vivo V23 Pro review

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
• vivo V23 Pro
  79
• vivo X70 Pro
  77
• Xiaomi 11T
  72
• Poco X3 GT
  68
• Poco X3 Pro
  67
• Oppo Reno6 Pro 5G
  61
• OnePlus Nord 2
  57
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  57
• vivo iQOO Z5
  54
• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  49
• Honor 50
  48
• Huawei nova 9
  48
• Realme GT Master
  46
• Realme 8 Pro
  31
• Realme 8
  29
• Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
  28
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  26
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  26
• Poco M4 Pro 5G
  23
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  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.