vivo V17 Pro review

Six cameras - two at the front, four at the back

The vivo V17 Pro has four snappers on its back - a 48MP primary, a 13MP telephoto, an 8MP ultrawide, and a 2MP depth sensor. The V15 Pro had the same shooters minus the zoom camera.

The main camera uses a 48MP sensor by Sony - IMX 582 - and it sits behind 26mm f/1.8 lens. The sensor has a Quad-Bayer color filter, which combines four adjacent 0.8µm pixels into one 1.6µm pixel and this helps capturing more light and reducing the noise at night. When shooting in bright light, the sensor can use demosaicing and snap detailed 48MP images via the dedicated 48MP shooting mode.

The 13MP sensor has 1.0µm pixels and is behind 52mm f/2.5 lens for 2x optical zoom. Oddly, the photos from this camera are saved in 12MP.

Then the 8MP sensor has 1.12µm pixels and is behind 16mm f/2.2 lens for ultrawide-angle pictures. This camera supports autofocus, just like the other three, and because of that it not only can shoot good ultrawide, but detailed closeups as well.

The last snapper is a 2MP depth sensor.

The camera menu is familiar - swiping to the left and right will cycle between different modes while the additional settings are right above the software shutter button and in the upper part of the viewfinder. There are a couple of settings hidden in the settings menu in the upper-right corner. You can find the 48MP mode in there, AI scene identification and camera pop-up sounds. The camera also supports different capture gestures.

Camera menus and options

Oddly, the zoom switch goes only between 1x and 2x, and it can't summon the ultrawide snapper. This is done by tapping on the small aperture icon in the right corner. It opens a submenu with three modes - ultrawide, macro, and bokeh. This is probably the worst placement we've seen so far and utterly absent of logic!

You probably noticed that Bokeh is also in this nonsense menu. Indeed, the dedicated Portrait mode offers only beautifications and NOT simulated blur. You must use the Bokeh switch if you want to blur the background and unless you want beautifications, you can use Bokeh over the regular Photo mode. And here is the kicker - the Portrait mode allows for shooting with the telephoto camera, but the Bokeh mode works only with the main shooter. A total mess!

The same thing applies for selfies, too. The ultrawide and bokeh modes are hidden in the said submenu and work in the same way - you need to use bokeh over portrait or photo if you want to blur the background.

Finally, the vivo V17 Pro supports Night mode on both its main and primary selfie cameras.

Image quality

The main camera saves 12MP images by default and you can expect exemplary level of detail and low enough noise. The contrast is superb, while the dynamic range is wide. The colors are punchy, and the skies are a bit oversaturated, but other than that - a very pleasant presentation. The images are sharp but not over-sharpened and among the better daylight snaps you can get from a smartphone these days. There is only one visible issue and that's the moire fringes on some of the photos.

Vivo V17 Pro 12MP images

There is a dedicated 48MP mode if you want to shoot in 48MP. The detail is nothing that special and you can notice various smudged areas and artifacts. The images are also noisy and if you downscale them to 12MP you won't get better pictures than the default 12MP ones. In fact, you'd often get worse.

Vivo V17 Pro 48MP photos

The 13MP zoom camera for some reason saves 12MP images. Still, it produces excellent photos with plenty of detail. The colors are lively but a bit over the top sometimes, especially in the skies. Some of the photos are a little bit noisier than the ones from the primary shooter but as far as zoom shooters go this is one of the better ones out there.

The tele camera works only in optimal conditions, and when there is not enough light, you will get a cropped image from the 48MP snapper instead.

Vivo V17 Pro 12MP 2x zoomed photos

Finally, we snapped some 8MP images with the ultrawide-angle camera. Its per-pixel quality is much lower than the other two, but the colors are still nice, and noise levels are low, and the contrast is superb. Those will do just fine for what they are meant to be - fit more in your frame when necessary.

Vivo V17 Pro 8MP ultrawide images

You can turn off the distortion correction on the ultrawide camera, and you will get less soft corners at the expense of some curvy buildings.

Off • On • Off • On

The ultra-wide-angle cam can also do for macro shots. These are average in quality and will do for the occasional shooting of flower petals, bugs, and other tiny peculiar things.

Vivo V17 Pro 8MP macro photos

Moving on to the low-light shots, then. The 12MP default photos from the main 48MP camera turned very good - the images are bright enough and detailed, and with pretty tolerable noise levels. The contrast is pretty good, too.

Vivo V17 Pro 12MP low-light photos

Night mode is available on the V17 Pro and takes about a second to shoot. It pops more detail in the shadows and helps for a more balanced exposure, but the difference isn't as big as on some competitors. Still, when it is really dark - you should use it. Even if there isn't a major improvement in the captured light, it still helps for less blurry and more detailed photos.

Vivo V17 Pro 12MP Night Mode photos

You can use the 48MP mode in low-light, too, but even if you shoot in this high-resolution and then resize the image to 12MP, the benefit in detail would be minor, if any. And it's just not worth the hassle and the larger file size.

Vivo V17 Pro 48MP low-light images

Just as expected, the tele camera isn't working when the light is rather low. Instead, you'd get a 12MP crop from the center of the original 48MP image from the main camera. And indeed, the picture is pretty good - we think the camera stacks a few frames and then does the crop from the center, without any digital zoom involved in the process.

The last photo was shot with the telephoto camera as the algorithm decided the light is enough for that.

Vivo V17 Pro 12MP zoomed night photos

Finally, photos from the ultra-wide-angle camera are not impressive at all. The noise reduction is very aggressive and smears much of the fine detail, while the exposure is quite dark.

Vivo V17 Pro 8MP ultrawide night photos

And once you're done with the samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the vivo V17 Pro stacks up against the competition.

12MP: vivo V17 Pro against the Xiaomi Mi 9T and Oppo Reno2 in our Photo compare tool

Bokeh (portraits)

The Portrait mode means beautifications in vivo's universe and not background blur. That's why you need to use the Bokeh mode, which relies on the 2MP depth sensor and shoots with the main camera only.

Using the bokeh mode we got some very nice portraits - the subjects are detailed, the separation is excellent, and the faux blur is convincing.

Vivo V17 Pro 12MP portraits

Selfies

The pop-up module has two snappers - a 32MP sensor with Quad-Bayer filter and 23mm f/2.0 lens, while the second shooter has 8MP sensor behind 16mm f/2.2 lens for ultrawide selfies.

Even though the 32MP primary has Quad-Bayer filter and is expected to save 8MP shots, the phone saves the 32MP selfies instead, and there is no option for 8MP output. The images are good, with nice colors and excellent contrast.

But you can tell those selfies came from a Quad-Bayer camera - they lack detail and sharpness, and artifacts are noticeable. It is beyond us why vivo chose not to save those in 8MP, but it isn't the only manufacturer guilty of this - Xiaomi does the same, too. We guess it's down to marketing reasons more than anything else.

Vivo V17 Pro 32MP selfies

Night Mode is available for the selfies, too. It captures more detail in both people and backgrounds, there is way more balanced exposure, and the algorithm will do its best to light up a face.

Normal • Night mode • Normal • Night mode

The 8MP ultrawide selfies shots are average in detail and soft, but they do fit more in the frame and have good colors and contrast.

Vivo V17 Pro 8MP ultrawide selfies

Bokeh mode is available for the selfies, and this time the photos are saved in 8MP resolution. The separation varies from decent to excellent, and the blurred backgrounds look good, too.

Vivo V17 Pro 8MP selfie portraits

Video recording

The vivo V17 Pro captures video up to 4K @ 30fps, and all other common modes are available - 1080@30fps and 1080p@60fps. It seems at first that you can capture in these resolutions with all three cameras, but the interface is just misleading.

Naturally, the main camera can do all resolutions, while the ultrawide snapper records at 1080p at 30fps, no matter the setting. You can't capture videos with the zoom camera - the 2X zoom toggle is for digital zoom only - no matter the resolution.

The video bit rate is 40-42Mbps for 4K and about 17Mbps for 1080p in both 30fps and 60fps. Audio is recorded in stereo with a 128Kbps bit rate.

We found 4K footage sharp and detailed, though not class-leading when you examine them from closely. The noise is kept reasonably low. Contrast is excellent, color rendition is quite nice and true to life, and the dynamic range is nicely wide. Overall, we are happy with the 4K clips.

The 1080p capture at 30fps is very good, though because of the always-on EIS - the field of view is narrower if compared to the 4K and 1080p at 60fps videos. The EIS should be the explanation for the less than ideal sharpness and detail in the 30fps captures. The colors, contrast and dynamic range are still great, though.

Then the 1080p clips at 60fps are brilliant - stellar resolved detail and sharpness, as well as excellent contrast and colors.

As we said, the 2X toggle isn't using the tele camera and when you shoot 4K videos at 2X zoom and you tell they were artificially zoomed. But the 1080p 2X videos, both 30fps and 60fps, turned up pretty good and match the quality of the 1080p videos taken with the main camera.

The 1080p footage at 30fps from the ultrawide camera is pretty good with enough detail, but the colors are off and noticeable warmer than they should be, and you can easily spot the yellow tint.

Always-on electronic stabilization is available only on the main camera and only in 1080p at 30fps.

Here's a glimpse of how the vivo V17 Pro compares to other smartphones in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

2160p: vivo V17 Pro against the Xiaomi Mi 9T and Oppo Reno2 in our Video compare tool