Vivo launched the latest version of its popular mid-range V-series of smartphones, the Vivo V25 Pro, which takes a lot from its predecessor and brings improvements with an aim to make the Vivo V25 Pro one of the most desirable mid-range smartphones in the country.
The Vivo V25 Pro has been launched with a lot of design similarities with its predecessor, the Vivo V23 Pro with things like a colour-changing back panel, a curved display, and more. However, there are a lot of changes as well, in order to come up with a better, more complete smartphone experience. In my review of the Vivo V23 Pro, I had said that it is a ‘colour changing smartphone that performs well.’ Will I have a similar point of view for the Vivo V25 Pro after my tests? Let’s find out!
DESIGN
Starting with design, the Vivo V25 Pro is a good looking smartphone. The smartphone has a 6.56-inch curved display, so it is not too big in size. The curved display adds a premium look to the Vivo V23 Pro, and there is a centrally-placed hole punch cutout on the curved panel – I prefer this over the notch on the previous Vivo V23 Pro.
The back panel is where the Vivo V25 Pro stands out in terms of design elements. First and foremost, there is the colour changing flourite AG glass that changes colour when exposed to UV light or sunlight. We got the Sailing Blue colour variant that changes into a dark shade of blue when exposed to UV light.
The camera module is also more symmetrical with a more squared design, and two larger lens cutouts, and one smaller in the two-tone camera module. Looks proportionate and good, and doesn’t make the phone wobble too much on a flat surface. With the Vivo V25 Pro, Vivo took the V23 Pro’s design and made some much–important changes that make the smartphone look much better and all the more proportionate.
DISPLAY
The Vivo V25 Pro has a 6.56-inch display with a full-HD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The display used on the Vivo V25 Pro is a Schott Xensation panel and the picture quality and details on this panel are pretty decent. The colour accuracy may not be as good as a Samsung panel, but this is every bit as good as an E4 display. The display on the Vivo V25 Pro is also one of the brightest in the segment with 1,300 nits of peak brightness.
The display is super responsive and super bright, making the Vivo V25 Pro a pleasure to use on a day-to-day basis. Watching content is also a good experience, the smartphone comes with HDR10+ support, so Netflix and other supported content looks quite nice.
PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY
The Vivo V25 Pro was launched with a MediaTek Dimensity 1300 chipset and comes paired with up to 12GB of RAM, with the option of an extra 8GB of virtual RAM. The Vivo V25 Pro is a good daily driver. The smartphone is snappy and the app loading times or start-up times or multitasking experience is similar to any other mid-range Android smartphone. We ran the AnTuTu benchmark, and the Vivo V25 Pro scored just over 700,000 points (700671), which is below the smartphone’s competitors like the Realme GT Neo 3T or the iQoo Neo 6. However, the Vivo V25 Pro stands ahead of the Google Pixel 6 and the Poco F4 in AnTuTu rankings.
The MediaTek Dimensity 1300 chipset on a Rs 35,000-plus smartphone is something that Vivo may be able to justify with significant quality in several other areas, but a lot of people will take that as a factor.
The gaming experience on the Vivo V25 Pro has been good. The smartphone runs games like Call of Duty: Mobile on a high FPS setting, and the game runs just fine on the highest setting. There was some heating up while playing games on the Vivo V25 Pro, but it was never unbearable. The gaming experience is pretty decent, but the curved display is a bit of an issue for hardcore smartphone gamers as it is prone to accidental touches or slips off the edge.
Coming to software, the Vivo V25 Pro runs on FunTouch OS 12 based on Android 12. The software experience is just average. While there are a few useful features that Vivo’s FunTouch OS offers, the experience is not worth it, as there are still a bunch of bloatware apps, some gestures are confusing, and there are a lot of permissions to go through. I did try installing a third-party launcher likeNova, and while it help with a cleaner Android experience, it did not support 120Hz and the refresh rate dropped down to 60Hz.
The battery on the smartphone is pretty decent as well. Throughout my usage, the Vivo V25 Pro gave me more than 6 hours of on-screen time. This is via the 4,380mAh battery on the Vivo V25 Pro. The smartphone also supports 66W fast charging, which, according to my test, charged the smartphone from zero to a full 100 percent in just over 1.5 hours.
CAMERA
Coming to optics, the Vivo V25 Pro has a triple rear camera setup that includes a 64-megapixel primary shooter, a wide-angle lens, and a 2-megapixel macro lens. Camera performance on the Vivo V25 Pro is pretty decent. The images from the primary shooter are sharp and detailed. The smartphone does overprocess the images slightly, but the results are quite stunning most times. In low light, the Vivo V25 Pro automatically switches to night, and at times blows up the light in images.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a good camera setup and it is easy to get a good-looking shot out of the Vivo V25 Pro. The portrait mode on this phone is pretty good, especially night portraits, where the images are sharp and don’t lose much detail in Vivo’s processing. It is a good camera.
However, Vivo’s software here needs a little bit of work. For example, I should be able to see what the main camera does without night mode, and there is a white balance shift in portrait mode at times which needs to be fixed (something also experienced with Vivo’s flagship X80 Pro).
VERDICT
The Vivo V25 Pro comes with a lot of improvements over its predecessor, the Vivo V23 Pro. The smartphone looks better while keeping the colour-changing design, and offers a more proportionate shape, and we have an improved rear camera with a better, brighter display. However, there are things that still make the Vivo V25 Pro tough to recommend. First and foremost is the over Rs 35,000 price. While there is a certain premium feel to the Vivo V25 Pro, it is still tough to justify this kind of a price tag with a MediaTek Dimensity 1300 chipset. The most expensive smartphone with this chipset after the Vivo V25 Pro is the Oppo Reno 8, which is priced at Rs 29,999 onwards in India.
However, with things like a premium display, a good camera, and a colour-changing design, the Vivo V25 Pro does offer things that other devices in its range don’t.
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