Vivo earlier this month unveiled the brand new V25 Pro 5G with pricing starting at Rs 35,999 in India.
On paper, the V25 Pro comes with a good set of hardware, 5G modem support and more features, to call itself a future-ready phone, but does it deliver the goods? Let’s look at this.
Design, build quality and display
As I noted in the first print article, the V25 Pro is undeniably one of the best looking phones in the sub-Rs 50,000 segment. The design language is quite generic and the premium material used at the back makes it a special phone.
It has a changing Fluorite AG glass cover on the back. It continues the legacy of the predecessor V23 Pro sunshine gold. When left in the sun, it takes on a different color.
Here, the Sail Blue V25 Pro model transitions to a cooler hue with a glowing aura as sunlight hits the hull aft. I look pretty cliche, but the transformation is pretty magical.
Once back inside, the phone’s back cover returns to its original glossy color.
And, I have to appreciate Vivo for a stellar job with the phone’s back cover. It excels in repelling sweat-induced fingerprint smudges. It should be noted that Vivo offers a pure black color variant and also looks great.
On the front, the Vivo V25 Pro sports a 6.56-inch Full HD+ AMOLED (2376×1080 pixels) dual-edge display, which cascades down the middle of the rim on the right and left sides.
It goes perfectly with the rail around the perimeter. It supports HDR10+ content, which ensures that you can watch media content in the highest quality on OTT apps such as Netflix,
Amazon Prime, Disney+Hotstar and other OTT apps. Moreover, with support for 120Hz refresh rate and 300Hz touch sampling rate, you will have a better browsing and gaming experience on the phone.
As for the in-screen fingerprint, it works well. But make sure your fingers are dry and free from sweat. Otherwise, you have to try several times to unlock the screen. It is normal among all phones with such bio-metrics. It is better to opt for a side sensor, which is more reliable than the face unlock feature.
Performance
The Vivo V25 Pro 5G houses a 6nm-class MediaTek Dimensity 1300 octa-core processor, which can clock the processor speed up to 3GHz. It is backed by ARM G77 MC9 GPU, 8GB/12GB LPDDR4x RAM, 128GB/256GB storage (UFS 3.1) and runs FuntouchOS 12 based on Android 12.
The device in two configuration options: 8GB RAM + 128GB and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage. Our review unit is the first.
The device performed smoothly while performing day-to-day tasks such as loading apps, using the camera, scrolling through the web news feed, watching videos on YouTube and switching to other applications.
The phone supports Extended RAM feature, which allows users to increase the physical memory from 8GB to 16GB RAM. This ensures that the phone works more smoothly.
While gaming, the phone got warm, but it never got out of control. I should note that I played the game indoors. If played outdoors in sunlight, the screen will heat up. This is a common problem with all phones, from low-end to high-end models.
I haven’t had any pressing day-to-day performance issues to complain about.
It houses a 4,830mAh cell with 66W FastCharger. The device consistently delivers a full day’s battery life under normal usage. If you stream content with only cellular data, it will stream a little faster. Users should therefore be wary of this aspect.
It also features Smart Charging Engine technology which reduces the rate of battery deterioration and the heat generated during charging. This way the phone will serve you for a long time and you won’t have to visit service centers for battery replacement for at least two or three years.
It supports eight 5G – NSA/SA bands: 1, 3, 5, 8, 40, 41, 77, 78. National players Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone have announced the establishment of 5G service in India in the coming weeks.
Photography
The Vivo V25 Pro 5G has a triple camera module – 64MP main (with f/1.89, OIS: Optical Image Stabilization) with LED flash supported by an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera with a 2MP (f/2.4) macro camera.
The triple main camera takes great photos in natural sunlight. The subjects, especially the flowers in purple, blue and white colors are naturally beautiful. However, the red/orange/pink colored flowers are over-processed to become more vibrant than they appear to our eyes. It’s not a complaint. They are just brighter and some may prefer the colors to be closer to nature. And others might find that impressive. So, check out samples and decide whether to go for the V25 Pro or not.
Wide-angle shooting and close-up 2X optical zoom are also decent. The latter has less photo quality loss.
As for the night mode, it is good. The phone manages to absorb the right amount of light from lights, be it street lamps or other surrounding sources. Very important, it never puffs up the area around the floor lamp with excess light.
But, I did notice that the colors are not captured well enough in the photos. Here in the sample shot, the coconut tree looks a shade darker compared to samples taken from other phones in the same price range.
The new phone can also record 4K video recording at 30/60 fps (frames per second). It can also record 720p (HD) and 1080p (full HD) video at 30/60 fps.
Video quality in terms of stability and autofocus function is decent at best.
On the other hand, the front selfie camera is good. It has a 32MP autofocus sensor (with f/2.4). The native camera app offers lots of filters and edits to adjust facial skin tone and even physical features such as smoothing acne scars, changing jaw bone shape, size of eyes and nose, to make the face photogenic.
It does a good job with it and I can’t fault the company for offering such superficial features as there are a significant number of consumers in India who want them to look good on social media platforms.
Final Thoughts
As the V25 Pro 5G is in the upper mid-range segment, it faces stiff competition from its rivals. Along with having a terrific internal specification, it is imperative for a business to have something unique to grab the consumer’s attention.
Here, Vivo has exactly that. He did a fantastic job on the design and build quality of the V25 Pro 5G. The color changing look of the device is magical and really sets it apart from its peers.
Of course, the newcomer Nothing impressed a lot with the transparent design and the LED notification function based on the Glyph interface in Phone (1). But lately it has been scanned for buggy software and some display-related hardware faults. And, Android 13 isn’t coming until the first half of 2023.
In other key aspects such as performance and camera, the Vivo V25 Pro is a decent phone and on par with all other upper mid-range rival brands. I am satisfied with the battery life. It can easily last a full day under normal usage and fast charging is a great added value for the phone. Finally, it would be great if Vivo brought Android 13 as soon as possible.
The new Vivo V25 Pro 5G is available in two configurations – 8GB RAM + 128GB and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage – for Rs 35,999 and Rs 39,999, respectively.
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