Vivo V19 Review: A great camera and an excellent display overcomes the dated processor

“Hey Pranav, my smartphone died during the lockdown period, and I need to buy a new smartphone as soon as possible. I came across this Vivo V19 ad on social media. It has six cameras and a big battery, right? Have you reviewed the device yet?”

“Here you go! I am currently writing the Vivo V19 review and here is the device.”

“It does look pretty good.”

“Yes, it does. Vivo V-series smartphones are known to sport a good design, and the company tries to bring in something new in every generation. This one has a dual punch-hole camera — a first for Vivo. The rear panel of this Mystic Silver variant has a mirror-like finish, which may be too flashy for some but I kind of like the way it shows different colour shades when light falls upon. If you want a more subtle colour, there’s the classic Black colour option as well.”

“Uhh… I can see the rear panel is prone to fingerprint smudges.”

“That is a drawback of having a glossy glass back. Fortunately, Vivo does offer a transparent case which is functional enough to avoid those smudges. Plus, you get some additional grip ensuring the device does not slip out of your hands while you are trying to reach out the power and volume button on the right edges. In case you do, the V19 has a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 6, but I wouldn’t recommend trying a drop test.

“What about the display? Is it bright enough?”

“Vivo says that the V19’s display has a peak rating of 800 nits or to put it simply, it is very bright. I did not get a lot of chance to go outdoors due to the lockdown, but a couple of supply runs were good enough to prove that the display won’t give problems even when used outdoors in direct sunlight. To tell you more, the 6.44-inch AMOLED display has HDR 10 support as well, which means you will get rich, saturated colours with a better dynamic range that you would enjoy when watching videos. Plus, there isn’t any colour shifting when you view it from different angles.”

“This has two front camera sensors. Does this mean my selfies will be better?”
“The number of sensors isn’t necessarily the only factor to determine the camera quality. There is a lot that goes behind the scenes. Vivo V19 comes with a 32MP primary front camera, which clicks very good quality selfies. You get a bunch of front camera-specific features like Aura Screen Light that illuminates the screen and adjusts the brightness, contrast, depending upon the lighting conditions. The skin tone, after disabling all the beauty mode toggles, is close to real and surprisingly, there isn’t any aggressive smoothening either.”

“What does this second front camera do then?”

“The second camera is an 8MP ultra-wide lens that lets you fit in more people for a groupie. I found the front ultra-wide camera to be reasonably average as colours felt washed out. These are good enough for your Instagram uploads but don’t expect a lot of details.”

“And the back camera? Is it as good as the front camera?”
“Oh, yes. Vivo V19 has a 48MP primary lens in its quad-camera setup. You will get ample amount of details when you click photos using the main sensor. The colour accuracy seemed fine, and the exposure too was set right most of the times. The other three sensors include an 8MP ultra-wide sensor with a 120-degree field-of-view, a 2MP Bokeh lens for better depth mapping in portrait shots and a 2MP macro lens.
The ultra-wide sensor has good dynamic range but lacks details, especially around the edges. It also manages to keep the colour temperature the same as the primary camera in most cases, which otherwise is slightly on the cooler side. There is some amount of distortion along the edges, despite the software fix. I personally struggled to shoot using the 2MP macro camera that allows capturing subjects at a 4cm distance from the subject, and it took me a while to get some decent images.”

“Does the V19 have a night mode in the camera?”

“The software struggles to reduce noise and grains in low light, and that is when the night mode comes into play. When you shoot photos using the dedicated night mode, the camera will click multiple images of different exposure and then stitches them together for a better output. You need to hold the camera still for a couple of seconds at least to ensure that the night mode photo isn’t blurred out or jittery. Take a look at these pictures shot using the Vivo V19’s front and rear camera.”

“Is there anything that you did not like about V19’s camera?”

“My biggest complaint would be about the camera app’s user interface. While there is a row below the viewfinder for Photo, Video, Portrait mode, etc., a simple toggle to switch between the ultra-wide, wide and 2x digital zoom mode would’ve helped instead of that button on the right edge. You see, there could be an instance wherein by the time I tap on the button and then select ultra-wide, the moment is gone, and I might fail to capture the image. Small things like these do matter. The front ultra-wide camera isn’t as great as the primary lens, and I would only recommend using it only and only when required.”

“Okay. A couple of more queries around the battery life and overall performance in general. I use my smartphone to watch shows online and play some games in between. Is the battery life good enough to last over a day?”

“Oh, yes. The 4,500 mAh battery managed to give me between 6.5-7 hours of screen-on time on a Wi-Fi connection. Since we have been staying indoors during the lockdown, there has been a lot of scrolling happening on social media apps like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I also used the V19 to attend a few Zoom video calls and WhatsApp calls. Although the bottom-firing speaker is loud, the audio gets muffled when it rests vertically on a surface during video calls.”

“When the battery goes low, the proprietary 33W fast adapter recharges it up to 70 percent in 40 minutes via USB Type-C, and the remaining 30 percent took another 40-45 minutes on an average.”

“Coming to the gaming part, if you play games like Candy Crush, Subway Surf, then the fairly-old Snapdragon 712 processor would perform just right. “

“Hold on! Fairly-old? So This means the phone will perform slow?”

“No. When I say fairly-old, I mean the processor was seen in smartphones launched last year. While the performance is reliable, it works best for casual gaming. PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty will run smoothly in most cases, but you might experience a couple of frame drops here and there.”

“Switching between apps too would be easy-peasy, thanks to the 8GB RAM onboard. The iOS-inspired, Android 10-based Funtouch OS also offers some features like app lock, which ensures the locked apps do not get closed in the background or when you are force-closing all apps in the multitasking window. Oh, by the way, the in-display fingerprint scanner is quick to detect and unlock the device.”

“While I take your word on the performance, I want to understand why would Vivo launch a smartphone in 2020 with a processor from 2019?”

“Vivo’s V-series has always been about the cameras, and the company has done a brilliant job in that department. While I do agree that the Snapdragon 712 processor falls behind in various benchmark performance tests, it does not by any means function slowly when it comes to day-to-day handling tasks. If you are into smartphone gaming, you might have to look somewhere else. The Realme X2 Pro (Review) or even the Redmi K20 Pro (Review) could be the go-to smartphones.”

“So.. do you think I should consider buying the Vivo V19 for its price? If not, any alternatives?”

“Well… it depends on the use case that varies from person-to-person. The V19 suits best for someone who likes streaming content on a vivid AMOLED display and also wants a quality set of cameras. While the ultra-wide front camera does struggle with details and colour accuracy, the 32MP primary camera is among the best in its segment. Even the 48MP quad-camera setup will not disappoint users. I wish Vivo adds that toggle at the bottom of the viewfinder for faster switching between lenses via a software update. To add to the fantastic battery life is that 33W fast charging support.”

“As I mentioned earlier, the processor is the only Achilles’ heel of the Vivo V19. The company could have opted for a more-powerful Snapdragon 730G processor found in the Poco X2 (Review).  There’s no high refresh rate display either, which could be a bummer considering many other midrange smartphones offer either a 90Hz AMOLED or a 120Hz LCD panel.”

“But again, the choice of an older processor does not make the V19 a bad phone. It still is a good buy for Rs 27,990 if you are looking for a smartphone that looks good and makes you look even better with its camera.”

“Speaking of good design and camera, there’s also the OPPO Reno10x Zoom (Review), which is among our favourite smartphone designs of 2019. The device was available under Rs 25,000 during an online e-commerce sale, so keep an eye on such offers before you make the purchase.”