Vivo V60e review: a stylish package with robust cameras

Vivo’s ‘e’ series has typically represented a more accessible, ‘lite’ version of its V-series phones. This year, however, things are a little different. The Vivo V60e closes the gap on its more expensive sibling, the standard V60, by a decent margin. It shares a similar premium design and packs a massive 6,500mAh battery, but the biggest highlight is its powerful 200MP camera system. For a lower price, the V60e seems to offer a lot of value as a camera-centric phone. The question is, does it deliver? Especially in a price segment rife with similarly specced devices? Let’s find out.

Familiar look, premium feel

The Vivo V60e closely resembles the standard V60 in design. It features the same pill-style camera island, albeit with no ZEISS branding. The flash unit is placed adjacent to the camera module, and the rest of the panel has a smooth, satin-like finish. I received the Elite Purple variant for review, and admittedly, I don’t really see the purple hue anywhere. It’s closer to what I would call Burgundy, in my opinion. The device is slightly heavier than its predecessor, weighing 190 grams, and is just as thick, measuring 7.5mm.

The rear panel, while it is a matte-like finish, does get smudged rather easily. You can easily wipe smudges off or remedy this altogether with a case, but it’s still a bit of an annoyance if you use your phone without a cover. There’s an IR blaster up top along with noise-cancelling mics, while the bottom edge holds the SIM tray, USB-C port, and speaker grille.

The volume and power rockers are on the right edge, as usual. Regarding durability, you receive both IP68 and IP69 certifications, which means it is highly protected against the elements.

The camera is all about the ‘wow’ factor

The Vivo V60e boasts one of the best camera systems in the sub-Rs 30,000 price bracket, competing evenly with the Motorola Edge 60 Pro, which we consider the top camera phone in this segment. The phone is built around a 200MP primary sensor with OIS, an 8MP ultrawide, and a 50MP selfie camera.

Its biggest strength is daylight photos. It captures sharp, detailed, and vibrant images that are immediately eye-catching. Even in low-light situations, the camera manages to pull out a surprising amount of detail. However, its processing leans heavily towards a punchy, social media-ready look. Someone who prefers natural colours (like me) may not like the oversaturated results, but for the general user, it’s ideal since there’s minimal need for post-edits.

Although portrait shots on this device seem to be riddled with a few issues. Edge detection is usually inconsistent, and the background bokeh effect is not evenly applied. It goes out of focus in some areas and makes the image appear odd. I hope this gets fixed in future OTA upgrades given Vivo’s confidence about its portrait photography.  

The benefit of the 200MP sensor becomes particularly clear when shooting in its dedicated high-resolution mode. The difference is substantial, even in challenging low-light conditions. For example, in the shot below, which was taken right after sundown, the 200MP mode captures significantly more detail than the standard pixel-binned shot.

The high-resolution image preserves finer textures on buildings and foliage, allowing for much cleaner crops without a major loss in quality. While the standard mode produces a well-exposed photo, the 200MP shot is noticeably sharper and crisper, making it the better choice when you want maximum clarity.

Vivo V60e vs. Motorola Edge 60 Pro: Camera Comparison

Daylight

In daylight, both phones produce very different results. The Vivo V60e captures a brighter, sharper image with noticeably more detail in the foliage and architecture. Its colours are vibrant and punchy, creating an eye-catching, social media-ready look. In contrast, the Motorola Edge 60 Pro (review) opts for a more subdued, high-contrast style. This approach, however, crushes the blacks in shadowy areas, causing a loss of detail. The Vivo’s superior sharpness and better handling of shadows make it the clear winner in this scene.

Ultrawide

In the ultrawide comparison, the Vivo V60e is ahead with better colour consistency, maintaining the vibrant and punchy look from its primary camera. In contrast, the Motorola Edge 60 Pro’s ultrawide produces a high-contrast image with deep shadows that clashes with its main lens. The Moto offers slightly better distortion control and is sharper and more detailed, thanks to its 50MP lens.

Portrait

When it comes to portraits, the Motorola Edge 60 Pro is the decisive winner, performing better across the board. It delivers more pleasing and natural skin tones, significantly better detail and clarity in the subject’s face and clothing, and cleaner edge detection with a more natural bokeh effect. In comparison, the Vivo V60e produces an artificially brightened image that washes out skin tones. As you’d notice, its edge detection is less precise with an inconsistent bokeh effect. 

Selfie

When it comes to selfies, the two phones offer distinct styles. The Motorola Edge 60 Pro delivers a cooler, more natural-looking photo that prioritises true-to-life skin tones and captures more fine detail. In contrast, the Vivo V60e opts for a much warmer, punchier look. The latter brightens skin tones for a vibrant, social-media-ready result, but this stylised approach appears less authentic and is slightly softer in details. 

Night mode

In the low-light comparison, the Vivo V60e produces a brighter and more detailed image, but it struggles with realism, casting an unnatural blue tone across the sky. The Motorola Edge 60 Pro, while capturing a much darker scene, does a better job of controlling light flares and maintaining natural colours. 

Display and speakers: good, not great

The 6.77-inch AMOLED panel is as standard as they come, featuring an FHD+ resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. What makes this panel unique is its quad-curved design, which makes the phone look premium and adds to a good hand-feel.

The panel is Widevine L1 certified and supports HDR10 playback on Netflix and YouTube. Amazon Prime is likely to support it too, although I couldn’t verify this myself. The brightness is quite good indoors, even better than some rivals. While visibility is a little limited outdoors, it performs satisfactorily and you won’t face any issues. 

The viewing experience itself is pretty decent. The panel has good viewing angles and feels immersive due to its curved nature. However, I personally found the panel’s vibrancy lacking. I changed the display colours to “Bright” mode, which alleviates the problem slightly, but I still felt the colours weren’t as punchy as other panels I’ve used in this price bracket, like the Edge 60 Pro or the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro (review).

Finally, the speakers. You get a stereo setup with one speaker in the earpiece and another down-firing one at the bottom. The overall volume level is a little humble. They don’t get very loud, and the audio doesn’t feel particularly full. At maximum volume, you can notice a little distortion, which can be slightly distracting if you often use your phone’s speakers at full blast.

Performance: good enough for most

The Vivo V60e relies on MediaTek’s new Dimensity 7360 Turbo, paired with up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. Since the storage is not expandable, I’d recommend the 256GB variant for better future viability.

Based on MediaTek’s official specs, the chipset appears to be based on the Dimensity 7300 SoC with identical base specifications. The ‘Turbo’ in the name might refer to it being unlocked to have better performance, which rings true when looking at the benchmark tests. It scores well above what we’ve usually come to expect from the standard Dimensity 7300.

In day-to-day use, you won’t really feel the need for more raw power, as it is perfectly capable of handling routine tasks. In demanding use cases, however, like gaming and extensive multitasking, you do feel the pinch.

Gaming performance in titles like BGMI and CoD: Mobile at medium graphical settings is pretty impressive. In CoD: Mobile at High+Max settings, the phone delivers a steady 60fps over 30 minutes of testing. In BGMI at HDR+Ultra, you get about 35-40 fps, which is on par with the rest of the segment.

Its thermal control is also quite impressive, and it doesn’t heat up much even under continued heavy usage. In the CPU Throttling Test, its stability is roughly 60 percent, which is decent enough for a smartphone that’s not geared towards performance.

On the software front, the Vivo V60e runs FuntouchOS 15, based on Android 15, right out of the box. The interface looks clean at first glance, with very few pre-installed apps. If you’ve used a Vivo phone before, the OS should look quite familiar. Vivo has not held back on AI features, either.

You get Gemini integration and functions like Circle to Search, but the V60e also includes useful tools like live call translation, an AI assistant in the Notes app, and AI Transcript Assist for summarising conversations. Best of all, Vivo is promising three major OS updates and five years of security patches, which is great for long-term usability.

All-day power and rapid charging

The Vivo V50e features a 6,500mAh battery with 90W fast charging support. This is a substantial upgrade compared to its predecessor, atleast on paper. In the PCMark battery test, the Vivo V60e’s result is on par with last year’s V50e, which is a little surprising. 

The lack of difference doesn’t necessarily mean the battery backup hasn’t improved. The display is now brighter and the processor more powerful, which increases the power draw. This just highlights the battery has been optimised. During our lab test, the handset’s battery drained by  percent while streaming a 30-minute YouTube video and roughly 6 percent on average after playing BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Real Racing 3 for half an hour each. 

When it comes to charging, the Vivo V60e takes 40 minutes to go from 20 percent to 100 percent using the bundled charger. This is on par with the V50e, so while there’s not much change, it doesn’t necessarily have to. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it as they say. 

Verdict: Should You Buy the Vivo V60e?

The Vivo V60e is priced at Rs 29,999 for the 8GB + 128GB variant, Rs 31,999 for the 8GB + 256GB model and Rs 33,999 for the 12GB+256GB variant. At this price, it offers decent value, but it’s not without its shortcomings. The speakers are modest at best, they don’t get very loud and can distort at maximum volume. As I discused before, portrait shots can suffer from inconsistent bokeh, and while the phone is perfectly capable for day-to-day tasks, its performance isn’t exactly top-tier for demanding use or heavy gaming. If you want better raw performance and portraits, you can opt for the Vivo T4 Pro (review) instead, which launched for Rs 27,999. It comes with a dedicated telephoto lens instead of an ultrawide, and a more capable Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 SoC. 

But for everything it gets wrong, it gets a lot more right. The camera system is genuinely impressive for its price, delivering sharp, vibrant photos that are ready to go on socials, right out of the box. The phone feels sleek and comfortable in the hand, yet it is quite durable with IP68/IP69 certifications. The quad-curved AMOLED display is a highlight, and the excellent battery life, combined with 90W fast charging, means you’ll rarely worry about running out of power. To top it off, Vivo promises decent software support with 3 major OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches, which is good news for long-term use.

Overall, the Vivo V60e is a compelling package. If you’re looking for a stylish, camera-focused phone under Rs 30,000 that doesn’t compromise on design or endurance, this is a phone I’d recommend.

Editor’s Rating: 8.1/10

Reasons to buy:

• Premium in-hand feel 
• Good camera system for the price
• Great all-day battery with 90W charging
• Good software support for long-term use

Reasons not to buy:

• Performance could be better
• Speakers sound a little dull
• Portrait mode is inconsistent