Hey friends, Andrew here - hope you're well. The mid-range category of phones is so fiercely
competitive, it's not just simply about the price tag - it's about packing as many standout features
as possible into the phone to win us over. So, what happens when you blend a powerful camera a
uniquely intentional design and an affordable price point in a phone i think you get this
phone here and this phone is the vivo v23 5g and i've been using this phone now for the last few
weeks as my daily driver and right off the bat for the price this is a really nice phone but there
are two stellar features that stand out its design and the camera for transparency's sake this video
is sponsored by vivo but as always all thoughts and opinions are of my own so let's start with the
all important price the suggested retail price is 459 us dollars it's a mid-ranger phone and stands
shoulder to shoulder with the likes of oneplus 9 and oppo RENO 7. it's a pretty competitive price
point so let's see how the vivo v235g stacks up what we get for the price and why this may
possibly be one of the best mid-ranger phones on the market right now inside the phone a Mediatek
Dimensity 920 chip powers vivo's fun touch os 12 which is based on android 12. if you're not
familiar it's essentially a polished version of android 12. so if you're a fan of a simple
minimal operating system while still having the customization there you'll appreciate fun touch
but yeah the dimension 920 chip is roughly on par to the snapdragon 860. it hasn't faltered in
the last few weeks it supports 5g and has enough juice for smooth mobile gaming too the v23 5g also
features extended ram 2.0 and fast charging decent specs for the price now here's where it gets
really interesting as a mid-range phone it's camera and it's head turning design at first
glance its design isn't original its metal frame is very reminiscent of other phones out there
this isn't a bad thing necessarily and it does have a nice sort of heft to it at 180 grams
but as soon as you get it out of the box and flip it around you'll find its iconic color changing
back panel yes it literally changes color the color changing glass back panel gradually changes
color when exposed to sunlight and uv light vivo says there's a chemical change in the molecular
structure when illuminated by a uv light if it all sounds a little too scientific it's
essentially a gradient changing back panel that eventually fade back to its original shade when
for example it's out of the sun with the sunshine gold finish under certain lighting or under the
sun it fades from a light blue and pink orange type finish to an extremely beautiful blue green
gradient the gradient in color that i love as most of you guys probably already know if you're a bit
more of a traditionalist you're you know a bit more of a dark mode type person like i am well the
v23 pro here looks just as handsome in this sleek stardust black and just a heads up it doesn't come
with the color changing fluorite on this black but has more of a shimmery matte black finish i don't
know i kind of like both and which one would you pick from these two here it's an extremely premium
fill for the price point in hand it just doesn't feel like a mid-range 459 dollar phone if you gave
me this phone without knowing anything else and i just saw the phone at face value i'd say the build
quality is on par with high-end phones at double the price tag one trade-off at this price point
is that it doesn't have an ipx rating so you want to keep this phone away from excessive dust or
water so that's the unique design now let's talk about the mobile photography on this phone because
there is a lot of good stuff here and i'm going to be sharing with you a lot of snaps i've taken
over the last few weeks whether my photography is any good i guess you'll be the judge here the v23
5g features a triple rear camera setup the focal point here is a really beefy 64 megapixel rear
camera that's a lot of pixels and it's flanked by an 8 megapixel camera and a neat macro camera too
but the true star of the show here is the front camera features a 50 megapixel sensor and another
8 megapixel camera for group selfies or capturing you know more of your surroundings so that's the
camera's stats on paper you know sounds great but what does this actually look like in action the
dynamic range is amazing its color reproduction is natural looking bokeh is creamy for a phone and in
camera software is really fun to play with so all of these photos come straight out of the phone's
cameras with no post editing it forms pretty well in all sorts of lighting conditions a big
part thanks to the range of pro controls so i was able to manage saturation iso exposure and shutter
speeds this super zoom shot came out better than i expected considering the only lighting source
was the moon and i was shooting at a 125th shutter handheld night photography is surprisingly solid
too or maybe it's not so surprising because the phone's main rear camera comes with the
integrated samsung's iso cell sensor which is a relatively large mobile camera sensor to capture
more light in the front facing 50 megapixel camera is where you'll find this phone batting above its
weight as a mid-ranger phone if selfies are your thing you're seriously going to love this phone
as for me i don't think that i'm exactly photogenic so bear with me here while i test
out this selfie camera for reviews sake the first thing i was really impressed with is the selfie
spotlights you get on the 323 5g i don't know how vivo managed to fit them into the slim curve
bezels but they've integrated two led spotlights with controllable color temperature to help
control your selfie skin tone and compensate for the environment's lighting it seriously is useful
and i found myself using it quite a lot here's a selfie shot in portrait mode which gives you
access to some pretty interesting facetune beauty features and this one was shot with the ultrawide
selfie lens and the spotlights turned on which would work best for group shots and then this one
with the 50 megapixel selfie camera with spotlight also turned on and i think this looks best in my
opinion baked into the camera app itself are on the fly saturation and exposure tools to
the side auto focus locks eye and face tracking and pro tools to control iso aperture and you're
able to shoot raw too we could be here all day going through the camera's features but
just know that this truly is a photographer's phone on a budget the 8-megapixel wide-angle
rear camera and macro camera is nowhere near as impressive though they produced a significant
amount of noise in comparison as you can see here i found myself using the main camera most of the
time for those macro shots anyway rather than the dedicated macro camera there are definitely better
mobile cameras on the market right now which may or may not be a fair comparison given we should
be looking from a mid-range perspective here but if one thing's for sure the v23 5g packs a
lot of photography goodness for a fraction of the price particularly when it comes to its stand out
front camera for the perfect selfie oh and i almost forgot this is the video capability of
this phone i'm currently recording at 4k 30 frames per second as you can tell it's not too shabby
but just remember this is a photo first type mobile phone so don't expect you know pro level
videography here so those are the two standout features as a mid-range phone it's unique design
and its mobile photography capability now what about the other features well the display is
quite nice a 6.4 inch ammo led display that supports hdr 10 plus the screen is also curved
for that wrap around effect which is a nice touch at this price point screen brightness is
well quite bright at 600 nits max brightness which makes it usable in almost all scenarios except
though in direct sunlight there's a smart switch auto refresh rate to help you save power but i
personally stuck to the high performance 90 hertz refresh rate option because frankly the battery is
amazing it holds a 4200 milliamp battery which is definitely not the biggest battery around but
it's sizeable given it's quite a slim phone during my use over the last few weeks it ran down to 20
battery only after two days of use which includes web and app browsing some cores loads of photos
snapping and regular youtube videos the very power efficient dimensioning 920 chip pad with
the fun touch 12 are likely the key pieces to praise here for that long life battery
and when it does actually run out of battery this thing is supercharged by a 44 watt flash charger
and it's fast a 0 to 80 charge took literally quite on the mark half an hour and about a full
hour for a full charge expect the usage time to lower significantly if you're a mobile gamer but
with regular day-to-day use this phone is a marathon runner backed with a supercharger
so this phone does have its pitfalls you know it's not it's not perfect and sure it isn't the most
powerful mid-ranger out there in terms of pure specs but i mean can we really complain at the
price point of only 459 dollars i guess we could nitpick but and i find myself saying this a lot
i think it comes down to what you prioritize because if you value a phone's design and build
quality along with its photography capability well this this is a standout mid-ranger phone if not
one of the best bang for buck phones out on the market right now and i don't say that lightly
i also just can't get over the back panel the color changing glass is just you know
amazing i would not be surprised if more phones begin using this material on their own back panels
soon enough and in fact they already have if you're looking for a mid-range phone or even
a secondary phone without paying thousands for another phone the vivo v235g is worth
looking into will this phone replace my dedicated cameras like you know my fuji x100v definitely not
but will it snap stellar shots and memories when it's the only camera on me it definitely would in
almost any lighting situation paired with an above average display battery life and operating system
this is a serious contender if you're looking for a mid-range phone on a budget and speaking
of the fuji x100v if you're into photography check out my full review on it on the side of
the screen and feel free to critique my amateur photography if you're curious about my gear and
tech everyday carry i'll leave a video here on screen too so you can peep the tech that i use
drop the codeword comments super selfie if you got to the end of this video and subscribe for
more tech and business videos as always thank you for watching and i'll see you in the next video