Vivo V50 Lite review: Want to forget about charging? This is the phone for you

Imagine you’re going to buy a car. The seller shows you a vehicle with a Fabia engine, an Octavia interior, and a truck’s fuel tank. That’s exactly the feeling Vivo V50 Lite 4G left me with after a month of testing. It’s a fascinating mix of compromises and one giant ace up its sleeve that can decide the whole game. Let’s take a closer look at this peculiar creation.

First Date: When a Plastic Prince Poses as an Aluminum King

The Vivo V50 Lite is like that high school classmate who wore fake designer clothes, but so well made that you only noticed up close. At first glance, the phone looks damn good – elegant lines, a pleasantly thin body with a thickness of 7.79 mm, and a beautiful black finish that casts purple reflections in the sun.

But then you pick it up, and reality slaps you across the fingers. The plastic frame may pretend to be premium aluminum, but to the touch, it’s just… plastic. The kind that feels unpleasantly cold in winter and sweats with you in summer. However, I must praise the back, which looks luxurious and at first glance resembles glass, even though it’s plastic again.

From my perspective, the biggest misstep is the camera module. While it looks tasteful, it protrudes from the body like a church tower above a village. You place the phone on a table, and with every tap on the display, it dances like a drunk uncle at a wedding. Although you’ll find a protective cover in the package, it turns a relatively elegant device into a plastic brick you could use to build a house.

Surprisingly positive is its durability. IP65 certification means the phone will survive showering (no, don’t try that at home), and the military standard MIL-STD-810H indicates it should survive a fall from a reasonable height. My test unit survived several unintentional flights from pocket to carpet, a fall from a kitchen counter onto linoleum, and one accidental encounter with asphalt. So far, there isn’t a single noticeable sign of use on it.

Display: When Average Isn’t a Dirty Word

With its 6.77-inch AMOLED panel, Vivo certainly didn’t disgrace itself, but it didn’t win any innovation awards either. It’s simply a good display that does exactly what it’s supposed to.

Full HD+ resolution (2392 × 1080 pixels) is an absolute standard in this class. The quality is solid – colors are vibrant without looking oversaturated, blacks are truly black (thanks to AMOLED), and contrasts work well. The 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling pleasantly smooth… when the processor can keep up. More on that later.

The maximum brightness is 1300 nits across the entire surface, which I can confirm. Compared to the iPhone 16e, the display is much brighter and more pleasant to use. Sure, the Apple phone is an anomaly (in a negative sense), but we’re still talking about a phone that’s twice as expensive. In Android competition, however, such brightness is already relatively standard.

The optical in-display fingerprint reader is a chapter unto itself. It works… mostly. Sometimes on the first try, sometimes on the third, occasionally not at all. After a month, I got used to holding my finger for an extra second and praying to the gods of biometrics, which usually works. It just doesn’t react instantly.

Performance: This is the Biggest Pain Point

This is where the headache begins. The Snapdragon 685 is a processor from 2023, and its age is felt with every more demanding task. Even at its debut, it was intended for inexpensive phones around 3,000 – 5,000 and after years, this deficit is even more noticeable.

For everyday use – WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube – it’s fine. 8 GB of RAM (plus another 8 GB virtual, which is a marketing trick as old as Android itself) ensures that apps stay in memory and you don’t have to wait for them to reload every time you switch back to them.

But try something more demanding. Open Chrome with ten tabs, play Spotify in the background, and try to quickly switch between apps. The phone starts to think. Not that it freezes, but it just… thinks.

Gaming? Forget about it. PUBG Mobile runs on the lowest details and still occasionally stutters. Genshin Impact is a slideshow. Even Subway Surfers sometimes struggles to maintain a smooth 60 fps. This is a phone for people whose biggest gaming challenge is Candy Crush or Solitaire.

In the AnTuTu benchmark, the phone scored only 385,000 points. For comparison – the competing Poco X7 for similar money reaches 650,000 – 700,000.

And then there’s the absence of 5G, which could be forgiven if it were compensated by higher performance. In this case, it’s a clear minus for me.

Cameras

The main 50Mpx Sony IMX882 sensor is very capable on its own. For example, the aforementioned POCO X7 uses it, but the Dimensity 7300 Ultra is able to get much more out of it than the old Snapdragon. Nowadays (especially with cheaper phones), post-processing plays the main role in photography, and this is where the phone falls short, as it’s unable to squeeze the maximum out of the sensor. Moreover, after taking a photo, you still wait some time for it to be processed.

During the day, in good light, the phone still takes quality photos. Colors are natural, details are sharp, and HDR handles even high-contrast scenes.

Portrait mode, with the help of a 2Mpx depth sensor (which is essentially electronic waste, but marketing wants it), works… sometimes. When the phone is in a good mood and the subject contrasts sufficiently with the background, it can create a nice bokeh. Other times, the result looks like a bad Photoshop from 2005. And an ultrawide lens is completely missing.

The 32Mpx selfie camera is a pleasant surprise. Absolutely sufficient for Instagram stories, TikToks, and video calls.

But then night comes. Without optical stabilization, you need the hands of a surgeon, otherwise, photos are blurry and practically devoid of any detail. Night mode does exist, but the results resemble a watercolor rather than a photograph.

Aura Light – that ring of LED lights around the camera – is a nice attempt, but in practice, it’s only usable for taking face photos from a maximum distance of half a meter. For anything else, it’s almost useless.

Video? The maximum is Full HD at 30 fps. In 2025. Without stabilization. The result looks like you were filming during an earthquake. For family videos, it might be enough (if your family isn’t demanding), but for anything more, forget about it.

Battery: Here Vivo Pulled Out the Nuke

Finally, we get to the reason why you should even consider this phone. The 6500mAh battery isn’t just a number; it’s a way of life.

During testing, I forgot to charge the phone overnight several times. Normally, that would mean morning panic and searching for a power bank. With the V50 Lite? No worries. In the morning, I still had 40% battery, and the phone easily lasted until evening. With normal use (a few hours of YouTube, social media scrolling, occasional calls, navigation), the phone reliably lasts two days.

Once, I deliberately tortured the phone – a whole day of navigation, streaming over mobile data, taking photos, playing games (the less demanding ones it could handle). The result? After 14 hours of intensive use, the phone still had 25% battery. That’s simply incredible.

And then there’s 90W fast charging. In 27 minutes, you have half the battery. In less than an hour, a full tank. This means that your morning routine (shower, breakfast, getting dressed) is enough for the phone to gain enough power for the whole day.

But there’s a catch – there’s no charger in the box. And not every 90W charger works at full power (you need support for the correct protocol). An original Vivo charger costs around 600 CZK, which adds a significant amount to the phone’s price. With a standard charger, you’ll get 18-25 W, which is still not bad, but it’s no longer that rocket speed.

Software: Android That’s Afraid to Be Interesting

Funtouch OS 15 built on Android 15 is like vanilla ice cream – it’s not bad, but it won’t amaze you either. The interface is clean, clear, and functional.

But also no fancy features. No AI functions for photo editing, no smart text recognition, no automatic subtitles. It’s simply Android that works, but brings nothing extra. It’s like buying a hamburger and only getting meat in a bun – it’s edible, but where’s the cheese, vegetables, sauce?

Animations are smooth (when the processor can keep up), although they are very limited compared to the more expensive V50 or X200 models.

Sound and Other Details

The stereo speakers are a pleasant surprise. Absolutely sufficient for YouTube videos or a podcast in the kitchen. The maximum volume is decent, although at the highest level, the sound starts to crackle slightly.

The 3.5mm jack is missing, which is no surprise in 2025. Bluetooth 5.0 is functional, but a newer version would be better for battery saving and higher quality transmission.

Haptic feedback is absent. Settle for primitive vibrations or simply turn them off. NFC for payments works reliably, and dual SIM will please travelers or people with business and private numbers.

Competition: David Among Goliaths

For similar or only slightly higher money, you can get a Poco X7 with a significantly more powerful Dimensity 7300 processor and 5G. The Samsung Galaxy A17 will offer better software and longer support. The Motorola G85 has a higher quality display and cleaner Android. The Honor 400 Lite entices with a 108Mpx camera.

But none of them offer a 6500mAh battery with 90W charging. And that’s the detail that can make all the difference.

Verdict: A Marathoner, Not a Sprinter

The Vivo V50 Lite 4G is a phone that chose its battle and decided to win it at all costs. That battle is endurance. Everything else was sacrificed on the altar of the battery – performance, 5G, quality materials, camera stabilization.

Is it the right decision? For some, yes. If you’re a student who needs a phone to last long days at university. If you’re a parent of small children and a charger is an unavailable luxury. If you travel a lot and don’t want to deal with power banks. If you simply want a phone that you charge every other day.

For everyone else – gamers, photographers, tech enthusiasts – there are better choices. The Vivo V50 Lite isn’t a bad phone. It’s just a very specific phone for a very specific group of people. If you belong to that group, for 5,290 CZK, you’ll hardly find a better offer. If not, move along.

Editor’s Rating: 72%

How do you like the Vivo V50 Lite?

We thank the Czech representation of vivo for providing the phone.