vivo V29 Pro review

Introduction

Vivo has yet another premium midranger in its ranks, one produced in India and with a design inspired by India - the vivo V29 Pro. Like previous V-series models, the V29 Pro heavily focuses on photography. The V29 Pro doubles down on the previous model's 'Aura light' concept with a dedicated color-changing illuminator on the back, introduces a dedicated portrait telephoto camera and brings an extra high-res display into the mix.

The new Aura light implementation includes a separate dedicated set of LEDs (15.6mm in diameter) that can automatically adjust their temperature depending on ambient light, and you can also tweak it manually if you so choose. These are supposed to be 36% brighter than the previous generation.

The 2MP dedicated macro cam from the V27 Pro might be gone, but a 12MP, 2x zoom portrait camera is in its place. No other V-series phone has even had one, so this is a big change. The Sony IMX663 sensor has "all-pixel dual-core" autofocus, which helps it in the dark.

Next on the list of major upgrades is the display, which remains unchanged in size at 6.78 inches in diagonal. It is, however, an unusually high-res panel - the 1260x2800px resolution makes for a 453ppi density, so you can count on some extra sharpness.

vivo was dead set on maintaining a slim waistline for the V29 Pro, with a nicely thin 7.5mm thickness. That's meant keeping the battery capacity at 4,600mAh, though if the V27 Pro is any indication, that should be plenty. Charging is now rated at 80W instead of the V27 Pro's 66W spec, but those power ratings don't mean that much, so we'll see how the charging speed stacks up.

vivo V29 Pro specs at a glance:

• Body: 164.2x74.4x7.5mm, 188g; Glass front, glass back.
• Display: 6.78" AMOLED, 120Hz, 1260x2800px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 453ppi.
• Chipset: Mediatek Dimensity 8200 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x3.1 GHz Cortex-A78 & 3x3.0 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G610 MC6.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM.
• OS/Software: Android 13, Funtouch 13.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.9, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 12 MP, f/2.0, PDAF, 2x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2.
• Front camera: 50 MP, f/2.0, 22mm (wide), AF.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 4600mAh; 80W wired, 1-50% in 18 min (advertised).
• Connectivity: 5G; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 5; BT 5.3.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical).

Vivo decided not to upgrade the chipset, and the V29 Pro uses the same MediaTek Dimensity 8200 chip as the V27 Pro. It should still perform better than the Snapdragon 778G inside the vanilla vivo V29. Speaking of the regular V29, one of its major additions is the IP68 ingress protection rating. Interestingly enough, while the V29 Pro is also built according to stringent durability requirements, it does not have an official ingress protection rating for some reason.

Unboxing

The vivo V29 Pro arrives in a full-size gray box highlighting the Aura feature with a large shiny circle around the phone's name. It is a very sturdy, two-piece box that includes a nice cradle for the phone on the inside.

Vivo doesn't skimp on the retail package of its devices. First and foremost, you get an 80W vivo FlashCharge charger in the box and an accompanying USB Type-A to Type-C cable. The cable seems perfectly standard without any extra pins, so you don't need to keep track of it closely. The V29 Pro's retail bundle isn't skipping protection either. A factory-applied screen protector film is joined by a transparent case to minimize worrying about the handset's physical well-being.