vivo V70 FE Review – Fashionably Designed Camera Phone with 200MP Shooter Tested

Weeks after the launch of the vivo V70, the brand has launched another midrange variant in the V70 series that aims to blend both fashion design and everyday performance in a sleek looking design. 

Ahead of its official Malaysia launch, we managed to get our hands on a unit for field testing. After testing it extensively, here’s our vivo V70 FE review where we share if their latest fashion-first phone deserves a place in your pocket.

vivo V70 FE review – Build and Design

An evolutionary offshoot of the vivo V70, the vivo V70 FE prioritises aesthetics while offering a fair measure of everyday performance melded with durability along with a measure of AI-enabled features at a modest price point. 

Intended for the young and fashionable, the vivo V70 FE has an eye-catching design with attractive colourways that makes it as much a fashion accessory as it is a phone.

Standing for Fashion Edition, the vivo V70 FE comes in a signature shade of Muse Purple, Urban Silver and in the case of our vivo V70 FE review sample, a rather posh shade of Ocean Blue that resembles a deep blue colourway with a satin finish that has modest resistance to smudges. 

Despite its metallic looking finish, the vivo V70 FE is primarily built of polycarbonate and its nature is immediately apparent when you hold it in your hand. Fortunately, there is a silver lining to this as the phone has an IP68/IP69 dust and water resistance rating, allowing it to survive immersion in up to 1.5 meters of fresh water for up to 2 hours at a time which is somewhat of a rarity in its price segment.

In terms of design language, the vivo V70 FE closely follows the aesthetic cues of the vivo V70, featuring a flat front and back, rounded corners and straight edges. However, it does introduce several subtle changes including a redesigned camera housing and a slightly heavier build due to its larger display while maintaining a similar 7.6mm thickness.

In terms of ergonomics and design, the vivo V70 FE sticks to a familiar layout. While the left and top sides are otherwise unremarkable, the base of our vivo V70 FE review sample is rather busy, featuring a USB-C port for charging, a grille for one of the two built-in speakers and a SIM card tray. The right side features a power button and volume rocker that are strategically placed where your thumb would be when held right-handed.

On the rear, the vivo V70 FE swaps the square-shaped camera housing of the vivo V70 for a lozenge-shaped housing that contains its dual camera array and Aura Light flash.

Aside from the raised camera housing, the rear backplate remains clean with only a subtle vivo logo done up in silver breaking up the otherwise metallic blue finish. As a concession to cost, the phone omits wireless charging.

Up front, the vivo V70 FE features a 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED display that features 1,260 x 2,800 pixels resolution, up to a 120Hz refresh rate, a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut and up to 1,900 nits in high brightness mode, which makes it respectable especially seeing its price category. 

Up top is a single 32MP camera for selfies and video calls along with a slit that hides an earpiece and a speaker that forms a stereo pair with the one at the base of the phone.

Unlike conventional designs, the speakers on the vivo V70 FE have the unusual ability to be cranked up to 200% volume. Interestingly, vivo has pre-applied a screen protector to the display. However, there’s no official mention in the literature as to what kind of protective glass the phone uses.

Aesthetically speaking, the vivo V70 FE accomplishes what it sets out to do with a premium looking design that mimics the more premium V70 to a degree with robust IP69 dust and water resistance which is generous for a budget phone. vivo has also added additional value with the provision of a 90W fast charger, a USB-C cable, a protective case, a SIM eject pin and the aforementioned pre-applied screen protector out of the box.

vivo V70 FE Review – Performance and Specifications

In terms of hardware, the vivo V70 Fan Edition features specifications that place it squarely as a midrange phone. Running under the hood is a Dimensity 7360-Turbo octacore processor paired with 8GB LPDDR5 RAM as well as the ability to assign up to 8GB of Extended RAM off the onboard 256GB UFS 3.1 storage.

Of note is that the phone comes with a vapour chamber that spans  4120 mm ² which helps in demanding scenarios that require sustained high performance such as extended gaming sessions.

Unlike the higher end vivo V70, there’s no option to dial the amount of virtual RAM and it’s strictly a binary on/off toggle for the assigned 8GB of virtual RAM. While it is intended as a budget phone, our vivo V70 FE runs the latest Android 16 with their new OriginOS 6 firmware as well as a commitment to a decent 4 years of OS and 6 years of security updates. 

Here’s how our vivo V70 FE review sample runs up on paper:

Price	RM1,799 (12GB RAM/256GB) [review unit] / RM1,599 (8GB RAM/256GB), RM1,999 (8GB RAM/512GB)
Display	6.83-inch Ultra Clear AMOLED display, 1,260 x 2,800 pixels, 1,900 nits (HBM), 120Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 7360-Turbo  2.5GHz
OS	Android 16 w/ OriginOS 6
Memory	8GB LPDDR5 RAM / 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
Camera	200MP OIS Ultra Clear camera f/1.9 w/ OIS + 8MP f/2.2 ultra wide camera [rear] / 32MP f/2.2 camera [front]
Battery	7,000mAh BlueVolt battery w/ 90W fast charging
Size/Weight	163.7 x 76.2 x 7.6mm / 200g

Introduced last year, the Dimensity 7360-Turbo chipset is a midrange octacore processor with a 5G modem clocked at 2.5GHz that is optimised for power efficiency. Astute readers will note that this is the same chipset that also powered last year’s vivo V60 Lite.

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks with 8GB of virtual Extended RAM, our vivo V70 FE review unit scored the following:

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	361
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	359
3D Mark WildLife Extreme	875
3D Mark WildLife Extreme Unlimited	852
Geekbench 6 Single Core	1,021
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	2,926
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	2,503
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	2,518
Geekbench AI (CPU quanticised)	2,165
Geekbench AI (GPU quanticised)	630
PCMark Work 3.0 Performance	11,706
PCMark Battery Life	24 hours 36 mins

In general, the benchmarks for the Dimensity 7360-Turbo are within the performance envelope expected of a midrange processor though it is outpaced by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 in the vivo V70 which has almost double the test scores across the board though it also costs more. Our vivo V70 FE review unit isn’t going to break any speed records but offers serviceable performance for everyday use. 

Web browsing on Chrome ran smoothly and the phone managed to tackle the usual tasks like Google Docs,  social media browsing and the like in a competent fashion along with e-sports games like League of Legends. More demanding games like Genshin Impact required longer than usual load times but Honor of Kings and League of Legends loaded relatively fast without issue. 

When tested as a primary phone, our vivo V70 FE offered fast and nippy performance though OriginOS 6 comes with quite a bit of bloatware including quite a few apps of dubious utility though these can all be deleted without too much trouble.

On the bright side, the phone has access to all the usual AI enhancements that come with Android 16 including Google’s Gemini AI assistant, circle to search and also has their One-Tap Transfer to send and receive files that is compatible with Apple’s iOS devices. The phone also has support for their Origin Island dynamic capsule that pops up at the top of the screen to handle critical notifications and control selected apps without having to constantly swap between them.

As displays go, the 6.84-inch AMOLED display is among the largest in its price point while maintaining a 120Hz refresh rate, a respectable 1,260 x 2,800 pixels resolution with 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut and 1,900 nits in high brightness mode. Colour rendition for the display is good with adequate blacks and clear whites with the 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut making it appropriate for content creators. 

When dialled to maximum screen brightness, our vivo V70 FE’s AMOLED display offered fair clarity under sunlight though the display on the vivo V70 has a greater peak brightness. On the audio front, the stereo speakers are able to offer impressive volume when cranked up to 200% volume and were able to do so without distortion for music and gaming alike. For casual music listening, gaming and the odd YouTube video or two, it’s a sound choice.

When it comes to endurance, the vivo V70 FE offers one of the largest batteries ever mounted in a V-series phone at 7,000mAh with 90W of wired FlashCharge fast charging which is one of the fastest charging speeds in its price range. There’s no wireless charging but that’s not a deal breaker. vivo has also committed to a 5-year battery health guarantee for added peace of mind.

While it doesn’t look like a gaming oriented phone, the vivo V70 FE features bypass charging, which lets you bypass charging the battery when plugged in for extended gaming sessions and which helps prolong battery health. However, there’s no side-mounted USB-C port so if you keep the phone plugged in and hold the phone in landscape mode, you’ll end up with some rather awkward ergonomics in extended gaming sessions.

In terms of battery life, our vivo V70 FE review sample performed like a champ with its large 7,000mAh battery and efficient chipset offering a comfortable two days of normal usage with juice to spare though heavy gaming or Netflix binging will understandably drain the battery much faster. In PCMark’s battery benchmark, it scored a respectable 24 hours and 36 minutes of battery life.

The 90W wired fast charging is among the best in its price range though this is balanced by the sheer size of the battery means that it still takes some time to charge.

Vivo V70 FE Review – Cameras

The vivo V70 FE comes with a 200MP f/1.9 main camera that uses the popular Samsung HP5 sensor and also integrates optical image stabilisation, offering up a CIPA 4.0 stability rating for stable stills and footage. 

Accompanying the main camera is an 8MP f/2.2 ultra wide angle camera with a 120-degree field of view. Combined, the rear dual camera array has up to 4x zoom via sensor crop and up to 30x digital zoom for stills while allowing for 4K@30fps video with up to 10x digital zoom. Up front, our vivo V70 FE review sample hosts a single 32MP f/2.2 camera capable of up to 4K@30fps video capture and selfies. 

In daytime conditions, the main rear 200MP camera is able to serve up stills with good detail and colour rendition and you’re able to yield otherwise great shots out to about 3X zoom.

Shots and images captured in low light tend to get softer beyond that and while it is capable of 30X digital zoom, it’s underwhelming at best as the camera lacks true telephoto zoom and is reliant on cropping the main sensor.

The 8MP ultrawide angle camera works best in daytime conditions with middling, soft-looking results in low light scenarios and in certain indoors scenarios exhibits slightly different results, dimmer results from the main camera.

The front selfie camera is one of the better ones out there with good skin tone rendition and detail for selfies in daylight conditions.

Where the vivo V70 FE gains an advantage is its rather novel AI Magic Weather feature that leverages AI to alter the weather in a given scenery shot which makes for rather entertaining results like a snap of downtown sunny Kuala Lumpur done up so that it looks like it is in the middle of winter.

Should you buy the vivo V70 FE?

The vivo V70 FE meets the needs of a cost-conscious audience, offering a stylish design that mimics flagship aesthetics, a large AMOLED display, impressive battery life paired with fast wired charging and a massive 200MP rear camera, all at a modest price. 

 

vivo V70 FE review unit courtesy of vivo Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.vivo.com/my/products/v70-fe