatic. This can be good when watching videos or using social media in low light environments, but not when you need the phone the most: during work, driving or replying to messages.

Performance

The Vivo V25 Pro is packed with a Mediatek Dimensity 1300 SoC. That’s a small improvement compared to the previous model (V23 Pro) and its Dimensity 1200 chipset. If you had both phones, then you won’t see any significant difference in daily use. In any case, the V25 Pro can easily cope with most of our heavy professional tasks, while playing some notorious titles (such as Asphalt 9) was a pleasing experience. I saw no lags, or frame drops for almost 50 minutes of playing, but I experienced a small overheating at the back of the device. It was normal after playing a so demanding game and had no impact on the performance of the phone.

If you’re a gamer, or a music lover then the single speaker of the device will probably disappoint you. It offers a flat sound, but on the other hand it’s quite loud. One more thing to know also, is the absence of a 3.5mm audio jack, so you will have to rely on a Bluetooth connection for your earphones.

FunTouchOS 12

One other thing that wasn’t that… fun, was the FunTouch OS 12. It's the skin that equips both the Vivo V25 and V25 Pro. It’s a typical Android 12 based skin that is however filled with a lot of bloatware (pre-installed apps), like as Josh, Moj a Browser app and others that sadly cannot be uninstalled. The whole experience is not bad – but it could be much better.

There are a lot of ads popping up. The native Vivo app store keeps bombarding us with notifications to buy or update several apps. The main launcher of the OS is full of personalization options – I must admit. It offers animations, and customization features to personalize your experience. Still, it seems not enough to have the same kind of impact as Oppo's ColorOS.

Vivo V25 Pro Photography

Even though the previous V23 Pro was a pure selfie phone, this isn’t the case with the new model. This one packs an impressive 64 MP OIS primary camera that can do miracles in low light conditions, shooting high-in-contrast pictures with a minor saturation effect here and there and decent videos. I loved the 10X zoom that can prove helpful in various aspects of photography, with impressive amount of details.

Don’t expect miracles in terms of selfie shots however. The front facing camera of the Vivo V25 Pro lacks the clarity of the previous model. Still it delivers decent daylight photos for social media etc.The 8MP wide-angle lens is decent as well. Selfies with portrait mode look lively, clear, true to the skin tone and detect the edges sharply.

The selfie fans will love the preinstalled customizations by Vivo, along with some interesting editing options (tens of filters, beautification mode, cute bokeh flare effects, double exposure mode, long exposure etc).

If you’re a video fan, then you will be pleased to know that the Vivo V25 Pro comes with 4K video recording at 30 or 60fps. It also has OIS support for excellent daylight videos. As one would expect, there are options for time-lapse and slo-mo modes. There's also a Vlog Movie app that can easily transform our videos into Instagram/TikTok wonders in just a few steps.

Vivo V25 Pro Battery life

It was a blast using the device – in terms of battery life – I must admit. The V25 Pro comes with a 4830mAh battery, that can easily withstand any pro performance offering up to 26 hours of usage.

I used the phone for a whole day during - for review purposes. 30 minutes of phone calls, extensive social media use, texting via messenger/viber, several mail exchanging, listening to music for 45 minutes. At the end of it it had 28% of battery left. However with 66W FlashCharging support, it took around 50 minutes to get a full recharge.

My opinion

The mid-range camera market welcomes another Vivo V Series pair of phones. Unlike its predecessor, the V25 Pro focuses more on its main camera. It's aimed at photography enthusiasts with improved night light photos, more scenes/settings/camera tweaks. Despite having a lesser quality camera sensor, I haven't faced any major quality drop in the daylight selfies.

I loved the Mediatek Dimensity 1300 chipset performance during this review. It slightly overheated only after extensive mobile gaming for over 50 minutes. Still managed to easily cover all my professional everyday needs with no trouble at all. That curved display? It’s a beauty both to hold and to look at! It’s rare to find such a display panel at a phone of this price range, with impressive performance all day long.

We’ve talked about the new selfie camera in this review. It’s a step down from the previous model, with mediocre night light photos, but a lot of new AI scenes, face features, extensive “pro” settings and even more.

And some more...

I liked the color-changing back side of the Sailing Blue variant, but surely it’s not a killer characteristic for buyers. I could live without it. Easily. The FunTouchOS 12 wasn’t of my liking. It has a LOT of bloatware, some applications that cannot be uninstalled and a lot of ad pop-ups from the native Vivo AppStore that can be very annoying. It runs on Android 12 however which is good and can get up to 2 major OS upgrades.

So… if you’re in the market for a good camera phone with an impressive color changing option, a curved display experience, and Dimensity-fast performance, then the Vivo V25 Pro priced at Rs. 35,999 is a great recommendation.

Vivo V25 Pro vs. V25

Vivo was kind enough to also send us the smaller sibling of the V25 Series for a combined review. The V25 is the non-Pro version, with some differences in terms of display, battery, and chipset – the V25 Pro is better in these specs. However, the simple model has an advantage over its Pro and this is its selfie camera – with a better lens, CMOS sensor and AI Beautify settings.

Here's a comparison review chart between their specifications: