Vivo V50e first impression: A camera-centric mid-ranger with slight upgrades

Vivo V50e first impression: After launching Vivo V50 in India, the company is back with another V series smartphone, the Vivo V50e, which brings new features and upgrades to the camera. This year, the company has put the main focus on portrait and wedding photography, which it says are based on their customer demand. Therefore, the Vivo V50e retains the similar processors, but with some minor tweaks to the camera, battery, and design. While launching a new V series model every six months did not make much sense, but some upgrades are worth mentioning.

I have been using the Vivo V50e for the past 10 days to test its camera capabilities, any improvements to the performance, and the hyped new design. While I did not find a significant upgrade from theprevious generation model, there are a few points where the Vivo V50e shines in the mid-range segment. Therefore, here’s my first impression of the Vivo V50e.

Also read: Vivo X200 Ultra’s photography kit unveiled with seven smart features ahead of official launch

Vivo V50e first impression: Design and display

The Vivo V50e has a new yet similar-looking design to the predecessor. It comes in two colour options, the Sapphire Blue with glow-like texture on the rear panel and a Pearl White variant which has a water-like effect. It retains the plastic build with a vertically placed pill-shaped camera module, housing a bigger AI Aura Light Portrait 2.0 and a separate circular section housing two camera sensors. Vivo has also upgraded the smartphone’s durability with IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance ratings. Overall, the design is pretty much the same, just with a few new additions.

For display, the V50e retains a similar 6.77-inch curved AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate with 1800nits peak brightness. Well, Vivo never disappoints when it comes to the viewing experience. With a bigger screen, you can enjoy watching content with vibrant colors, but this time, there is a slight oversaturation that you may notice while watching YouTube videos.

Also read: Vivo V50 Pro spotted on Geekbench with Dimensity 9300+ chipset: Here’s what and when to expect

Vivo V50e first impression: Camera

For the camera, the Vivo V50e comes with the same dual-camera setup, housing a 50MP main camera with a Sony IMX882 sensor and OIS support. It retains the aperture size of f/1.79-inch. It also comes with an 8MP ultrawide camera. One of the major attractions for V50e is the new Sony Multifocal Portrait that provides three focal lengths of 1x (24 mm), 1.5x (35 mm) and 2x (50 mm).

During the testing period, I captured several portraits, and I quite liked the effect with 35mm mode. It perfectly captures the subject and background without blurring the entire scene but also bringing great focus to the subject. The colours appear vibrant, and the detailing is up to perfection. However, we have yet to test the new wedding studio portraits. The Vivo V50e makes a great smartphone for portrait images, and it beautifully captures the scene without making it look artificial.

Also read: vivo V50 arrives in India: A feature-packed smartphone for everyday excellence

Vivo V50e first impression: Performance

Yet again, the Vivo V50e is powered by a similar MediaTek Dimensity 7300 paired with 8GB RAM. As last year’s Vivo V40e, the V50e also provided an impressive performance at the price. During day-to-day usage, the smartphone did not stutter or exhibit any struggles. The gaming experience was also smooth at the minimal graphics setting.

While it retains the same chipset, Vivo has included some new AI features such as AI Expander, AI Transcript Assist, AI Note Assisting, AI Screen Translation, and my favourite, the AI Eraser 2.0. It's quite amusing to see Vivo bringing advanced AI capabilities to budget-conscious buyers, allowing their audience to take advantage of all the latest tech without emptying their pockets.

Vivo V50e first impression: Battery

In terms of battery life, the Vivo V50e is backed by a 5600mAh battery, a slight upgrade from last year's model. There are some areas where Vivo knows how to impress users, and one of these areas is the never-ending battery life. The Vivo V50e easily lasts the entire day and more with a single charge. The fast charging has also been upgraded from 80W to 90W FlashCharge. Vivo also promises 4 years of battery health.

Therefore, as of now, the Vivo V50e checks all the boxes, but we need to have more in-depth testing of the camera and other AI features to know if it is worthy of an upgrade.