Vivo V60 review: Real upgrades, finally

The new phone also shares the same weakness as before: the lack of eSIM support. We’ve gone into length on why it’s a glaring omission, especially for a travel-friendly demographic, so we won’t repeat ourselves. We really do hope Vivo rethinks it and adds support in the next phone.

The V60 is still running on Funtouch OS 15, which is Vivo’s reskin of Android 15. We expect an upgrade to OriginOS 6 somewhere down the road. Just like before, it’s still fairly egregious when it comes to ads and pre-installed apps, with the phone automatically installing Candy Crush and Tile Explorer upon starting up our set. 

Vivo is offering longer support for this phone, with four years of software updates and six years of security updates. Kudos to Vivo since it’s longer support than its Vivo V50 got, but it’s still nowhere near the industry-leading seven years of support like other Android brands.

We get interesting photo-editing features like AI Four-Season Portrait, which takes the same subject and places it in different seasonal settings. We’ve tried this out, and it actually works surprisingly well. 

The limitation is that you can’t apply the changes in post or from an existing image in your Gallery app. You can only apply it during the shoot: snap a photo with the phone, apply the edit (cloud processing involved), and save the result. But it’s a cute feature that can help users get more creative shots, as seen from the examples in our short clip and sample images above.

Mainstream AI editing features like AI Erase 3.0, AI Image Expander, AI Move and more are also included here. They all work about as well as you expect. As long as it’s nothing too complicated, the AI algorithms are able to handle images quite effectively.

Imaging performance

The Vivo V60 comes with the following cameras:

• 50MP main camera, f/1.9 aperture, 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX766 sensor, PDAF, OIS
• 8MP ultrawide, f/2.0, 120˚  FOV, 1/4-inch Omnivision OV08D10 sensor
• 50MP telephoto, f/2.7, 1/1.953-inch Sony IMX882 sensor, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
• 50MP selfie (front), f/2.2, 1/2.76-inch Samsung ISOCELL S5KJN1 (JN1)

These cameras are all tuned and optimised by ZEISS, thanks to Vivo’s continuing partnership with the German optics maker. The notable changes here are the newly added telephoto camera that offers 3x optical zoom, and a small change to an 8MP ultrawide camera.

The ZEISS Multifocal Portrait feature allows photos to be captured at multiple focal lengths, such as 23mm, 35mm, 46mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 100mm, depending on what you need. We’ve taken some sample shots, which you can see below.

The photos out of the main camera have vibrant colours and good contrast. As long as you’re not zooming into these pixel-binned shots, the photos are generally sharp enough for social media posting. The 3x optical zoom performs quite well, as expected, since this camera is the same one found on the flagship X200 (non-Pro) phone.

Unfortunately, the downgrade in the ultrawide camera is acutely noticeable. Ultrawide photos are generally soft and lack detail. This lens also does not have autofocus, so you’ll need to remember to select the focusing point each time you snap a photo.

Low-light images are great. There’s a good amount of brightening while ensuring that light sources aren’t too badly overexposed. 

Benchmark performance

The Vivo V60 is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset, which is a much-needed update since the last three models of the V-series used the same, ageing Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor. We’ll be comparing this phone to its predecessor, the V50, and other midrange smartphones in the S$600 to $800 price range. 

To find out more about the tests we conduct and what they relate to, we’ve jotted them down here.

Naturally, it performed slightly better than its predecessors, but seasoned bargain hunters will know there’s other respectable alternatives with greater raw performance for the same price band. It’s safe to say that Vivo is not competing in the areas of GPU or CPU prowess with the Vivo V60, doing just enough to get your photos processed nicely.

Battery Life

Our battery benchmark uses PCMark for Android’s Work 3.0 Battery Life, with results shown in minutes. This controlled benchmark simulates real-world usage, such as web and social media browsing, video and photo editing, parsing data with various file formats, writing, and more. 

The large 6,500mAh battery inside is really fantastic, as seen by the standardised battery test. It’s 20% more than before. Additionally, the phone only sapped 5% when idling for over 24 hours and lasted over a day with moderate use. The lower raw performance gives you excellent battery life in return, which is an acceptable trade-off for a mid range mobile phone.

The 90W wired FlashCharge is able to get the phone from 0-50% in 34 minutes, and a full charge only took 65 minutes. It’s quick, but it would be more complete if Vivo provided wireless charging, too.

There’s a Bypass Charging feature available so that the phone can draw power directly from a charger instead of the battery when charging. This helps to prolong the lifespan of the battery by reducing the number of charging cycles the phone goes through. However, you need to know where to trigger this feature (the game tools sidebar when you launch a game).

Conclusion

This is probably the best time to get a Vivo V-series phone, seeing as the processor has just been updated. The phone’s battery life is so well-endowed, and the other minor tweaks like bypass charging also helps improve its value add.

If we go by Vivo’s history with its V-series phones, Vivo might go another few models with the same Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chip, making Vivo V60 also the prime time to change your phone to the V60 instead of waiting for the next model.

Otherwise, our opinions mostly remain the same as before. The Vivo V60 has some obvious benefits over the rest of the competitors, such as good photography capabilities and fantastic battery life. However, it’s up against stiff competition, such as the Xiaomi 15T Pro that offers flagship-tier hardware (and eSIM support) while being only S$100 more, or the Poco F7 Pro, which is cheaper, although it can’t quite match up in terms of photography. The lack of eSIM support and lower peak performance also makes it a niche choice, so fellow girlies who also love gaming might feel forced to pick another phone.

The AI Aura Light Portrait ring flash that Vivo promoted heavily in the past did not get much attention in this cycle, either. Perhaps Vivo realised its limited applications. In our Vivo V50 review, we said the flash is only really practical for livestreaming sellers in dark warehouses, or aspiring influencers who spend copious amounts of time in dark venues. Other established influencers or regular people will likely struggle less with finding appropriate lighting, so we’re also glad Vivo focused on more useful aspects, like adding a telephoto camera.

If you’re a fan of the phone’s aesthetic and you think you’ll enjoy the AI Four Seasons Portrait feature and photography capabilities, the Vivo V60 can be a cute photography companion that doesn’t break the bank, with easy access to uploading on social media. But, that’s assuming you have another phone to handle other demanding tasks.

The Vivo V60 is priced at S$699 and will be available in a single 12GB+256GB configuration in the Berry Purple and Mist Grey colourways. You can get it online at Shopee, Lazada, TikTok and at authorised retailers such as Challenger, Best Denki, Courts, Gain City, Harvey Norman, and local telcos.