You’ve got to hand it to Vivo: the China- and India-centric phone maker is able to churn out mid-range mobiles with impressive regularity. Just six months on from the V60, we now have its V70 successor. But beneath a new-look exterior, has the underlying hardware changed enough in such a short space of time to justify its existence?
I got my hands on one ahead of the official unveiling to find out. A full review is pending until I’ve spent a little more time with my sample, but at first glance it seems like a case of diminishing returns – even if the compelling camera setup still holds plenty of appeal for phone photographers.
The V70 looks dramatically different from the outgoing Vivo V60, having ditched the curved-edge screen and rounded central frame for flat glass and a mid-frame more in keeping with current phone trends. That’s great if you want your phone to do a convincing Apple impression from a distance, but less so if you like to stand out from the crowd.
That ‘s doubly true for the squircular metal camera island around back. Vivo might not be as closely tied to Oppo under the BBK Electronics umbrella as it once was, but there’s no denying a style similarity between the V70 and Oppo Find X9 series.
On the plus side, this slender 7.4mm mid-ranger is keeping pace with full-on flagship phones in terms of styling. Materials, too: the mid-frame is aluminium and it’s glass around back. My Golden Hour review unit has a particle etched finish that adds a subtle matte texture for extra grip, and a look that emulates the sky at sunset. There are also Sandalwood brown, Alpine Gray, Canary Yellow and Authentic Black colours, but none are as big a head-turner as this.
IP68 and IP69 ratings put the V70 at the top of the class for water and dust resistance, and it’s great to see Vivo add an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor too. It’s so much speedier to detect digits than the optical sensors you usually find on mid-range handsets.
I can’t find any real fault with the 6.59in AMOLED panel, which has nicely skinny screen bezels, a precise 2750×1260 resolution, and smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Colours really pop when you boost the brightness, which promises an extreme 5000 nits peak in HDR. Outdoor visibility hasn’t been an issue.
High pixel count cameras used to be the biggest reason to buy a V-series handset, and that hasn’t changed much for 2026. You’re still getting a 50MP lead lens, 50MP telephoto good for 3x optical zoom, and a 50MP selfie cam up front. There’s also an 8MP ultrawide bringing up the rear.
I’ve not had enough testing time to give a final verdict on image quality, but it’s already clear the ongoing Zeiss partnership is still paying off for Vivo. The V70 captures engaging colours, plenty of dynamic range, lots of fine detail, even from a distance. There’s a reason the firm’s X300 flagships are a hot commodity among flagship phone shoppers.
The 3x telephoto isn’t an exact match for the main camera on colour, but it does manage textures very well and isn’t caught out by harsh lighting. I’m less convinced by the 10x setting in the camera app, which even in great light shows telltale signs of oversharpening and AI processing to give the surface impression of clarity. Still, the overall package is quite convincing for the money, with portraits in particular looking very pleasing.
Vivo continues to expand its camera app with extra modes and tools. New for this generation is AI Magic Weather, which can turn dreary overcast shots into clear skies – if you’re into that sort of image manipulation, anyway. This being the first V Series phone with 4K 60fps video recording has more universal appeal.
There aren’t many upgrades over the outgoing V60 on the hardware front: the V70 gets the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset, same choice of 8 or 12GB of RAM, and same 256GB or 512GB of on-board storage. Unsurprisingly that means general performance is on par, being good enough to keep Android 16 feeling responsive and without having to constantly reload apps while multitasking.
Gaming, especially 3D titles that demand a lot of oomph, reveals this phone’s limitations, but most releases I tried were able to run at decent frame rates while at medium graphics settings. Temperatures stayed largely in check too. If you want a phone primarily for games, though, I’d suggest looking for something with a beefier chipset all the same.
The V70 was my first experience with Vivo’s OriginOS, which until now was reserved for the firm’s domestic market. With FunTouch having now been retired, OriginOS is heading to countries other than China. The two aren’t all that dissimilar, with a good amount of customisation options, a bad amount of pre-installed bloat, and a look that’s almost certainly inspired by Apple’s Liquid Glass. There’s even a Dynamic Island-style notification popup around the punch-hole selfie cam now.
There’s the usual bunch of AI assisted apps on board, with all performing about as well as I’ve come to expect. Four new Android versions are promised, as are six years of security updates.
I was happy to see the 6500mAh battery make a return from the V60, along with 90W charging. It comfortably lasts a day and a half, even when being pushed with games and power-hungry apps, while two days was possible with a bit of care. That’s a strong showing for a photography-focused mid-ranger.
The V70 is on sale in Vivo’s usual markets – mainly south east Asia – right now. Pricing varies by country.
