vivo V50 review

Design, build quality, handling

The vivo V50 looks familiar, a lot like the previous V40 model. It has a curved front and back panels, and a thin curved frame. Its signature element - the camera housing, is still a two-step island with a round camera glass and an oval Aura flash holder.

This year, vivo has toned down the display curvature, from Galaxy Edge-like to a more common 2.5D finish, and we approve. This way, the screen is more comfortable to view and use, at least in our opinion.

The vivo V50 is IP68-rated for dust and water resistance, and IP69-rated for pressurized 360-degree spraying water jets. It uses glass on the front and back, and the frame is made of plastic.

The Titanium Gray model has a plastic rear panel for some reason. The Starry Night has a holographic back, which makes it show 3D stars. It just needs some light to reflect so it can create this effect. The Rose Red and Mist Purple (ours) feature glass back panels with matte surface.

Vivo is advertising the front glass for enhanced durability. It is called Diamond Shield glass and has been developed together with Schott. It should offer up to 50% better drop resistance compared to the Schott Xensation Alpha glass on the vivo V40.

Long story short, the vivo V50 introduces minor updates in design, with the most prominent being the new screen glass.

Let's take a closer look at the V50 now.

The front is all screen with minimal bezels. The 6.77-inch AMOLED panel is indeed quite immersive, the perforation is small, and we hope the Diamond Shield Glass is as tough as advertised.

The 50MP AF selfie camera is the same as on the V30 and V40, but now it somehow features Zeiss optics. There is no flash, though.

Above the camera is the earpiece, which pulls a double duty as a stereo speaker.

The V50 has an under-display fingerprint scanner, an optical one, and it works nicely fast.

The phone arrives with a factory pre-applied protective film, which is nice to operate but does not follow the screen curvature around the edges perfectly. Of course, you can always remove it or replace it.

The back panel looks really nice in the Mist Purple colorway that we have and it looks different depending on the reflected light.

On the back, you can see the two-step camera housing with the large Aura light ring flash. The flash color and intensity can be adjusted manually or automatically depending on the scene.

The black circle houses the two 50MP cameras, the color spectrum sensor, and the Zeiss logo. It is surrounded by a metal ring with a diamond pattern.

The matte back is smooth and fingerprint-resistant, but it offers almost no grip.

The frame is made of plastic, slightly curved, and with a glossy finish that is a huge fingerprint magnet. It does offer some grip.

The bottom of the vivo V50 is where you will find the second stereo speaker, the USB-C port, a couple of microphones, and the dual-SIM tray.

Overall, we liked the vivo V50 - it's a good-looking phone with a large screen and thin profile. It weighs under 200 grams, which is nice, there is some grip even without a case, and the new colors are quite appealing. We appreciate vivo's efforts to enhance its overall durability, from the new glass to the bundled case.