vivo V40 Pro review

6.78-inch OLED display

The V40 Pro features the same display as its predecessor, at least on paper. It's built around a 6.78-inch OLED panel with 1260 x 2800px resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color depth and HDR10+ support. In short, it has all the bells and whistles.

Interestingly, the tests show a slight upgrade over the V30 Pro. In manual mode, the V40 Pro provides more or less the same level of brightness - 560 nits. However, in auto mode, the display can boost up to 1,307 nits, which is measurably higher than before but not enough to enhance the user experience noticeably. In either case, you will be able to enjoy content outdoors on a bright sunny day.

One notable omission from the "display experience" is the hardware proximity sensor. We found out that the V40 Pro uses a virtual proximity sensor, which may affect how the screen turns off during calls.

Refresh rate

The display supports up to 120Hz refresh rate, and there are three refresh modes - 120Hz, 60Hz and Smart Switch.

The 120Hz and the Smart Switch mode will allow the screen refresh rate to drop down to 60Hz when showing static content, but the Smart Switch is more limiting - often capping the system UI and apps to 90Hz or even 60Hz.

Battery life

The vivo V40 Pro features a bigger 5,500 mAh battery compared to most of its competitors and its predecessor and runs on a Dimensity 9200+ chipset. The extra battery capacity seems to have offset the increased power consumption from the Dimensity 9200+ and only brings about a minimal increase in the overall battery life compared to the V30 Pro.

The Active Use Score of 13:45h is respectable, and it's considered a bit above average for its class.

Unfortunately, the overall score doesn't tell the whole story. There is some uptick in the web browsing and gaming runtimes, but the video playback and call tests show a rapid decline over the V30 Pro, for example. The video runtime is subpar compared to other phones too.

Charging speed

The vivo V40 Pro supports up to 80W of fast charging over the company's proprietary FlashCharge protocol and unlike the non-Pro, this one comes with the appropriate charger in the box.

Despite the larger battery, charging times haven't changed by much compared to the V30 Pro, reaching 100% from flat in 44 minutes, while a 30-minute charging cycle restores 73% of the battery. We consider that decently fast, but it won't be fair to ignore the alternatives.

And quite a few alternatives are offering faster charging. In fact, some of them can replenish the battery within 30 minutes, significantly outpacing the V40 Pro. But when we say "significantly", we mean in relative percentages. In reality, the Realme GT 6 or the OnePlus 12R, for example, take about 15 minutes less to charge fully - a difference, which might not matter much in real-world scenarios.

If you are experiencing charging anxiety and you are worried about wearing out your battery faster with the fast charging protocol, there are some useful settings in the battery menu to help with that. While the V40 Pro doesn't have overcharging protection, it does have a toned-down charging curve that limits the charging speed in an attempt to preserve battery health over time. There's even a battery health monitor to track it.

Speakers

The V Pro lineup finally adopts stereo speakers and it's the usual kind - hybrid. This means the top speaker also acts as an earpiece, while the bottom is a full-fledged loudspeaker. This usually leads to imbalanced sound, as the bottom speaker will always sound louder. In this case, this inherent imbalance isn't very noticeable.

Loudness-wise, the speakers are just about average for the price bracket with -26.0 LUFS, which in turn is a "Very Good" score.

When it comes to quality, we are pleasantly surprised. Even at higher volumes, the speakers sound rather clean with minimal distortion, while the lows are well-pronounced and give music tracks a warmer and deeper sound. The bass is more noticeable than other phones in the same 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.