vivo V23 Pro review

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.