Vivo V40e Review: Budget-Friendly Beauty with Solid Performance
Vivo has only gotten better with each new release of the V series, so it adds more technologies to every variant. This is, however, no different when it comes to the Vivo V40 series. But with all these features that Vivo is adding to the V series smartphones, those are getting costlier. That’s where the Vivo V40e comes in-it’s the lightest member in the family and is expected to be that ‘value for money’ offering by letting go of a little too much on its minimalist cuts for the right proposition, as long as that price point is concerned.
Starting from ₹ 28,999, the Vivo V40e is an outstandingly good-looking phone in its class, with a sleek design and a capable camera setup. Does it offer enough beyond its aesthetics, though? Is it really worth calling the best phone in the category? Dive into this detailed review of the Vivo V40e to find out if it really does have what it takes to rule the roost in its price class.
Display and Design
Vivo V40e continues the legacy of its predecessor, which is the Vivo V30e, by marrying sleek design and sheer power. The model comes with a very slim design of 7.49mm and weighs 183 grams, holding a massive 5,500mAh battery, thereby becoming one of the lightest and most compact phones in its category. Thus, this size combined with battery capacity ensures one can use it without worrying about the power running out for more than a day; that is a pretty good deal.
The camera on the back of the Vivo V40e remains pretty much similar to the previous edition, with just a slight refinement. This device comprises two cameras in a pill-shaped module. Sitting atop the module are the camera sensors, and in this lower section is an Aura ring light, which apparently improves images shot at really low illumination. That’s certainly very useful in more shadowy locations, even though, rather inconveniently, the phone does not go equipped with the Zeiss optics of its more expensive brethren, which marginally limits its ability to take truly market-leading snaps. While it is very sleek at the back, the phone rather collects fingerprints and feels a bit slippery.
Of course, that can be mitigated by making use of the transparent case provided in the box. The IP64 rating will also give you a peace of mind, where dust and light splash of water are avoided. It lags slightly behind close rivals, including the Motorola Edge 50 Fusion, which features an IP68 rating of higher but should still be more than adequate for daily protection. At the front, the Vivo V40e is laden with a 6.77-inch curved AMOLED display. It has an FHD+ resolution, HDR10+ support, and a 120Hz refresh rate to promise a visually stunning show that will be amplified by its peak brightness. Ultra-skinny bezels surround the screen, and located on the right edge are the power button and the volume rockers. The SIM slot, the USB Type-C, and the speaker grille are found at the bottom.
Overall, Vivo V40e does just well between a premium design and feature like an impressive battery life and top-notch display, hence becoming a tough competitor in mid-range.
Performance and Software
The Vivo V40e runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 SoC coupled with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. Although storage expansion is not available, it offers memory expansion, so users can change up the Vivo V40e’s internal storage to multiply the RAM from 8GB up to 16GB to guarantee better performance for further hardware-intensive applications and multitasking, especially for those who like to keep more applications in memory. Vivo V40e supports more high-performance applications like gaming. The Call of Duty: Mobile has been played for an hour at 60 fps, and it did not drop any frames or lag during this session. However, this smartphone did warm up slightly after 30 minutes, just like most other smartphones within this class. For social media and binge-watching kind of day-to-day applications, it just works. The software front is occupied by the Vivo V40e; it comes with Android 14 overlaid by FunTouch OS 14. It is verified to receive three years of Android OS updates and four years of security patches, which is pretty standard in the mid-range segments; the latest Galaxy A16 5G even gets six major Android updates and six years of security updates, and it does sort of miss this point. Cleaned software with a bunch of pre-installed apps, some of which aren’t removable, but Vivo has kicked it up a notch with AI features on Vivo V40e: Photo Enhancer and Eraser, to make the camera experience on Vivo V40e much better as users can now remove objects from images and adjust the colors for the perfect shot. It works as expected but does need active internet.
Battery life
A difference in V40e is truly provided with the 5,500mAh battery, making its best attribute between the lifespan of the battery and lightweight, weighing 183 grams. Another important feature comes in the form of new-fast charging technology, filling the charge from 5% to 90% in just 44 minutes for one on the go. With moderate usage like social media browsing, messaging, or streaming, the battery can easily be used for over three days on a single charge. Heavy usage like games or high-quality video streaming is comfortably more than a day with the Vivo V40e.
There is also an 80W charge that could fast charge the phone quickly, which would prove to be very useful for topping up the battery when it drops below 20%. Users would generally find that they could get through an entire day with just one charge. Thanks to this facility of fast charging, the phone would be up and running within less than an hour.
The Vivo V40e battery supports fast charging at 18W. This indeed reflects a fill-up that is far quicker compared to its standard charging speeds, furthering the convenience of users requiring rapid powers-up for the device.
Camera Performance
The Vivo V40e features an amazing camera setup, promising solid performance for a mid-range smartphone. The rear camera module has a distinctive pill-shaped design with a 50MP Sony IMX882 primary sensor with f/1.79 aperture and OIS. it is coupled by an 8MP ultrawide lens at 116° fov. The combination is well-suited to good colour rendition with detailed shots in fairly bad lighting. The Aura Light improves low-light performance for brighter images with more detail, though residual noise will always be visible in those darker scenes.
The 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens is decent but not very sharp when compared to the primary sensor. At the front, it packs a 50MP camera, offering remarkable selfies with the skin tones due to proper sharpness. This is further built with autofocus capabilities along with an f/2.0 aperture to ensure clear and precise shots of the user’s face. Although portrait mode works decently well, there may be some variation in terms of skin tones.
It also makes the Vivo V40e a good video recorder. It features 4K video recording with its front camera. However, low light causes some smoothening of images and appears to lose finer details.
Of course, that is not all; with these fantastic specs come AI-enhanced features that add to more quality shots through automated adjustment of settings based on the environment. The phone manages to capture pretty nice photos under most lighting conditions but can still improve in the sharpness of shots obtained from the ultrawide lens and be further optimized in handling noise in low-light photography.
Conclusion
The Vivo V40e comes very close in terms of design to a few of the best-looking phones in the budget segment, such as the slim and curved AMOLED display. This device can be easily considered a great value for the design and battery life, but heavy gamers might feel shortchanged because its performance isn’t really ideal for heavy usage. It is almost overpriced for the one who seeks top-tier performance, as the chipset used here is found in more affordable devices, but its design, battery life, and camera—all especially the front camera—are here to seduce anyone and make this device, in its sum, worthwhile for those not too concerned about plain gaming power but needing top performance at all their everyday tasks.
Of course, for users who care more about gaming performance, devices like the Motorola Edge 50 might be better value for money while still providing in the design and camera capabilities when compared to the Vivo V40e. However, if you require eye-catching affordable smartphones with solid all-around performance, the Vivo V40e will do the trick, though not for an all-round powerhouse.
