vivo V40 Pro review

Design and handling

The vivo V40 Pro features a slightly different design than its predecessor. The camera island has been revamped and now adopts circular shapes and oval forms. The circular LED flash for better low-light portraits is still around.

The device also retains the selection of premium materials. We have a glass front protected by Schott Xensation Alpha glass as well as a glass back. The side frame is plastic, though, and you can tell just by touching it.

Still, the glass sandwich design is nice to hold and look at. The back and the front are curved and provide a more comfortable grip. However, comfortable doesn't mean secure. The handset is still rather slippery and we believe this is true for all color variants.

The V40 Pro comes in five colorways - Nebula Purple, Sunglow Peach, Meteor Blue, Moonlight White and Stellar Silver. Only the Nebula Purple's back glass features Fluorite AG coating with a matte, slightly sparkly finish. The rest of them are glossy.

According to vivo's official Indian website, the handset is available in only two colors there - Ganges Blue (probably the same as Meteor Blue) and Titanium Grey (probably Stellar Silver).

And here's the Nebula Purple on the V40 for reference.

vivo V40 vs. V40 Pro

We have the Moonlight White colorway and, just like the other glossy paint jobs, the wavy patterns remind us of a marble-like surface. The Moonlight White and the Stellar Silver variants are touted as anti-fingerprint and it's hard to tell whether the coating is doing a great job or whether the fingerprints are simply not as visible against the white color. Either way, we can confirm that the Moonlight White option doesn't look dirty at all.

The device is also impressively thin, measuring 7.58mm in thickness while still rocking a generous 5,500 mAh battery. It's also IP68/IP69-rated against water and dust, which is a considerable step up from the V30 Pro's IP54 certification.

vivo V40 Pro

The V40 Pro has a dual SIM slot, but there is no support for eSIM. Keep that in mind if you'd like to use data roaming eSIMs when traveling.

Button placement is adequate and doesn't require any finger gymnastics, but we wished the fingerprint reader wasn't so close to the bottom edge. At least it works well - it's fast, accurate and responsive.

All in all, the V40 Pro's premium and slick design is aesthetically pleasing, but it's quite slippery at the same time. And standing at 164mm in height with a 6.78-inch display, it's even harder to handle.