El V20 Pro de Vivo fue un buen teléfono inteligente de gama media, como concluimos en nuestra revisión detallada. Sin embargo, Vivo se saltó un modelo de la marca ‘Pro’ a mediados de 2021 y solo anunció el V21, al que siguió el Vivo V21e, más asequible, dos meses después.
Ha pasado un año desde que se lanzó el V20 Pro, y ahora Vivo finalmente ha anunciado el V23 Pro. Está repleto de hardware nuevo y cuenta con un diseño fresco. Entonces, echemos un vistazo más de cerca a esta actualización de Vivo V20 Pro y descubramos qué hay de nuevo.
El Vivo V23 Pro tiene una pantalla AMOLED de 6,56 pulgadas con una muesca mediana en la parte superior
El Vivo V23 Pro está disponible en dos acabados: Stardust Black y Sunshine Gold. Hay dos variantes de RAM y almacenamiento para elegir, la variante básica con 8 GB de RAM y 128 GB de almacenamiento interno que tiene un precio de Rs. 38,990 y el de gama alta con 12 GB de RAM y 256 GB de almacenamiento, con un precio de Rs. 43,990. Recibí una unidad Sunshine Gold con 8 GB de RAM y 128 GB de almacenamiento.
Al igual que el Vivo V21 y el V20 Pro, el V23 Pro tiene un diseño delgado y de apariencia premium. El Vivo V23 Pro, a diferencia del V23, tiene un marco de policarbonato en lugar de metal, pero tiene un respaldo de vidrio, que se siente bastante premium con su textura mate. El acabado degradado de la parte posterior del vidrio parece cambiar de color de dorado a azul cuando se ve desde diferentes ángulos.
El Vivo V23 Pro tiene un panel posterior de vidrio mate que parece cambiar de color cuando se ve desde diferentes ángulos
Si bien el V23 Pro se siente delgado con 7,36 mm, también es bastante liviano con 171 g. Hay una pantalla AMOLED full-HD+ con muescas con una frecuencia de actualización de 90 Hz, que está curvada en los lados izquierdo y derecho. Los lados del cristal de la pantalla se curvan en el marco y luego se encuentran con el panel posterior, lo que hace que el teléfono parezca muy delgado. Sin embargo, el módulo de la cámara trasera del teléfono sobresale un par de milímetros.
El Vivo V23 Pro cuenta con dos cámaras frontales para selfies junto con dos luces LED frontales
La muesca de tamaño mediano en la parte superior de la pantalla tiene dos cámaras frontales; una cámara principal de 50 megapíxeles y una cámara ultra gran angular de 8 megapíxeles. Estos van acompañados de dos unidades de flash LED que están bien ocultas en el bisel delgado a cada lado de la configuración de la cámara. El módulo trasero incluye una cámara principal de 108 megapíxeles, una cámara ultra gran angular de 8 megapíxeles y una cámara macro de 2 megapíxeles.
El teléfono incluye un SoC MediaTek Dimensity 1200 de 6 nm, que también está disponible en OnePlus Nord 2, Poco F3 GT y Vivo X70 premium. Hay una bandeja de doble SIM que tiene espacio para dos Nano-SIM (con doble modo de espera 5G) pero no para una tarjeta microSD. El teléfono también tiene una batería de 4300 mAh y Vivo incluye un cargador rápido de 44 W en la caja.
El Vivo V23 Pro tiene tres cámaras traseras incluida una cámara macro
El Vivo V23 Pro, al igual que los modelos anteriores de la serie V, tiene un diseño delgado y cámaras para selfies. Sin embargo, esta vez Vivo ha agregado un SoC MediaTek Dimensity 1200 y una cámara trasera de 108 megapíxeles a la mezcla para hacer las cosas más interesantes. Si bien espero un mejor rendimiento en comparación con el Vivo V20 Pro (revisión) y el V21, el V23 Pro tendrá que enfrentarse a dispositivos de gama media como el OnePlus Nord 2 (revisión) y el Poco F3 GT (revisión) junto con algunos teléfonos inteligentes premium como el Galaxy S20 FE (Revisión) (y el próximo Galaxy S21 FE). Vivo también incorporó Android 12 en su máscara Funtouch OS 12 personalizada, por lo que será interesante ver cómo la filosofía de diseño Material You de Google se fusiona con el sistema operativo Funtouch de Vivo. Estén atentos a mi revisión completa, que saldrá pronto.
Over the past year, the sub-Rs. 40,000 smartphone segment has become crowded with plenty of options to choose from. Most of these smartphones are premium devices or “value flagships”, as they tend to offer top-tier performance and capture vastly better photos than lower-priced, mid-range phones. Their affordable price tags (compared to flagship smartphones) usually means that features such as an IP68 rating or wireless charging get the boot, although we have seen a few exceptions.
The Vivo V23 Pro seems to have graduated to the value-flagship segment, and the reason for this is its price, which starts at Rs. 38,990. That’s roughly Rs. 10,000 more than the Vivo V21. Compared to the previous Pro model, which was the V20 Pro (Review) launched back in 2020, the V23 Pro features several hardware upgrades such as a 108-megapixel rear camera, 50-megapixel front-facing camera, and front-facing LED flash for selfies. Is the Vivo V23 Pro a worthy upgrade to the V20 Pro, or does the competition offer better value? Let’s find out.
Vivo V23 Pro price in India
The Vivo V23 Pro is available in two variants. The base variant, which I received for this review, has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage and is priced at Rs. 38,990 in India. The top-end variant has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and is priced at Rs. 43,990. Both are available in two finishes – Stardust Black and Sunshine Gold.
Vivo V23 Pro design
The Sunshine Gold finish that I received is the snazzier of the two. The glass on the back is treated with a special paint that changes colour when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. The phone appears to have a gold finish indoors, but shifts to a rich blue (with hints of green) when used outdoors under direct sunlight. When using the V23 Pro indoors, you can get a glimpse of this hidden blue colour if the back of the phone faces a UV light source. The reactive layer retains its blue colour for a few minutes even after the phone is brought indoors, after which it gradually changes back to gold. It’s a neat trick and it works well. If this effect isn’t for you, the Stardust Black option has a plain subtle matte black finish.
The Vivo V23 Pro has a special paint that changes colour when exposed to direct sunlight
The back panel of the Vivo V23 Pro is made of a fluorite AG glass and has a matte finish that does a very good job of rejecting fingerprints. Just like the curved-edge glass on the front, this rear panel also curves along the left and right sides. The phone has a very narrow polycarbonate frame. This gives it a very slim appearance. It also looks delicate, but feels solid enough for regular use.
The Vivo V23 Pro features a slim design and is just 7.36mm thick.
Vivo has upgraded the V23 Pro’s display drastically, compared to the V20 Pro, from a flat AMOLED display to a curved-edge AMOLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate. There’s no hole-punch cutout; instead an iPhone-style notch houses the two front-facing selfie cameras. The bezel is quite narrow all around the display but Vivo has managed to squeeze in two LED flash units (which it calls Dual-tone Spotlight Flash) on the sides of the display notch. The earpiece speaker is almost invisible between the frame and display.
Vivo V23 Pro specifications and software
The Vivo V23 Pro uses the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC which we’ve often seen in lower-priced phones such as the Poco F3 GT (Review) and the OnePlus Nord 2 (Review). This is not the most competitive SoC in this segment anymore. The V23 Pro does not have any storage expansion option, which could also be a dealbreaker for some. There is a dual Nano-SIM tray and the phone supports 5G radios with dual-5G standby. The phone also supports Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi ac, and the usual satellite navigation systems. It has a 4,300mAh battery that can be charged quickly using the bundled 44W charger.
The V23 Pro is one of the first Vivo smartphones to come with Android 12 out of the box. It still has Vivo’s Funtouch OS 12 layer over it, and its design language seems to be a bit of a mismatch against Google’s Material You redesign. The new widgets for Drive, Conversations, etc feel out of place on the home screen with their bold outlines and fonts. Vivo has tried to blend some of the new privacy features such as the Privacy Dashboard and Permission Manager into Funtouch OS 12’s Settings app, but these still look out of place when you access them.
The Vivo V23 Pro runs Funtouch OS 12 which is based on Android 12
While the two design sensibilities don’t mix well, the Vivo V23 Pro does offer access to the Android 12’s privacy features. You get small audio and video indicators that pop up in the notifications area when the microphone or camera are being used. Apart from the Material You influence, there still are the familiar animated FunTouch widgets (that have trickled down from Origin OS). The new notifications tray and Quick Settings menu do not look like the ones on a Google Pixel running stock Android 12. The powerful new search functionality in the app drawer is missing, but notification history makes it, and you can access this by scrolling to the bottom of the notifications tray (after activating it in Settings).
Vivo has added a new Game Space app but it does nothing apart from showing how long you’ve played each game that’s installed. All the useful options you might expect can be accessed via a slide-out menu in-game, after activating the Ultra Game mode.
Vivo V23 Pro performance and battery life
The Vivo V23 Pro performed as expected in our standard benchmark tests. It scored 6,24,567 points in AnTuTu, along with 950 and 3,216 in Geekbench’s single and multi-core tests, respectively. These numbers are definitely on par with mid-range smartphones and are lower than what you’d get from similarly priced devices with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC, such as the Realme GT or the iQoo 7 Legend.
Gaming performance was quite good. I initially had my doubts given how slim this smartphone is, and the Vivo V23 Pro did get hot when playing Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends at the highest possible settings. However, it handled extended gaming sessions very well without any noticeable impact on performance. While Asphalt 9: Legends ran flawlessly with the 60fps mode enabled, Call of Duty was not very enjoyable as the display’s touch sensitivity was not able to keep up with the need to move and aim quickly to take enemies down. This noticeable delay resulted in plenty of lost tournaments. I even reduced the graphics quality to the minimum level, but the lag did not go away.
The Vivo V23 Pro has a single bottom-firing speaker which gets quite loud but sounds a bit distorted at high volume. A stereo speaker setup would have made audio more balanced and immersive (especially while playing games). The lack of stereo sound is unfortunate since nearly every smartphone competing in this price range offers this.
The Vivo V23 Pro has a 90Hz AMOLED panel with a medium-sized notch.
The AMOLED panel on the Vivo V23 Pro was quite good, showcasing bright, saturated colours, but it washed out a bit when viewed under direct sunlight. The 90Hz refresh rate seemed sufficient, but several competing smartphones have higher peak refresh rates. What makes this panel stand out is its curved edges. These were not not distracting in everyday use but the medium-sized notch did feel a bit odd given that most Android smartphones (above and below this price level) now have hole-punch cutouts that look neater and take up less space.
The battery life of the Vivo V23 Pro was surprisingly good for such a slim smartphone. It managed to last 12 hours and 7 minutes in our HD video loop test which is below average. With regular use, the phone lasted a full day on a single charge which is also not the best in this segment, so power users might want to look elsewhere. Charging the phone with the bundled 44W charger was quick. It managed a 65 percent charge in 30 minutes, and was fully charged in an hour.
Vivo V23 Pro cameras
For a fashion-forward smartphone, the Vivo V23 Pro is surprisingly packed to the gills with camera features. Both the front and rear cameras are capable of 4K 60fps recording. The front camera also supports HDR video recording, and has two LED flash units. There are three rear cameras and two front-facing cameras in all. There’s a 108-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera on the back.
The Vivo V23 Pro has three rear-facing cameras including a 108-megapixel primary camera
The front-facing camera setup includes a 50-megapixel primary with autofocus and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera for group selfies. The camera interface is well laid out and offers quick access to important settings through a menu in the top left corner (when held horizontally). One thing to keep in mind is that most of the special video features, such as Steadiface and Super Night, are limited to 1080p at 30fps. HDR video is also limited to 30fps (1080p and 4K) and Super Stabilisation mode only lets you record at 1080p 60fps.
Vivo V23 Pro daylight camera samples. Top: Primary camera, bottom: ultra-wide angle camera (Tap to see full size)
Photos taken with the 108-megapixel rear primary camera were saved as 12-megapixel photos. Shots taken in daylight turned out a bit oversaturated but with good detail and dynamic range. Samples from the ultra-wide angle camera were a bit below average in terms of detail and were only usable if shot in daylight. However, these were far from ideal in terms of quality as they had plenty of barrel distortion.
Vivo V23 Pro selfie camera samples. Top: Daylight, middle: Low light, bottom: With Spotlight flash (Tap to see full size)
The 50-megapixel selfie camera also saved binned 12-megapixel images by default. Selfies taken in daylight came out sharp and clear with good dynamic range and background separation. Switching to Portrait mode resulted in excellent edge detection and detail. This was also the case with the rear camera’s Portrait mode. Results from the ultra-wide-angle selfie camera were also surprisingly good and very usable compared to shots taken with the rear-facing ultra-wide camera. The 2-megapixel macro camera is potentially useful for extreme close-ups but shots come out just average in quality.
In low light, the primary rear camera captured good detail and dynamic range. Night mode shots looked better, with a bit more detail to scenes. Objects appeared sharper, and better contrast made the results look a bit more dramatic. However, there were several photos in which I noticed that some highlights were overexposed near street lamps and other sources of lighting. Photos taken with the ultra-wide angle camera using Night mode looked fine on the phone’s display but were low on detail when viewed on a monitor.
Vivo V23 Pro low light camera samples. Top: Auto mode, bottom: Night mode (Tap to see full size)
Selfies taken in low light looked sharper and more detailed when using the Spotlight flash as compared to the screen flash, which made faces look a bit harsh. However, neither of these options made photos look better than just average. Night mode also did not seem to help, as photos lacked depth and had very poor details. In most cases, it appeared that the primary selfie camera struggled to lock focus in low light, even with the flash enabled.
Moving to video, things were again a bit disappointing. Vivo has tried to cram in a lot of extra features but appears to have forgotten the basics. The phone managed its best quality video when shooting at 4K 30fps. 1080p videos seemed to have issues with detail even in broad daylight. Stabilisation was decent at best at 1080p but was non-existent when shooting video at 4K 60fps.
There is an ultra-stabilisation mode that makes video appear rock-steady when shooting, but the resolution is limited to 1080p 60fps, which also means that the quality wasn’t the best. Selfie videos at any resolution tended to overexpose the background when shooting in daylight. The HDR video mode brightened up subjects and backgrounds but these clips ended up looking overexposed at best with below-average detail. Vivo has introduced a stabilisation feature called Steadiface which works well both in daylight and low light, making footage appear smoother.
Low-light selfie videos were quite grainy. The Super Night video mode helped reduce noise to acceptable levels but at the cost of an…
