Vivo X80 Pro First impressions: Decent upgrade?

Previous leading Vivo offerings in India include the X70 Pro and X70 Pro + (review). The company has already released a successor to these models, but with a slight twist in the naming convention. The new Vivo X80 replaces the X70 Pro and you can read our first impressions of it right here. The Vivo X80 Pro, on the other hand, is the successor to the X70 Pro + and was launched at the same price by Rs. 79 999.

This new flagship model from Vivo competes with other high-end Android offerings such as OnePlus 10 Pro (review), Samsung Galaxy S22 + (review) and even Galaxy S22 Ultra (review), as well as iPhone 13 (review). Here are my first impressions of the X80 Pro after using it for a few days.

The overall design of the Vivo X80 Pro makes it very similar to the X70 Pro + at the front, but quite different at the rear. The rear camera module is now a giant rectangular block that occupies about a third of the rear 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 frosted back panel (made by Fluorite AG Glass) does not attract fingerprints. Overall, the phone feels quite first class and looks sleek.

Vivo X80 Pro has a back panel made of Fluorite AG glass 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 display has a refresh rate of 120Hz, and LTPO 2.0 technology allows it to drop to 1Hz when needed to save energy. The X80 Pro also has a new 3D ultrasonic fingerprint reader on the display, similar to that of the iQoo 9 Pro (Preview) and allows some new tricks. The readable area is much wider than that of ordinary capacitive sensors and can even certify two fingers at once. Vivo has also implemented a feature called Quick Actions that allows you to launch a specific application the moment you unlock the display with a specific finger.

The fingerprint reader (as on the iQoo 9 Pro) also requires only one, firm touch to register a fingerprint, which makes it very easy to set up. It is also said that the phone’s display has a sampling frequency of 300 Hz. I played several rounds of Call of Duty: Mobile with the default graphics settings and it went without any problems. The sampling rate of the display seemed level.

Vivo X80 Pro runs Android 12, but comes with several pre-installed third-party applications

The Vivo X80 Pro features a new 50-megapixel 1 / 1.31-inch Samsung GNV sensor for its main camera, with large 1.2 μm pixels and an af / 1.57 aperture lens. It also has 4-axis optical image stabilization (OIS). Vivo introduced gimbal stabilization for the 12-megapixel portrait camera this time instead of the ultra-wide camera, as in the X70 Pro +. According to Vivo, the decision to move the gimbal system to the portrait camera is so that users can take sharper portrait photos even in low light. The X80 Pro also features Vivo’s second-generation V1 + image processing chip, which is used to offload image processing obligations from the main SoC.

It has a 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera that can also take macro photos, as it has autofocus. This camera does not have OIS, but has a 114-degree field of view. Finally, there is an 8-megapixel telephoto periscope camera with 5X optical zoom (125mm) and 2-axis OIS. Selfies are processed by a 32-megapixel fixed-focus front camera.

The Vivo X80 Pro’s camera app gets a new video style feature that was previously only available in photo mode. The cinematic style is brand new and allows you to shoot video in 2.39: 1 cinematic aspect ratio and add oval-shaped highlights to the background. Vivo also added Movie LUT (Reference Table), which are pre-selected color filters that can be used to change the mood and appearance of your video. The camera pan style is also new to photos and allows you to add motion blur to the background of still or moving subjects. Vivo has also brought Cinematic Style to photo mode, which allows you to capture photos in a wider aspect ratio along with software-controlled backlights.

Both the Vivo X80 (left) and the X80 Pro (right) come with a quality faux leather case in the box

The initial batch of photos I took with the Vivo X80 Pro looked very promising. I liked the ultra-wide angle camera, which provided noiseless photos, not only in daylight, but also in low light. The 2X portrait camera managed to capture sharp images with excellent detail, but the 5X periscope camera struggled to capture a similar level of quality. Zeiss’s natural color mode was quite impressive and seemed to find the right color tones. I will keep my final assessment of the cameras for a full review once I have completed their thorough testing.

Examples of Vivo X80 Pro cameras (top to bottom): 2X telephoto camera, Main camera (Astro mode), Ultra-wide angle camera in Night mode (Touch to view full size)

The Vivo X80 Pro has a 4700 mAh battery that can be charged to up to 80 W when connected to the included cable charger. The phone also supports 50W wireless charging, but you will need to purchase your own charging stand separately. Given that we now have lower-priced phones that support 150W charging, I expected at least this flagship model to be able to charge faster, although 80W is by no means slow. Vivo claims that the X80 Pro’s battery can reach 70 percent in 19 minutes after discharge and fully charge in 37 minutes.

In terms of software, the Vivo X80 Pro runs on Funtouch OS 12, which is based on Android 12. In my initial experience, the software ran smoothly, but I didn’t notice a few pre-installed third-party applications. With the X80 series, Vivo also claims to release three generations of Android OS updates and three years of security updates.

Vivo X80 Pro is available in one configuration with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of memory and is priced at Rs. 79 999 in India. Other features inherited from the X70 Pro + include stereo speakers and an IP68 rating.

Many prospective buyers may wonder if Vivo will announce the X80 Pro + in the near future with even better features than the X80 Pro. However, looking at the specifications of the X80 Pro, it is difficult to imagine what else Vivo can add, apart from rumors about the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ SoC. Until that happens, the X80 Pro can be assumed to be the company’s flagship model.

Unlike the Vivo X80, the X80 Pro is more of an iterative update to the X70 Pro +. The most notable changes are the newer Qualcomm SoC, faster cable charging, the second generation V1 + image chip from Vivo and the personalized sensor for the main camera Samsung GNV. This phone seems to be a good universal on paper and I’m quite impressed with what I’ve seen so far, but I would recommend that you wait for your full review for the final sentence, so stay tuned.

Disclosure: Vivo sponsored the correspondent’s flights and hotel for the pre-launch event in Dubai.