The Vivo X80 Pro: A Worthy Successor to the X70 Pro+, But Is It Enough?
Last year’s Vivo X70 Pro+ was a statement piece, showcasing Vivo’s ability to compete head-on with giants like Samsung and Apple in the premium segment. Its exceptional camera performance and innovative gimbal stabilization system made it a truly unique offering. With the Vivo X80 Pro, Vivo aims to build upon that legacy. Although the "+" is gone from its name, it’s practically the X70 Pro+’s spiritual successor. While initially seeming like a minor upgrade, the X80 Pro, after weeks of testing, proves to be a solid improvement in its own right.
Vivo X80 Pro Price in India
The Vivo X80 Pro follows the X70 Pro+’s footprint in terms of its single configuration and pricing. Available for ₹79,999, it comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, placing it directly in competition with the Samsung Galaxy S22+ (starting at ₹84,999).
Vivo X80 Pro Design
The X80 Pro’s design closely mirrors its predecessor. It’s exclusively available in Cosmic Black in India, which boasts a subtle sparkle under bright light but otherwise appears matte black. The Fluorite AG glass on the back and the Schott Xensation Up scratch-resistant glass over the display feature curved edges that blend seamlessly with the matte-finished aluminum alloy frame. While these matte surfaces excel at resisting fingerprints and smudges, they also contribute to the phone’s slipperiness. Thankfully, Vivo bundles a premium faux-leather case in the box, offering much-needed grip.
The most noticeable design changes are on the back. The large camera window, reminiscent of the iQoo 9 Pro, doesn’t protrude significantly and spans the entire width, preventing the phone from wobbling when placed flat. The primary, ultra-wide, and one of the telephoto cameras reside within a circular ring, with the periscopic telephoto camera positioned beneath it.
Despite its familiarity, the X80 Pro still feels premium and unique. It also retains the IP68 rating and wireless charging of its predecessor. The curved cover glass protecting the AMOLED display, while prone to attracting dust and smudges, is easily wiped clean.
Vivo X80 Pro Specifications and Software
The Vivo X80 Pro adopts the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, a chip found in phones across various price ranges. While Vivo unfortunately missed out on the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which could have been a considerable upgrade over the X70 Pro+’s Snapdragon 888+, the X80 Pro does boast a second-generation V1 imaging chipset known as V1+. Vivo asserts that the V1+ enhances low-light imaging, video recording, and gaming performance.
Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and support for the usual satellite navigation systems. The X80 Pro’s internal storage cannot be expanded. The phone packs a 4,700mAh battery, an upgrade over the 4,500mAh unit in its predecessor, and supports 80W fast charging using the bundled adapter. The 6.78-inch AMOLED display offers a WQHD+ resolution (3,200 x 1,440 pixels), a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 300Hz touch sampling rate.
The Vivo X80 Pro runs Funtouch OS 12 based on Android 12. Vivo promises three generations of Android OS updates and three years of security updates, providing peace of mind to buyers. Given the X70 Pro+’s prompt update to Android 12 in January 2022, hopes are high for a timely Android 13 update for the X80 Pro.
Funtouch OS 12 is what you’d expect from any recent Vivo smartphone. Android 12’s customization capabilities are present, but the OS carries a distinctly "Vivo" feel rather than stock Android 12. While the software operates smoothly during regular use, a few software bugs (discussed later) were encountered, which hopefully will be addressed in future updates.
The updated OS now includes a theme engine, harmonizing widget colors and the keyboard with the chosen wallpaper. Vivo has also implemented a UI color picker similar to Samsung’s One UI 4.1, although it only applies to the keyboard and not widget accent colors on the homescreen. The only way to force widget colors to match the chosen theme is by restarting the phone.
Dark mode also exhibited some bugs. While the app drawer background turned black, text remained white, making app labels difficult to read. Beyond visual glitches, there’s a slew of preinstalled third-party apps like MX TakaTak, Josh, BYJU’s, Moj, etc., which may not be welcome additions to a nearly ₹80,000 phone. Thankfully, these apps can be fully uninstalled.
Vivo X80 Pro Performance and Battery Life
The X80 Pro’s E5 AMOLED display boasts natural-looking colors and ample brightness to handle direct sunlight. Text and images are crisp, and the display’s curved edges don’t detract from movie watching or gaming. The X80 Pro is the first smartphone to utilize LTPO 3.0 technology, promising unparalleled power efficiency. The display can dynamically adjust its refresh rate from 1Hz to a maximum of 120Hz.
The display only reached 1Hz when the Settings app was open under bright sunlight. During routine use, the refresh rate typically dropped to 10Hz and fluctuated quickly based on on-screen content or the app in use. Smart Switch automatically manages refresh rates, but you can force the display to run apps consistently at 120Hz if desired.
The X80 Pro’s display also boasts HDR10+ playback certification and supports HDR in apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube. The stereo speakers deliver loud and clear audio, even at high volumes, making the X80 Pro perfect for watching movies or TV shows without needing earphones.
The 3D Ultrasonic fingerprint reader, previously seen on the iQoo 9 Pro, is a joy to use. Fingerprint registration requires a single tap, and unlocking was flawless during the review period. Vivo’s Quick Actions feature also proved handy, allowing you to launch any app (native or third-party) immediately upon unlocking. The X80 Pro also incorporates a two-finger verification system, adding an extra layer of security. In addition to the lock screen, registered fingerprints can be used to authenticate locked and hidden apps.
Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, the X80 Pro excels in benchmarks, delivering expectedly strong performance. The phone scored 9,69,340 points in AnTuTu and 1,236 and 3,631 points in Geekbench’s single and multi-core tests, respectively. While the X80 Pro’s benchmark performance rivals the competition, it only slightly surpasses its predecessor, the X70 Pro+ (with Snapdragon 888+).
Gaming performance is top-notch. The X80 Pro effortlessly handles popular mobile games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legends at the highest settings. The Game Interpolation feature, available on only a handful of smartphones that can run Call of Duty: Mobile above 60fps, manages to render the game at 90Hz, resulting in a smoother gameplay experience.
Vivo claims that this mode consumes less power than actually running the game at such a high frame rate. The downside is slightly reduced touch sensitivity, which wasn’t a major issue in Call of Duty: Mobile. This feature requires adjusting the in-game graphics settings (frame rate set to "Max or higher") but it delivers visibly smoother gameplay when it works.
The X80 Pro’s battery life wasn’t an issue. The phone delivered a day and a half of heavy use with the display’s refresh rate set to Smart Switch. Forcing it to 120Hz didn’t significantly impact battery life either. The X80 Pro achieved 16 hours and 15 minutes in our HD video loop test, and charging it from empty to full with the bundled 80W charger took 36 minutes, which is excellent. The phone also supports 50W wireless charging, though it requires Vivo’s proprietary wireless charging dock, sold separately.
Vivo X80 Pro Cameras
The Vivo X80 Pro boasts four rear cameras, identical in number to its predecessor but with a key change. It sports a new 50-megapixel primary camera, utilizing a custom Samsung GNV sensor with optical image stabilization (OIS), a 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with autofocus, a 2X telephoto portrait camera with Vivo’s gimbal stabilization system, and a 5X periscopic-style telephoto camera with OIS. Selfie duties are handled by a 32-megapixel front camera using a fixed-focus system.
The camera interface remains familiar. Like the X70 Pro+, the camera app features well-organized controls, some of which are customizable. The usual Pro mode for both stills and video is present, as well as a new Astro mode, which produced some fascinating photos.
The primary camera captured outstanding photos with excellent detail and impressive dynamic range (thanks to *Zeiss T coating**) in various lighting conditions. It performed exceptionally well in low light, producing images with reduced noise. Lens flares and strong glare from bright street lights, neon signs, and other light sources were effectively controlled, contributing to enhanced dynamic range and detail in shadows.
Night mode on the main camera also delivered photos free of noise and with colors that closely mirrored the actual scene. The Astro mode, typically used to capture starry skies under optimal weather conditions, was very impressive. While it’s designed to be used with the phone mounted on a tripod, I managed to capture a few handheld photographs with this mode, and they looked equally impressive, with low noise and excellent detail.
Moving on to the ultra-wide-angle camera, it produced photos with good detail and dynamic range. Surprisingly, barrel distortion was minimal, but the photo quality wasn’t quite on par with the primary camera, particularly in low light, even with Night mode. This could be attributable to the lack of an OIS system, which was present on the X70 Pro+. Nonetheless, these were still some of the best-looking ultra-wide-angle photos I’ve seen.
The ultra-wide-angle camera also doubles as a macro camera, capable of taking pictures as close as 4cm from the subject. The results were quite good, and I appreciate Vivo’s choice to use this implementation instead of a dedicated macro camera. Macro photos also boasted impressive colors, closely resembling those from the primary camera.
Vivo’s decision to equip its Portrait camera with the gimbal stabilization system is intriguing, and it generally delivers positive results. Vivo intended this system to improve low-light portrait photography with its 5-axis gimbal stabilization. In daylight, the results from this camera were excellent, with impressive edge detection and good sharpness and detail. Colors were slightly saturated in auto mode, but switching to any of the Zeiss Styles or the Natural Style filter produced more truer-to-life colors. In low light, the results were still good, but details were somewhat soft. I expected them to be equally sharp in low light given the stabilization system, but that wasn’t the case.
As for the telephoto camera, the photos were on par with the X70 Pro+. The OIS-stabilized periscope camera captured high-quality photos at 5X optical zoom in daylight. Photos captured in low light were slightly murky, but switching to Night mode resulted in improved quality photos with sufficient detail and dynamic range.
I particularly appreciate the consistent color tones across all four rear cameras. If you aren’t a fan of the slightly saturated colors captured by default, you can enable Zeiss mode, which produces more truer-to-life colors across all cameras.
The selfie camera captured sharp photos with excellent detail in daylight. Edge detection in Portrait mode was spot on, as was the dynamic range, with the subject and background exposed correctly. Low-light performance was equally impressive, with images appearing sharp and colors rendered well.
The Vivo X80 Pro can record video at up to 8K resolution at 30fps, which seemed crisp, with excellent detail and dynamic range. However, the footage lacked stabilization, resulting in slightly jerky motion. Videos recorded in daylight at 1080p and 4K had good detail, contrast, and impressive stabilization, particularly at 30fps. 4K footage looked the best, packing ample detail and sharpness.
HDR 10+ footage looked good but had oversaturated colors. However, it was only available when shooting at 1080p and 4K 30fps. In low light, detail was somewhat low, but noise was controlled if the scene was sufficiently lit. I wasn’t impressed with the output of the AI-enhanced video, which lacked stabilization and had an inconsistent bitrate.
Vivo’s new "Cinematic video Style" automatically blurs the backgrounds of subjects for a cinematic feel. It only works well under good lighting and can only capture footage at 1080p resolution. Achieving a good cinematic video experience requires tracking your subject’s movement, and while objects stayed in focus, edge detection frequently fumbled when tracking human faces, falling short of Apple’s Cinematic video mode.
Verdict
The Vivo X80 Pro isn’t a massive upgrade over the X70 Pro+, which was already a stellar phone in terms of imaging and performance. If you own an X70 Pro+, the X80 Pro might not feel like that compelling an upgrade. For new buyers, the X80 Pro undeniably outshines the X70 Pro+, especially considering that Vivo hasn’t yet reduced the price of the older model. The X80 Pro is a true premium smartphone for 2022, equipped with the latest SoC and display technology, and its unique camera array is unmatched at this price point.
When considering the competition, there are plenty of options. The Samsung Galaxy S22+ is a strong contender, packed with premium features, but lacks the flexibility of the X80 Pro’s cameras and comes at a higher price (starting at ₹84,999). Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra, although a year older, can be found for around ₹76,000 online and offers impressive zoom capability, excellent battery life, and all the features you’d expect from a premium flagship.
If you’re on a tighter budget, the OnePlus 10 Pro is a good choice, offering an impressive camera system for its price, though it lacks an official IP rating. On the iOS side, Apple’s iPhone 13 is another solid option. It may lack the array of cameras found on the Vivo X80 Pro, but it consistently delivers high-quality images, a sensor-shift stabilized main camera, Cinematic video, and Dolby Vision video recording, all at a slightly lower price than the X80 Pro.
In the end, the Vivo X80 Pro proves itself a capable and worthy successor to the X70 Pro+, offering a compelling blend of features and performance for those seeking a premium smartphone experience.
