Vivo V23 Pro Review: Vivo X70 Pro's affordable little brother

Vivo recently launched two new smartphones: the Vivo V23 and the Vivo V23 Pro, in India. While the phones are not the flagship killer every new smartphone tries to be these days, the V23 Pro is a good mid-segment flagship smartphone with a sleek design and a few unique tricks up its sleeve.

Vivo V23 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC, which is a good chipset with decent performance and 5G support. The device also comes with a 90Hz refresh rate display, goods cameras and more. I have been using the Vivo V23 Pro for a few weeks and will be sharing my experience with the device here.

Vivo V23 Pro: Design

Vivo V23 Pro has been launched in two colour options: Sunshine Gold and Stardust Black. While a lot of you might be interested in the colour changing Sunshine Gold variant, I personally liked the Stardust Black variant we got for review. The Gold variant has a light gold tinge to it and as soon as you expose it to UV light, the glass changes colour to a shade of green, which looks good.

The Stardust Black colour variant looks elegant especially as it shines under the sunlight like pearl metallic paint on a luxury car.

Moving on from the colour options, the device is also differentiated with the help of the wide camera bump on the back, dual front camera, a notch and a curved display.

The combination of a metal frame and a glass back gives the smartphone a durable and premium feel. The smartphone is very comfortable to hold and use, thanks to the curved edges. The curved front and back panel gives the feel of a flagship smartphone.

The power button is located on the right edge which feels pretty small thanks to the curved front and back panels. Above it are the volume rockers. The top edge sports a secondary microphone and a “PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY” tag. These small touches show that the company put some thought into making the smartphone. The bottom edge features a primary speaker, a USB Type-C port, and the SIM card tray.

Vivo V23 Pro: Display

Vivo V23 Pro sports a 6.56-inch full HD+ AMOLED display with a variable refresh rate of up to 90Hz, an aspect ratio of 19.8:9 and a 398ppi pixel density. The display also supports HDR 10+ content and comes with a Schott Xensation α glass for protection.

The 90Hz adaptive refresh rate offers users a smooth and seamless viewing experience. The adaptive refresh rate option ensures the battery life is not affected much. You still have the option to lock the refresh rate at 60Hz or 90Hz. I found the display of the Vivo V23 Pro to be vivid, bright, and it offers a lot of clarity. Playing games or watching content on the device was a pleasure, especially while watching HDR10+ content.

Under direct sunlight, the smartphone offered a good viewing experience. It got bright enough to stay legible without the need for me to cover the display. In dark environments, the display also managed to provide a good experience. Touch rejection on the curved edges was a bit janky, but it was fixed with an update that was already there when I got the smartphone for review.

Vivo V23 Pro: Software

Vivo V23 Pro runs Google’s Android 12 operating system with the company’s Funtouch 12 skin on top. The user experience remains quite similar to most other Vivo smartphones available in the market. The system is quite customisable out of the box. I do have some gripes with the Vivo operating system, which I think should be improved for a better user experience.

Just after I set up the phone, there was a notification of background usage warning for 2 apps as soon as I landed on the home screen. The phone wants to tell me the setup procedure apps are taking a lot of power. Then it immediately tried to connect to my smart TV without asking me.

Every time I restart the smartphone, it tries to connect to all smart TVs turned on, which are on the same wireless network. The Quick Settings UI has a lot of wasted space, and feels as if it is pulled directly from Android 11 and not Android 12.

The default music app automatically tries to play music but as it finds no audio files, it throws a notification of a music player greyed out. This along with random app crashes and the amount of bloatware really felt like the software is undercooked and needs a lot of work.

While some drawbacks are there, the UI is not completely useless and does feature a lot of nifty features that I liked a lot.

Vivo V23 Pro: Performance

The device does not pack the latest, top of the line chipset, but the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 is still a powerful chipset. Combine that with the 8GB RAM, which makes it quite a beast.

The device could easily manage itself during our multi-browser test. I opened three different browsers with around 30 tabs each, and the phone was able to handle all of them very well. In our multitasking test too, the Vivo V23 Pro showed great results. I opened 10 more apps and continuously shifted from one to another and found 1-2 apps removed from the background and only around half the tabs closed. This is a really good performance. Part of it might be due to the phone’s ability to utilise a part of unused storage as Virtual RAM.

In daily usage, the device was pretty smooth and fluid to use. I used the phone to make calls, watch Netflix, chat with friends, browse Instagram, play a few games, listen to music and more. The Vivo V23 Pro could handle it all really well.

While playing games on the device for long durations, the phone managed to offer good performance and also maintained its cool. The phone did warm up a bit, but it never turned hot enough for me to leave it aside to cool down. I played multiple games on it including BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile, Genshin Impact, and more. All of them ran smoothly with no lags at any point. The only problem was the games did not trigger to 90Hz when the refresh rate was set to adaptive.

Vivo V23 Pro: Cameras

Vivo V23 Pro sports a triple camera setup on the back consisting of a 108-megapixel primary sensor paired with an 8-megapixel ultra wide angle lens and a 2-megapixel macro lens. On the front, there is a 50-megapixel front camera along with an 8-megapixel wide angle front camera.

Seeing dual front cameras are rare nowadays, but what’s even rarer is a dedicated front flash for selfies. Even rarer are two dual-tone front flashes at each side of the top flanking the dual front cameras on both sides.

The rear 108-megapixel sensor is designed to bin the images into 12-megapixel stills. The images come out to be brighter than natural with increased saturation and sharpness. The details are also very good thanks to a bigger image being binned into a smaller one. You can also select the high-resolution mode to take full 108-megapixel shots that look more natural and have way more detail. The ultra wide angle lens also provides good shots, while the 2-megapixel macro sensor is quite a waste of space.

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The 50-megapixel selfie camera takes incredible shots with vivid colours and great detail. The inclusion of a dual physical flash on the front makes sure the selfie party doesn't stop even when the sun goes down.

Overall the camera experience of the Vivo V23 Pro is next to none. If you are fond of photos, the Vivo V23 Pro won’t disappoint, especially in the selfie department.

Vivo V23 Pro: Battery

Vivo V23 Pro is backed by a 4,300mAh battery with a lot of optimisations that make the device easily last for a day of heavy usage, which includes hours of gaming, viewing content, scrolling through social media, taking images and more. With less aggressive usage I was able to use the device for two full days.

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If the phone were to run out of charge in the middle of the day, there’s nothing to worry about as the device comes with support for 44W fast charging. The fast charger was able to charge the phone from 0 to 100 percent within 60 minutes and 0 to 65 percent in around 30 minutes.

Should you buy Vivo V23 Pro?

Starting at Rs 38,990 for the 8GB RAM/128GB storage model and priced at Rs 43,900 for the 12GB RAM/256GB storage option, the phone seems a bit expensive. It brings good camera performance with features like two front-facing flashes. The performance and the battery life is also great. However, the software experience is a bit off-putting.

If you can make do with the software nuances, you will be surprised at how good this mid-range smartphone is. Especially the camera. If you are looking for a great camera smartphone or need something to focus on your Instagram selfies, the Vivo V23 Pro could be your perfect companion.