vivo V25/X80 Lite review

6.44-inch, 90Hz, HDR10+ AMOLED

The vivo V25 has a decently-sized 6.44-inch display with a FullHD+ resolution of 1080 x 2404 pixels. That's a 20:9 aspect ratio that works out to a crisp 409 ppi. Bezels around the display are a bit on the thicker side, but other than that, the display wouldn't be out of place on a far more premium phone.

The vivo V25 display performs well, too, with a maximum brightness on the manual slider of 496 nits. There is a max auto mode beyond that for really light-intensive conditions, which we measured to top out at around 781 nits. That's not quite the 1300 nits that vivo is advertising, but we assume that figure is also true, but only achievable when lighting up a very small portion of the display. In any case, the V25 is perfectly usable outdoors.

The V25 falls a bit short in the color accuracy department. There are a total of three color modes to choose from in display settings.

Color modes

Standard and bright modes target the DCI-P3 color space and don't bother trying to be overly accurate. Instead, both crank the saturation up so you can get that signature OLED "pop". Professional mode targets sRGB instead but fails to meet the criteria for what would be considered "color accurate". Blues and reds are still a bit oversaturated.

On a more positive note, the display on the V25 is certified for HDR10+ content reproduction. On a software level, the phone reports support for decoding HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG, with just Dolby Vision missing from the list.

HDR capabilities • Widevine • Netflix playback capabilities

We were also happy to see that Widevine L1 is present on the V25, which means that streaming services such as Netflix are more than happy to offer up FullHD streams to saturate the native resolution of the display.

High refresh rate handling

The vivo V25's display has a 90Hz native refresh rate. Its display settings menu includes a total of three refresh rate modes - 60Hz, 90Hz and Smart Switch.

Refresh rate modes

The first two act like fixed modes and basically lock the refresh rate at either 60Hz or 90Hz. We found the latter to be great for gaming since auto mode didn't always switch to 90Hz in games that we know can render beyond 60fps. Once you remember to manually toggle into 90Hz mode, though, high refresh rate gaming works perfectly fine on the V25.

Smart Switch mode can be a bit wonky at other times as well. Generally, when it comes to the phone's UI, it keeps the refresh rate at 90Hz and then lowers it down to 60Hz once you stop interacting with the phone for a few seconds. That would be considered a rather basic switching logic, but it works well enough.

UI working at 90Hz and dropping down to 60Hz

Most web browsers we tried, including the vivo one and Google Chrome, work at a fixed 60Hz refresh rate, which is neither here nor there. We would have appreciated the smoother scrolling action, but beyond that, most web content doesn't really benefit from over 60Hz.

Web browsers working at 60Hz

Most other apps we tried on the V25 in Smart Switch mode also ended up working at 60Hz. That includes things like social networks. Though, that logic isn't set in stone since Facebook still ran at 90Hz.

Most apps work at 60Hz

Most of the video playback apps we tried, like TikTok, YouTube, and Netflix, as well as local video playback, all worked in 60Hz mode automatically, which is the desired behavior to save on battery.

Video playback usually works at 60Hz

Overall, the Smart Switch refresh rate behavior on the vivo V25 is serviceable, though a bit simplistic and at times robbing of you some extra smoothness. If you want to get the most out of the experience while gaming or ensure you are not wasting power while watching a video, it is advisable to go in and manually switch to 90Hz or 60Hz mode accordingly.

Battery life

The vivo V25 has a 4,500mAh battery. The Dimensity 900 is a pretty efficient 6nm chip, and in combination with the AMOLED panel, it makes for great battery life. The vivo V25 managed an excellent total endurance of 120 hours in our testing with both great off-screen and on-screen test results.

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

The vivo V25 is not a particularly speedy charger in its peer group, but it's no slouch. It is equipped with support for the company's 44W FlashCharge technology. A compatible charger is in the box, rated for outputs of 5V@2A, 9V@2A and 11V@4A. While it uses a USB Type-A to Type-C cable to charge, it is not a proprietary cable, which is great to see since it can be easily replaced.

Thirty minutes on the charger take the V25 from dead to approximately 53%. A full charge takes around an hour and ten minutes. Not too shabby, even if far from chart-topping.

30min charging test (from 0%)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  100%
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  99%
• Poco F4
  92%
• Oppo Reno8
  90%
• vivo X80 Pro
  88%
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  78%
• Realme 9 Pro+
  77%
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  75%
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  74%
• vivo V23 5g
  60%
• vivo V25 Pro
  57%
• vivo V25
  53%
• Realme 9 Pro
  52%
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  51%
• Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
  50%
• Realme 9
  50%
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  47%
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  45%
• Google Pixel 6a
  42%
• Infinix Zero 5G
  30%
• Nokia G21
  22%

Time to full charge (from 0%)

Lower is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G
  0:16h
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  0:32h
• Poco F4
  0:38h
• vivo X80 Pro
  0:39h
• Oppo Reno8
  0:42h
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  0:45h
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  0:48h
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  0:49h
• Realme 9 Pro+
  0:49h
• vivo V23 5g
  1:03h
• vivo V25 Pro
  1:07h
• vivo V25
  1:11h
• Realme 9 Pro
  1:14h
• Samsung Galaxy A33 5G
  1:15h
• Realme 9
  1:16h
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  1:18h
• Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
  1:24h
• Tecno Camon 19 Pro
  1:28h
• Google Pixel 6a
  1:51h
• Infinix Zero 5G
  1:55h
• Nokia G21
  2:49h

Loudspeaker

There is a single bottom-firing speaker on board the vivo V25. It is not a particularly impressive unit by any means. It only managed to get an AVERAGE score in loudness in our standardized testing, and its frequency response curve is a bit deflating. While highs come through reasonably well, voices are often a bit distorted, and there is practically no bass. You can get much better-sounding phones in this price range.

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.