Vivo V40 Pro Review: A Few Hits and a Few Misses

The premium smartphone segment sure is a cut-throat one. This is not because manufacturers offer impressive hardware at this price point but because we often see smartphones from the next tier receive price cuts and tip the scales for devices launched in the sub-Rs. 50,000 segment. The Vivo V40 Pro becomes a victim for two reasons. Firstly, it’s priced a bit too high from the get-go. Secondly, it also has to compete with some top-tier premium smartphones like the iQoo 12, which was launched at Rs. 57,999 a year ago but currently retails at Rs. 49,999. Vivo’s V40 Pro is priced at Rs. 49,999 for its base 8GB + 256GB variant, while the 12GB + 512GB variant is priced even higher at Rs. 55,999. After using it for a while, I discovered that its price tag is not its only problem.

Vivo V40 Pro Design: Slim and sexy

• Dimensions – 164.36mm x 75.1mm x 7.58mm
• Weight – 192g
• Durability – IP68 dust and water resistance

Vivo’s V40 Pro sure looks the part for a premium smartphone. The phone has a typically rounded design with curved-edge glass screens for front and rear panels. Its polycarbonate frame is flattened at the top and bottom with curved sides and rounded corners, making it very comfortable to hold. We received the Ganges Blue finish with a nice bluish colour complimented by a gorgeous texture that looks like a gradient terrain map when viewed at an angle, but altogether is supposed to be inspired by the Ganges River.

Vivo’s V40 Pro has a very slim profile thanks to its 3D-curved front and rear panels

 

The phone is quite slim since it packs in a high-capacity battery, but that keyhole-shaped camera module stands out. You may like or hate it, but it is raised, has flat sides, and looks out of place like an afterthought. The camera module also packs in the Aura light, a V series standard for the past few years.

Vivo V40 Pro Display: Premium stuff

• Display size – 6.78-inch, 1,260 x 2,800 pixels
• Display type – AMOLED, 120Hz
• Display protection – SCHOTT Xensation α

Vivo goes with a curved edge display for its V40 Pro like with previous models. While it’s quite the opposite of the current trend (flat displays), it makes the phone feel premium and gives it a slimmer appearance. Its skinny bezels add to its premium looks, which means that Vivo manages to fit more display into a smaller footprint.

The Vivo V40 Pro has a vibrant 120Hz AMOLED panel

 

The display gets bright outdoors and offers HDR10+ support, meaning you can enjoy supported content on OTT apps. It is not an LTPO display, but Vivo’s Smart Switch technology can switch the refresh rate between 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz to save battery life. Screen colours appear quite accurate in the Standard colour mode so there’s no need to fidget or adjust anything here, even though the software does provide plenty of customisation. The display has an embedded fingerprint reader, which worked flawlessly during the review period.

Vivo V40 Pro Software: Typically, Vivo

• Software – Funtouch OS
• Version – Android 14
• Software commitment – 3 years of OS and 4 years of security updates

We are expecting some bigger changes with Android 15, but Vivo’s V40 Pro currently only runs the Android 14 version of Funtouch OS. The software is typically Vivo, which means it runs smoothly without hiccups. It is also loaded to the brim with third-party apps (Snapchat, Amazon, LinkedIn, Netflix, PhonePe, Facebook and Myntra) out of the box. This is followed by spammy notifications from native bloatware like the Internet browser app, which will show you notifications even if you have never launched the app. There are also two file manager apps, two gallery apps, two browsers and even two app stores, which can confuse casual users.

Vivo V-AppStore and Browser apps love to push multiple notifications on a daily basis

 

In terms of features, Vivo’s Funtouch OS is mainly about customisation. We are awaiting a few AI features to show up with an upcoming Android 15-based update, but there’s no defined date or timeline for when it will arrive.

Vivo V40 Pro Performance: Promising

• Processor – MediaTek Dimensity 9200+
• RAM – 8/12GB
• Storage – 256/512GB

One of the few phones at this price point to pack in the MediaTek Dimensity 9200+, the Vivo V40 Pro turned out to be a solid performer in our benchmark tests, as you can see from the comparison below. It’s still not as powerful as the iQoo 12, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, but surprisingly, it goes neck and neck with the Realme GT 6, which has a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC.

Gaming, thanks to its good CPU and GPU performance, is impressive. Heating is not an issue when playing heavy 3D games, but only when using the camera app. However, performance does not take a hit thanks to the vapour chamber cooling system.

The V40 Pro does get hot outdoors, but performance does not take much of a hit thanks to its VC cooling system

 

After years of waiting, we finally have stereo speakers! They are balanced and sound sufficiently loud, making the audio experience quite immersive while playing games and watching videos.

Vivo V40 Pro Cameras: Does the job

• Main camera – 50-megapixel (OIS), f/1.88, AF
• Ultrawide camera – 50-megapixel, f/2.0, AF
• Telephoto camera – 50-megapixel, 2x optical, f/1.85, AF
• Selfie camera – 50-megapixel, f/2.0, AF

With four high-resolution cameras onboard, I was expecting excellent performance across the board, given that this smartphone is priced a rupee below the 50,000 mark. But, after trying all of them out, I was a bit disappointed as only the primary camera managed to produce the expected results.

Vivo’s weird-looking keyhole-shaped rear camera gets the job done but isn’t the best we have seen in this segment

 

To make things worse, the telephoto camera only activates when a subject/object is at least 5 feet away, you can tell that it’s active when you notice slightly muted colours and the obvious bump up in sharpness. Anything captured with the 2X mode selected within 5 feet will result in scaled-down photos obtained by the primary camera, and these don’t look good with smeared resolved details that look bad even in daylight. In short, you will have to keep a good distance between yourself at the subject to ensure that you activate the telephoto camera to get the best quality.

Vivo V40 Pro ultrawide camera sample. (Tap image to expand)

 

The ultra-wide camera produces decent photos in daylight, but photos lack any resolved detail and tend to have abnormally boosted greens and blue hues. When shooting in low or dim lighting, quality drops even further, and the photos are not usable.

Vivo V40 Pro primary camera sample (Tap image to expand)

 

The primary camera produces vibrant photos with good details in the shadows, but the HDR system works overtime and produces exaggerated skies that will not appear the same as what’s really in front of you. No matter which colour setting (Vivid, Textured, ZEISS Natural) you choose, the camera loves to bump up the reds and greens. While the details are quite good in daylight, I noticed a drop in quality when shooting low-light photos. The OIS system somehow could not keep things steady (or sharp), with details appearing a bit smeared and soft.

Vivo V40 Pro’s cropped 2X image captured via the primary camera (below) and the actual 2X camera output (above) (Tap images to expand)

 

The telephoto camera (once you learn to trick the camera into using it) produces sharp results, provided there’s enough light. Results from the portrait mode are quite good under artificial lighting as well, but it all falls apart under street lighting or dimly lit settings, as the telephoto shooter lacks OIS. The results don’t look great when you zoom in low light with smeared textures with some blown out highlights in the areas under bright light.

In terms of video, 4K 60fps video delivers the best quality, as the 4K 30fps footage we captured has some problems with dynamic range and noise, which means the details were far from impressive. The same results are also reproduced when using shooting in 1080p at 30fps. Results in low light come out quite noisy when shooting at 30fps and appear a lot better at 60fps. However, stabilisation is a bit shaky when recording at 60fps, so you will have to keep your hands steady.

Vivo V40 Pro selfie camera samples. Top: daylight, bottom: low-light (Tap images to expand)

 

Selfies pack in good detail in daylight, but the Portrait mode’s edge-detection does a passable job. Details take a hit in low light, but the camera produces decent images, provided you don’t switch to the Portrait mode, where it loses a lot of resolved detail.

Vivo V40 Pro Battery: Solid

• Battery capacity – 5,500mAh
• Charging rate – 80W
• Wireless charging – No

A 500mAh increase compared to the previous model shows that the Vivo V40 Pro delivers impressively good battery life with day-to-day usage. The phone easily lasted over a full day of heavy usage and still had about 30 percent juice left for the next day. In our standard video loop battery test, the phone managed a solid 21 hours and 10 minutes. Charging the V40 Pro was equally quick, with the device managing a 52 percent charge in 30 minutes, a 93 percent charge in an hour, and completing the process in 1 hour and 3 minutes.

Vivo V40 Pro Verdict

Vivo’s V40 Pro does a fine job when it comes to design, performance and battery life but falls short when it comes to camera performance, which is where we expected it to exceed expectations. It offers some much needed upgrades like a stereo speaker and an IP68 rating, but these are features that many would expect as a standard at this price point.

With sub-Rs. 60,000 smartphones commonly making their way into the sub-Rs. 50,000 segment, the beastly iQoo 12 (Review) (from Rs. 49,999) easily beats the Vivo V40 Pro on all fronts. Google’s Pixel 8a (Review) (Rs. 39,999) may not be a gaming machine, but it easily offers the best in segment AI features and very capable still cameras, while both the Xiaomi 14 Civi (Review) and the Realme GT 6 (Review) offer equally good performance at Rs. 10,000 less, making the Vivo V40 Pro hard to recommend.