Vivo has been making an attempt to make it into the premium phase for some time with its X sequence of smartphones. These high-end gadgets concentrate on the digicam however previous fashions have typically fallen wanting expectations in different areas, given their premium pricing.
The Vivo X50 Pro (Review) launched a novel gimbal stabilisation characteristic, however had a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor at a premium worth. Vivo fastened this efficiency hole with the X60 Pro+ (Review), but it surely provided no IP ranking, wi-fi charging, or stereo audio system.
With the brand new X70 Pro+, Vivo appears to have carried out its homework. It’s priced at Rs. 79,990 in India, which suggests it competes with the iPhone 13 (First Impressions), Samsung S21+ (Review), Mi 11 Ultra (Review), and top-end variants of another premium Android fashions. Vivo has crammed within the gaps of the X60 Pro+ and in addition upgraded its digicam system. After utilizing this cellphone for per week, it is easy to conclude that this could be among the best smartphones within the flagship phase.
Vivo X70 Pro+ design
The Vivo X70 Pro+ plus ditches the fake leather-based again that the X60 Pro+ had. Vivo has as an alternative gone with a matte glass end and a thin steel body. The cellphone is out there in a single Enigma Black end which seems to be and feels premium however can also be fairly slippery. The glass rear panel feels sturdy and does an excellent job of rejecting fingerprints and smudges.
It’s straightforward to inform that Vivo has paid loads of consideration to the X70 Pro+’s design. The proper and left sides of the body are skinny, the underside is loads thicker however is flat, and the highest has a glass insert with a extra rounded look. It all seems to be good collectively, however the supplies are very slippery. Thankfully, there is a high-quality fake leather-based case within the field, which is comfortable to the touch and provides loads of grip, however it is going to improve the general thickness of the smartphone when snapped on.
While the cellphone feels surprisingly slim at 8.89mm, the quad-camera module on the again protrudes fairly a bit. At 213g, it is not precisely gentle, however not too heavy for a premium smartphone both. Right subsequent to that enormous digicam module is a big reflective panel, which is a beauty contact, however can be used as a mirror so you may take selfies with the rear digicam.
The X70 Pro+ has a big 6.7-inch WQHD+ AMOLED show panel with curved sides. The Schott Xensation cowl glass is susceptible to smudges, however these may be wiped off simply. A brand new characteristic on this era is the stereo speaker setup, with the earpiece doubling up because the second speaker. Also new is the IP68 ranking which suggests you get good safety in opposition to mud and water.
Vivo X70 Pro+ specs and software program
The Vivo X70 Pro+ goes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ processor, which is a minor improve to the Snapdragon 888 present in most premium Android flagships. This processor has a better 3GHz (2.999Ghz to be exact) clock velocity and a sooner Hexagon 780 AI Engine. There’s 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, with no room for enlargement. Communications requirements embody Wi-Fi 6 ac/ax, Bluetooth 5.2, and NFC. This cellphone helps a number of SA and NSA 5G bands, which had been lacking on the X60 Pro+.
Vivo’s customized Android pores and skin, EnjoyableTouch OS, has been upgraded to model 12 with Android 11 as the bottom. The firm’s much-talked-about widget-based Origin OS has but to make it to any of the Vivo handsets in India, however the X70 Pro+ does get a handful of these cool-looking widgets together with a Clean up & Accelerate operate, a Nano music participant, just a few fundamental stickers (quotes, water counter, countdown), a featured album, and one for the climate. Apart from these, there are additionally the same old Android widgets to select from.
What makes the EnjoyableTouch widgets particular is their skeuomorphic design. There are buttons that open and shut a jukebox-like music participant (with Spotify integration) with some fascinating animations like a CD slotting right into a tray. Their total fluidity is much cry from the often clunky Android widgets. They are additionally very interactive. You can swipe throughout the album widget to look at just a few photographs, or swipe throughout the climate widget to modify between hourly and every day climate experiences. As interactive and enjoyable as they’re, there’s loads lacking by way of deeper integration, which is one thing Apple’s iOS does significantly better.
Widgets apart, the software program felt very fluid with no lag or stuttering in anyway. While the cellphone does include a number of preloaded third-party apps (which may be uninstalled), I used to be shocked to not see a single promotional notification pop up throughout the overview interval.
Vivo X70 Pro+ efficiency and battery life
The Vivo X70 Pro+ incorporates a WQHD+ (3200×1440 pixels) show which could be very sharp and will get fairly vivid outside. It claims to have the ability to reproduce a billion colors and has very natural-looking color tones. The curved edges made swiping from the edges simpler whereas navigating the software program, and did not trigger an excessive amount of distraction when watching content material. The show additionally helps HDR10+. While video on YouTube and Amazon Prime seemed sharp and vibrant, Netflix’s HDR certification remains to be pending. Vivo has confirmed that it has utilized for this and that will probably be enabled later.
The AMOLED panel incorporates a 120Hz peak refresh fee, which other than making the software program expertise really feel fluid, can also be evident whereas taking part in video games. Vivo’s Ultra Game mode has been revamped with a brand new interface and now has loads of helpful gamer-friendly controls together with 4D vibration, a voice changer, and Eagle Eye View, which brightens up the sport to allow you to see extra clearly in darker areas.
I performed Call of Duty: Mobile, and as anticipated, the gaming efficiency was flawless. Touch sampling was spot on with no lag or stutter, and the sport loaded rapidly. Despite taking part in at Very High graphics high quality and Max body fee (with all results switched on), the cellphone solely warmed up just a little, even throughout prolonged gaming classes. The twin audio system made for a really immersive audio expertise delivering balanced sound that was loud and clear. The 4D vibration characteristic surprisingly didn’t work with Call of Duty: Mobile although it was presupposed to be supported.
In phrases of benchmarks, there have been minor variations between smartphones with the unique Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor and the Snapdragon 888+. The Vivo X70 Pro+ managed a rating of 8,16,115 in AnTuTu, and in addition scored 1,112 and three,621 in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core exams. The iQoo 7 Legend, for instance, scored 8,05,450 in AnTuTu (v9.1.2), and 1,130 and three,668 in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core exams respectively.
With a 4,500mAh battery, I used to be a bit apprehensive in regards to the battery lifetime of the Vivo X70 Pro+ given its giant 6.7-inch pixel-dense show. However, even with the show refresh fee set to 120Hz, I simply managed a day and half of heavy utilization. Setting the refresh fee to Auto would possibly even have prolonged that just a little. With common use, I used to be left with about 40 % on the finish of the day, which is sort of good for a premium flagship.
Vivo features a 55W charger within the field, and it takes about 55 minutes for this cellphone to go from a useless battery to 100 %. Wireless charging additionally makes it to the X70 Pro+ and this cellphone helps 50W wi-fi charging when used with Vivo’s personal dock, which will likely be coming to India and will likely be bought individually.
Vivo X70 Pro+ cameras
The Vivo X70 Pro+ options 4 rear cameras. This features a 50-megapixel wide-angle digicam, a 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle digicam, a 12-megapixel telephoto digicam with 2X optical zoom, and one other 8-megapixel telephoto digicam with 5X optical zoom. The 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle digicam has a gimbal, which is used for the assorted stabilisation tips this smartphone is able to. All of the cameras supply autofocus and optical picture stabilisation (OIS). Selfie duties are dealt with by a 32-megapixel front-facing digicam.
But there’s extra. Vivo has additionally added what it calls a Professional Imaging Chip V1, which helps in a number of methods. This chip is claimed to assist with body interpolation, which based on Vivo, additionally improves smoothness when taking part in video games, and helps the digicam with brightness and denoising photographs precisely. All the digicam lenses even have a Zeiss T* coating, which together with software program, ought to assist with lowering glare and ghosting in low-light photographs.
Photos taken indoors and outside in daylight got here out noise-free and with good element and dynamic vary. Sharpness was additionally spot on, and the X70 Pro+ didn’t go overboard with it. There was noticeable barrel distortion in direction of the sides of photographs when utilizing the ultra-wide-angle digicam. Colours (with and with out the Zeiss color mode switched on) had been trustworthy to the precise scene.
The ultra-wide-angle digicam doubles up as a macro digicam. The 12-megapixel binned macro photographs are fairly clear and pack in loads of element as properly.
When zoomed in to a scene utilizing the telephoto cameras, photographs got here out sharp and freed from noise, and confirmed good element up until 5X optical zoom. Beyond this and all the best way until the 60X digital zoom stage, photographs showcased a watercolour-like impact and the extent of element dropped progressively. Still, photographs taken at as much as 10X zoom had been usable. What impressed me most was how the X70 Pro+ managed to retain color and white steadiness throughout the zoom vary.
Selfies got here out clear and sharp, with a great deal of element. Edge detection in Portrait photographs was glorious, and this utilized when capturing crops and different objects utilizing the rear digicam as properly. Vivo has included a few totally different Style Portrait modes that replicate the look of basic Zeiss lenses (Biotar, Planar, Sonnar and Distagon) utilizing software program. I attempted all of them and so they all have very distinct seems to be, and might all work successfully in each daylight and low gentle.
The digicam system’s total zoom efficiency remained surprisingly good even round sundown, which is spectacular. Moving on to low gentle, the X70 Pro+ captured photographs with distinctive readability as much as 2X with some noise displaying up at 5X zoom. Switching to nighttime mode solves the noise downside and delivers higher dynamic vary, bringing out extra element within the darker areas of the picture. The Zeiss T* coating additionally took care of the glare emanating from close by lampposts and different sources of sunshine. I even tried taking a 60X picture utilizing Night mode and the outcomes had been surprisingly usable.
The Vivo X70 Pro+’s cameras tackled daylight video recording with out breaking sweat, it doesn’t matter what decision and body fee I chosen. HDR movies seemed fairly sharp and provided glorious dynamic vary, however had been restricted to 30 fps. Around sundown, areas of a scene with synthetic sources of sunshine flickered a bit. This flickering downside was not current when HDR was switched off. While particulars took successful in low gentle, stabilisation was nonetheless fairly spectacular. I observed a little bit of a shimmery impact when strolling via dimly lit areas. I even tried out the Super Night mode however I used to be not impressed with the outcomes, and I most popular video taken within the Auto mode.
Horizon line stabilisation is a neat trick and works higher in daylight. When enabled, the digicam system switches to the ultra-wide-angle digicam (with the gimbal). This mainly retains the scene stage with the horizon even in case you rotate the cellphone 360 levels whereas capturing, for the reason that bigger body may be cropped and adjusted. This may very well be very helpful when capturing movies with the cellphone mounted on a automobile, or when working.
While capturing photographs for this overview, I had Xiaomi’s Mi 11 Ultra with me to provide you an thought about what a equally priced premium smartphone is able to. I concluded that the Vivo X70 Pro+ did higher on most fronts, save for low-light video the place the Mi 11 Ultra managed higher element with much less noise.
There are some things that I didn’t like in regards to the digicam interface. First, the zoom controls aren’t nice and it takes a little bit of effort to zoom out and in easily. The exhausting stops swap abruptly with no clean transition between the 2 telephoto cameras, particularly when capturing video. It’s additionally not potential to transition from the huge digicam to the ultra-wide-angle one when capturing video. HDR video is restricted to 30 fps it doesn’t matter what decision you select, and gimbal stabilisation can also be restricted to 1080p at 30 fps.
Verdict
Vivo has not held again in any means with the X70 Pro+. With distinctive options comparable to its gimbal digicam stabilisation and V1 chip, it has efficiently made an area for itself within the premium smartphone phase. The X70 Pro+ additionally has sufficient different updates to warrant an improve even from the X60 Pro+ (Review). It’s not excellent, but it surely positive comes shut, and with a barrage of options (most of which work as anticipated), there’s little to complain about.
There are loads of choices at this worth stage together with these from greater manufacturers comparable to Samsung and Apple, however none of them supply a lot flexibility by way of cameras, core {hardware}, and options.