The Vivo V50e (review) has arrived in India as the cheaper sibling of the Vivo V50 (review). As expected, the new launch has the same design but a different chipset, camera setup, and battery capacity. The smartphone has been launched in the sub-Rs 30,000 bracket in India, where it competes with the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro (review). To help you pick the better-performing device between these two, we ran a slew of benchmarks and real-life tests on them. Check out the detailed performance comparison of the Vivo V50e and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro below.
Table of Contents
Verdict
Thanks to the more powerful chipset, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro demonstrated more brute force than the Vivo V50e in benchmarking apps. However, the real-life usage and the sustained performance are nearly identical for both smartphones. This means you can pick either based on your preference and enjoy similar everyday performance.
| Test | Winner |
| Geekbench | Nothing Phone (3a) Pro |
| AnTuTu | Nothing Phone (3a) Pro |
| Burnout | Tie |
| Gaming | Tie |
Geekbench
The Vivo V50e is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300, whereas the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro features the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. The former has four Cortex-A78 cores at 2.5 GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores at 2.0 GHz, whereas the latter has one prime core at 2.5 GHz, three performance cores at 2.4 GHz, and four efficiency cores at 1.8 GHz.
The better cores of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 and GPU of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 means the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro comes out ahead in the Geekbench scores. The smartphone scores around 15 percent higher than the Vivo V50e in both single-core and multi-core tests.
Real-world context: The 15 percent difference in the Geekbench scores is not a deal-breaker, which means both the Vivo V50e and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro are solid mid-range performers. However, if you want a smartphone that can handle daily and intense tasks with equal aplomb, then the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro has the edge here.
Winner: Nothing Phone (3a) Pro
AnTuTu
The Geekbench scores tell us how powerful a device’s CPU is. However, the overall performance is determined by multiple factors apart from the processor, such as the GPU, memory, and UX of the device. We ran the AnTuTu benchmark on the Vivo V50e and Nothing Phone (3a) Pro to determine which one offers a more well-rounded overall experience.
The better cores and architecture set of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 come through again for the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro. The smartphone again scores around 15 percent higher than the Vivo V50e in AnTuTu benchmark app as well.
Real-world context: The combination of the minimalistic Nothing OS based on Android 15 and the powerful Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 means that the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro will offer a much more powerful and well-rounded experience. Having said that, the Vivo V50e is also a commendable smartphone and handles multitasking, gaming, etc., quite well.
Winner: Nothing Phone (3a) Pro
CPU throttle
CPU Throttle assesses sustained performance under heavy load (higher is better)
The Vivo V50e displays better thermal efficiency, throttling less than the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro in our Burnout app. This app runs a strenuous 8-minute test on the device, simulating sustained heavy workloads. In our testing, the Vivo V50e retained a 10 percent higher maximum performance under the throttle.
Real-world context: The minute difference in the Burnout test score of both devices suggests that you can pick either of these two and enjoy similar performance under prolonged usage.
Winner: Tie
Gaming test
Average FPS during 30 minutes of gameplay (higher is better)
We at 91Mobiles test the performance of a smartphone by gaming intensely on it. For this, we play COD: Mobile, BGMI, and Real Racing 3 for 30 minutes each with identical graphical settings. At the end of the 90-minute gaming session, we measured the average FPS and temperature increase for each game.
| Games | Games settings (Graphics + Frames) | Vivo V50e | Nothing Phone (3a) Pro |
| Call of Duty: Mobile | High + Max | 59.8 | 57.8 |
| Real Racing 3 | Standard | 59.2 | 56.2 |
| BGMI | HDR + Ultra | 38 | 38.8 |
As you can see in the table above, there’s a hairline difference between the average FPS offered by both smartphones in each game. The score is nearly identical, even in Real Racing 3, which has a standard setting to adjust fidelity automatically depending on the device hardware.
Thermal performance
Average temperature increase during gaming (lower is better)
| Games | Vivo V50e | Nothing Phone (3a) Pro |
| COD: Mobile | 4.7 degree celsius | 6.2 degree celsius |
| Real Racing 3 | 4.1 degree celsius | 3.7 degree celsius |
| BGMI | 7.6 degree celsius | 4.6 degree celsius |
At the end of our gaming session, the Vivo V50e was 16.4 per cent hotter, and the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro was 14.5 percent hotter. The difference is negligible enough for us to say that both smartphones have comparable thermal efficiency.
Real-world context: Both smartphones are pretty good at handling intense and casual gaming. However, if you are a BGMI fan, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro handles thermal better when playing intense games.
Winner: Tie
Final Verdict
If the Geekbench and Antutu scores are to be believed, the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro with Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 is a much better smartphone in terms of performance. The smartphone also has better thermal management and runs cooler while playing demanding gaming titles. On the other hand, the Vivo V50e performed better and sustained higher maximum performance under a heavy workload.
Having said that, the performance gap between the Vivo V50e and the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro is marginal in real-world usage. You will experience the same performance from both devices, whether you are casual gaming or multitasking.
In the end, if you are a little tight on the budget, you can pick up the Vivo V50e for Rs 28,999 for the base variant. If you can stretch the budget slightly to Rs 29,999, you can pick up the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro and enjoy the unique transparent design, Glyph interface, minimal software, and more.
vivo V50e Images
Nothing Phone 3a Pro Images
