Are you using your phone while it’s charging? Or have you been leaving your phone charging overnight? Well, you know that doing that can kill your battery’s lifespan, right? Well, you can just chill for the next 4 years because what if I told you that this vivo V40 Lite will solve all your battery issues and more?
So, let’s test this super affordable phone and find out if it’s true.
Unboxing
Let’s kick things off with what comes inside the box. Other than the phone itself, it comes with a clear TPU case, a user manual and warranty guide, a massive 80W FlashCharge brick (yep, it’s included), and a USB-A to USB-C cable. That’s quite a lot for a phone within this price range.
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Design & Build
Alright, now let’s talk design. I’m using the Titanium Silver variant, but it also comes in Dreamy Violet and Dynamic Black.
vivo calls this the Diamond Starry Texture, and honestly, it is one of the most stunning finishes I’ve seen for a smartphone at this price point. It has this gorgeous metallic sheen that screams flagship. If I didn’t tell you the price, you would probably think it’s worth double.
The sides are metallic with a high-gloss frame, which looks premium but does attract fingerprints. Luckily, you can wipe it off easily. Plus, the TPU case helps keep it clean and protected without compromising this amazing design.
The phone is also super slim and quite lightweight, making it very comfortable to hold for extended periods, especially for gaming.
It also has IP64 dust and water-resistant rating, and with vivo’s Wet Hand Touch technology, this phone stays responsive even with wet hands. A feature like this is usually unheard of within this price range. So yes, if you’re texting while washing dishes, this phone works very well. Do you do that? Well, I do.
vivo has also mentioned that this phone has some fantastic reliability features, like over 32,000 drop tests. However, there are also more user-centric durability tests, such as volume button press tests and USB port tests, to ensure the phone lasts a long time.
Display
For a Lite phone, vivo didn’t skimp on the display. This 6.67-inch AMOLED display features a 120Hz refresh rate and peaks at 1,200 nits of brightness, making it perfect for brighter environments, like here in the studio, or outdoor use. The 91.9% screen-to-body ratio is excellent, making it a great phone for watching videos.
Speaking of videos, what’s extra lovely is that the playback on Netflix supports Widevine L1 at Full HD playback resolution.
As for audio, the speakers are loud thanks to the Audio Booster toggle in the sound and vibration settings. It uses software magic to boost sound to 300%, but for clarity, I recommend keeping it around 80%.
Cameras
Now, onto the phone’s cameras. It comes with a 50MP main lens and an 8MP ultra-wide lens. Then, the front camera is a 32MP lens.
vivo calls this camera design the “Cushion-Cut Diamond Camera” due to its unique array design. The AI Aura Light, previously available in vivo V40 flagships, is also present here.
So based on my camera test, the ultrawide lens looks really great.
The main lens also obviously did a very good job, where it can zoom digitally to 2x and a max zoom of 10x, which is something that I don’t recommend using.
The selfie photos were really amazing on this phone. The skin tones were really on point for regular selfies, and the portrait selfies were not only as consistent, but the subject-to-background blur was flagship level.
Speaking of the selfie photos, thanks to the AI Aura Light, compared to many phones or even more expensive phones, this produces some really nice soft light, which is perfect for taking selfies using the rear cameras. Therefore, you can take great selfies in the dark too, just like their flagship phones.
I also find this to work very well for more extreme dark situations, as seen in this comparison shot where you can see the details and the overall lighting of the bowl of fruits, which was way much better with the AI Aura Light turned on.
But what really got me excited was the AI Eraser and the AI Photo Enhancement capabilities. As the name suggests, AI Eraser removes objects or people within the picture you have taken, and yes, this works very well.
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Then, the AI Photo Enhancement helps to recover either an old photo or some blurred-out printed photos as well.
So yes, there’s some magic done on this phone, because ultimately, a phone is as good as the phone software, which brings me to the next topic.
Software
As for the whole software, it comes with Funtouch OS 14, based on Android 14.
The phone has been tested to last up to 4 years thanks to the extended RAM, which means that you can run more software at the same time. Then, the RAM Saver feature compresses the bigger software loading burden to extend the system’s lifespan.
The App Retainer allows background software to be awakened at any time when you go back and forth within the app, which means that you can switch between them seamlessly.
So yes, during my one week of using this phone, I had no issues with using the phone, and the responsiveness was really great. And it is indeed a software that works very well without any glitches or any issues at all.
Battery
Now, let’s talk about the phone’s battery life, which is key over here. Firstly, it comes with a 5,000 mAh battery, and as seen in the unboxing, it comes with an 80W charger, so it’s a given that this phone can charge up to 80W. So yes, with this 80W Flash Charging capabilities, it’s got the fastest charging compared to other brands within the same price range.
So, based on that, I can get the phone charged from 0 to 80% in about 28 minutes. Based on my daily test, I managed to get a whopping 8 hours and 48 minutes of screen-on time from 100% to 19% battery, and that was very impressive indeed.
It also got total hours from the last charge of 1 day and 10 hours and 38 minutes. So that is definitely better than a lot of phones within this price range, once again, especially for something like the Honor X9c, which comes within the similar price as well.
But another great thing that the phone really has from a battery perspective is the overnight charging protection with up to 24-dimension security protection. So, if you are the kind of person who leaves your phone charging overnight, which most of us tend to do, and even with this fast charging capability, you are all covered.
But what is extra sweet, once again, is the fact that vivo provides one FREE battery replacement for all of the vivo V40 Lite users within 4 years if the battery health of the phone drops below 80%. So, that for me beats any smartphone within this price range.
So yes, it’s nice that vivo is taking battery life really seriously compared to many other smartphone brands. So yes, basically vivo just said, “Don’t worry, just chill for the next 4 years, we got you!”
But the phone does not come with wireless charging capabilities, which is indeed understandable for a Lite version of a phone.
Gaming
So, gaming on this Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage was solid. And what’s lovely is that you can expand the storage up to 1TB. So yes, that is also another feature that is almost unheard of in the year 2024.
I have tested out COD Mobile, and while it does max out at Very High settings with 60 FPS, the gameplay was smooth with minimal frame drops.
The phone also has a Game Assistant to block out notifications and boost performance. But heavier games like Genshin Impact are definitely not ideal because it’s not a gaming powerhouse. So, this is more for casual gamers.
But if you’re looking for a more gaming-centric phone, then you might want to consider other alternatives in vivo’s lineup.
Conclusion
At just RM1,199, which is about USD 268, this vivo V40 Lite is an absolute steal with its premium design, vibrant display, solid cameras, and reliable performance.
If you’re on a budget and still want some flagship-level features, this is a no-brainer.
🛒 Get the vivo V40 Lite at the link below:-
Shopee (MY) – https://invl.io/clm1pr3
Lazada (MY) – https://invol.co/clm1pr5
