vivo V70 review

Great main camera and excellent selfies

The V70's camera setup is essentially unchanged compared to that of the V60, itself using more or less the same hardware as the supposedly more upmarket X200 FE. It's looking like a balanced setup with two competent if not remarkable modules on the back (plus the ultrawide) and a slightly more objectively exciting selfie camera.

The main camera is using a 50MP 1/1.56" Sony sensor - an okay size that's a notch or two below the flagships, but certainly not out of place in this vivo's class. It's paired with a 23mm equivalent lens with an f/1.9 aperture and optical image stabilization.

The telephoto's sensor is also in the upper-midrange territory - the 50MP 1/1.95 Sony IMX 882 goes by LYT-600 too, depending on who you ask. It's placed behind a 73mm lens with an f/2.65 aperture and OIS. This lens wouldn't focus all too close - we got to about 49cm in Photo mode, while the Pro mode only starts at 65cm.

The ultrawide camera continues to look almost like an afterthought in the above company - with an 8MP sensor and a fixed focus lens, it's hardly the most versatile implementation of its kind.

• Wide (main): 50MP Sony IMX 766 (1/1.56", 1.0µm-2.0µm); 23mm, f/1.88, OIS, multi-directional PDAF (9cm - ∞); 4K60 video recortding.
• Telephoto: 50MP Sony IMX 882 (LYT-600, 1/1.95", 0.8µm-1.6µm); 73mm (3x zoom), f/2.65, OIS, multi-directional PDAF (49cm - ∞, though Pro mode starts at 65cm); 4K60.
• Ultrawide: 8MP OmniVision OV08F (1/4.0", 1.12µm); 15mm, f/2.2, fixed focus; 1080p30.
• Front camera: 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1 (S5KJN1, 1/2.76", 0.64µm-1.28µm); 20mm, f/2.0, PDAF; 4K60.

Over on the front, however, the specs are pretty great. Once again, vivo is using the 50MP Samsung JN1 sensor, paired with a wide angle lens with autofocus - there aren't many selfie cameras that have better hardware than that.

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

The V70's main camera captures great photos in daylight. They have excellent contrast, but also well developed tonal extremes. White balance is dependable and colors have that characteristic vivo pop that's easy to like without becoming offensive. Detail is very good and there's not a ton of sharpening, though it has a bit of a digital look and some grain too.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x)

People shots also have great colors and dynamic range, but in our experience the vivo is doing something questionable with facial detail - we don't insist on counting pores, but there's a bit of a softness that we don't quite appreciate. The Portrait mode features Zeiss lenses simulation profiles, so you can have a number of specific bokeh renditions.

Human subjects, main camera: Photo mode, 1x • Portrait mode, 23mm • Portrait mode, 35mm

Here's how a few of the scenes would look if shot in the nominal 50MP resolution - we're not fans of the results.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 50MP

The 2x zoom level results are also not particularly great looking.

Daylight samples, main camera (2x)

Still, that's your best option for taking closeups, given the relatively long minimum focusing distance of the telephoto. Again, not amazing, but decent photos overall.

Close-up samples, main camera, 2x

The 2x zoom photos of human subjects maintain the excellent global properties - it's just that they're not particularly sharp. Then again, they weren't particularly sharp at 1x to begin with.

Human subjects, main camera: Photo mode, 2x • Portrait mode, 50mm

Telephoto camera

The telephoto camera's 3x zoom photos have a distinctly pixelated digital rendition of random fine detail or slanted lines that's not particularly pleasing. That aside, they maintain the overall lively look, delivering vibrant colors and great contrast.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x)

That artificial rendition continues into portraiture, so if you look too closely, you probably won't be thrilled with the detail quality - the detail is there, it's just not nicely rendered. Skin tones and colors overall aren't half bad though, and dynamic range is also very good, typically, though particularly harsh lighting will get you burnt highlights in certain conditions.

It's worth pointing out that even though the telephoto camera's native focal length is 73mm, there's no Portrait mode zoom level at that focal length - it's 85mm and 100mm instead.

Human subjects, telephoto camera: Photo mode, 3x • Portrait mode, 85mm • Portrait mode, 100mm

Again, there's not much point in the 50MP mode - all you're getting is a further exaggeration of the jaggies.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x), 50MP

In a similar development to the 1x-2x situation, the 5.8x 12.5MP images look very much the same at 1:1 as the 3x 50MP ones - so not particularly great.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (5.8x)

Then there's the 10x zoom level, where you get heavily processed AI-enhanced images. They're not strictly "photos" and random detail looks wonky, but straight lines are straight and it could work for the right kind of subject and use case.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (10x)

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide camera will get you meh images, even in bright daylight. Random textures are mushy, particularly in the shadows of contrasty scenes, but also in general, really. Dynamic range and colors are pretty good, though, but we're wondering if that's enough.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x)

Selfies

Going from underwhelming straight to praiseworthy as we take a look at the V70's selfies. The images are nicely sharp and detailed, skin tones are lifelike and colors are looking good (a touch more saturation wouldn't hurt though). Dynamic range is great too.

The autofocus ensures sharp closeups too, while the wide focal length will easily accommodate larger groups.

Selfie samples

Low-light photo quality

Main camera

The main camera's 1x low-light photos are excellent. Exposures are well judged giving you detail in the shadows while also preserving bright light sources. White balance is accurate and colors have no weird casts or loss of saturation. There's a bit of a grain structure to detail, but there's plenty of it and it's not artificially rendered. Not much to complain here.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x)

Zooming in to 2x, however, there's heaps of sharpening and an overall lack of fine detail. If you're only going to be looking at these on the phone's screen or sharing them online at 2MP, they're fine - otherwise, not great.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x)

Telephoto camera

The telephoto's pixelated detail rendition continues into the night, but if you're not too nitpicky about that, you'll probably be quite happy with its results. There's plenty of detail after all, dynamic range is wide, and colors are excellent.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (3x)

The 10x photos are an interesting ensemble of rough shapes rather than actually detailed photos. Still, at fit to screen zoom level, you probably would find them adequate.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (10x)

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide's low-light photos are soft and jagged, and are also best left without pixel-level examination. From afar, however, everything looks nice - colors and dynamic range are good.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.5x)

Video quality

The V70 can record video up to 4K60 with its three 50MP cameras - the two rear ones and the selfie camera. The 8MP ultrawide maxes out at 1080p resolution and it can't go above 30fps either. There's no Pro video mode, no 24fps frame rate option, and no HDR recording capability. You do still get to choose between the h.264 and h.265 (HEVC) codecs.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

The V70's main camera captures pretty great 4K30 footage. Detail is very good, dynamic range is excellent, colors are a touch warm but very likeable nonetheless. The 2x mode is noticeably softer, though still usable, depending on your application. The telephoto's results are also quite good - global properties are top-notch, it's only detail that is not quite the sharpest and there's some grain mixed in as well. The ultrawide's 1080p videos are alright.

Vivo V70 video screengrabs, daylight: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x

At night, the main camera's clips are quite praiseworthy in terms of sharpness and we wouldn't say that the shadow noise takes away from that. Exposure and dynamic range are also easy to like and colors are great too. The telephoto isn't too good - there's plenty of noise and a prevalent softness. The ultrawide's clips are decent for what they are, just don't expect miracles.

Vivo V70 video screengrabs, low light: 0.6x • 1x • 2x • 3x

There's optional electronic video stabilization for all quality settings and there's also an Ultra stabilization option for the main camera in 1080p30 only. The regular stabilization does a good to very good job - it can generally stabilize walking shake well, though it does exhibit the occasional focus hunt in those circumstances. When shooting from a fixed position you can expect stable clips and smooth pans. The telephoto is ever so slightly more nervous than we'd like but still quite good.