The vivo V30 5G is the Dongguong-based smartphone maker’s top-of-the-range handset currently available in the South African market. Whether they know it or not, South Africans are spoiled for choice when it comes to smartphones locally, with a laundry list of brands offering affordable, quality products.

Some are more pricey than others, and some with a better loadout than others. If you don’t have deep, cavernous wallets, you will likely be picking and choosing from the market, weighing your smartphone choice with price at one end of the scale and features on the other.

Smartphone brands are well aware, and the vivo V30 5G is likewise a weighing game. It has an exceptional camera system, but almost all other aspects are average in comparison, especially against the hefty R19 999 price point.

We received a review model of the vivo V30 from vivo South Africa, here’s what we discovered in our time with the smartphone:

Aesthetics

vivo has been aggressive about making its devices stand out from the rest in the looks area, and has preferred to drop smartphones with unique and varied colourways. The V30 5G we reviewed came in the Waving Aqua scheme, the other being a Noble Black that is more boring and more typical of other devices in the market.

We quite enjoy the Waving Aqua. The little wave patterns glitter slightly, and while it isn’t world-changing it is a nice change of pace from the rest. The “vivo” branding at the bottom left is tasteful, and the back camera setup is squeezed into the top left corner which allows the wave patterns space to breathe.

Unlike contemporaries like the Redmi Note 13 Pro from Xiaomi, where the camera array dominates the back of the device, vivo wants it to be more subtle and manages this.

The chrome finish on the edges gives it a mirror-like extension, giving the illusion that the device is bigger than it is because it is about the same size as others in the mid to higher-range market, which we will constantly be comparing to in this review – you have been warned.

Display-wise, the V30 offers large-screen real estate and vibrant colours. Details are striking. Not much to criticise in terms of display quality here.

Overall, a beautiful little smartphone that manages to subtlely convey its looks without wearing out its welcome.

vivo V30 5G specifications

The star of the vivo V30 5G’s specifications is the Snapdragon chip, which is one step below the latest version of Snapdragon silicon. If you’re looking at the specifications and are wondering “why is this so expensive?” it’s because of the Snapdragon chip.

While others, like the already-mentioned Xiaomi will turn towards cheaper MediaTek chips, vivo was looking for a processor that commands attention, but unfortunately, we were unable to see the fruits of the marriage between the Qualcomm chip and the 12 + 12 GB RAM configuration.

On Geekbench 6, we found a single-core score of 1 128 and 1130 in benchmarks, and a multi-core score of 3 185 and 3 196. The Samsung Galaxy A54, which is about R10 000 cheaper manages a multi-core score of 2 902 on the same benchmark.

While the vivo V30 has better performance than the previous generation mid-ranger from Samsung, it is only slightly so. The Samsung device also has about half the RAM of the V30, while the Redmi Note 13 Pro has the same RAM setup. Remember what we said about weighing features against price?

Both the Redmi and the Samsung are about half the price, so the question again returns to where did they get the R20 000 price point from especially for what is only a slightly better performance and comparable hardware.

This is not to say that the V30 is a slouch when it comes to day-to-day handling. It works smoothly between apps, with no perceivable lag. On 3D Mark benchmarking, we saw a 5 455 score in Wild Life, significantly more than the Redmi Note 13 which scored 4 263, but again, for R10 000 more out of your wallet, at least we would prefer more of a difference.

What the vivo V30 does get you is great in-game performance, with few frame drops and buttery gameplay on the likes of Genshin Impact and Player Unknown’s Battleground in which we tested a few rounds. You will notice the back getting a little hot under the collar after running PUBG for two matches though.

Overall, fine performance thanks to the premium hardware, but not enough to justify the price at least when compared to cheaper contemporaries that offer similar performance for half.

What is this? 2007?

One last thing we must discuss about the overall hardware is the sound quality. You will notice in marketing for the vivo V30 5G that audio quality and sound hardware are rarely mentioned if at all. The vivo V30 does not have stereo speakers and it is immediately noticeable during the review period.

Somehow video playback is at the same time too loud and not clear enough. You put the volume up but the voices are washed out. Details are missed. The audio setup for the device is market-specific, with Snapdragon Audio in some markets and not others. Maybe South Africa was skipped here?

The audio quality during phone calls is also disappointing, sending us back to the before times when smartphones were yet to exist. I often use loudspeaker for phone calls, and the voice quality coming through the vivo V30 is unclear and weirdly soft. Having reviewed many different smartphones, the lower-than-average sound quality stuck out like a red dress in a khaki factory.

And when you consider the “phone” part of smartphone, this oversight is glaring.

Camera

The camera array of the vivo V30 is the standout feature of the smartphone on the back of this review.

Two 50MP snappers at the back, and one 50MP selfie cam in front have you covered for high-quality photography from whatever angle. Software makes taking great pictures easy, with automatic depth of field that makes the focus of the image explode with detail. This is a fun camera to use, and one may find a walk around the park to be filled with “Oh! I wonder what that looks like from close up” moments.

Vibrant colours are included too, again thanks to the camera hardware, but video quality may be disappointing for users as it doesn’t quite match the same detail during zoom-ins as static photos.

We loved the camera setup on the V30, slightly better at static photos in terms of picture-taking-helping software than the Redmi Note 13 Pro and the Galaxy A54. All three are capable of fantastic photo-capture, so we return to the scales once again.

The vivo V30 overall manages to capture small details exceptionally well, even compared with cheaper contemporaries.

Battery

We’re getting to the end of our review, so we need to wrap up with the last major piece of the puzzle. You will struggle to find a smartphone nowadays that doesn’t ship with at least a 5 000mAh battery (looking at you, Apple) and the V30 is included here as well.

The standard is evident in our review, with a solid battery life for the vivo V30, which can last a full week or more with no use. With sustained usage, expect the battery to last a day or two before requiring to be charged up.

Fast charging is also possible, with an 80W FlashCharge charger that can top up your cell in about an hour, but when compared with cheaper contemporaries, the V30 offers the standard quality in terms of battery life.

Take note of the Redmi Note 13 Pro, which with its 120W fast charging can return your phone to 100 percent in 30 minutes, the fastest charging of a smartphone we’ve ever experienced, and has the same size battery – did we mention that it’s half the price of the vivo V30?

vivo V30 5G – Final Verdict

The vivo V30 5G is overpriced in our estimation at the end of this review at an RRP of R19 999. The brand could cut R5 000 from what you need to spend and it may be more accurate to what is being offered here.

Simply put, there are older smartphones with brands like Xiaomi and Samsung that offer almost the same performance, almost as good camera quality, and even faster charging, for half the price. In that case, we can’t recommend the V30 over these alternatives when you can easily save up a bit more and buy an iPhone or a premium Samsung model for considerably better performance and hardware.

That is not to say that the V30 is not a fine smartphone, because it is. It offers an exceptional camera, great display, performance and battery life. But it is just too expensive to compete with cheaper mid-rangers and not good enough to compete with more premium heavyweights.

FINAL SCORE: 7 OUT OF 10.