In-Depth Vivo V29 Review: Uncovering the Latest Features and Performance

The latest addition to the V-series portfolio is the Vivo V29, a capable mid range for the worldwide market. Vivo continues to release updates to the V-series twice a year. With a specialised color-changing illuminator on the rear, it expands upon the previous model’s ‘Aura light’ concept. It also adds an additional high-res display and, for the first time on a non-flagship in the vivo lineup, dust and water resistance.

A separate dedicated set of LEDs is included in the new Aura light implementation that can automatically vary their temperature in response to ambient light. If you like, you can also make manual adjustments.

The display is the next significant improvement on the list; its dimensions stay the same at 6.78 inches in diagonal. With a 453ppi density and a 1260x2800px resolution, it is an extremely high-res screen, so expect some extra sharpness.

And finally, the V29 has an IP68 rating, which you won’t really notice but will definitely truly value at least that one time. It’s great to see vivo going above and beyond for a feature that is becoming more and more prevalent, even in mid-range devices.

Vivo was adamant about keeping the V29’s waistline small, and its thickness is a suitably trim 7.5mm. Because of this, the battery’s capacity has been limited to 4,600mAh, but if the V27 is any indication, that should be sufficient. In place of the V27’s 66W spec, charging is now rated at 80W, but those are largely meaningless numbers, so we’ll be monitoring charging speed. The removal of the “macro” camera, a change of similarly minor significance; the 2MP shooter won’t be missed.

vivo V29 specs:

• Body: 164.2×74.4×7.5mm, 186g; Glass front, glass back; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min).
• Display: 6.78″ AMOLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1260x2800px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 453ppi.
• Chipset: Qualcomm SM7325 Snapdragon 778G 5G (6 nm): Octa-core (1×2.4 GHz Cortex-A78 & 3×2.2 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4×1.9 GHz Cortex-A55); Adreno 642L.
• Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 2.2.
• OS/Software: Android 13, Funtouch 13.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.9, 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 1/4″, 1.12µm; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
• Front camera: 50 MP, f/2.0, 22mm (wide), AF.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 4600mAh; 80W wired, 1-50% in 17 min (advertised).
• Connectivity: 5G; eSIM; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 5; BT 5.2, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive; NFC.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical).

Unboxing of Vivo V29

The vivo V29 is packaged in a full-size grey box with a big shiny circle around the phone’s name to emphasise the Aura feature. A complete set of accessories is provided, beginning with an 80W charger and an associated cable.

The retail package for the V29 also includes protection. To reduce concern about the handset’s physical condition immediately out of the box, a transparent case is combined with a screen protector coating that has been factory applied.

Design

The UV-sensitive color-changing back that three generations of Vs had is no longer available on this model, which is perhaps the most major design change that vivo is delivering with the V29.

There are two more colorways in addition to the two mentioned above: Purple Fairy and Magestic Red. Here is how all four seem in the official photos until the purple one arrives, which is also on the way.

When you tilt the phone at different angles, the waves and splashes of what appears to be glitter underneath the surface of the blue and purple versions seem to move at random. Unlike the other two colorways, which have a glossy finish, the black and red hues have their glitter evenly distributed and their surface is frosted.

But certain things remain the same. One of the design team’s top concerns was to keep the V29’s ultra-slim shape. The display’s and the back panel’s curved edges, which come together in a narrow frame on the sides, increase the sense of compactness while also adding to the device’s classy appearance.

That is further supported when you turn on the V29’s display and observe the thin bezels. One of the more expensive-looking midrange phones is this one.

This year, vivo has finally gone above and beyond to make the V29 dust- and water-tight in order to achieve IP68 certification criteria, so it’s not just about the looks.

The optical under-display fingerprint sensor that comes with the V29 has served us well in terms of speed and dependability, as have all recent implementations of this technology. We’ll have to admit that, like the V27, we’re not very pleased with its relatively low position.

We’ll remark that the earpiece directly above the screen is not also a speaker throughout the tour of the V29’s feature placement. It seems like a lost chance, and vivo has been falling short of the competitors in this area.

The microSD slot was removed from the V27, and the V29 goes much further in doing so (the V25 still had one). Two back-to-back nano SIM cards can still fit in the card tray.

This generation’s controls are still physically the same. On the right side of the phone, in a thin stretch of the otherwise simple plastic frame, are the power and volume rocker buttons. Even though they are made of plastic, the buttons positively click. It also makes sense to use either hand to approach them.

The vivo V29 is 0.1mm thicker than the V27 and weighs 186g, which is 6g more than the previous model. The Pixel 7a might be able to make a case for itself in terms of compactness thanks to a smaller footprint, despite its 9mm thickness, in comparison to blocky flat-sided competitors like the Galaxy A54 or the Nothing Phone (1). Though it is smaller and lighter than the vivo, the Motorola Edge 40 is unquestionably more portable.

Display

The improved display on the V29 is one of the device’s surprising improvements. The panel’s diagonal is the same as that of the V27 at 6.78 inches, but its higher-than-average resolution of 1,260×2,800px, which results in a pixel density of 453ppi, makes it crisper than the majority of other panels and falls just short of 1440p high-end models.

The panel naturally supports a refresh rate of 120Hz. Additionally, Vivo boasts pulse-width modulation for dimming up to 2160Hz, so even those who are sensitive to flickering should be fine. Support for HDR10+ is also included.

When the phone is in bright light and the adaptive brightness kicks in, we measured slightly under 1,000nits, while the manually adjustable brightness at the right-most end of the slider is 537nits. Both outcomes are plainly good, and the V29 will not leave you nit-starved.

Color accuracy

The vivo V29 has three colour options out of the box: Standard, Pro, and Bright. While the Pro mode is restricted to supporting the more constrained sRGB colour space, Standard and Bright both give a wide colour range.

We observed DCI-P3 test swatches in Standard mode and found that colour fidelity was largely satisfactory. The white point and the greys were somewhat moved towards blue, as is all too frequent, but by selecting the “Warm colour” preset located below the colour temperature wheel, the image is rendered almost perfectly. If you prefer the old-school OLEDs, Bright mode is great because it doesn’t aim for colour fidelity but instead produces an output that is blatantly vivid.

Pro mode, on the other hand, pretty much reproduced the sRGB test swatches exactly.

HDR and streaming

Widevine L1 DRM support and an HDR10+ certified display are included with the V29. Netflix and YouTube both offer HDR versions of supported material.

Refresh rate

The maximum refresh rate for the vivo V29 screen is 120Hz. Applications that scan hardware find support for the three fixed steps of 60Hz, 90Hz, and 120Hz. The settings have three modes: 60Hz, 120Hz, and Smart Switch.

The 60Hz option is simple; the phone’s refresh rate is set to 60Hz at all times, and all apps are limited to 60 frames per second.

When you interact with the phone, the Smart Switch option will essentially keep a 90Hz UI throughout, but it will drop to 60Hz when the phone is idle or when you open any app.

When idle, for video playback apps (even when scrolling across the UI), and for incompatible apps like Google Maps and the Camera app, the 120Hz mode switches to 60Hz. The 120Hz mode maxes out at the nominal refresh rate. Games are likewise limited to 60Hz, however in 120Hz mode you can enable the maximum refresh rate for each programme, including games.

vivo V29 battery life

The V29’s battery has the same 4,600mAh capacity as the V27. We weren’t sure what to anticipate from the new model in terms of longevity because a lot of components are altered, most notably the chipset and display resolution. In some criteria, the results did come out somewhat worse, but overall, things seem okay.

The V29 struggled to equal the V27 in the screen-on testing. Although it fell short of the V27’s video playback result by four and a half hours, we still think 18 hours is a really good result. Similar to the 19-hour score of the V27, the roughly 16 hours of Wi-Fi web browsing are still fairly impressive. The 32:26h voice call test result of the V29 is still outstanding despite being 1h shorter. Additionally, the standby efficiency wasn’t great; we obtained about 40% fewer standby hours than the V27.

In the end, the vivo V29 received an overall Endurance rating of 99h, which is not too awful when compared to the V27’s 134h.

Charging speed

A charger with the same maximum rating as the vivo V29’s listed maximum charging rate ships with the device. This is slightly different from the previous model, which despite the 80W adaptor being included in the box only displayed a 66W charging capability. Specsheets should typically be viewed with some degree of scepticism because all these ratings don’t necessarily translate into charging speed.

A charger with the same maximum rating as the vivo V29’s listed maximum charging rate ships with the device. This is slightly different from the previous model, which despite the 80W adaptor being included in the box only displayed a 66W charging capability. Specsheets should typically be viewed with some degree of scepticism because all these ratings don’t necessarily translate into charging speed.

The Nothing Phone (1) and the Pixel 7a are especially slow to 100%, and while the Galaxy A54 is almost on par with the V29 in that metric, none of these three are as quick in the early stages of the process. All things considered, the vivo V29 still charges faster than what we’d consider its competitors.

Speaker test

The V27’s lack of stereo speakers drew some criticism, and we’ll have to extend similar criticisms to the V29 as well. In this price range, it has practically become a given, and it appears that only Vivo is still using a single speaker setup, which we don’t approve of.

The V29 performed poorly in our tests, placing in the same ‘Average’ category as the V27 in terms of loudness. Compared to the V27, it has slightly better defined treble, but not nearly as much presence in the bass range. The Pixel 7a and the Phone (1) are both at least somewhat better than the vivo in some regard, but the Galaxy A54 has far greater sound quality.

Software

Like its predecessors, the V27 family, the V29 runs Android 13 on top of Funtouch 13. The business announced its plans to provide three years of security updates and two OS upgrades for the V29 – not the most liberal update policy, but not terrible either.

The experience on Funtouch 13 is still somewhat different from “stock” Android, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The recent apps menu contains one of the helpful proprietary features. The regular carousel layout and a horizontal tile layout, which is similar to MIUI but only scrollable horizontally, are both options. You don’t need to search the menus for the setting; it is available right there.

The notification shade is fairly well-known, and Funtouch is avoiding Google’s huge bubble-style quick toggles in favour of these straightforward circular buttons. The Android 13 AOSP colour palette interface allows you to change the accent colour, which by default is blue. There is still a potent theming engine available.

The most frequently used apps are listed in an expanding recommended apps category at the top of the app drawer. By using the vertical scroller on the right, you may highlight the apps that start with the letter you’ve chosen.

There are many non-stock components across the remaining UI. Vivo has gathered a number of customization choices for the home screen, lock screen, and animation effects under the Dynamic Effects sub-menu. Even the charging and facial recognition animations are varied.

Although the settings for the always-on display are in a different sub-menu, the phone still offers a tonne of customization possibilities, including a large variety of animations, clock styles, colours, and backgrounds.

Like Samsung and its OneUI, Funtouch caters to those who have hearing issues, and you can adjust the volume so that it is audible to the elderly or those with hearing loss. Additionally, separate volume sliders are provided for notifications and calls. Both calls and notifications have separate controls for vibration intensity. However, there isn’t a system-wide equaliser accessible for the loudspeaker, which might be viewed as either a drawback or a benefit depending on your perspective. The mixture also has a toggle for Audio Super Resolution.

Along with a few new improvements, the Smart motion menu includes a number of well-known screen-on and screen-off gestures.

Although the list is limited to the camera app, turning on/off the torch, starting an audio recording, opening Facebook, or opening any custom app, holding down the volume down key can be used to launch an app or perform a specific action. For obvious reasons, the so-called Quick action functionality does not function when music is playing. However, there is still no double-press shortcut for Quick action.

There is a separate Ultra Game Mode that offers everything. Most of the options are designed to minimise distractions when playing games or keep some apps from showing notifications. The option to switch off the screen and play a game in the background is one of the most exciting features that has been available on vivo phones for a while. especially beneficial for games that need “farming” or “grinding” or those that take turns.

Additionally, the Funtouch launcher includes a gallery, audio and video players, and a system manager. A specific Themes app and an iManager software with numerous system utilities are also available.

Performance and benchmarks

When compared to the V27, the V29’s chipset is a little bit of a step back. Although there are newer variants in the 7 series, Qualcomm’s rather outdated Snapdragon 778G is still in use, and the V29 is equipped with this particular model.

You’ll notice how the 778G, a well-known midrange SoC, differs from the V27 and the 2×2.8 GHz Cortex-A715 & 6x Cortex-A510 CPU of its Dimensity 7200 in that the Snapdragon has more powerful cores, even if they are older and slower clocked.

These variations can be seen in GeekBench, where the new model outperforms the V27 in multi-core testing while the V27 displays a noticeable advantage under single-core stress. The Galaxy A54, our favourite midrange device, matches the V29’s single-core performance and trails only somewhat under multi-threaded stress. The Xiaomi 13 Lite isn’t performing quite as well with that same chip as the HTC U23 Pro, which is about on par with the vivo.

For what it’s worth, the V29 does a fantastic job of keeping that graphics performance under prolonged pressure; during the 20-minute 3DMark Wild Life Stress test, there was essentially no reduction in its performance. The phone performed admirably in the CPU Throttling test, dipping below 80% of its peak performance after 40 minutes of processor calculations, while not being quite as steady under high CPU stress.

Camera

The camera technology on the vivo V29 is largely carried over from the V27. A 50MP OIS primary and an 8MP ultrawide are part of the rear system. A 50MP front-facing camera is available for taking selfies. The 2MP macro camera on the back has been replaced with a 2MP depth sensor in monochrome.

The Sony IMX 766 primary camera sensor has been swapped out for a Samsung GN5 by vivo. With a 1/1.56″ optical format and 1.0m pixels, it is still a Quad-Bayer design (or, rather, Tetrapixel, given that it is a Samsung imager). However, the EXIF now indicates a 23mm equivalent even if the stabilised lens in front of it has the same actual focal length as previously. Aperture is still f/1.88.

The ultrawide still employs a 16mm f/2.2 lens and a 1/4″ OmniVision OV08D1 sensor, so nothing has changed there. The focal point is set.

The selfie camera is also identical to that of the previous model. You receive a 24mm f/2.45 lens and a Tetrapixel JN1 Samsung sensor (1/2.76″, 0.64 m), and the camera supports PDAF.

The camera app is highly recognisable because it resembles the ones found on the V and X series of phones. A simple zoom selection with steps of 0.6x, 1x, and 2x is available. By selecting the flower icon adjacent to the hamburger menu, one can access the Macro mode.

By swiping or tapping on one of the displayed modes, you can switch between the primary modes, which are grouped in a carousel pattern. The remaining modes are listed under the More menu, where you can also adjust which ones are displayed in the viewfinder.

You have complete control over the focus distance, white balance, shutter speed, ISO, and exposure in the Pro mode. On both the primary and ultrawide cameras, you can accomplish this. In case you are just going into photography, there is a “i” button where you may get helpful information outlining all of the options. Another alternative is to shoot in RAW.

Daylight photo quality

The primary camera of the V29 produces stunning photos. Even from the thumbnails, the vibrant approach to colour science seems to leap out at you, yet the photographs are simply expressive, so we wouldn’t suggest that the saturation or vibrance are excessive. The dynamic range is quite wide and the overall contrast is great, allowing for decent growth at the extremes.

The 12.5MP quality photographs are incredibly detailed and have a very natural rendering. In contrast to the pretty grainy images we saw from the V27, there is no noticeable noise.

If you find the photographs above to be overly colourful, you’ll probably prefer the ones below because the Natural mode toggle noticeably reduces the colour saturation. The sky’s blues are less vivid, and the vegetation isn’t as rich, but generally, these aren’t horrible either; they’re just lovely in a different manner.

Although the 50MP full-res photographs have less contrast and more noise, they don’t necessarily capture more detail.

2x Zoom

The centre crop from the 50MP images appears the same in the 2x zoom mode, but slightly better. Contrast has returned to the levels of the 12.5MP 1x images, giving details a sharper appearance. It’s also important to note that the 2x photo in the final example, taken indoors, is noticeably sharper than the comparable 50MP image than it was in the outside pairs.

Ultra-wide camera

The understated ultrawide really takes some pretty decent pictures. Although the 8MP resolution isn’t much and the lens isn’t the sharpest off-center, detail is still superb in the middle, and there is virtually no noise. In general, dynamic range is excellent, and even the colour rendition is pretty similar between the two cameras.

Because the utlrawide lacks focusing power, you won’t be able to capture sharp images of surrounding subjects, and there’s no dedicated’macro’ camera either. Maybe the main camera can concentrate close enough to fill the frame with palm-sized subjects (the red fire truck toy), so that will suffice.

Low-light photo quality

As we’ve come to anticipate, there’s some Night mode action in Photo mode on the V29. The resulting images are outstanding, with well-developed tone extremes and attractively raised shadows – a darker depiction may be closer to’reality,’ but we’d argue that seeing more things is better. We had no issues with the auto white balance, and the colour saturation was not affected by the darkness. Meanwhile, the overall detail is excellent.

The dedicated Night mode introduces small modifications, and while there may be minor benefits on occasion, they are hardly worth considering. In fact, we’re pretty certain that any changes we detect are attributable to shot-to-shot fluctuation rather than a consistently distinct behaviour of the two modes.

2x Zoom

At 2x zoom, we’re starting to notice a pattern: night mode images have the lower midtones raised. Photo mode samples have a bit more grain, which Night mode smooths out. In any case, when viewed at 1:1, these photos don’t appear to be extremely detailed, while they’re easily adequate for fit to screen applications.

Ultra-wide camera

The ultrawide is an improvement above what we got from the V29. Photos are clearer and have more definition in the shadows, though the V27 didn’t set a very high standard. The dynamic range is actually fairly good, and the camera also does a good job with colour. Given the hardware, these are reasonable outcomes.

Night mode may enhance the shadows in certain scenarios, but we think the V29 is fine without it.

Selfies

The selfie camera on the V29 differs from that on the V27, and the usage of a wider lens allows vivo to implement several zoom settings – 0.8x, 1x, and 2x. Obviously, the 0.8x mode represents the camera’s native field of vision, and the phone reports a 20mm equivalent focal length, which appears to be correct. The images offer excellent sharpness and resolution, as well as lifelike skin tones and overall attractive colours and a very wide dynamic range.

Portrait mode

Portrait mode on the V27 may be used at both 1x and 2x magnifications, with the first providing the native field of vision and higher per-pixel quality of the main camera, and the second providing a better perspective. The phone will automatically switch to 2x mode. Subject detection is typically extremely competent (albeit the phone did screw up the background of the wooden wall panelling at 2x), and the blur level at the default setting is convincing.

Video recording

On the main camera, video recording on the vivo V29 is limited to 4K resolution at 30 frames per second. If you want 60 frames per second, you’ll have to settle for 1080p resolution. The selfie camera is the same, while the ultrawide on the back is limited to 1080p30.

Stabilisation is available on all three cameras, albeit when enabled, the selfie camera is limited to 1080p30. You can select between the h.265 and h.264 codecs, as normal.

When recording in 4K30 and using the h.264 codec, the bit rate ranges from 50Mbps to 60Mbps, while 1080p30 achieves up to 21Mbps. In all modes, audio is recorded in stereo at 128kbps.

Verdict

Vivo hasn’t addressed some of the issues that made the V27 less competitive than it should have been with the V29. The current model still has a single speaker while all competitors have two, video stabilisation is less than perfect, and wireless charging has become popular in the midrange, but the V29 lacks it as well.

However, an induction coil on the back of the phone would have made it bulkier, and vivo was aiming for a slim profile, which we like. Much more welcome is the IP68-rated ingress protection, which is as shocking considering vivo’s history as it is in line with current trends. The higher-resolution display is also somewhat unexpected – the extra pixels are difficult to appreciate, but it’s a thoroughly superb panel in all crucial respects. The battery life may not be breaking any records, but the V29 will not leave you stranded, and charging speed is above-average for the class.

The camera system is universally capable, with notably good selfies, consistent low-light performance, and a unique temperature-changing flood light that can be game-changing for your low-light photographs.

All things considered, the vivo V29 may not provide the best value for money, but it may be able to justify the premium.

Pro’s & Con’s