Vivo V23e review: a smartphone with an interesting design and a powerful selfie camera

In this review, we will get to know the relatively compact model of the middle price segment Vivo V23e. The smartphone is equipped with a 50-megapixel front camera with autofocus and has an interesting design.

Technical specifications

Vivo V23e package

V23e equipment is in no way inferior to an older model V23. In the box, in addition to the smartphone itself, the user will also find: a charger, a USB-C cable, a transparent silicone case, a protective film for the screen, an adapter from a minijack to USB-C, a tool for removing the SIM card tray, and documentation.

Vivo V23e is also equipped with a wired headset, which you will not find in other manufacturers recently.

Design and ergonomics of Vivo V23e

Let’s start with the most interesting thing – the design of the back panel. It is made of glass and has two color options: Shadow of the Moon and Dancing Wave.

In our review, we get acquainted with the second option. The back panel is divided by lines into several zones with uneven edges, which resembles a drawing on the body of a giraffe. The surface is matte and leaves fingerprints barely visible. Depending on the viewing angle and lighting, the pattern changes color in various ways, which looks very original and immediately attracts attention.

The module with cameras is located on a substrate that slightly protrudes in the lower part outside the block.

The main part of the front panel is occupied by a 6.44-inch screen. The frames around the display have a small thickness, only the lower part stands out, which is slightly thicker than the others.

A fingerprint scanner is located below, under the screen. In the upper part, the following are traditionally located: a conversational speaker, a drop-shaped cutout for the camera, proximity and light sensors. The manufacturer took care of protection in advance and stuck a film on the display. Flat side faces are made of plastic, the surface of which imitates metal. The volume key and power button are located on the right side. They have a clear course and a convenient location.

At the bottom there are: a tray for two nanoSIM cards, a microphone hole, a USB Type-C port and slots for an external speaker.

Vivo V23e has average dimensions (160.87 × 74.28 × 7.41 mm) and weight (172 g) by current standards. The smartphone does not feel too big in the hands, it is comfortably and securely held. There are no complaints about the quality of materials and assembly.

Display

The 6.44-inch AMOLED display has a resolution of 2400×1080 pixels. The smartphone is equipped with a high-quality screen. It has a good margin of brightness, excellent viewing angles and pleasant colors. Disadvantages include a low screen refresh rate of 60 Hz. The display is convenient to use on a sunny day and in the dark, which is confirmed by the measurements. The maximum brightness with manual adjustment is 430 cd/m². Enabling auto-brightness significantly improves the peak value of this parameter, on a sunny day we managed to get 600 cd/m². The minimum brightness is 2.2 cd/m². In the settings, you can adjust the color temperature and choose one of three image modes.

Standard mode dimensions:

Professional mode dimensions:

Vivid mode dimensions:

Hardware platform and performance

Vivo V23e uses MediaTek Helio G96 chipset. It has 2 Cortex-A76 cores running at 2050 MHz and 6 Cortex-A55 cores up to 2000 MHz. The Mali-G57 MC2 module is responsible for video processing.

The smartphone is available in 8/128 GB configuration. The combined slot supports microSD cards, but in this case you will have to sacrifice a second SIM card. Vivo V23e supports Wi-Fi 5, is equipped with an NFC module and Bluetooth 5.2. You can connect external devices to the USB Type-C port in USB OTG mode. The review guest does not support fifth generation (5G) networks. In synthetic benchmarks, the device does not show high results.

The fingerprint scanner of the smartphone works not quickly, but reliably. There were no complaints about the quality of the connection, the speaker transmits the voice clearly, and the interlocutors were also satisfied with the quality of the conversations. There is only one main speaker in the Vivo V23e. It has an average volume and the quality is not impressive, but it sounds clean. The smartphone runs on the Android 12 system with the proprietary Funtouch OS 12 skin, which is not very different from “naked” Android.

Cameras

The application interface is intuitive and easy to use. All the main capabilities of the camera are present: professional settings, recognition of scenes with hints and the appearance of buttons for quickly switching modes, automatic HDR, various filters, etc.

Vivo V23e uses a triple camera configuration on the main unit:

• wide-angle (64 MP, aperture value ƒ1.79)
• ultra-wide-angle (8 MP, aperture value ƒ2.2)
• macro (2 MP, aperture value ƒ2.4)

Photos taken with a wide-angle camera have good detail, decent dynamic range, natural colors and minimal noise. During the day, the camera is in no way inferior to the one in the older Vivo V23 model. Blurring the background in portrait mode has no serious drawbacks in normal lighting. Night mode can be useful in many low-light scenes.

The ultra-wide-angle camera shoots well in sufficient light, but the photo shows distortion and loss of sharpness at the edges of the frame. You should not count on high-quality pictures with insufficient lighting. In the evening, there is a noticeable lack of dynamic range, and too aggressive post-processing algorithms destroy small details.

The macro camera focuses at a distance of about 4 cm. The module allows you to take interesting shots under good lighting conditions, but the quality of the photos will be satisfactory only when viewed in the feeds of social networks.

Video on the main camera is recorded in a resolution of 1920×1080 with a frequency of up to 60 frames per second. It is possible to apply digital stabilization, which will have consequences in the form of frame clipping and FPS reduction. Video recording is not a strong point of the Vivo V23e, the image quality leaves much to be desired, especially when it comes to detail.

The manufacturer pays special attention to the front camera. It allows you to take photos with a resolution of 50 MP. The camera automatically focuses on the eye area and in the Portrait mode allows you to take pictures in different styles. Photos are detailed with a good dynamic range.

When recording video, you can use electronic stabilization. In this case, you will have to reduce the frame rate from 60 to 30, and the maximum resolution is limited to 1080P in any case.

Battery life

Vivo V23e has a battery with a capacity of 4050 mAh. The complete 44 W (11 V / 4 A) power supply unit charges a fully discharged smartphone to 100% in about one hour. In the PCMark Work 3.0 test, with a screen brightness of 200 cd/m², the device lasted almost twelve hours, which is quite good. This will be enough for moderate use of the smartphone for a day or a little more.