vivo V70 Review – Refined midrange all-rounder with ZEISS cameras tested

To kick off the Year of the Fire Horse, vivo has launched the successor to last year’s vivo V60 for the Malaysia market. Dubbed the vivo V70, the new phone features a slightly larger screen, the same powerful Zeiss-tuned cameras and a number of subtle but meaningful updates all-around while further reinforcing its capabilities as a capable premium midrange phone.  Ahead of the official launch, vivo issued us a sample for field testing. 

After taking it around for the holidays and as a daily carry for work, here’s our vivo V70 review where we share if it’s a worthy upgrade compared to its predecessor.

vivo V70 Review – Build and Design

Compared to its predecessor, the vivo V70 notably has a larger 6.59-inch AMOLED display and a distinctively different looking rear triple camera housing. Where the vivo V60 has a pill-shaped camera housing to protect two of the three rear cameras, our vivo V70 review sample has all three cameras housed in a raised squarish-shaped camera housing with the Zeiss logo emblazoned in the corner.

In Malaysia, the vivo V70 comes in a signature shade of pale gold referred to as Golden Hour along with a more mainstream looking Alpine Gray and, in the case of our test unit, a satin shade of what they refer to as Authentic Black.  According to vivo, the vivo V70 uses a tougher Grade-6 aluminium alloy and uses a precise polishing process to create its matte satin sheen. 

Adhering to current contemporary smartphone design norms, the vivo V70 retains a flat back and front with gently rounded corners. This lends the phone a rather premium look with the matte satin finish effectively repelling fingerprints while lending a slight measure of grippiness to the phone. 

Aesthetics aside, the phone comes with an IP68/IP69 dust and water resistance rating which lends it a measure of durability against the more common daily mishaps. 

To cram in a larger display, vivo has managed to shave down the bezels all around with the side bezels measuring in at 1.25mm, the top at 1.46mm and the bottom slightly thicker at 1.77mm.

Even with the larger screen,  the vivo V70 is still slightly lighter and thinner than the prior vivo V60. Up front, the phone features a 6.59-inch AMOLED display with 1,260 x 2,750 pixels resolution while featuring a 120Hz refresh rate, 5,000 nits peak brightness along with slim side and top bezels.

The top portion of the display has a tiny punchhole for the 32MP selfie camera along with a tiny slit that acts as an earpiece and as a speaker. For biometric verification, the bottom quadrant of the display has an ultrasonic fingerprint reader. You also get a preinstalled screen protector too though this tends to smudge quite easily even with normal use.

Like its predecessor, the display is protected by a layer of tough Schott Diamond Shield Glass that has a measure of resistance to nicks and scratches. The base of our vivo V70 review sample has a USB-C port, a nano SIM card tray and a grille for the second speaker that forms a stereo pair with the one located in a slit on the upper portion of the display. The left and top of our vivo V70 review sample are otherwise unremarkable.

Overall build quality is solid, belying its status as a midrange phone with its aluminium frame and novel finish lending it a feel akin to a flagship phone though it doesn’t radically differ from the design template offered by the prior V60, V50 and other prior offerings in the series. Fortunately, it also retains the same benefits including a shock absorbing chassis to improve drop resistance from all angles. 

 

@hitechcentury Unboxing the new vivo V70 that will be coming soon to Malaysia! @vivo_malaysia #vivov70 #goldenhour #learnontiktok #hitechcentury #vivomalaysia ♬ Modern city pop, fashion, Vlog(1430789) – Loquat Music

Bundled with the vivo V70 is a black rubber casing, a USB-C cable, a SIM eject pin and a charger which is becoming a rarity these days.

vivo V70 Review – Performance and Benchmarks

In terms of hardware, our vivo V70 review sample features the same efficient Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor as the prior vivo V60 paired with slightly faster 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and fast 256GB UFS 4.1 storage.

While not immediately obvious, vivo has integrated a larger 4200 mm² vapour chamber for improved sustained performance. The phone runs the latest Android 16 with Origin OS 6, vivo’s latest firmware that’s being deployed in multiple models not only in China but globally as well. 

One of the more notable additions to the vivo V70 is the inclusion of their Origin Island feature that allows for a selected array of notifications to appear as an interactive panel in the shape of a dynamic capsule though this is thus far limited to activating the WiFi hotspot, music playback ,sharing files and selected other internal features. It does come in handy for controlling music tracks on the go and it’s likely that additional third party app support will be added to it later on down the line.

The vivo V70 also has a slightly larger display with a similar 120Hz refresh rate and 5,000 nits peak brightness as its predecessor with 1,260 x 2,750 pixels resolution and that is also protected by Schott Diamond Shield glass. Here’s how it stacks up on paper:

Price	RM2,199 (12GB RAM/256GB), RM1999 (8GB RAM/256GB), RM2,599 (12GB RAM/512GB)
Display	6.59-inch Ultra Clear OLED , 1,260 x 2,750 pixels, 120Hz refresh rate, 5,000 nits peak brightness
Processor	Snapdragon 7 Gen 4
OS	Android 16 w/ OriginOS 6
Memory	12GB LPDDR5X RAM / 256GB UFS 4.1 storage
Cameras	50MP ZEISS Main Camera w/ OIS + 50MP ZEISS Super Telephoto camera w/ 3X optical zoom + 8MP ZEISS Ultra Wide angle camera [rear] / 50MP ZEISS Group selfie camera w/ 92-degree wide angle (0.8x – 2x) lens
Battery	6,500mAh BlueVolt battery w/ 90W wired charging
Size/Weight	157.5 x 74.3 x 7.4mm/ 187g

While it doesn’t look like a radical update from its predecessor especially seeing as they use the same proven chipset, the vivo V70 edges out as it uses faster flagship-grade LPDDR5X and UFS 4.1 RAM that offers markedly faster sequential read/write performance;  its predecessor the vivo V60 used decent but slower LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage.

Common to both models is the ability to assign up to 12GB of virtual Extended RAM off the onboard storage. Like its predecessor, the phone also gets 4 years of OS and 6 years of security updates.

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks, our vivo V70 review sample scored the following:

3d Mark Steel Nomad Light	778
3d Mark Steel Nomad Light Ultd	777
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme	2,099
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Ultd	2,083
Geekbench 6 Single core	1,342
Geekbench 6 Multi core	4,251
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	4,858
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	7,951
PC Mark Work 3.0	11,853
PC Mark Battery Life	27 hours 46 mins

Interestingly, our vivo V70 review sample scored slightly better across the board when compared to its predecessor despite having identical processors and similar amounts of RAM and storage from our prior test sample which means that vivo has done some tweaking to optimise the firmware for better overall efficiency and performance on a proven chipset.

Day to day performance is similar to its predecessor and apps, websites and games run in a silky smooth and fast fashion with the phone able to tackle the likes of Genshin Impact and Call of Duty Mobile on default settings without issue.

Unfortunately, it’s still stuffed with unwanted bloatware including Agoda, games and a slew of other apps which require a bit of house cleaning. Battery life was excellent, lasting a respectable 27 hours and 46 minutes in the PC Mark benchmark and a comfortable full day and a half of usage going in full tilt.

When it comes to brightness, clarity and detail, the vivo V70’s larger 6.59-inch OLED panel did not disappoint with its 5,000 nits peak brightness offering excellent clarity under sunlight while retaining vibrant colour rendition and good detail for general usage, movie watching and gaming duties.

Beyond many midrange phones, the stereo speakers managed to deliver up excellent volume and can be cranked to maximum without distortion though bass is understandably lacking seeing the slimness of the phone. 

What adds greater utility to the vivo V70 is its access to a suite of AI features including Google’s Gemini AI assistant, Circle to Search with Google and AI Captions to get subtitles on content for better clarity. Combined, this makes the vivo V70 a very competent general purpose workhorse.

vivo V70 Review – Cameras

On the imaging front, the vivo V70 has a hardware setup that benefits from vivo’s close collaboration with ZEISS.  All three rear cameras as well as the front selfie camera come with ZEISS-tuned optics.

Up close, most of the grunt work is tackled by a 50MP ZEISS Main Camera with a Sony IMX766 sensor and optical image stabilisation. Paired with the main camera is a 50MP ZEISS Super Telephoto camera using a Sony IMX882 sensor which also saw service on the well regarded X200 FE and optical image stabilisation.

Riding shotgun is a 8MP ZEISS ultra wide angle camera for scenery and group shots which is acceptable for a circa-RM2K phone. Combined, this setup allows for shots at up to 100x digital zoom with 3x optical zoom as well as up to 4K@60fps video with up to 15x zoom. 

Up front, our vivo V60 review sample sports a single 50MP ZEISS Group selfie camera with a 92-degree angle of view with 0.8x up to 2x zoom as well as autofocus. The front camera can also capture a very respectable 4K@60fps video.

Beyond hardware, our vivo V70 review unit also packs quite a few additional AI features culled from earlier flagships including improved colour tuning by ZEISS in their ZEISS Natural Color mode in Portrait mode ( to optimise portraiture for more natural looking colours especially during golden hour when the sun is in the right place at dawn and at sunset even with challenging backlighting.

Other additional features include the Stage mode culled from the vivo X200 FE which Stage Mode to capture photos and videos of small stage performances such as in a bar or a club even in challenging lighting conditions.

Of greater utility is its AI Audio Noise Eraser, a feature initially seen in some competing flagships that can intelligently scrub out unwanted background noise like wind, crowd and background voices to create an acoustically clean video.

When tested in the field, our vivo V70 review sample offered excellent stills in daylight and even in low light conditions out to about 3x zoom and serviceable shots out to 10x zoom thanks to the flagship-grade Sony IMX882 sensor. While it can shoot at out to 100x zoom, shots are understandably grainy but the fact that a midrange phone can even achieve this feat is already something to applaud. 

The provided Stage Mode yields great shots in its specific scenario with the AI refining shots to ensure the faces of stage performers remain sharp and natural.

Front selfies are pleasing in daylight and dim light conditions and the provision of a large 50MP sensor means that it can match specialised selfie-centric midrange designs from competing brands.

 

The phone also has a number of whimsical features like the ability to alter the weather conditions of a photo with hilarious outcomes like turning a shot of KLCC as if it was shot in the depths of winter.

Should you buy the vivo V70?

The vivo V70 edges out from the plethora of midrange phones out there with a robustly built and premium looking chassis, a quality OLED display, good battery life, decent performance and a solid array of cameras that feature a flagship-grade ZEISS telephoto camera, making it a solid all-rounder for what you pay for. 

While it isn’t as compelling an upgrade for those who own the prior vivo V60, those looking for a solid midrange phone will find its design, performance and array of features an appealing proposition.

vivo V70 review sample courtesy of vivo Malaysia. For more details and to purchase please visit https://www.vivo.com/my