Vivo V70 Review: A solid all-rounder for the price, but far from perfect
With two high-resolution lenses, the Vivo V70 is a solid performer for those who want to zoom – but the ultrawide leaves a lot to be desired.
Amateur Photographer verdict
For those who don’t have a big budget but want a decent zoom lens, the V70 is a decent choice. As a trade-off, the ultrawide doesn’t perform too well, though.
- 2 x 50MP sensors (main and telephoto)
- 50MP selfie camera with AF
- IP69 rated
- Fun film mode
- Large battery
- Ultra-wide is only 8MP
- No macro mode
- No wireless charging
Announced for global release in February 2026, the Vivo V70 features a triple-lens camera system, a large screen and a host of other useful features for photographers. Although stated as a global release, at the time of writing, it’s still hard to find the phone in several key markets, but this could change as time goes on. In the places where it is available, it represents a low-cost option compared to other flagships, offering a decent number of specs for the price asked.
Vivo V70: At A Glance
- 50MP main camera, 23mm equiv, f/1.9, PDAF, OIS (1/1.56” sensor)
- 50MP periscope telephoto, 73mm equiv, f/2.7, PDAF, OIS (1/1.95” sensor)
- 8MP ultrawide, 15mm equiv, f/2.2
- 50MP f/2.0 21mm equiv selfie camera, with AF
- 4K 30/60fps video
- 6.59-inch, 120Hz, 5000 nits peak brightness, Schott Xensation Core, AMOLED
- 6500mAh battery, 90W fast charging
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor
- 8GB/12GB RAM + 256GB/512GB ROM
- 4 years of OS updates / 6 years of security updates
Vivo V70: Features
The V70 has a triple lens setup, comprising of two high-resolution (2x 50MP) cameras and a third, ultrawide which is 8MP.
All of the lenses are Zeiss-branded, with the main (1x) lens being 23mm f/1.9 equivalent. The second lens is a 50MP periscope telephoto lens, giving a 74mm f/2.7 equivalent. The sensor for the telephoto camera is fairly large in size at 1/1.95”, which could potentially come in useful for cropping – we’ll see how well it performs later in the review.
The third lens is an ultrawide, but it’s only 8MP. It offers 15mm f/2.2 equivalent.
Many cheaper smartphones offer an ultrawide lens alongside a 1x standard offering, so it’s interesting to have three lenses here – with the second “good” lens being a telephoto, rather thant the ultrawide. We’ll see how well that 8MP performs later on too.
Other photographic features include 4K video recording, and a 50MP selfie camera (again this is a very high resolution for a selfie camera, especially at this price point).
Elsewhere, notable features include a 6500mAh battery, 90W fast (wired) charging, a 6.59-inch screen, and a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 processor.
It’s worth noting the lack of wireless charging. This is something I use every day as I pop my phone onto a wireless charger overnight – so if it’s something you desire, you won’t find it here.
Vivo V70: Build and Handling
For a low-cost model, the V70 is fairly attractive. There’s a number of different colour options, including the “Golden Hour” version I’ve been using – it’s certainly more interesting than black.
The screen is flat, but the corners of the phone are rounded. It’s fairly iPhone-like in appearance, but the same can be said of many models, including the Google Pixel series.
“Aerospace-grade” aluminium alloy is used for the phone’s frame, which promises to deliver corrosion resistance and be ultra strong. Vivo says that it has enhanced durability and drop resistance. I haven’t tested that to any great length beyond normal usage, but it does benefit from IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance – the latter seemingly the new standard for phones and meaning that you can fire hot jets of water at it and it should be fine (I’m not sure why anybody would be doing that, but it’s nice to have options eh).
The cameras are housed in a “dynamic floating camera module”, which is basically a rounded off square on the back of the phone. It’s probably this which contributes to it most looking iPhone-esque. That said, the bump here is pretty low, and doesn’t make the phone wobble too much when placed on a flat surface. As ever, we’d generally recommend a case to keep things as fresh as possible anyway (though you would be hiding that lovely colour of course).
At 6.59-inches, this isn’t the largest phone on the market – but I think that’s actually a good thing. It’s mid-range sized which makes it more usable in the hand. What’s more impressive is the fact that it has a 120Hz refresh rate, a 1.5k resolution and a maximum brightness of 5000 nits – both pretty good for a phone at this price point.
The bezels are also nicely thin, meaning you have pretty much the entire of that 6.59-inches for the actual display, with no space wasted. The selfie camera is housed in a hole-punch design, so there’s lots of display at the top too.
Vivo V70: Native camera app
There’s a good selection of different shooting options which you can access in the native camera app for the V70.
By default, it will open in Photo mode, where you can access all of the lenses, as well as digital zoom options. A quick tap on the 1x option will also get you to 1.2x and 1.5x, which is something I find very handy when you want to change up your viewpoint just a little bit. You can also pinch to zoom and hold down the 10x icon to zoom in a different way too.
In this Photo mode, you’ll find that Night mode automatically activates if the phone detects that it is dark. There doesn’t appear to be any kind of automatic macro mode though, which is a shame. Other settings you will find here though include HDR, shake reduction and the ability to add different filter effects.
If you prefer, there’s a standalone Night mode which you can activate, while other modes that can be found in a More tab include panoramic, Stage and Astro. Two particularly useful modes are “Food”, which is a sort of macro mode, and Pro, where you can access an array of different shooting settings, and shoot in raw if you so desire.
The Portrait mode here is quite fun to use. It recreates the effect of different lens focal lengths, including 23, 35, 50, 85 and 100mm, as well as separately selectable different effects such as “50mm natural portrait” and “85mm figure”. You can also turn on Beauty effects if you like – but I generally prefer to leave these off as they’re often fairly unnatural looking.
One of the highlights of the native camera app here is the “Film Camera” mode which can be accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the main Photo screen. By doing that, the display takes on the appearance of a classic film camera and you can shoot with different papers and different film effects, including having different frames and the like.
Vivo V70: Image Quality and Performance
The Vivo V70 is capable of taking some very pleasing images, across a range of scenarios.
In general, colours are bright and vibrant. They perhaps suffer a little bit from overprocessing, or can come across as a bit garish – but you can tone this down by using the different filters that are available if you prefer.
As we’d expect, the 1x lens perfoms the best, producing the sharpest and most detailed images. The 3x lens is very good too though, which is great news for a low-cost option. In terms of the digital options, the 10x zoom is not too bad – I’d certainly be OK with using it online or at small sizes. Beyond that, the usual smudginess and loss of detail appears, but that’s not surprising.
The ultrawide lens is very clearly the worst performer of the trio here, which for an 8MP lens in 2026 I’m not wholly shocked by. It’s pretty smudgy and although it’s not so bad if you only ever intend to look at your photos on a phone screen, as soon as you start to zoom in a little bit you can see a loss of detail pretty quickly.
Sadly, the Portrait mode isn’t an amazing performer, either. Even with all of the beauty modes turned off, people can still look a little bit eerily unnatural. It also doesn’t cope amazingly well with even slightly fussy outlines. It’s not a phone I’d recommend if you do a lot of people photography, but for the odd one or two it’s not so bad.
As mentioned, there is no specific macro mode here, but you can still get reasonably good close-ups. I’ve found that engaging the Food mode helps to get as close as possible. It stands to reason, but it’s odd to not call it something a bit more obvious.
In low light, you get the best results from the 1x lens – again pretty standard fare. The zoom lens performs reasonably OK, but the 0.5x should be avoided at night time as the results are very, very smudgy.
Vivo V70: Value for Money
The Vivo V70 is not available in every market, but it has a retail price equivalent to around $450. That puts it firmly in the budget or mid-range bracket for smartphones.
You get a lot for your cash, and it’s housed in a stylish package too.
Compared to something like an iPhone 17e, for example, you get more lenses, and a greater array of shooting modes. On the Android side of things, you might compare it to something like the Google Pixel 9a, or the Samsung Galaxy A56 – with only the latter matching it in terms of the number of lenses.
Image quality is good for the cash here, although there are some imperfections to consider. If you’re looking for a low-cost option with a telephoto lens though, this is one of the very few available so it’s worth considering for that reason alone.
Hopefully the V70 will come to more markets in due course.
Vivo V70: Verdict
The Vivo V70 is a solid mid-ranger phone, offering a decent array of specs for the price you pay.
It’s also housed in an attractive looking phone, which is not always true of models at this price point, so it’s a good bonus, too.
The biggest problem with the V70 is probably its lack of availability in all markets – you won’t find it in the US or the UK for example. Perhaps that will change in the future, but for those that can get hold of it, it’s a good buy.
Image quality overall is pretty good, but there are some caveats to be aware of. Portrait mode isn’t the best out there, while the ultrawide lens leaves a lot to be desired. That said, it’s unusual to have a telephoto lens on a cheap phone – especially one which produces good results so that’s a big plus point for this phone.
All in all, for a $450 phone, the V70 performs very well and I’d recommend it to anybody with a fairly low budget.
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Amy Davies
