Vivo V60 review: Sleek design, marathon battery and cameras made for sharing

The mid-range smartphone race is often about one-upping rivals with raw power. Vivo clearly isn’t playing that game with the Vivo V60. Instead, it’s gone for something harder to pull off: a phone that looks premium, lasts forever on a charge, and takes photos you’ll actually want to post. Five months after the V50, the V60 arrives with a bigger 6,500mAh battery, brighter display, refreshed design, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 4. It isn’t the fastest phone under ₹40,000, but it feels carefully designed for people who care about stamina and style over benchmarks.

Design: Sleek and surprisingly tough

At first glance, the V60 looks more like Vivo’s higher-end X series than its V-series siblings. The oversized circular camera from the V50 is gone, replaced by a cleaner pill-shaped module with three sensors and Zeiss branding. On the Auspicious Gold model I tested, the logo is a little too bold for my taste, but the matte back finish makes up for it, resisting fingerprints better than most glass panels.

What really stands out is durability. The phone ships with IP68 and IP69 ratings, which means it can survive dust, rain, and even high-pressure water jets. Vivo also uses Schott Core glass for extra drop resistance. It’s the kind of toughness you don’t usually see in this price bracket.

All of that is wrapped into a body that’s 7.5mm thick and just under 200 grams, despite housing a massive battery. The curved edges keep it comfortable to hold, although the glossy finish can feel a little slippery.

Display: Bright enough to shame flagships

The 6.77-inch AMOLED panel doesn’t change much on paper from the V50,  still 1.5K resolution, still 120Hz refresh, but Vivo has cranked peak brightness to 5,000 nits. HDR content looks excellent, whether it’s moody shadows in The Batman or the neon explosions in an action flick. The panel dims down to 2.3 nits at night, which is gentle on the eyes, and colour tuning leans slightly warm by default, making it easy to watch for long stretches.

Bezels are slim, and the subtle micro-curved edges on all sides give it a more expensive feel than its rivals. One annoyance is that always-on display still locks refresh at 120Hz, which is wasteful for such a big battery.

Performance: Not built for gamers and it's okay

The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chip is competent but not class-leading. Benchmarks put it around 1 million points on AnTuTu, well behind the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 9400e that power the OnePlus 13R and Realme GT 7. Day-to-day tasks are fine: scrolling, app switching, and social feeds feel smooth, especially paired with 12GB of RAM on my unit.

Gaming, though, is where the gap shows. Genshin Impact is playable only at lower settings, and while BGMI holds steady on high graphics, don’t expect this to be a hardcore gaming phone. The upside: thermal control is excellent. Even after 40 minutes of gaming, the phone only got slightly warm.

Software support has improved, with Vivo promising four years of OS updates and six years of security patches. That matches many flagships, although FunTouchOS still arrives with too many pre-loaded apps.

Cameras: Zeiss flavour with quirks

The V60’s triple-camera setup mirrors the Vivo X200 FE: a 50MP Sony IMX776 main sensor, 8MP ultrawide, and 50MP telephoto with 2x optical zoom. Vivo leans heavily on Zeiss branding here, complete with portrait filters and bokeh modes named Sonnar and Planar. There’s even a Wedding Portrait Studio and a Wedding Vlog mode that automatically adds filters and music.

In daylight, the results are punchy and Instagram-ready, though sometimes at the expense of realism. By default, colours are oversaturated, but switching on Zeiss mode restores more natural tones. Portraits are genuinely impressive, especially with the telephoto lens, with sharp skin tones and cinematic background.

Low light is where things falter. Photos pick up grain and lens flares, and while night mode helps, it lags behind what OnePlus and Realme deliver in this price bracket.

The selfie camera holds its own, capturing plenty of detail and offering similar portrait tricks as the rear setup.

Battery: The real star

If there’s one reason to buy the V60, it’s the battery. The 6,500mAh cell is one of the largest in its class and pairs with 90W fast charging. In PCMark’s battery test, it clocked over 19 hours, and in my daily use, I consistently got a day and a half with around 10–11 hours of screen-on time. Charging takes about an hour from empty, which is perfectly reasonable for a battery this size.

Verdict: For people who want balance, not bragging rights

The Vivo V60 doesn’t blow away the competition on benchmarks, and its cameras, while fun and versatile, aren’t flawless. But as an everyday phone, it nails the fundamentals: slim, durable design, bright display, strong battery life, and consistent performance. If you’re a gamer or want the absolute best night photography, look elsewhere. But if you want a dependable, stylish phone that just works and keeps working long after others are dead by evening, the V60 deserves a serious look.