Vivo V80

At Rs. 184,999, the Vivo V80 asks a premium for three things: the biggest battery in its class (7200mAh with 90W charging), a very bright 144Hz AMOLED screen, and Android 17 out of the box with up to four major OS updates. A 50MP periscope telephoto, a 50MP selfie camera, stereo speakers and an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner complete a strong package.

The problem is the competition. The Oppo Reno 16 costs Rs. 159,999 with the same Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chip and a better 50MP ultrawide, and the Samsung Galaxy A57 costs Rs. 165,495 with a longer six-update promise.

• Buy it if battery life, screen brightness and a telephoto camera matter most, and you want the newest software.
• Look elsewhere if you want the best value for this chip, or you upgrade every year: Vivo refreshes the V series about every six months, so resale value falls quickly.

Verdict: a well-rounded phone, but hard to justify over the cheaper Reno 16 unless the bigger battery is your priority.

The V80 has a 6.59-inch flat AMOLED screen with 1260 x 2750 resolution (about 459 ppi), a 144Hz refresh rate and HDR10+. Text and video look sharp, and the high refresh rate keeps scrolling and supported games smooth.

Brightness is a highlight: up to 1800 nits in high-brightness mode and a 5000-nit peak, up from 4500 nits on the V70, so outdoor visibility should be strong. 4320Hz PWM dimming helps people who get eye strain from flicker at low brightness.

The bezels are very thin with rounded corners, and the front uses Schott Xensation Core glass. The ultrasonic fingerprint scanner sits under the screen and works better than optical scanners with wet fingers.

The Vivo V80 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 (4 nm), an octa-core chip running at up to 2.8GHz with Adreno 722 graphics, paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB, 256GB or 512GB of storage. There is no memory card slot, so choose storage carefully.

This is an upper mid-range chip. It should handle social media, multitasking, the camera and popular games comfortably. GSMArena's results for the Oppo Reno 16, which uses the same chip, put it at about 1.1 million in AnTuTu 10, a useful guide to the class it belongs to.

Verified gaming, heating and long-session results for the V80 itself are not yet available, and 8GB is the only RAM option, so heavy multitaskers may want more headroom.

The rear has three cameras with Zeiss optics: a 50MP main camera (f/1.9) with OIS, a 50MP periscope telephoto (f/2.7) with OIS and 3x optical zoom, and an 8MP ultrawide. The front has a 50MP autofocus selfie camera. The rear records up to 4K at 60fps with stabilisation, and the front also records in 4K.

The two stabilised 50MP rear cameras are the strength: the 3x telephoto is well suited to portraits and distant subjects without losing much detail. The 8MP ultrawide is the weak spot and will fall behind the other two in detail, especially indoors and at night.

The camera hardware is largely carried over from earlier V models, so do not expect a big jump if you already own one. Daylight, low-light and video results have not yet been published.

The Vivo V80 has a 7200mAh silicon-carbon battery with 90W wired charging, which can reach 50% in about 30 minutes. It also supports reverse wired charging for topping up earbuds or another phone, and bypass charging, which powers the phone directly while gaming to reduce heat.

The extra capacity over the V70 is expected to add roughly half an hour to an hour of screen-on time, and Vivo fitted it without making the phone thicker. Vivo also says its battery technology is designed to stay healthy for years.

Verified screen-on time results are not yet available.

The V80 ships with Android 17 and OriginOS 7 out of the box, so you start on the newest version rather than waiting for an update. Vivo lists up to four major OS updates, a good commitment for this class, though the Samsung Galaxy A57 promises six.

The new software brings Vivo's latest AI features, which make better use of the newer hardware.

There is no verified information yet on pre-installed apps or ads in this version.