Vivo V40 Pro Review: The budget flagship camera beast!

Earlier this year, Vivo surprised us with the Vivo V30 Pro, which brought cameras designed in collaboration with Zeiss Optics to a more affordable price point (Zeiss was earlier seen mainly in Vivo’s flagship X series). While the Vivo V30 Pro boasted excellent cameras and came with a sleek design, it was let down by some hardware compromises, such as a mid-segment processor and a single speaker. The Vivo V40 Pro looks to fix those while maintaining its camera and design supremacy. Of course, all this comes with a price bump.

Vivo V40 Pro design and appearance: Sticking to sleek and slim, adding a touch of the Ganges

The Vivo V40 Pro sticks to the broad Vivo V series design of a curved display and curved back and sides. It is also very slim – at 7.58 mm, Vivo claims it is the slimmest phone to come with a 5500 mAh battery (for comparison, the OnePlus 12, which also has a 5500 mAh battery, is 8 mm thin). It also comes in a very unique color. Vivo has been coming up with some very innovative colors in its smartphones, often with names that have a distinctly Indian flavor. A few months ago, we had the Vivo V30 in Andaman Blue, and now the Vivo V40 Pro brings along another shade of blue with an Indian touch – Ganges Blue. This was the color of our review unit, and while it did seem a little closer to light green than blue at times, we loved the shiny, silver, swirling-water-like patterns that appeared on its back in different light conditions.

As distinct as this color is, the camera unit is shaped like a large, protruding capsule and contains a dark circle and an oval of the same shade as the back. The circle contains two cameras and also carries the famous blue Zeiss branding, while the oval area beneath it contains a single camera and a flash. It is not a very symmetrical arrangement and gives the otherwise very sleek phone a slightly unbalanced look, but it does mark it out from the crowd.

The front and back of the Vivo V40 Pro are glass, but the frame is carbonate, which might disappoint some, although we are perfectly fine with it. The Vivo V40 Pro’s curved display and back make it a slightly slippery proposition, but it has a reassuringly solid feel to it. With a height of 164.4 mm, it is a big phone (the OnePlus 12 is 164.3 mm), but rather surprisingly, given the size of its battery, is just 192 grams in weight. There is no mention of any protection (Corning or Schott) on the front or back, but the phone itself comes with an IP68 rating (similar to the iPhone 15 series), which means that it can actually survive a fall in the water.

All said and done, the Vivo V40 Pro cuts a very smart figure with its slim design and rather unique color. The camera unit’s design might be a little loud for some, and some others might find the carbonate frame less than premium for its price point, but we think the Vivo V40 Pro is a very good-looking phone with definite premium feels. The inclusion of the IP68 rating is a huge plus in its favor.

Vivo V40 Pro Tech Specs: Budget flagship specs, a clear step ahead of the Vivo V30 Pro

The Vivo V30 Pro had packed in some excellent cameras but had lost out to the competition on other fronts, most notably the processor and the absence of stereo speakers. The Vivo V40 Pro makes no such compromises. The phone comes with a proper budget flagship spec sheet. It comes with a large 6.78-inch curved AMOLED display with a resolution of 2800 x 1260px and a 120 Hz refresh rate, as well as a very impressive peak brightness of 4500 nits. Unlike the V30 Pro, which ran on the mid-segment Mediatek Dimensity 8200, the V40 Pro gets close to the flagship zone with the slightly old but still very capable MediaTek Dimensity 9200+ chip. This comes with RAM and storage combinations of 8 GB/ 256 GB and 12 GB / 512 GB. A slight hint of cost-cutting can be spotted here, as the storage is UFS 3.1 rather than UFS 4.0, which is seen in the segment, but it is unlikely to be a deal breaker. The Vivo V40 Pro also comes with stereo speakers, which its predecessor had lacked.

The cameras are the spec stars here. The Vivo V40 Pro comes with four 50-megapixel cameras – three at the back and one in front. All four are made in collaboration with Zeiss. On the back, you get a main Sony IMX921 sensor with OIS, a Sony IMX816 telephoto portrait camera with OIS and 2x optical zoom, and a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera with autofocus. The front-facing camera, a key strength of the Vivo V series, also comes with autofocus and support for group selfies. It is quite a formidable photographic offering and, on paper, the best at its price point.

Keeping all this running is the task of a large 5500 mAh battery with support for 80W charging and a charger in the box. The phone comes with Android 14 out of the box with Vivo’s FunTouchOS on top of it. In spec terms, the Vivo V40 Pro ticks most budget flagship boxes. It is not exactly a spec monster, but it does not feel out of place in its price segment even if you remove the cameras from the equation – something the V30 Pro was guilty of.

Vivo V40 Pro Cameras: Terrific photography delivered by ALL four cameras

The Vivo V30 Pro had pleasantly surprised us with some extremely high-quality photography from all of its four cameras, and the Vivo V40 Pro follows in the photographic footsteps of its predecessor. You get three color styles – Vivid (turned on by default), Texture, and Zeiss Natural. While purists will prefer the Zeiss Natural, we see most people sticking with the Vivid, which delivers some rather pleasant, if slightly oversaturated, shots.

The main sensor takes some very good snaps in terms of detail and color. The 2x optical zoom on the telephoto sensor is a little disappointing (although you can zoom up to 5X without losing detail), but the camera gets into a different dimension when it comes to portrait photography. You can choose from five focal lengths – 24 mm, the classic 35 mm and 50 mm (on by default), 85 mm and 100mm. You can also adjust the aperture and choose from six special Zeiss bokeh modes. Add to this a number of effects and filters and extensive beauty settings, and you have a phone capable of stunning photography. Even the ultrawide sensor delivers superb landscape photographs.

The presence of an aura flash, which changes colors depending on the settings or your inclinations, adds a lot of variety to not just low light but even normal light photography. Speaking of low-light photography, the Vivo V40 Pro is very good in that zone, capturing very impressive detail and colors. Video quality is superb through the main and telephoto sensors. The phone also comes with Zeiss’ cinematic portrait video that lets you blur out the background even in videos – you can even adjust the amount of bokeh you want,

The V series has always boasted some of the best selfie cameras on the market, and the Vivo V40 Pro is no exception. We have no hesitation in saying that its 50-megapixel front-facing camera is the best selfie snapper we have seen, delivering an astonishing amount of detail and handling colors very well, although we would recommend turning down the beauty settings for more realistic snaps. You get the Zeiss portrait effects and Zeiss cinematic portrait video even on the front camera.

What’s more, thanks to the better hardware on the phone, edits and tweaks happen much faster – no sign of lags that plagued the V30 Pro. This phone is a content creator’s dream. We just wish the interface of the camera app had been a little more intuitive, as there are far too many options, which can get a little overwhelming for camera newbies. If you are comfortable with cameras, you will love the Vivo V40 Pro!

Vivo V40 Pro Performance: A smooth operator with lots of multimedia muscle

Unlike the Vivo V30 Pro, which struggled with heavy-duty tasks, the Vivo V40 Pro is right at home handling most things you throw at it. The 6.78-inch display is not as insanely bright as the 4500 nits spec suggests, but it is superb for viewing content, and thanks to the better processor, you can enjoy games like Genshin Impact even at high graphics settings. The stereo speakers also make a massive difference when you are watching shows, sporting events (we watched the Olympics on it), or films. The combination of a big display, good speakers, and a good processor make the Vivo V40 Pro a very capable multimedia consumption device.

The phone sails through regular tasks with a degree of ease, too. We regularly ran 8-10 apps on it without any lags, and the big screen is great for browning the web and social media. Some might find Vivo’s FuntouchOS interface a little crowded and be irritated by the presence of some bloatware, but there are plenty of handy features on board as well. Call quality is very good, and the fingerprint sensor under the display works smoothly. The 5500 mAh battery got us through a day comfortably, even with a lot of photography (inevitable, given those cameras), and the 80W charger got the battery from 0 to 100 in about an hour, which might not be as impressive as the crazy fast charging times of some other devices, but will suffice for most users. The Vivo V40 Pro is a rock solid, steady performer in heavy as well as routine tasks.

Vivo V40 Pro Pricing: Right in the budget flagship zone, but more expensive than the V30 Pro

The Vivo V40 Pro is available in two RAM and storage variants at these prices:

• 8 GB/ 256 GB: Rs 49,999
• 12 GB/ 256 GB: Rs 55,999

These prices are higher than those of the Vivo V30 Pro, which started at Rs 41,999, but the V40 Pro comes with significantly better hardware. Its biggest challenge perhaps comes from the Xiaomi 14 Civi, which starts at Rs 42,999 and also combines budget flagship specs (it runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip) with high-quality cameras associated with a famous name in photography, Leica. It even comes close to matching the selfie prowess of the Vivo V40 Pro, packing in dual front-facing cameras.

However, it comes with a smaller display, a smaller battery (4700 mAh) with a slower charging speed (67W), and cannot match the IP68 rating of the V40 Pro. Those looking for good photography with a simpler interface might also be tempted by the Pixel 8a, which was launched at Rs 52,999 but is now available at below Rs 50,000 at some retailers. The phone packs in Google’s famous AI-laden computational photography but loses out on other spec fronts, most notably charging speed and display quality. If photography is not a parameter, then the Vivo V40 Pro goes up against the iQOO 12, which not only comes with an eye-catching design of its own but out-specs it in most departments and packs in a high-end flagship chip, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, at a starting price of Rs 52,999. As we pointed out earlier, the Vivo V40 Pro is a good phone, but its cameras are what propel it to greatness.

Vivo V40 Pro Review Verdict: The best camera phone below Rs 50,000?

It does have some very strong competitors around it, but if it is camera power that you seek, the Vivo V40 Pro is easily the best camera phone out there for less than Rs 50,000. We would, in fact, even stretch that to Rs 60,000, as it can comfortably give the likes of the Pixel 8a and the OnePlus 12 a good run for their money in the camera department. It irons out the rough spots of the Vivo V30 Pro and adds a few neat touches of its own.

Those who want sheer hardware power might prefer the iQOO 12, which remains THE flagship killer of the year so far, and those wishing to spend a little more will be tempted by the OnePlus 12, but if what one seeks is a good-looking phone with excellent cameras, with no major hardware compromises, then the Vivo V40 Pro is almost impossible to beat. It has the looks, it has the cameras, and it has flagship killing hardware at a price that, though higher than its predecessor, is firmly in the budget flagship zone. The Vivo V40 Pro is the perfect phone for those who want to say cheese to Zeiss without cutting corners or slashing bank balances too heavily.

Buy Vivo V40 Pro