The vivo V40 series’ baby brother, the vivo V40 Lite, has arrived in two variants: 4G-only and 5G models. The goal is to present flexible pricing to meet consumer’s budget limitations.
However, we only have the 5G model in the Philippines. Instead of comparing it to the 4G model, we’ll see if it’s a worthy alternative to the more expensive vivo V40, how it compares to the competition, and see if it’s the one worth getting. Learn more about it in our vivo V40 Lite review.
vivo V40 Lite 5G Specs
- Android 14, FuntouchOS 14
- Dual SIM, Dual standby
- 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display, 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution, ~395ppi
- 120Hz refresh rate
- 1800-nit peak brightness
- 2.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 (4G) | 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 (5G) octa-core processor
- 8GB RAM
- Adreno 610 (4G) | Adreno 613 (5G) GPU
- 128GB/256GB UFS 2.2 internal storage, expandable via microSD
- 32-megapixel front camera
- 50-megapixel (f/1.8, PDAF) + 2-megapixel (depth sensor) rear cameras, Ring-LED flash
- IP64 dust and water resistant
- Under-display fingerprint scanner, Face unlock
- Stereo speakers
- Hi-Res audio
- HSPA+, 4G LTE, 5G
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
- Bluetooth 5.0
- GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, BDS
- NFC
- USB-C
- Dimensions: 163.2 x 75.9 x 7.8/8.0mm
- Weight: 188g/190g
- Colors: Titanium Silver, Pearl Violet, Carbon Black (4G) | Carbon Black, Titanium Silver (5G)
- 5,000mAh non-removable battery, 80W wired charging
Design and Build Quality
Like its bigger brothers, the vivo V40 Lite is a well-constructed, elegant, and comfortable smartphone on the outside.
It’s a nice break from all the thin and light smartphones we’ve tested. The extra thickness and weight make it a more ergonomic device to hold.
Not that it’s bulky, but it has the right dimensions, mass, and flat frame for a comfortable grip if you’re spending hours watching content, video calls with friends and family, etc.
As for durability, the vivo V40 Lite is IP64-rated for dust and water resistance. It should survive accidental water exposure or being dropped in the pool. Wet-Hand touch is also a nice feature that lets you operate the screen even if it’s wet, useful for riders and outdoor adventurers.
vivo describes the V40 Lite as having a “Metallic High-Gloss Frame.” The frame is indeed glossy, which also means it’s prone to fingerprint smudges. It did make the device sturdy, though, as our light bend tests didn’t hint at any issues.
The glossy frame contrasts the matte glass-like rear panel. Despite the matte surface, it’s easily riddled with fingerprint smudges and oil. It’s best to use the free clear case on this thing, which provides enough protrusion to protect the screen and the camera bump. There’s also a flap that covers the USB-C port, although I don’t really like it.
We got the silver review unit, which is not the hero color but has the most elegant look in our opinion. If it’s not your cup of tea, you can go with the black or violet option.
On the front, we have the 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a punch-hole for the selfie camera. Not the thinnest bezels we’ve seen, but thin enough to not get in the way.
The left side is clean while the right has the volume controls and the lock/power switch. The physical buttons are well-built and will survive the test of time, but I do wish it’s not too stiff.
The top has the secondary microphones, while the bottom has the primary USB-C port, primary speaker and mic, and a SIM tray. Unfortunately, it’s hybrid so you have to decide if you want the second slot for a secondary SIM or microSD card for storage expansion.
vivo has redesigned the rear panel on the vivo V40 series. The dual cameras and the Aura Light flash are now in the vertical orientation protected by a minimal camera island with a slight bump. The dedicated dual-LED flash is placed on the side.
The vivo V40 Lite like its siblings, is a well-built and well-designed smartphone. No problems here.
Display and Audio
The vivo V40 Lite has a 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution, 395ppi, 60Hz/120Hz refresh rate, 1800-nit peak brightness, and P3 color gamut. Sadly, no HDR support.
Widevine L1 is here, so you can stream on platforms like Netflix on HD. Color quality is typical for an AMOLED — which means it’s vibrant and contrasty. Brightness is ample for outdoor use.
For audio, the V40 Lite 5G has stereo speakers and Hi-Res Audio certification. Stereo separation is audible, the bass can be heard, treble is nice, but the mids can be better. There’s also an option to boost the volume to 200% and 300%, just expect a little distortion at max level.
Hardware and Performance
The vivo V40 5G, the one we have here, is powered by a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Gen 2 octa-core processor with an Adreno 613 GPU. The 4G model uses a Snapdragon 685 CPU with an Adreno G10 GPU. Our review unit has an 8GB/256GB RAM and storage configuration. A 12GB/512GB variant is also available.
vivo V40 Lite 5G Benchmark Scores
It’s not the fastest for the price, but still managed to provide usable performance for day-to-day tasks. Social media feed scrolling is smooth enough, it takes pictures quickly, and photo editing was not an issue.
Now, let’s still head on to gaming. Genshin Mobile is a very demanding game, and if you intend to play a lot of it on your next phone, I suggest skipping the vivo V40 Lite 5G. While the game was playable under the lowest settings, the frame rates and graphics quality don’t feel sustainable if you plan on gaming for hours.
But if you’re more into shooters, or games that are highly optimized, the V40 Lite 5G can still serve you well. It handled PUBG Mobile under HD/High fine, as well as Call of Duty Mobile with the highest available settings for the device, albeit frame rates are not the smoothest I’ve seen.
The same goes with Farlight84 also had no problems running on Smooth/Medium. However, frame rates are much better on Mobile Legends: Bang Bang as well as Asphalt Legends Unite under High Quality/60fps.
Bottom line is, while day-to-day performance is passable, heavy gamers should really consider something else than the vivo V40 Lite.
| Game | Graphics Settings |
| Call of Duty: Mobile | • Graphics Quality: Very High • Frame Rate: High |
| Farlight84 | • Graphics Quality: Smooth • Frame Rate: Medium |
| PUBG Mobile | • Graphics Quality: HD • Frame Rate: High |
| Genshin Impact | • Graphics Quality: Lowest (Default) |
| Mobile Legends: Bang Bang | • Graphics Quality: Ultra • Frame Rate: Super • HD Mode: On |
| Asphalt Legends Unite | • Visual Quality: High Quality • Frame Rate: 60 |
Software and User Interface
The vivo V40 Lite runs on the Android 14 operating system with vivo’s FuntouchOS 14. It’s also secured to receive the Android 15 update once available.
vivo’s interface is still as nice as ever. It’s clean and intuitive to use. However, we’re disappointed by the lack of AI tools meant for multitasking. There’s no AI text generator, recording summary, or other AI-backed tools (besides photography) already found on other devices.
For those conscious about their device’s performance, the iManager is a built-in app that ensures the phone runs on its best performance. It quickly scans the system and lets you press “Optimize” to clear any junk or unwanted running apps in the background.
It also has a built-in storage cleaner so you can monitor and remove unwanted files taking up space on the device.
The home screen is riddled with bloatware and app suggestions. It can be removed, but still annoying as they shouldn’t be there in the first place. We’ve also noticed a lot of ads and unnecessary tabs cluttering the notifications pane.
Still, there are a few UI elements we found interesting. There’s a comprehensive setting for the screen light effects. You can extensively customize how the edges of the screen light up when you receive notifications.
Virtual RAM Expansion is a feature found on almost all Android phones in the market today, and this one has it too. Its effectivity is barely noticeable, so if you want to turn it off, you can do so from the settings.
vivo is not giving up its Jovi assistant and continues to include it in its latest phones, including the vivo V40 Lite 5G. You can try digging through it and see if it has features that would work for you. Personally, I don’t like it as I prefer Google’s.
vivo’s gaming window shows you real-time CPU and GPU consumption, how long you’ve played for the day, remaining battery, and lets you switch between three different performance modes: Battery Saver, Balanced, and BOOST.
You can also block notifications from this window, as well as enable voice changer, esports mode, and more.
For security, the fast and accurate in-display fingerprint scanner was really convenient to use. But if you want a faster method, you should also enable the face unlock, which works even in a completely dark room.
The camera app is still as good as before, with enough buttons and features so you can fully utilize the hardware.
Of course, vivo still went with Google Keyboard as the default. You can download and replace it with the keyboard of your choosing, but we’re sticking this one as it feels more familiar and denser with features (gifs, emojis, customization, etc.)
Cameras
The vivo V40 Lite has a 50-megapixel main camera with an f/1.8 aperture, an ultra-wide lens, and a 32-megapixel on the front for taking selfies. vivo’s Aura Light ring flash on the back is also here.
Color quality and dynamic range are nice, making daylight shots passable. However, highlights can be too aggressive at times and the details are blurry when you zoom in, even at just 50%, despite looking sharp when zoomed out.
There’s a drastic drop in quality when shooting low light. The software could’ve done a better job of handling the noise and grains. There are also times that the focus is a bit off.
The Aura Light flash was improved over the last generation. For the uninitiated, it acts like a soft light ring flash with adjustable color temperature to match and evenly lit a subject.
It definitely works better than the regular flash. The subject is well-lit and doesn’t have overblown exposure compared to the standard flash (which this one still has).
Image quality from the 8-megapixel ultra-wide could be better. Details can be blurry even if you have steady hands, suffers from the same exaggeration with the highlights, and the barrel distortion is noticeable.
The 32-megapixel front camera takes well-detailed selfies and accurate skin tones. The face beauty modes are fine to play with but expect softer details when it’s turned on. But like the rear cameras, it also struggles in extreme lighting conditions and would even show a halo effect on some of the shots.
Like other brands, vivo utilized AI to spice up the camera app. There’s the AI Erase that lets you quickly circle parts of the frame you want removed. It works as expected, no problems here.
There’s also a feature called AI Photo Enhance, which can detect faces on a photo and sharpen them. It works like magic and can be useful when scanning old, printed photos.
The vivo V40 Lite 5G has capable hardware and usable software tricks. The problem seems to lie in the post-processing, which hopefully a software update can improve in the future.
Battery and Charging
The vivo V40 Lite 5G has a 5,000mAh battery like everyone else. But what makes it stand out is the 80W FlashCharge adapter, which is easily one of the fastest you can get for the price. vivo also highlights the battery’s 4-year battery health guarantee.
As with most vivo phones we’ve reviewed in the past, we got impressive battery scores out of the vivo V40 Lite 5G. It lasted 17 hours and 43 minutes in PCMark’s battery test that runs a loop of synthetic workload, with the WiFi and Bluetooth off and brightness and volume at 50%, until the battery drops to 20%. That score is higher than the average score of 13 hours and 31 minutes on other devices in this price range.
It also scored well in our 1080p YouTube Video loop test, which we ran at 50% brightness and volume until the battery completely ran out. It lasted 15 hours and 44 minutes, which is higher than the average score of 14 hours and 58 minutes from other devices.
Those scores prove that the vivo V40 Lite can easily last you two to three days of light to moderate use. If that’s not impressive enough, the vivo V40 Lite’s 80W adapter also showed impressive top-up time, with a 15-minute charge already providing a 40% charge. See the full test results below:
- 15mins: 0-40%
- 30mins: 70%
- 45minsL 94%
- 53mins: FULL
Verdict
The vivo V40 Lite 5G is definitely a good alternative to the more expensive V40. It shares the impressive battery life vivo phones are known for, incredibly fast charging, fancy AMOLED screen with stereo speakers, reliable day-to-day performance, and good build quality that should last you for years.
But is it the best phone you can get for the price? It’s not, but it’s close. While there are not a lot of similarly priced phones that have the same blazing-fast charging and battery life, you’d definitely find something that offers better performance and better cameras.
If you just want a reliable daily driver for work or school with a battery and build quality that lasts, going with the vivo V40 Lite 5G is a no-brainer. But if you’re a gamer or performance user who demands more processing prowess, then you’re better off with something else.
vivo V40 Lite pricing and availability in the Philippines
The vivo V40 Lite 5G 8GB/256GB variant retails for Php15,999 while the 12GB/512GB model comes in at Php18,999. It is available in vivo concept stores, resellers, and online via Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop.
Pros
- Comfortably thick, IP64-rated
- Nice AMOLED screen, stereo speakers
- Impressive battery life
- Blazing fast charging
Cons
- No HDR
- Not for heavy gamers
- Bloatware galore
- Lacking AI suite
- Image processing could be better