vivo V25/X80 Lite review

Potent triple camera and an autofocusing selfie cam

vivo's "V" line of products has built a formidable reputation for offering a strong camera experience. The V25 has a lot going for it in this respect as well, but there are also some downgrades compared to its V23 5G predecessor.

Let's start with the main 64MP camera. It is based on the Samsung S5KGW3 sensor - an upgrade over the GW1 inside the V23 5G. It is also equipped with optical image stabilization (OIS), a new addition coming from the V23 5G. The Quad-Bayer sensor has 0.7µm individual pixels and sits behind an f/1.8 lens - slightly brighter than the V23 5G.

Accompanying the main camera is an 8MP ultrawide. It is based on the 1/4" HYNIX HI846 sensor, which is the same sensor used by the second selfie cam on the V23 5G. There's nothing particularly fancy about the 16mm 120-degree ultrawide snapper - it has 1.12µm pixels and sits behind an f/2.2 lens.

While the ultrawide cam lacks autofocus to pull double duty for macros, the vivo V25 does have a dedicated 2MP macro camera. It is based on the GalaxyCore GC02M1 sensor and has fixed focus and an f/2.4 lens. Nothing particularly fancy.

The vivo V25 borrows its formidable 50MP, f/2.0 selfie camera straight from the V23 5G. As far as we managed to gather, it uses a custom sensor, which vivo refers to as the "JNV". It's most likely based on Samsung's ISOCELL S5KJN1, which would mean it has 0.64µm pixels and a 1/2.76" optical format. One of the key features of this selfie cam is 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 capable vlogging camera.

We did mention some downgrades coming from the vivo V23 5G in the beginning. One of these is plainly obvious - the secondary ultrawide selfie camera is unfortunately missing. Also absent from the V25 are the dual-tone LED lights that the V23 5G has on the front for selfie photos. vivo clearly made a few cutbacks in the selfie department.

Camera app

The default camera app has most optionsaccessible through various sub-sections of the main UI. Everything else is inside a dedicated settings menu, which is a new thing.

A straightforward zoom selector gives you direct access to the ultrawide and main 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 videos

The main modes are arranged in a carousel and you can switch between them by swiping. The More tab lists the rest of the modes; from there, you can 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. There's helpful information explaining all of the options above if you are just getting into photography. Shooting in RAW is also an possible.

Pro mode

The camera app can also suggest modes based on conditions - it will gladly prompt you to use night mode if it gets too dark. While the V25 lacks the dual LED selfie flash of the V23 5G, there is still a screen flash option, which vivo calls aura light.

Daylight photo quality

The 64MP GW3 main camera expectedly performs very well in good light conditions. Detail is great, and color reproduction is nice and natural. There is plenty of contrast in the shots as well. OIS is a great addition to the mix that ensures shake-free photos.

vivo V25: 16MP main camera daylight samples

Dynamic range could be a bit better. Shadows can often get crushed, and some bright areas are overexposed.

The main cam can also do portrait mode. The results look great, with great subject detection and convincing background blur.

vivo V25: 16MP main camera portrait daylight samples

Portrait mode works just as well with non-human subjects.

vivo V25: 16MP main camera portrait daylight samples

The main camera can also capture photos in 64MP mode. This results in much bigger file sizes, but the benefits to resolved detail are clearly visible. Small details are resolved much better, so it might be worth it for shots where that is crucial.

vivo V25: 64MP main camera daylight samples

Here's how the main camera stacks up against competitors in our extensive pic compare database in both 16MP and 64MP modes.

vivo V25 against the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G and the Xiaomi Poco F4 in our Photo compare tool

64MP: vivo V25 against the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G and the Xiaomi Poco F4 in our Photo compare tool

There is no dedicated telephoto camera on the vivo V25. However, the GW3 main camera has more than enough resolution to do great 2x digital zoom. The quality of these stills is nearly identical to 1x ones.

vivo V25: 16MP main camera daylight 2x zoom samples

The 8MP ultrawide camera also does very well in good lighting, considering the limited hardware it is working with. There detail level is decent, colors are natural, thought he dynamic range is pretty limited. The color reproduction is definitely different across the two cameras as well.

vivo V25: 8MP ultrawide camera daylight samples

Noise is a bit of a problem on the ultrawide camera and there is also a bit of corner softness. Again - nothing out of the ordinary or unexpected.

Last and least, there is a 2MP macro camera on the V25. You can get usable closeups but nothing spectacular in any way.

vivo V25: 2MP macro camera daylight samples

Selfies

The 50MP autofocusing selfie camera is a star attraction on the vivo V25. It captures stills at around 12.5MP by default with 4-to-1 pixel binning, just like the main cam. These shots look great.

vivo V25: 12.5MP selfie camera daylight samples

The detail is great, and so is the dynamic range. The colors look natural, and the background has some pleasing natural bokeh. So much so, in fact, that turning on the dedicated portrait mode has little effect on the selfies.

vivo V25: 12.5MP selfie camera portrait daylight samples

It is quite hard to actually tell the two modes apart, which we count as a plus for the selfie cam itself.

Unfortunately, as we already mentioned, there are some notable downgrades here compared to the vivo V23 5G. There is no ultrawide selfie camera, and there are no LED "torches" for low-light selfies.

Video quality

The vivo V25 can capture up to 4K@30fps video from its main and selfie cameras and up to 1080p@30fps from the ultrawide. These videos get saved in a standard AVC video stream at 50 Mbps in 4K and a pretty stable frame count, plus a stereo 48kHz AAC audio track, wrapped inside an MP4 container. There is no option for h.256 (HEVC) video capture on the V25.

The main camera captures great 4K video. Detail is plentyful, colors are nice and natural, and contrast is good.

Just like with stills, the dynamic range could use some improvement, though.

Zoomed 2x videos look almost as good as 1x ones too.

Here are screen grabs from video recordings in our vast video compare database. Pixel-peep away.

vivo V25 against the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G and the Xiaomi Poco F4 in our Video compare tool

1080p videos from the ultrawide camera are kind of disappointing. Detail is quite low, so much so that the clips look blurry. Colors are also mismatched with the main camera. Just like with stills, the ultrawide appears to expose a bit higher.

On a more positive note, the selfie camera on the V25 records excellent 4K videos. It has amazing detail and great colors. Even the dynamic range is not too shabby. The vivo V25 is a pretty great vlogging device.

You might be tempted to enable stabilization on the selfie video as well to really improve your vlogging game. We would advise against that, though, since it lowers resolution down to 1080p and the difference in detail is really significant. Plus, it doesn't really stabilize the footage perfectly and reduces the FOV a bit.

If you plan on vlogging with the vivo V25, then you should definitely invest in a gimbal to get the most out of the otherwise very capable selfie camera.

Speaking of stabilization, in typical vivo fashion, the main camera gets two different levels of stabilization. Standard maintains the maximum resolution at 4K and does a decent job of smoothing out shakes and bumps. The stabilization itself works great, but it seems to introduce some autofocus hunting while walking, which is annoying. We hope it's just a software bug that gets ironed out.

Then there is Ultra stabilization which frankly doesn't do all that much on top of the standard mode. All the while, it lowers resolution down to 1080p, so we would probably shy away from using it.

Low-light camera quality

Let's start with the main camera which captures solid 16MP stills by default. These have plenty of detail and nice colors. Noise is almost non-existent too.

vivo V25: 16MP main camera low-light samples

Darker areas are well exposed overall, likely thanks to the automatic night mode, which kicks in when needed. Light sources are frequently blown-out, though and could be handled a bit better.

You can alternatively shoot in manual night mode. It is available across all of the cameras on the V25 and generally has longer exposure and capture times, presumably with more frame stacking taking place.

Its effects on the main camera are subtle. You get a slight boost to darker areas and slightly better handling of light sources. Still, the default automatic night mode will already get you most of the way there.

vivo V25: 16MP main camera night mode samples

Another route you can take is to capture in 64MP mode. Doing so generally results in a bit softer but more natural-looking low-light photos with less sharpening applied. The level of detail is comparable to the default 16MP mode.

vivo V25: 64MP main camera low-light samples

Zooming in low light naturally results in softer and noisier shots.

vivo V25: 16MP main camera 2x zoom low-light samples

If you are going to do so, you might as well go for night mode shots since these tend to look just a little bit cleaner with less noise and better handling of light sources. Again, the difference is very subtle, though.

vivo V25: 16MP main camera 2x zoom night mode samples

The ultrawide camera expectedly struggles a lot in low light. Its photos are noisy and soft to the point of being outright blurry. Light sources are blown out as well.

vivo V25: 8MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

You might as well use the dedicated night mode and give the ultrawide the best chance possible. Once again, night mode's improvements are minimal but every little bit counts here. You get a bit more fine detail here and there, if nothing else.

vivo V25: 8MP ultrawide camera night mode samples

The vivo V25 maintains a very strong selfie game even in low light. Everything is perfectly sharp and in focus, thanks to the autofocus doing its job. There is plenty of detail, and even skin texture comes through with nice and true-to-life tones.

vivo V25: 12.5MP selfie camera low-light samples

We have little to no complaints about the selfie camera in low light. Just be sure to steer clear of night mode on the selfie since, for whatever reason, it produces blurry, seemingly out-of-focus shots in stark contrast to the excellent ones from the regular photo mode.

vivo V25: 12.5MP selfie camera night mode samples

The main camera on the V25 does a great job with low light video capture as well. Detail is sufficient, colors are true to life, and light sources are handled reasonably well. Noise, while present, is not too bothersome.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the ultrawide camera, which captures blurry and underexposed videos. We would probably stay away from using the ultrawide in low light as a whole.