Introduction
We're only a few days into 2022, and vivo is already on a roll with its announcements. January 5, in particular, saw both the unveiling of the vivo V23 5G and V23 Pro, as well the eagerly-anticipated iQOO 9 and iQOO 9 Pro. Seeing how they are an exciting flagship duo, the latter two naturally soaked up most of the spotlight. However, the two new additions to the V23 family are just as interesting, if not even more so, as solid mid-rangers with slick designs and a few particular tricks to make them stand out.
While we do plan on putting both phones through our in-depth review process, we're kicking things off with the V23 Pro, which according to our statistics, seems to be the more interesting handset of the two. It is a little bigger than its sibling, packs a more powerful Dimensity 1200 5G chipset and a higher-resolution main camera. Other than that, specs-wise, the V23 Pro and V23 are actually surprisingly similar.
vivo V23 Pro specs at a glance:
- Body: 159.5x73.3x7.4mm, 171g; Glass front (Schott Xensation α), glass back.
- Display: 6.56" AMOLED, 90Hz, HDR10+, 1080x2376px resolution, 19.8:9 aspect ratio, 398ppi.
- Chipset: MediaTek MT6893 Dimensity 1200 5G (6 nm): Octa-core (1x3.0 GHz Cortex-A78 & 3x2.6 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G77 MC9.
- Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM.
- OS/Software: Android 12, Funtouch 12.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 108 MP, f/1.9, 26mm, 1/1.52", 0.7µm PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 120-degree, 16mm, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 2 MP, f/2.4.
- Front camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/2.0, AF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.3, 105-degree.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 4300mAh; Fast charging 44W, 1-63% in 30 min (advertised).
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); Color changing back panel when exposed to sunlight.
In fact, oddly enough, the two devices seem to have some major differences, particularly in design, while also somehow managing to be quite similar to one another and pretty distinct from most other phones out there. Vivo deserves plenty of praise for that achievement alone.
Both the V23 Pro and V23 share a similar silhouette, including a recognizable camera island, despite the fact that the V23 Pro has a larger and quite curved AMOLED display that also necessitates thinner and curvier sides, while the vanilla V23 is rocking a much wider and bigger, nearly flat middle frame with a flat display.
Left: vivo V23 * Right: vivo V23 Pro
Then there is the extra "flair" that is also shared between the V23 Pro and V23 and sets them apart in a crowd. It is actually twofold. First, there is the signature Sunshine Gold color variant. It features a special UV-reactive dye that noticeably changes color when exposed to sunlight or any other UV light. It ties together the overall elegant design vivo has going on and literally provides some unique flair. On the other hand, both the V23 Pro and V23 are clearly geared towards videography, particularly selfie vlogging. Both have the same dual selfie setup, featuring a high-resolution 50MP camera with autofocus and 4K video capture, as well as an 8MP ultrawide and two dedicated LED selfie lights.
Put the two together, and you get nothing short of a unique and distinct 2022 mid-ranger. In fact, vivo somehow managed to craft two "flavors" of essentially the same formula without taking away from either phone in any obvious way. Impressive stuff. Let's dive into the V23 Pro first to see if it all works as well as it looks on paper.
Unboxing and accessories
The vivo V23 Pro comes in a thick and solid two-piece cardboard box. Vivo clearly didn't skimp on the packaging, nor the accessories. Not only does the box offer great protection, complete with a solid plastic cradle for the phone on the inside, but it also looks eye-catching with a dark blue aesthetic and a bit of a sparkling coating on top.
Inside the box, you get one of vivo's 44W FlashCharge adapters and a USB Type-A to Type-C cable. Beyond that, you also get a full accessory package, including a plastic, transparent TPU case and a pair of nice, white, corded vivo earbuds with an inline microphone and button and a 3.5mm jack essentially. The keen-eyed among you might notice there is no 3.5mm jack on the V23 Pro. For that very reason, vivo has also thrown in a Type-C to 3.5mm audio dongle in the box.
Design
The vivo V23 Pro is an unquestionably stylish device. vivo has been betting on pretty thin designs lately. At 7.4mm, the V23 Pro is pretty thin, plus the curved display and back panel and thin middle frame make the phone look and feel thinner still.
It is worth noting that due to its aggressively-curved sides and relatively smooth frame, with no strong edges or chamfers, the V23 Pro doesn't exactly sit confidently in the hand. In fact, it is quite slippery. The included transparent TPU case addresses these handling woes effectively, but you do have to give up on the particular feel of the back panel. The panel is covered with Fluorite AG Glass and has a sort of soft yet sandy feel, reminiscent of the Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G Dimensity model's rear panel. The vivo logo is also kind of embossed, which is a nifty little detail.
While the finish on the backside is likely to be polarizing in terms of feel, the fact that it doesn't get greasy or otherwise dirty easily should be universally appreciated.
Of course, we can't discuss the back of the vivo V23 Pro without talking about its "party trick" - the UV reactive paint job. It should be noted that just the signature Sunshine Gold color is UV reactive. That's the unit we got for review, too. The other Stardust Black variant still has the sandy feel but does not change colors, making it a bit more understated overall.
Plus, there is a small detail to potentially consider - the camera island on the Stardust Black is, for some reason, not treated with the same UV-reactive paint as the rest of the back and does not change color, which can look a bit weird at times.
Speaking of weird, the color change itself can fall under that category. The "native" Sunshine Gold color is only really gold under more intense UV-free lighting. In a dim room with just natural light coming in from a window (which does filter out UV), the color is a lot "duller" and not as vibrant, like a pale grey or silver, with some greenish and blueish tones coming through, depending on how the light hits it. It's a pretty complex mix of hues, and that is also the case in UV light after the color has changed to what is mostly blue, but with some green and yellow showing through on occasion and depending on the angle. It is kind of meant to play with your mind and does that really well.
vivo V23 Pro Sunshine Gold in original color • vivo V23 Pro Sunshine Gold after color change
The color change itself can take anywhere from under a minute to a few minutes, both going to and from the UV blue state depending on how much UV light is present. You can often end up with a mid-way change in some environments, like on a cloudy day and never get all the way to the proper "blue" color.
Left: vivo V23 Pro * Right: vivo V23
Naturally, you can play around with the process quite a bit simply by covering parts of the back panel as it changes. Unless you are in a controlled environment, though, don't bet on any temporary "customization" sticking around consistently, like a stencil of a logo or something. And also, be prepared to look at a not-so-pleasing random "artsy" design for a while after holding your phone as you walk into or away from the sun.
As long as we are sharing random thoughts on the UV-reactive paint, we have to wonder how well the effect will hold up in time and whether multiple change cycles or prolonged UV exposure might make a difference to the longevity of the effect one way or another. All things considered, though, it is a really cool party trick that even works fairly well through the included TPU case, which is neat. And if you are not into it at all, you can always just slap a solid case on the V23 Pro and forget it was ever a thing.
Circling to the front of the V23 Pro for just a bit, the design is quite "modern", perhaps even going a bit overboard, particularly due to the aggressive curvature of the display.
Left: vivo V23 * Right: vivo V23 Pro
To be fair, though, the display itself doesn't extend all the way into the curvature, and there are some fairly-wide bezels on all sides. Nothing distracting or off-putting, but still noticeably-big.
The same pretty much goes for the selfie notch. Even though it houses two snappers, vivo has managed to keep its size quite reasonable and blend it in well with the rest of the design.
Materials and build quality
In terms of construction, vivo V23 Pro uses a standard "sandwich" setup, with a middle frame sandwiched between a glass back panel and a curved display on the front. It feels sturdy and well made, with practically no flex. Tipping the scale at 171 grams, it is actually a bit light for its size.
We think that the small size of the middle frame on the V23 Pro contributes at least a bit to its overall lightness. That and the fact that best we managed to tell, it is actually not metal, but rather a polycarbonate. Vivo doesn't seem to admit this outright in its official specs but does specifically mention that the frame of the vanilla vivo V23 is made of metal, which definitely suggests that the one on the V23 Pro isn't. There are other hints here and there as well, like looking into the housing around the Type-C port reveals a black material. The same goes around the SIM tray once ejected. Plus, the top bezel on the V23 Pro features a particular groove with a glass or plastic insert and some writing on that. We can only assume it's there purely for style, and accommodating it with a metal frame would have taken a lot of effort.
Plastic or not, the middle frame both feels and looks great. It even pulls off a metal finish quite successfully. We do have to note, though, that on our unit, the finish was bad on the SIM tray for some reason and even had some chips in the paint.
Vivo actually went with Schott as its vendor for protective glass on the V23 Pro. You get Schott Xensation α glass on the front and Fluorite AG Glass on the back panel. Schott might not be nearly as well-known as Corning in the space but is a quite reputable source for protective glass finish nonetheless. The Xensation α is actually its latest flagship product that even claims to rival Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus. It is a step up from the Xensation Up used in the vanilla vivo V23 as well as the vivo X60 Pro and X70 Pro.
One unfortunate omission on the V23 Pro is any formal ingress protection rating. Not even the basic IP53. There is an obvious rubber gasket on the SIM tray, for what that's worth.
Controls
The vivo V23 Pro has a pretty straightforward control scheme. You get a power button and a volume rocker on the right side in terms of physical buttons. These are well positioned and easy to feel out of but are a bit mushy and don't offer nice tactile feedback. They are still usable but could be a lot better.
The V23 Pro has an optical under-display fingerprint reader. It is quite snappy and reliable. We have no complaints about it.
The left frame on the V23 Pro is completely empty, and the top frame just houses a single hole for the secondary microphone. It is placed inside the plastic or glass insert on the top frame, which we mentioned earlier. It's not an accent you see too often.
The bottom of the V23 Pro houses its dual Nano-SIM card slot. It lacks a microSD card slot, which is a bit of a bummer.
Speaking of bummers, there is just a single bottom-firing speaker on the V23 Pro. No stereo setup, not even a hybrid one. There is no 3.5mm audio jack either. And since we are on the topic - no FM radio or NFC either. The Type-C port is wired for USB 2.0 data speeds but does support OTG.
In case you were wondering, there is no notification LED on the V23 Pro, even though there is plenty of space in the double-wide selfie notch. That's kind of the expected situation with modern phones, though. vivo still decided to fit a proper proximity sensor and a light sensor somewhere in there, both of which are appreciated as opposed to virtual alternatives.
We do still like the way the earpiece is neatly hidden away above the selfie cameras and just has a tiny little slit for sound to come through. Of course, we shouldn't forget to mention the two dual-tone LED "torches" for selfies, also hidden away near the top left and right edges. These are invisible while turned off as well.
90Hz, HDR10+ AMOLED panel
Aside from the color-changing back panel, the aggressively-curved display is probably the most striking feature of the vivo V23 Pro. The AMOLED panel in use here is decent, though not exactly spectacular. It has a perfectly-sharp 1080 x 2376-pixel resolution, which works out to around 398 ppi.
We measured 463 nits of maximum brightness on the slider - decent but far from amazing. The V23 Pro does have a light meter that offers precise readings and automatic brightness. The latter works great and can boost the maximum brightness to 798 nits. That's a lot better and makes the V23 Pro perfectly usable outdoors.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 846 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 846 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 814 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 800 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 798 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 798 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 794 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 787 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 748 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 725 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 716 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 659 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 657 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 634 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 633 | ∞ | |
| 0.366 | 536 | 1464:1 | |
| 0.4 | 534 | 1335:1 | |
| 0 | 525 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 514 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 511 | ∞ | |
| 0.33 | 510 | 1545:1 | |
| 0 | 498 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 498 | ∞ | |
| 0.338 | 497 | 1470:1 | |
| 0 | 477 | ∞ | |
| 0.4 | 477 | 1193:1 | |
| 0 | 463 | ∞ | |
| 0.327 | 458 | 1401:1 | |
| 0 | 458 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 457 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 438 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 437 | ∞ | |
| 0.286 | 426 | 1490:1 | |
| 0.28 | 413 | 1475:1 | |
| 0.264 | 410 | 1553:1 | |
| 0 | 396 | 1494:1 | |
| 0 | 393 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 386 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 383 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 378 | ∞ | |
Color accuracy is also decent on the V23 Pro, but not amazing. You get a choice between a total of three color modes - standard, bright and professional. Both Standard and Bright target the DPI-P3 color space. Neither manages to hit deltaE value anywhere near what we would consider color-accurate. Bright mode boosts the primary channels a bit to convey the feeling of a brighter display since that's one way the human eye works. Professional mode targets sRGB instead and is a bit better in terms of accuracy, but still not quite color-accurate. Generally speaking, all of the color modes tend to lean on the colder side with a slight blue tint. You can correct for that by sliding the included color temperature slider a bit to the right, like on the screenshot, but don't expect any major improvement in color accuracy.
Color modes
On a more positive note, the V23 Pro has HDR capabilities. Its panel offers HDR10 and HDR10+ support, as well as HLG. Only Dolby Vision is missing. Plus, we are happy to report that the V23 Pro has the highest possible Widevine L1 DRM certification, which means that services like Netflix can offer HD and higher streaming resolution. In this particular case, 1080p, since that is enough to saturate the native resolution of the display.
HDR support • Widevine • Netflix playback support • HDR on YouTube
As of writing this review, the Netflix app refused to serve HDR content, which is probably a whitelisting issue. YouTube was perfectly happy to give us HDR, though.
High refresh rate handling
The vivo V23 Pro has a 90Hz refresh rate. You get a few options, one of which is to just fix the refresh rate at a static 90Hz or a static 60Hz, and vivo has also included an automatic switching option. Unfortunately, it doesn't work well at all.
Refresh rate options
Scrolling through the vivo UI and its menus actually works just fine. The phone goes up to 90Hz when you interact with it and then back down to 60Hz after a few seconds of inactivity. That's pretty good when it comes to battery saving.
Automatic refresh rate switching works great in the UI
Unfortunately, the auto-refresh rate falls apart once you start launching apps. There just seems to be no rhyme or reason for the switching. Both Chrome and the default vivo browser chose to work at 60Hz and never went up to 90Hz on their own. That was the case for most other apps we tried.
Apps working at 60Hz
Very few apps we tried actually managed to start at 90Hz in automatic refresh rate mode. Once again, without any obvious logic behind which apps.
Apps working at 90Hz
We also tried a few games which we know, for a fact, can run above 60fps and make use of a higher refresh rate. Unfortunately, not a single one of these actually managed to trigger 90Hz mode. A fact that was only made sadder by vivo's otherwise stellar automatic game recognition when it comes to triggering its gaming optimizations. Also, Dead Trigger 2 started up quite promisingly at 90Hz but then dropped down to 60Hz after the opening cinematic. Talk about adding insult to injury.
Games refusing to trigger 90Hz mode on their own
At least there is a silver lining here - vivo's decision to specifically add a strict 60Hz mode and a strict 90Hz one. At least as far as gaming goes, you can just go in and flip over to 90Hz. Most of the games we tried did, in fact, feel smoother while running at a fixed 90Hz, which suggests that they were making proper use of the mode and getting frame rates above 60fps.
Here's hoping vivo's automatic refresh rate switching mode eventually gets fixed.
Battery life
The vivo V23 Pro has a 4,300 mAh battery at its disposal. It's far from the biggest around, and vivo clearly had to sacrifice some capacity for the sake of thickness. Even so, that's a respectable capacity for the phone's 7.4mm profile and 171-gram weight.
Better still, the V23 Pro managed to make surprisingly good use out of that capacity, scoring a very respectable 110 hours of total endurance rating.
The Dimensity 1200 is a pretty efficient chipset overall. The V23 Pro's standby endurance could have been a bit better, but we have no complaints other than that. Both on-screen endurance numbers are also quite high.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.
Video test carried out in 60Hz refresh rate mode. Web browsing test done at the display's highest refresh rate whenever possible. Refer to the respective reviews for specifics. To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage patterns check out our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.
Charging speed
Vivo has equipped its V23 Pro with the same, rather excellent 44W FlashCharge tech as found on the flagship X70 line. Just 30 minutes on the charger get you from dead all the way up to 65% battery, and a full charge from zero takes just shy of an hour.
Those are really impressive numbers, even on the comparatively smaller 4,300 mAh battery.
30min charging test (from 0%)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi 11T Pro
100% - Realme GT Master
100% - Oppo Reno6 5G
100% - OnePlus Nord 2
98% - Realme GT Neo2
97% - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
91% - Realme 8 Pro
88% - Xiaomi 11T
86% - vivo X60 Pro+
84% - vivo X70 Pro+
80% - Poco F3
67% - vivo V23 Pro
65% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
65% - vivo X70 Pro
64% - Realme 8
56% - Samsung Galaxy A72
54% - Poco M4 Pro 5G
54% - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
53% - Samsung Galaxy M52 5G (25W)
50% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
50% - Poco X3 Pro
50% - Google Pixel 6 (65W)
48% - Google Pixel 6 (18W)
41% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G
33% - Samsung Galaxy M52 5G (15W)
30% - Realme 8i
30% - Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
23%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
Lower is better
- Xiaomi 11T Pro
0:21h - Oppo Reno6 5G
0:29h - Realme GT Master
0:30h - OnePlus Nord 2
0:31h - Realme GT Neo2
0:32h - Realme 8 Pro
0:38h - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
0:39h - Xiaomi 11T
0:41h - vivo X60 Pro+
0:42h - vivo X70 Pro+
0:48h - Poco F3
0:56h - vivo V23 Pro
0:57h - vivo X70 Pro
1:00h - Poco M4 Pro 5G
1:07h - Poco X3 Pro
1:08h - Realme 8
1:09h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
1:13h - Samsung Galaxy A72
1:15h - Samsung Galaxy M52 5G (25W)
1:19h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
1:21h - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
1:28h - Samsung Galaxy M52 5G (15W)
1:48h - Google Pixel 6 (65W)
1:50h - Google Pixel 6 (18W)
1:53h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G
2:00h - Realme 8i
2:21h - Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
2:29h
Speaker test
The vivo V23 Pro has a single bottom-firing speaker at its disposal. That's a bit of a letdown seeing how you can get some pretty good stereo speaker setup in other phones for this price. The speaker on the V23 Pro is decent but quite unimpressive.
It managed to earn an Average loudness score in our testing with an overall quite clean and tight frequency response curve. At least it has that going for it. We didn't find any loudspeaker equalizers to play around with.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Funtouch OS 12 now on top of Android 12
vivo has been keeping busy in the software department lately. Its new OriginOS is already a thing but still exclusive to just the Chinese market. Globally, the FuntouchOS skin was fairly recently bumped-up to version 12, as we saw of the vivo X70 family of devices. Those phones, however, still launched with Android 11 under the hood, whereas the vivo V23 Pro and V23 get the latest Funtouch OS 12 with Android 12 underneath.
You can find more than a few traces of the new Android core scattered about here and there, like Google's new privacy-focused green notification dot that indicates when the camera or microphone are being used or the increased "bounce back" animations on most UI components. Overall, however, the UI and UX are distinctly custom, which comes courtesy of Funtouch OS 12. The stock-ish-looking UI elements that were kind of the norm in FunTouch OS 11 have been substituted with a highly customized and customizable UI. Some of the changes are pretty nifty, too, including the system menus being tailored towards a single-handed use. Some of the menus' content moves to the lower half of the screen when you swipe down, but not all, which is odd. vivo has revamped its default selection of widgets to make them more intuitive and easier to use as well.
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • Settings menu
The recent apps menu, for example, has one of those useful proprietary features. You can choose between the standard carousel formation and a horizontal tiles layout - sort of like MIUI, only scrollable horizontally.
The app drawer, although stock-ish looking, has an expandable recommended apps category on the top (most commonly used ones), whereas using the vertical scroller on the right would highlight the apps beginning with the selected letter.
Recent apps • Recent apps • Notification shade • Quick toggles • App drawer
The notification shade has been revamped too, in terms of looks mostly - the quick toggles are now square-shaped, and the accent color around the menus (including the quick toggles icons) is blue, and there's no way to change either. Applying different themes would only change the icon pack and wallpaper.
Themes
The rest of the UI gets plenty of love too. In the Dynamic effects sub-menu, vivo has grouped quite a few customizable aspects of the home screen, lock screen, animation effects, etc. There are even various charging and facial recognition animations.
The Ambient light effect gets more granular control with the option to enable it only during a limited time period, or you can choose which apps to trigger it.
Dynamic effects • Ambient light effect
The always-on display settings are in a different sub-menu, however, but the phone still gives you plenty of options to tinker with - a wide selection of animations, clock styles, colors, backgrounds, the lot.
Always-on display
One small but potentially important gripe we had with the vivo X70 Pro seems to have been addressed on the V23 Pro. There used to be no way to summon the fingerprint reader icon on a locked screen unless the motion sensor detects movement. Now, waking the display simply brings up the fingerprint reader as well. However, we are still not particularly happy that the double-tap-to-wake function is buried in the Smart motion menu.
The Sound menu holds a few pleasant surprises. Just like Samsung, vivo is paying attention to people with hearing problems, and you can calibrate the sound to be heard by elderly people or those with impaired hearing. Additionally, notifications and calls get separate volume sliders. The vibration intensity can be adjusted for calls and notifications independently. No system-wide eq is available for the loudspeaker, though, which could be both a negative and a positive depending on how you look at it.
Sound options
The previously mentioned Smart motion menu holds a handful of familiar screen-on and screen-off gestures along with some new additions. One of those requires you to wave in front of the screen during an incoming call to answer hands-free - useful if you're cooking, for example.
Smart motion menu
Holding the volume down key can be used to launch an app or do a certain task, although the list of the latter is limited to launching the camera app, turning on/off the torch or starting recording audio. The so-called Quick action feature doesn't work when playing music for obvious reasons. Why isn't there a double-press option for Quick action, though?
Shortcuts and accessibility • Quick action • S-capture • Screen-split • Easy Touch
Having all of these customizable gestures, actions and additional features around is definitely nifty, but we can't help but feel that vivo could have organized them a bit better. As things currently stand, it is hard to find certain options, even when you know for a fact that they exist and consequently, discovering new things is even harder.
Lastly, there's a little something for the gamers. A dedicated Ultra Game Mode is available, and it has it all. Most of the features are about mitigating disturbance during gameplay or letting certain apps display heads-up notifications. One of the most intriguing features that have been around on vivo phones for a while is the ability to turn off the screen and keep the game running in the background. Especially useful for turn-based games or those requiring some sort of "farming" and "grinding". Eagle eye enhancements and 4D vibration are also quite interesting in their own right.
Ultra Game mode
Overall, Funtouch OS 12 is a great step in the right direction when it comes to fluidity and snappy operation. vivo even gives you the option the speed up transitions further, which is just another option to add to the myriad of customization available here. If you are into that, then you will definitely enjoy the experience. However, those that want to use Android as Google intended might not be okay with the colorful iconography and the highly customized system menus and animations.
Synthetic benchmarks
vivo went with MediaTek Dimensity chips for both the V23 Pro and V23. The former, which we are currently looking at, gets the tried-and-true Dimensity 1200, whereas the vanilla V23 is equipped with the newer but slightly lower-end Dimensity 920.
If we don't count the new Dimensity 9000, the Dimensity 1200 is still one of the best MediaTek has to offer. It is an efficient 6nm chip, rocking an Octa-core (1x3.0 GHz Cortex-A78 & 3x2.6 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) CPU setup and a Mali-G77 MC9 GPU. It is also packed with current connectivity, including Dual-Mode (SA and NSA) 5G with dual 5G standby support (Sub-6 only, no mmWave) and VoNR. For local connectivity, the V23 Pro gets Dual-Band Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.2 with LE and aptX HD support and GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, QZSS, NavIC support. Quite the loadout. However, there are some notable omissions, like FM radio, NFC and a slow USB 2.0 data connection.
You can get the vivo V23 Pro in one of two memory configurations - 128GB 8GB RAM or 256GB 12GB RAM. We are conducting this review on the top-tier model. Vivo also has its Extended RAM 2.0 feature loaded on both the V23 Pro and V23 for an extra 4GB of "virtual memory". Version 2.0 of vivo's implementation of this particular Android feature promises improved efficiency while using ROM storage as RAM.
Kicking things off with some pure CPU performance and GeekBench, we can see that the V23 Pro and its Dimensity 1200 clearly hold their own, particularly against other mid and upper-midrange chipsets within the same rough price range.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- vivo X60 Pro
3490 - Realme GT Neo2
3186 - vivo iQOO Z5
3034 - vivo V23 Pro
3021 - Huawei nova 9
2973 - Honor 50
2971 - vivo X70 Pro
2956 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
2941 - Realme GT Master
2917 - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
2909 - Google Pixel 6
2899 - Xiaomi 11T
2834 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
2801 - OnePlus Nord 2
2792 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
2621 - Poco X3 Pro
2574 - Poco X3 GT
2310 - Oppo Reno6 5G
2131 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
1820 - Poco M4 Pro 5G
1797 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
1780 - Realme 8
1690 - Realme 8 Pro
1678 - Samsung Galaxy A72
1627 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
1599 - Samsung Galaxy A52
1577 - Xiaomi Redmi 10
1294
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- vivo X60 Pro
1034 - Google Pixel 6
1030 - Realme GT Neo2
1019 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
1003 - vivo X70 Pro
875 - vivo V23 Pro
850 - OnePlus Nord 2
814 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
813 - vivo iQOO Z5
805 - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
803 - Honor 50
787 - Realme GT Master
785 - Huawei nova 9
784 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
771 - Xiaomi 11T
742 - Poco X3 Pro
735 - Oppo Reno6 5G
722 - Poco X3 GT
693 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
636 - Poco M4 Pro 5G
597 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
569 - Realme 8 Pro
566 - Samsung Galaxy A72
537 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
534 - Realme 8
533 - Samsung Galaxy A52
525 - Xiaomi Redmi 10
361
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 870 manages to outpace the Dimensity 1200 consistently in both single and multi-threaded workloads, though not by a lot. All the while, CPU-wise, the Dimensity 1200 is about comparable to Qualcomm's newer 7-series chips, like the Snapdragon 780 and the 778G.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- vivo X60 Pro
639612 - vivo V23 Pro
635060 - Poco F3
631850 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
524692 - OnePlus Nord 2
512164 - Poco X3 GT
506800 - vivo iQOO Z5
493509 - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
465534 - Poco X3 Pro
453223 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
429675 - Oppo Reno6 5G
362450 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
334981 - Realme 8
298328 - Poco M4 Pro 5G
296721 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
295442 - Realme 8 Pro
286666 - Samsung Galaxy A72
279342 - Samsung Galaxy A52
261282 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
218788
AnTuTu 9
Higher is better
- Realme GT Neo2
726039 - vivo X60 Pro
720352 - vivo V23 Pro
716766 - vivo X70 Pro
694499 - Google Pixel 6
676831 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
671577 - OnePlus Nord 2
598022 - Xiaomi 11T
590837 - Poco X3 GT
578505 - vivo iQOO Z5
572549 - Realme GT Master
529263 - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
522490 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
506432 - Honor 50
470348 - Huawei nova 9
469798 - Oppo Reno6 5G
430765 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
386474 - Realme 8
357488 - Poco M4 Pro 5G
353663 - Samsung Galaxy A72
333668
AnTuTu with its more compound benchmarks paints a similar picture. In fact, we are happy to see that vivo is managing impressively-high scores for a Dimensity 1200 chip on average.
GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 6
159 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
143 - Realme GT Neo2
142 - vivo V23 Pro
140 - vivo X70 Pro
129 - OnePlus Nord 2
123 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
123 - Xiaomi 11T
121 - Poco X3 GT
116 - Poco X3 Pro
102 - vivo iQOO Z5
89 - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
89 - Honor 50
78 - Huawei nova 9
78 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
77 - Realme GT Master
77 - Realme 8
53 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
43 - Realme 8 Pro
43 - Poco M4 Pro 5G
40 - Samsung Galaxy A52
39 - Samsung Galaxy A72
39 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
24
GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Realme GT Neo2
113 - vivo X70 Pro
108 - Poco X3 GT
97 - Xiaomi 11T
96 - Poco X3 Pro
93 - Google Pixel 6
90 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
90 - vivo V23 Pro
89 - vivo iQOO Z5
78 - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
78 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
69 - Honor 50
68 - OnePlus Nord 2
59 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
59 - Huawei nova 9
58 - Realme GT Master
57 - Realme 8
48 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
39 - Realme 8 Pro
38 - Poco M4 Pro 5G
37 - Samsung Galaxy A52
35 - Samsung Galaxy A72
35 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
21
GPU performance is a bit more of a mixed bag. The V23 Pro and its Mali-G77 MC9 still hold their own very well, but in some on-screen tests in particular, the fps numbers do tend to be a bit lower than form other Dimensity 1200 phones with similar FullHD+ native resolution.
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 6
117 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
100 - Realme GT Neo2
99 - vivo V23 Pro
91 - vivo X70 Pro
85 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
81 - Xiaomi 11T
77 - Poco X3 Pro
75 - OnePlus Nord 2
75 - Poco X3 GT
74 - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
65 - vivo iQOO Z5
61 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
56 - Realme GT Master
56 - Honor 50
56 - Huawei nova 9
56 - Realme 8
33 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
32 - Samsung Galaxy A52
29 - Samsung Galaxy A72
29 - Realme 8 Pro
28 - Poco M4 Pro 5G
26 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
17
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 6
90 - Realme GT Neo2
84 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
82
79
77
72
68
67
61
57
57
54
49
48
48
46
31
29
28
26
26
23
15
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 6
66 - Realme GT Neo2
59 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
59 - vivo V23 Pro
53 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
48 - Xiaomi 11T
47 - OnePlus Nord 2
46 - vivo X70 Pro
45 - Poco X3 Pro
45 - Poco X3 GT
44 - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
40 - vivo iQOO Z5
35 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
33 - Realme GT Master
33 - Honor 50
33 - Huawei nova 9
33 - Realme 8
20 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
19 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
19 - Realme 8 Pro
18 - Samsung Galaxy A52
17 - Samsung Galaxy A72
17 - Poco M4 Pro 5G
16 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
9.3
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 6
57 - Realme GT Neo2
49 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
49 - vivo V23 Pro
45 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
42 - vivo X70 Pro
40 - Xiaomi 11T
40 - Poco X3 Pro
38 - Poco X3 GT
38 - OnePlus Nord 2
38 - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
35 - vivo iQOO Z5
30 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
28 - Huawei nova 9
28 - Realme GT Master
27 - Honor 50
27 - Realme 8
18 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
16 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
16 - Realme 8 Pro
16 - Samsung Galaxy A52
15 - Samsung Galaxy A72
15 - Poco M4 Pro 5G
13 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
7.9
Then again, looking a bit closer at the result, it seems that this behavior is limited to the older OpenGL ES 3.0 based test run. Ramping up the graphical intensity and using OpenGL ES 3.1 seems to be a lot more favorable towards the vivo V23 Pro.
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 6
43 - Realme GT Neo2
33 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
33 - vivo V23 Pro
32 - vivo X70 Pro
29 - Xiaomi 11T
29 - Poco X3 GT
28 - Poco X3 Pro
27 - OnePlus Nord 2
26 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
20 - Honor 50
20 - Huawei nova 9
20 - Realme GT Master
19 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
11 - Realme 8
11 - Realme 8 Pro
11 - Samsung Galaxy A52
10 - Samsung Galaxy A72
10 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
5.3
GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 6
46 - vivo V23 Pro
34 - Realme GT Neo2
33 - vivo X70 Pro
31 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
31 - OnePlus Nord 2
30 - Xiaomi 11T
30 - Poco X3 GT
29 - Poco X3 Pro
26 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
19 - Honor 50
19 - Huawei nova 9
19 - Realme GT Master
18 - Realme 8
12 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
11 - Realme 8 Pro
11 - Samsung Galaxy A52
10 - Samsung Galaxy A72
10 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
5.6
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 6
30 - Realme GT Neo2
24 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
24 - vivo V23 Pro
21 - vivo X70 Pro
20 - OnePlus Nord 2
20 - Xiaomi 11T
20 - Poco X3 GT
19 - Poco X3 Pro
18 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
14 - Realme GT Master
14 - Honor 50
14 - Huawei nova 9
14 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
7.5 - Realme 8
7.5 - Realme 8 Pro
7.2 - Samsung Galaxy A52
7 - Samsung Galaxy A72
7 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
3.5
GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 6
30 - vivo V23 Pro
23 - Realme GT Neo2
22 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
22 - vivo X70 Pro
21 - OnePlus Nord 2
21 - Xiaomi 11T
21 - Poco X3 GT
20 - Poco X3 Pro
17 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
13 - Realme GT Master
13 - Honor 50
13 - Huawei nova 9
13 - Realme 8
7.7 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
7.2 - Samsung Galaxy A52
7 - Samsung Galaxy A72
7 - Realme 8 Pro
7 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
3.7
Vulkan-based graphic tests seem to perform as expected to and also paint the vivo V23 is a pretty great light overall.
Same goes for 3DMark, where the V23 Pro managed to successfully max out the Slingshot Extreme runs in both OpenGL and Vulkan mode and scored very respectably on the Wild Life test. So much so, in fact, that it seemed to break away from the rest of the Dimensity 1200 pack once again.
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Google Pixel 6
6832 - vivo V23 Pro
4713 - Realme GT Neo2
4250 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
4236 - OnePlus Nord 2
4224 - Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G (Snapdragon)
4201 - Xiaomi 11T
4172 - vivo X70 Pro
4148 - Poco X3 GT
3991 - Poco X3 Pro
3401 - Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
3136 - vivo iQOO Z5
2639 - Honor 50
2503 - Huawei nova 9
2503 - Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
2491 - Realme GT Master
2481 - Oppo Reno6 5G
2024 - Realme 8
1486 - Poco M4 Pro 5G
1232 - Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
1107 - Realme 8 Pro
1051 - Samsung Galaxy A52
1040 - Samsung Galaxy A72
1031 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
482
Our best guess is that Android 12 is providing a boost to benchmark numbers here and there on the V23. Even if that performance delta is unlikely to transfer over, at least not to the same extent, on to real-world gaming performance, it is still a testament to the importance of running the latest Android OS.
Just to be thorough, we did put the V23 Pro through a thermal throttling test, since we were curious to find out if any of that impressive burst benchmark performance perhaps comes at the expense of long-term sustained numbers. We already know that body temperature on the V23 is not really an issue. It gets noticeably warm after a long gaming session, but is still perfectly comfortable to hold. This, in itself, is a major achievement, given the V23 Pro's slim profile.
CPU Throttling test
After a solid hour of CPU torture, the vivo V23 Pro expectedly loses a sizable chunk of its raw performance to heat. Thermal-throttling in a closed thermal system is inevitable. The way said throttling is handled is much more important, though, and we were happy to see that the V23 Pro never experienced sudden jarring drops in performance but instead managed to gradually dial back. That's the kind of behavior you want to see, and we commend vivo for it.
Overall, the vivo V23 gets top marks in the performance category. Not only does it have capable internals, but it also manages to cope with heat surprisingly well. On top of that, Funtouch OS 12 provides a very smooth and highly customizable and feature-rich experience. Its new Android 12 base is likely helping a bit in this regard as well, and we appreciate its presence. Sans for a few gripes we have with vivo's automatic refresh rate switching logic, we have no complaints regarding performance on the V23 Pro. It is excellent all around, even exceeding expectations at times.
Potent triple camera on the back and dual camera on the front
Vivo has invested heavily in the camera department on the V23 Pro and V23. That much is evident from the specs sheet alone. The V23 Pro, in particular, has a big 108MP, f/1.9, 26mm, 1/1.52" Samsung ISOCELL HM2 main camera. That's a potent setup that we've already seen in action, so vivo has no shortage of hardware at its disposal. Granted, there's no OIS here, nor fancy autofocus, just basic PDAF. The V23 Pro isn't a proper flagship, after all, so we can't exactly hold that against it.
There are two other cameras on the back of the V23 Pro. The 8MP f/2.2, 120-degree, 16mm, 1/4.0", 1.12µm ultrawide uses an OmniVision OV8856 sensor. It lacks autofocus.
And lastly, there is the 2MP, f/2.4, fixed-focus macro cam. It is based on the OmniVision OV02B10 sensor.
The V23 Pro really shines in the selfie department, though. Quite literally, in fact, because it has a pair of dual-tone LED lights hidden away in the left and right top corners of the frame, above the display. Vivo calls them spotlights, and the way they are implemented is kind of clever. While selfie LEDs are rare enough in themselves, dual-tone ones are rarer still. Vivo has even gone one step beyond that by implementing a three-stage slider for setting the actual color of the LEDs. This works by either having both LEDs inside each of the two "torches" be lit up at the same time, resulting in a warm light mix, or turning off one of them for a colder or warmer light. We honestly can't remember ever seeing this particular feature anywhere else.
The actual selfie camera hardware does not disappoint either. The main camera is a 50MP, f/2.0 unit with autofocus. As far as we managed to gather, it uses a special-order, customized sensor, which vivo refers to as the "JNV". It's most likely based on Samsung's ISOCELL S5KJN1, which would mean it has 0.64um pixels and a 1/2.76" optical format.
We definitely know that at least some customization has been done on it. For instance, vivo's sensor has the latest ISOCELL 3.0 technology. Also, on the list of features for the main selfie - Eye Autofocus, which is likely based on the default Double Super-PD, as provided by Samsung. For video, this selfie can go up to 4K@30fps and has a few levels of EIS, making it a truly powerful vlogging camera.
Last but not least, vivo felt it necessary to include an additional 8MP, f/2.3 fixed-focus, 105-degree ultrawide selfie for group shots. It is based on the HYNIX HI846 sensor and is not as fancy as its sibling.
The default camera app is a largely familiar affair. There is, perhaps, one major change, namely the apparent absence of a proper camera setting menu. At least we didn't manage to find one. All of the options are made accessible through various sub-sections of the main UI.
There's a straightforward zoom selector which gives you direct access to each of the four cameras. Accessing the Super Macro mode is done from the flower icon next to the hamburger menu, but it has an auto-on option too that kicks in when you get close to a subject.
Camera UI for photos and video
The main modes are arranged in carousel formation, and you can switch between them by swiping. The More tab lists the rest of the modes, and from there, you can also customize the modes you have available in the viewfinder.
The Pro mode gives you all the freedom to adjust the autofocus, white balance, shutter speed, ISO and exposure. You can do so on all of the four cameras too. There's helpful information explaining all of the options above in case you are just getting into photography. Shooting in RAW is also an option.
Pro mode
The "Dual-Tone Spotlight" feature, as vivo calls its selfie LED lights, get their own separate menu when you switch over to selfie mode. Naturally, they are agnostic and don't particularly care if you are shooting with the big selfie camera or the ultrawide. Color adjustment for the LEDs is controlled via a nifty three-stage slider.
Selfies and Dual-Tone Spotlight controls
Interestingly enough, vivo has also left in the option for a screen flash, called aura lights, just in case the dedicated LEDs weren't enough? There are quite a few other nifty toggles and controls to play around with here as well. The camera app is equally smart for selfies when it comes to suggesting modes based on conditions. It will gladly prompt you to use night mode if it gets too dark.
Daylight image quality
Let's kick things off with the main 108MP camera. Since the Samsung ISOCELL HM2 sensor uses a Nonapixel design, it is meant to bin pixels in groups of nine by default, resulting in 12MP stills. Overall, these photos look great. There is plenty of detail and enough dynamic range.
vivo V23 Pro: 12MP main camera samples
Vivo has stuck to its usual vibrant color science. That tends to give shots a certain instant "pop", particularly on a good OLED display to make them more "likable" in a general sense. On the flip side, we can see how some might be put off by the increased saturation. The V23 Pro often cranks up the sharpening as well, sometimes even leaving some artifacts behind. All of these shots were captured with the Ai scene detection and HDR set to auto, just like they come out of the box.
Some of these aspects of the default 12MP camera mode become even more obvious once you compare them side by side to some 108MP high-resolution photos from the V23 Pro. The phone can capture these, which isn't even that slow.
However, reading out and bumping that much data into storage is no trivial task, and you end up with roughly ten times bigger JPEG images in the end, around the 30MB mark. This likely necessitated less processing on vivo's part, and it shows.
108MP stills look great and offer a tangible boost in detail. They also tend to have more natural colors and a generally less processed look.
vivo V23 Pro: 108MP main camera samples
Some might find that "duller" in comparison, while for others, it could be a "fix" for the default look of the 12MP stills. Just be prepared to deal with the annoyingly big file sizes.
The vivo V23 Pro has no dedicated telephoto hardware, so zoom shoots are purely digital and captured from the 108MP main camera. It definitely has plenty of resolution to go around. 2x photos look quite comparable to 1x ones and preserve most of the same quality and general look. These are definitely usable.
vivo V23 Pro: 12MP main camera 2x zoom samples
Before we move on, here's how the vivo V23 Pro stacks up against the competition in our extensive photo compare database.
vivo V23 Pro against the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro and the Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro in our Photo compare tool
The 8MP ultrawide camera produces nice photos too, with similarly boosted colors. The level of detail is not the same and there is some over sharpening going on, but it’s still okay.
vivo V23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide camera samples
Noise is also a major issue with this camera. Even in broad daylight, patches of sky and grass tend to get really grainy.
The 2MP macro camera is nothing to phone home about either. It has decent detail for its small resolution and gets the job done with enough patience.
vivo V23 Pro: 2MP macro camera samples
Portrait photos
The V23 Pro has a portrait mode complete with quite a few options, including some choices for the "shape" of the bokeh effect. Though, we don't think they made an appreciable difference in practice.
Portrait shots look pretty impressive. Subject detection and separation are nearly perfect, further proving that you don't actually need a dedicated "depth" camera to pull that off.
vivo V23 Pro: 12MP main camera portrait samples
Portraits work surprisingly well with non-human subjects, too.
vivo V23 Pro: 12MP main camera portrait samples, non-human subjects
Selfie photos
The vivo V23 Pro is very well equipped on the selfie side of things. Let's start with the 50MP selfie cam since it's the star attraction here. It captures stills at around 12.5MP by default since it is also meant to do 4-to-1 pixel binning. These shots look great.
vivo V23 Pro: 12.5MP selfie camera samples
The detail is great, and so is the dynamic range. Colors look natural, and the background has some pleasing natural bokeh.
The V23 Pro has a toggle labeled "Auto HD portrait" for selfies, which is on by default. This first set of shots was captured with it turned on. Here are the same shots with HD portrait disabled. We can't really notice much of a difference.
vivo V23 Pro: 12.5MP selfie camera samples, HD Portrait OFF
The secondary 8MP selfie camera is decent but kind of plain in comparison. The level of detail is good, and its fixed focus plane is fairly wide and forgiving. We definitely like that it's very wide, which kind of justifies its inclusion alongside the otherwise superior 50MP unit.
vivo V23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide selfie camera samples
Other than that, colors are a bit washed-out and duller, and the dynamic range isn't quite there. But, again, that's mostly because we compare it to the 50MP selfie cam. In isolation, this would be considered a solid, even if unimpressive, selfie experience.
vivo V23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide selfie camera samples, HD Portrait OFF
Low-light photo quality
The main 108MP camera offers solid low-light performance. In its default 12MP mode, it captures plenty of detail and suppresses noise quite well. Color saturation is nice, and everything looks nice and sharp.
vivo V23 Pro: 12MP main camera low-light samples
The V23 Pro has some form of automatic night mode, as evidenced by shots taking a bit longer to capture on occasion. There is a dedicated night mode beyond that as well, which extends capture times even further. It has a pretty subtle effect on the main camera since, presumably, the automatic night mode is already doing at least some work.
Still, the Night mode photos are just a tad sharper and clearer.
vivo V23 Pro: 12MP main camera night mode samples
At 2x zoom low-light photos manage to maintain most of the good characteristics of their 1x counterparts. Everything is just a bit softer, and you can clearly see the sharpening algorithm working harder to restore some of the straight lines. These shots are still perfectly usable, though, as long as you don't zoom in further than that.
vivo V23 Pro: 12MP main camera 2x zoom low-light samples
Stills from the 8MP ultrawide look quite okay. They have a nice dynamic range, and color saturation is well preserved too. The photos, however, are overly soft.
vivo V23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide low-light samples
Night mode has a much more profound effect on ultrawide shots. It tends to brighten everything up and clear up images. However, a closer look reveals somewhat heavier processing and over-sharpening in particular.
vivo V23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide night mode samples
Last but not least, we gave the selfie cameras a spin. As expected the bigger, autofocus-equipped 50MP camera performed beautifully in low-light conditions. The detail is there, and noise is practically absent. Everything looks sharp, and the dynamic range is great, all things considered.
vivo V23 Pro: 12.5MP selfie low-light samples
The 8MP ultrawide held-up surprisingly well in low-light as well. Naturally, you get noticeably softer and noisier shots all around, and you have to be careful to end up in focus, but it did not disappoint.
vivo V23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide selfie low-light samples
The really cool low-light party trick on the vivo V23 Pro, however, are the two dual-tone "spotlights" near the top of the display. These work really well in illuminating a subject and can boost overall quality, simply thanks to a more uniform and stable light.
vivo V23 Pro 12.5MP low-light selfies: Aura light • Cold LED • Default LED • Warm LED
As for which of the three color settings you should choose for the dual-tone LEDs, it depends on the circumstance. On a particularly cold winter night, we found the warm setting the most aggregable. Then again, it is worth noting that even the "aura light" option, which uses white light from the display to illuminate selfies, works surprisingly well.
Using the spotlights, however, lets you confidently shoot selfies in nearly complete darkness. That's pretty cool.
vivo V23 Pro 12.5MP low-light selfies with spotlights
The spotlights are a bit less impressive when used together with the 8MP ultrawide selfie but still offer some benefit.
vivo V23 Pro 8MP ultrawide low-light selfies: Aura light • Cold LED • Default LED • Warm LED
The same is true for night mode on the selfie cams. It tends to destroy facial features more than anything else, almost as if there is some aggressive beauty filter enabled.
vivo V23 Pro night mode selfies: 12.5MP cam • 8MP ultrawide
Video capture quality
The vivo V23 Pro can capture video on a total of four cameras - the on the back and two on the front. The big cameras on either side (108MP and 50MP) can record up to 4K@30fps video. Both do that in a standard AVC video stream at about 50 Mbps with stereo audio. The two ultrawides are capped at 1080p capture, with their bitrate hovering around a respectable 17 Mbps, also with stereo AAC audio.
4K videos from the main camera look great. Detail is plenty, colors look good and they are not nearly as overprocessed as with stills. Processing here is much more relaxed overall. Autofocus, while a bit slow at times, was solid with minimal hunting.
Here is how the main camera on the vivo V23 Pro stacks up in terms of video quality. Pixel-peep away.
vivo V23 Pro against the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro and the Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro in our Video compare tool
2x zoomed videos are a bit disappointing in comparison. The detail is there, which is great, but for some reason, vivo decided to oversharpen everything aggressively.
Videos from the ultrawide camera look quite odd, honestly, primarily due to the wide field of view. They are a bit too soft as well. Other than that, detail is not too bad for 1080p and dynamic range isn't all that bad either. Colors look solid, too.
The V23 Pro offers EIS on both the main and ultrawide cameras on the back. The main 108MP camera can be stabilized at 4K, which works pretty well and takes care of most bigger shakes.
There is a super stabilization mode beyond that as well. It only works on the main camera and caps the video at 1080p. It definitely smooths out the video further, but it's still not perfect. We'll leave it up to you to decide whether that's worth the resolution downgrade and cropped-away pieced of the video frame.
The ultrawide camera just has the basic level of EIS. It does its job fairly well in terms of smoothing out shakes but does introduce a very weird distortion issue as well. Frankly, it's too odd to even describe and not something we would expect from a fixed-focus camera. You'll just have to see it for yourself below.
Turning around to the selfie side of things, 4K videos from the 50MP camera look stunning. Detail is amazing, colors look great, dynamic range is also great. The autofocus works great as well, with practically no hunting and affords you all of the freedom to move closer or further away from the camera.
Even with EIS turned off, the footage is impressively steady. Overall, the V23 Pro is a stellar vlogging device, no question about it. It even offers some advanced camera modes to capture footage from two cameras at the same time and a lot of flexibility in arranging the picture-in-picture UI.
You can add EIS to the selfie cam footage at the expense of some resolution since it only works at 1080p. It still looks pretty good in practice, though. The sizeable chunk of the frame that needs to be cut away for the EIS to work is a bit more difficult to accept, though. Still, if you need it, it's there.
Video from the ultrawide selfie is honestly just weird all around. People look very skinny and tall, and most other things are distorted as well. We would probably just ignore it altogether. Here is a quick sample alongside a sample from the ultrawide with EIS turned on.
Low-light video quality
The main 108MP camera on the V23 Pro captures excellent low-light video at up to 4K@30fps. We have practically no complaints.
The same can't exactly be said about the 8MP ultrawide. Its video maxed out at 1080p, but the lack of resolution is far from its biggest issue. The video is pretty dark, and highlights are blown out and handled quite poorly. At least noise is well contained.
Competition
The vivo V23 and V23 Pro are officially out. The official retail price of the V23 Pro is INR38,990 ($520/€460) and INR43,990 ($590/€520) for the 128GB 8GB RAM and 256GB 12GB RAM versions, respectively.
While fair, arguably, that MSRP is a bit high for some of the devices the V23 Pro is going up against. Fresh off of Xiaomi's ever-churning smartphone machine, the Xiaomi 11i and 11i HyperCharge instantly spring to mind. These are now going international, although they are not entirely new, but rather renamed Redmi Note 11 Pro+ and Redmi Note 11 Pro, available in China since October 2021. The choice between the two literally comes down to a choice between faster 120W charging or a bigger 5,160 mAh battery, with a "mere" 67W charging. The latter is the easy choice for us, personally. Either way, for just over EUR 300, you get, among other things, Gorilla Glass 5 and an IP53 rating, a 120Hz AMOLED display and stereo speakers. That is on top of an otherwise very similar set of core specs to the vivo V23 Pro. Well, minus the selfie camera prowess.
Xiaomi 11i • Xiaomi Poco F3 • Realme GT2 • Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
If these are unattainable where you live, the Redmi Note 10 Pro is still an excellent choice that actually offers a really similar overall specs sheet. You could, perhaps, get it for under EUR 300 as well.
Speaking of a good deal, you can also pick up a Poco F3 for around the same price. Its Snapdragon 870 chipset is a great choice for those who don't necessarily place too much value on the camera experience and would rather get as much raw power as possible for the money.
If you feel comfortable spending a bit more, closer to the $590/€520 MSRP of the higher-end V23 Pro, the Realme GT2 looks like a great option. Perhaps even the Realme GT2 Pro, though that one might be a bit of a stretch for the budget. The basic GT2 still offers some excellent specs like a 120HZ AMOLED, stereo speakers, a Snapdragon 888 5G chipset and a 50MP, OIS-enabled main camera.
We realize that most of the competitors we listed already can be hard to get, either because they are just as new as the V23 Pro or not exactly available internationally. That comes with the territory. Still, last but not least, we have to mention the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G. It seems that the Korean giant's popular Galaxy A family has only been getting better and better lately, and the A52s 5G arguably represents one of the best value offers within the lineup yet. Not only do you get a "big brand" phone, complete with Samsung's relatively new extended software support, which is definitely available internationally, but you also get things like an IP67 rating, stereo speakers and OIS on the main camera.
Verdict
The vivo V23 Pro is a bit of an odd device when it comes to a final verdict. On the surface of it, its MSRP does seem a bit high for what it offers, making some omissions, like official ingress protection and OIS, to name just a couple, stick out that much more. As we outlined in the previous section, you can easily get a better overall "value", well-rounded mid-range device for the same price or less.
That being said, the vivo V23 has plenty of going for it, making it a truly unique device in more ways than one. Its design is modern and eye-catching, extra thin and with a pretty unique trick if you go for the UV-reactive Sunshine Gold color option. Then there is its other standout aspect - the potent selfie camera setup. It's not every day that we come across a device that truly shines for all kinds of selfie capture, as well as vlogging. Vivo really went all out in this department, and though they might sound like a gimmick at first, the pair of dual-tone LED "torches" on the front are actually quite nifty.
Like we said, when you put all of this together, you end up with a truly unique device, quite unlike most of its competitors. If this particular mix of features sounds appealing to you, then you can rest assured that the vivo V23 Pro is also well-rounded in most other aspects and will deliver an excellent experience.
However, if you don't necessarily prioritize selfies, you can probably find better value devices elsewhere.
Pros
- Very thin, light and modern design. UV-sensitive back panel is a nice party trick.
- The 90Hz, HDR10+ display has solid performance.
- Excellent battery life and very fast 44W charging.
- Funtouch OS 12 now with Android 12 underneath offers great performance and customization.
- Above average performance from the Dimensity 1200 5G chipset.
- Solid all-around performance from the 108MP main camera and truly great selfie and video experience from the 50MP selfie.
- The two dual-tone selfie LED "spotlights" are excellent in practice.
- A truly great vlogging experience.
Cons
- Plastic middle frame, though quite sturdy. No ingress protection.
- No SD card slot, no 3.5mm audio jack, no NFC.
- Poor automatic refresh rate switching and underwhelming color accuracy.
- Just a single, underwhelming bottom-firing speaker.
- Both the back and front ultrawide cameras are a bit inconsistent and lag behind the other cameras.
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