The vivo V70 is a midrange smartphone model priced in Singapore at S$799 (retail price). It was launched on 28 Mar 2026 with 2 colours – Golden Hour and Alpine Grey. It runs on Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 with 256 GB storage, 12GB RAM, 6.59-inch display, 6500 mAh battery, 194 grams.
There are no surprises here: the V70 delivers the experience like a midrange phone, a relaxed pace for the everyday tasks. The OriginOS 6 is mature with better capabilities to personalise and customise the UI, support floating small windows, split screen with three-finger swipe up, smart sidebar to reveal shortcut apps. It also has the option to merge the control centre and notification cards into one instead of having to swipe down from left or from right. It now has the “Origin Island” function that displays some of the active apps like Clock, Music Player, Recorder, on the top of the display around the front camera. So as a whole, the new UI is more user-friendly. vivo promises 4 generations of OS updates and 6 years of security updates, which is great news.
Enrolling fingerprint is easier now, just press the fingerprint area and move the finger around without lifting the finger to scan it. The enrollment is completed within 5 seconds, but I do encounter the fingerprint sensor did not recognise my finger as quickly as other smartphones that use the traditional method. Perhaps I need to move the finger slower.
One of the major selling points is the ZEISS co-branded camera system. The triple-lens setup consists of a 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide lens, 50MP f/1.88 wide-angle, and 50MP f/2.65 3x periscope telephoto lens. From my test images, I quite like the colour tonality that comes out of the smartphone. They do not look too saturated yet they bring out a good amount of sharpness.
The sharpness however seems to also cause zoomed images to appear with a bit more grain.
In scenes of high contrast, the camera manages to deliver shadow details. For experienced shutterbugs, they can tune the shots using the gallery editor.
As a midrange smartphone, the digital zoom is less impressive compared to the flagships. In some scenes, the vivo V70 seems to get the details, probably due to the AI engine able to process simpler images, like the pavilion at the reservoir park.
I didn’t get the same luck when zooming in to a structure on top of the MBS Sky Park. The image stabilisation is also unable to aid me in keeping the shot steady, and I had to try really hard to keep still before taking the shot.
In the indoor setting with artificial light, the V70 can still capture good details despite a challenging subject with complex form.
For night shots, while the exposure is good, I find the sharpness a bit excessive. It is not an issue as long as you don’t zoom-in the image.
Overall, the V70 camera system excels with its main camera and when you don’t extend the zoom too much. Also, the “sky change” filter effect is very useful to improve the image aesthetics.
For the front camera, skin tone is rather pleasing. There are several bokeh styles to choose from, and I could also apply face filter to adjust every aspect of my face, including eyebrow, eye size, lips, blusher, chin, and more.
The camera has one interesting video mode called “Micro Movie”, which allows user to shoot multiple video clips across separate occasions. The camera will accumulate all the clips and you can compile them when you are ready, applying on-screen template effects, trimming the footage, before exporting. I recommend the user spend more time to familiarise the features before using it on the field, as I seemed to lose some clips I shot during my trial-and-error.
Verdict
The vivo V70 is a rather fine smartphone to use and operate thanks to the OriginOS. I like some of the customisation capability, like combining the notification and control centre just like the older Android OS. It is also easy to run apps in split windows and floating small windows. Honestly, I think the X300 series has stolen the limelight, but if that flagship is beyond your budget, the V70 will get you close to the image quality, as long as you do not stretch the zoom too much.
Visit the vivo website to learn more about the V70. https://www.vivo.com/sg/products/v70
