4 reasons to buy Vivo V70 Elite, 3 reasons not to buy

• By Ashish Kumar
Published On: 20 February 2026 | 09:43 IST

The Vivo V70 Elite has been launched in India, with a starting price of Rs 51,999. This makes it the most expensive V-series offering to date. It also places the smartphone in close proximity to the X200 FE in Vivo’s portfolio of devices. On paper, the X-series smartphone appears to be a more promising offering, which starts at Rs 54,999.

However, the Vivo V70 Elite has its own charm. The handset boasts a large 6,500mAh battery, Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, ZEISS-backed triple cameras, OriginOS 6, and more. So who exactly should consider buying the Vivo V70 Elite? Read on as I tell you the reasons to buy and not to buy the smartphone, with inputs from its review.

Reasons to buy

Modern aesthetics

The Vivo V70 Elite moves away from the curved-edge aesthetic in favour of a flatter, more conventional design, and the change genuinely works in its favour. The flat sides provide a more secure grip and eliminate accidental touches that often plague curved displays. Vivo has also ensured the V70 Elite provides a premium in-hand feel with an aluminium chassis and gently rounded corners, making it easier to operate without the edges digging into your palm.

While it may not be quite as petite as the Vivo X200 FE, the V70 Elite still strikes a very practical balance. At just 7.59mm thick and weighing 179 grams, it feels impressively slim and light for a phone housing such a large battery. The handset slides in and out of pockets effortlessly and gives a reassuring yet unobtrusive in-hand feel during prolonged use.

The Vivo V70 Elite comes in three colour options: Passion Red, Sand Beige, and Authentic Black. It’s the Passion Red variant to go for if you want to stand out from the crowd.

Smooth performance

The Vivo V70 Elite is the first V-series smartphone to feature a flagship Snapdragon 8-series chipset under the hood. The handset is powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC, which, even though a couple of generations old and not the most powerful in the segment, appears to be well optimised to deliver smooth performance in daily use. Multitasking is stable, app launches are quick, and casual gaming runs comfortably without aggressive throttling.

While its benchmark performance may remain underwhelming compared to rivals such as the OnePlus 13s, the handset handles demanding activities like gaming without getting uncomfortably warm. During our internal testing, the Vivo V70 Elite heated up by 9.3 degrees Celsius after playing BGMI and Call of Duty: Mobile for 30 minutes each. The smartphone also features an X-axis linear motor to provide good feedback while gaming.

To further support performance, the smartphone comes with fast LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage, enabling near-instant app launches and swift large file transfers.

Excellent Battery Life

The Vivo V70 Elite packs a 6,500mAh battery, which is beefier than the X200 FE and its rival OnePlus 13s. The pack provides good efficiency for mixed usage, including streaming, gaming, and 4K recording, easily lasting a full day, between charges. I was getting more than six hours of screen time on the device. Moreover, per our standard 60 minutes of YouTube video streaming gaming tests, the handset consumed a total of 11 percent battery.

On the PCMark battery test, the Vivo V70 Elite scored an impressive 18 hours and 19 minutes. The handset supports 90W FlashCharge, allowing it to top up quickly whenever needed. Charging the device from 20 to 100 percent happened in just 47 minutes with the compatible charger provided in the box.

Strong portrait & telephoto cameras

The Vivo V70 Elite packs a versatile Zeiss camera setup, comprising a 50MP primary sensor and a 50MP 3x telephoto sensor. Both are large sensors that support OIS and deliver sharp, vibrant images with pleasing contrast and good dynamic range, especially in daylight. Colours appear lively without looking excessively artificial, and the camera handles highlights and shadows with confidence. In low light, the handset maintains impressive noise control and preserves detail effectively, with night mode producing balanced, realistic results.

The 50MP front camera is equally capable, capturing natural skin tones and well-exposed selfies without heavy over-processing. Moreover, beyond still photography, the V70 Elite also stands out for its flexibility. Support for 4K 60fps recording across cameras ensures smooth, high-quality video capture, while the range of ZEISS colour profiles and shooting modes allows users to tailor results to their preference.

Reasons not to buy

Not a major upgrade over the standard model

Apart from the chipset, the Vivo V70 Elite shares much of its DNA with the standard Vivo V70. The core design, display, battery capacity, and camera hardware remain largely similar, which narrows the practical gap between the two devices.

Priced in India from Rs 45,999, the regular V70 undercuts the Elite by a noticeable margin. For buyers who are comfortable opting for the more modest Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 SoC and do not necessarily need the extra performance headroom of the 8s Gen 3, the regular V70 presents itself as the more value-conscious choice.

Ultrawide camera is average

The Vivo V70 Elite offers a Zeiss ultrawide lens to capture images with a wide perspective. Not every smartphone offers this lens in the price range. However, it is no comparison to the primary and telephoto sensors of the smartphone. The 8MP sensor has a lower resolution compared to the other lenses, which results in softer details and comparatively limited dynamic range. The results are still usable, though, for casual photography.

Pre-installed apps

The Vivo V70 Elite comes with the latest OriginOS 6 out of the box. While it is mature, feature-rich, and offers a bevvy of customisation options, you also get loads of pre-installed apps. The list includes as many as 9 third-party apps. These might be popular apps with millions of downloads, but it makes the interface a bit cluttered, which is a bit of a bummer for an upper mid-range smartphone.

The software experience, though feature-rich, comes with noticeable pre-installed apps, making the interface feel slightly cluttered. Some clean-up can be done by removing third-party apps post setup. If it doesn’t bother you, the Vivo V70 Elite remains a good buy.

Hopefully, the future software updates will make the interface a lot cleaner. The V70 Elite is promised to receive at least five major OS upgrades and six years of security updates.