There’s no doubt that with a color-changing Sunshine Gold variant besides the usual black, the Vivo V23 5G is a compelling choice for those of us who treat a smartphone as part of our OOTD [outfit of the day], as we inferred in our review of the said V23 series model.
But what about for those who are after a handset’s camera prowess? Could the V23 5G be for them?Today, we’ll talk more about the phone’s ability to create content or capture memories.
Vlog and blog with style
One of the main attractions of the Vivo V23 is its vlogging capabilities, with the company touting its latest V series model as a smartphone designed for content creators and vloggers who use the selfie camera as often as the rear-facing one. And the company definitely follows through with that claim on the hardware end.
On the back is a 64-megapixel main camera capable of delivering a clean 2x zoom in most situations. That camera sits alongside an 8-megapixel ultrawide-angle shooter and a 2-megapixel tertiary unit for macro shots. Flip the device around, and you’ll find two front cameras — one primary camera with a 50-megapixel sensor and another 8-megapixel one fitted with an ultrawide lens.
It’s been a while since we last saw a non-Pro V series phone with a dual-camera setup on the front. Both the standard V20 and V21 have a single 44-megapixel sensor for taking selfies. And while not bad by any stretch, getting a dedicated secondary camera for group shots and more demanding scenarios is always a welcome feature on a smartphone, especially if the said handset is built for shooting video.
There’s still more room for other people (selfie with Stars style applied)
There, group selfies! First picture is taken in Auto mode, while the others have different styles applied
There’s another notable selfie trick here, and it’s definitely one of our favorite things about this model. There’s a dual front-facing flash on opposite sides of the top bezel that helps you take brighter, more even selfies in low light. You can use them together with Vivo’s Portrait Style options to produce stylish selfies without the need for external lighting.
Dual front-facing flash fired (1x and ultrawide)
You can use the dual front-facing flash together with Vivo’s Portrait Style options — seen in this screen recording — to produce stylish selfies without the need for external lighting
And yes, the Vivo V23 5G generally delivers crisp and natural-looking shots both when outdoors and under artificial lights indoors. It brings a proper Night mode for selfies as well. But unless you absolutely need to take a photo in an extremely dark environment, you probably don’t need it — as you can see below. Vivo’s pixel-binning technology should be enough to gather the data needed to make your picture look bright and sharp when the lighting is far from ideal.
Night mode enabled (1x and ultrawide)
Auto mode enabled (1x and ultrawide)
More sample selfies (mixed, some with styles applied). Click on a thumbnail to launch the gallery
Vivo’s useful Steadiface video mode from the V20 Pro returns. This feature tracks your face while shooting a video and stabilizes your shot based on the movement of your face, reducing motion blur in the process. This makes the device an even more attractive choice for vloggers who talk in front of the camera, as it will allow them to walk or move while shooting. Watch the video below, where we compare a clip taken with Steadiface enabled with one where we turned off the function.
Packed back
We already included plenty of sample photos taken with the Vivo V23 5G’s rear camera system in the review we published in February. But we’d like to share more pictures here, because we’d like to emphasize that two months after, we still stand by what we previously said: that the smartphone takes “good to great pictures and video under various conditions.” Indeed, our thoughts about it haven’t changed after spending extra time with our review unit.
Starting with daylight performance, the V23 captures detailed pictures with vibrant colors, decent highlights, and satisfying dynamic range at its price point. The Super Macro mode is serviceable, too, and we like that the V23 lets you snap an image close to the lens without losing focus.
Taken with the rear camera. Click on a thumbnail to launch the gallery
We love the portraits out of the main sensor, as they don’t look too heavily processed after the shot. The edge detection is also precise and accurate, even in dim lighting. In the images below, you can see that the phone did a fantastic job of identifying the subject and background and making the former stand out while the rest of the scene is smoothly blurred.
Portraits (daytime and nighttime)
Should you give Vivo’s latest camera phone a shot?
Priced at P27,999 (roughly $535) in the Philippines, the Vivo V23 5G is a good midrange choice for users who want a unique, convenient-to-use, and responsive 5G phone. It’s not the fastest or longest-lasting model in its class, as we noted in our review, but it also doesn’t fall behind the competition either. Having said that, consider the V23 primarily for its imaging performance and vlogging capabilities, because those are the areas where it shines the brightest. Otherwise, there are cheaper and faster models to consider in 2022.
Consider the Vivo V23 5G primarily for its imaging performance and vlogging capabilities, because those are the areas where it shines the brightest
Where to buy the Vivo V23 5G online
Vivo V23 5G specs
- 6.44-inch AMOLED display, FHD+ resolution, 90Hz refresh rate
- 6nm octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 920 processor with 5G
- Mali-G68 MC4 GPU
- 12GB RAM
- 256GB storage
- Triple 64-megapixel main, 8-megapixel ultra-wide, 2-megapixel macro rear cameras
- Dual 50-megapixel main, 8-megapixel ultra-wide front cameras
- Under-display optical fingerprint reader
- 4,200mAh battery with 44-watt USB-C charging
- Funtouch OS 12 based on Android 11
- Color options: Sunshine Gold and Stardust Black
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