Vivo’s previous flagship offering in India included the X70 Pro and X70 Pro+ (Review). The company has launched the successor to these models, but with a slight twist in the naming. The new Vivo X80 replaces the X70 Pro; you can read our first impressions of it here. The Vivo X80 Pro, on the other hand, is the successor to the X70 Pro+ and has been launched at the same price of Rs. 79,999.
This new flagship model from Vivo competes with other top-end Android offerings such as the OnePlus 10 Pro (Review), Samsung Galaxy S22+ (Review), and even the Galaxy S22 Ultra (Review), as well as the iPhone 13 (Review). After using it for a few days, these are my first impressions of the X80 Pro.
The overall design of the Vivo X80 Pro makes it very similar to the X70 Pro+ from the front but very different from the rear. The rear camera module is now a giant rectangular block that takes up about a third of the back panel. However, because it is large and does not protrude much, the phone does not wobble when placed on a flat surface. The glass panels on the front and back of the phone have curved sides that make this phone comfortable to hold, and the matte-finished back panel (made of Fluorite AG Glass) doesn’t attract fingerprints. Overall, the phone feels quite premium and looks elegant.
The Vivo X80 Pro has a Fluorite AG glass back panel and an aluminum alloy frame.
The Vivo X80 Pro has a 6.78-inch E5 AMOLED display with a resolution of 3200×1440 pixels (2K). It is protected by Schott’s Xensation Up glass which easily attracts fingerprints and dust particles. The screen has a refresh rate of 120 Hz, and LTPO 2.0 technology drops it to 1 Hz if necessary to save energy. The X80 Pro also has a new 3D ultrasonic fingerprint reader in the display, similar to the iQoo 9 Pro (Review), and enables some new tricks. The readable area is much larger than ordinary capacitive sensors and can even authenticate two fingers simultaneously. Vivo has also implemented a feature called Quick Actions that allows you to launch a specific app the moment you unlock the screen with a particular finger.
The fingerprint reader (like on the iQoo 9 Pro) also requires a single, firm tap to register a fingerprint, making setup easy. The phone’s screen is also said to have a 300Hz sampling rate. I played a few rounds of Call of Duty: Mobile with the default graphics settings and ran without hiccups. The screen’s touch sampling rate seemed to be perfect.
Vivo’s X80 Pro runs on Android 12 but comes with several third-party apps pre-installed
The Vivo X80 Pro sports a new 50-megapixel 1/1.31-inch Samsung GNV sensor for its primary camera, with large 1.2m pixels and a lens with an aperture of f/1.57. It also has 4-axis optical image stabilization (OIS). The X80 ro also features Vivo’s second-generation V1+ imaging chip, which is used to offload image processing tasks from the main SoC. Vivo has, implemented gimbal stabilization for the 12-megapixel portrait camera instead of the ultra-wide camera, as on the X70 Pro+. According to Vivo, the decision was to move the gimbal system to the portrait camera, allowing users to capture sharper portrait photos even in low-light conditions.
A 48-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera can also take macro photos as it has autofocus. This camera does not have OIS, but it does have a field of view of 114 degrees. Finally, there is an 8-megapixel periscope-style telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom (125mm) and 2-axis OIS. A 32-megapixel front camera handles selfies with fixed focus.
The Vivo X80 Pro’s camera app gets a new Style to feature for video, previously available only in photo mode. The Cinematic style is brand new and allows you to record video in a cinematic 2.39:1 aspect ratio and add oval-shaped light flashes to the background. Vivo has also added Movie LUTs (look-up table), which are pre-selected color-graded filters that can change the mood and look of your video. The Camera Panning style is also new to photos and lets you add motion blur to the background of still or moving subjects. Vivo has also brought the Cinematic Style feature to photo mode, which allows you to shoot photos in a wider aspect ratio, along with software-controlled backlight flares.
Both the Vivo X80 (left) and X80 Pro (right) come with a high-quality leatherette case in the box.
The first photos I took with the Vivo X80 Pro looked promising. I loved the ultra-wide angle camera that delivered noise-free images in daylight and low-light scenarios. The 2X portrait camera captured sharp images with excellent detail, but the 5X periscope camera struggled to catch a comparable level of quality. Zeiss’ natural color mode was impressive, and they seemed to find the right color tones. After I’ve tested them thoroughly, I’m saving my final verdict on the cameras for the full review.
Vivo X80 Pro camera samples (top to bottom): 2X telephoto camera, primary camera (Astro mode), ultra wide-angle camera in night mode (tap to view full size)
The Vivo X80 Pro has a 4,700 mAh battery that can be charged up to 80 W when connected to the wired charger. The phone also supports 50W wireless charging, but you must purchase its charging stand separately. Since we now have cheaper phones that support 150W charging, I expected that this flagship model would at least be able to charge faster, although 80W is by no means slow. Vivo claims that the battery of the X80 Pro can be drained to 70 percent in 19 minutes and can be fully charged in 37 minutes.
As for software, the Vivo X80 Pro runs Funtouch OS 12, which is based on Android 12. In my first experience, the software ran smoothly, but I didn’t notice several pre-installed third-party apps. With the X80 series, Vivo also claims to release three generations of Android OS updates and three years of security updates.
The Vivo X80 Pro is available in a single configuration with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage and costs Rs. 79,999 in India. Other features of the X70 Pro+ include stereo speakers and an IP68 rating.
Many potential buyers may wonder if Vivo will announce an X80 Pro+ model shortly with even better features than the X80 Pro. One can assume that the X80 Pro is the company’s flagship model until that happens. However, looking at the specs of the X80 Pro, it’s hard to imagine what else Vivo could add other than the rumored upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ SoC. OuUntilhat happens.
Unlike the Vivo X80, the X80 Pro is more of an iterative update to the X70 Pro+. The most notable changes include the newer Qualcomm SoC, faster wired charging, Vivo’s second-generation V1+ imaging chip, and the custom Samsung GNV primary camera sensor. This phone seems to be a good all-rounder on paper, and I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve seen so far, but I suggest you wait for my full review for the final verdict, so stay tuned.
Disclosure: Vivo sponsored the correspondent’s flights and hotel for the pre-launch event in Dubai.
