The X80 Pro is vivo’s latest flagship smartphone that was launched in May 2022 in India. It features a camera module that is co-engineered with ZEISS and is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. At a premium price of Rs. 80000, is the vivo X80 Pro worth it? Read on for my review.
Box Contents
- vivo X80 Pro 12GB+256GB version in Cosmic Black colour
- 80W FlashCharge wall adapter (Rated for 20V at 4A)
- USB Type-A to Type-C cable
- USB Type-C headset
- Phone case
- SIM Ejector tool
- Quick Start and Warranty guide
Display, Hardware and Design
Starting with the design, the X80 Pro looks beautiful. Its design is clearly an evolution from last year’s X70 Pro, but with a much larger camera bump. The front glass and the rear glass are both curved, giving it a premium look. The curved edges also make it a lot more comfortable to hold in the hand. This is good, especially because the rear glass is very slippery to the touch.
The rear glass features the same ‘Fluorite AG’ finish that does an excellent job of hiding fingerprints. When the light hits a certain way, the glass shimmers beautifully and looks great.
Then we come to the rear camera module, which is massive. It spans the entire width of the back, with a circular section that houses 3 of the 4 rear cameras. Outside the circular section, there is a flash module and the 4th periscope camera.
Coming to the button placement and ports, both the volume rocker and the power button can be found on the right edge of the device, and the left edge is bare. On the bottom edge there is a speaker grill, USB Type-C port and the dual SIM slot. The top edge has an IR blaster which can be used as a remote control for home appliances. It is IP68 water and dust resistant, which is expected for a premium smartphone in this price range. Another thing I liked was the included protective case for the X80 Pro. It feels premium, offers decent protection and does not make the phone too bulky.
The display on the X80 Pro is certainly flagship quality. vivo calls it the 2K E5 Ultra Vision Screen, and it is a 6.78-inch 10-bit panel with a resolution of 3200 x 1440 and a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. It boasts a peak brightness of 1000 nits, a peak local brightness of 1500 nits, a contrast ratio of 8000000:1 and a maximum touch sampling rate of 300Hz. All of these specifications result in a great viewing experience on the X80 Pro. Viewing angles are good, the colour reproduction was good and outdoor visibility was not a problem. It does feature HDR10+ support which works for HDR content on YouTube, however there is no Dolby Vision support.
The 120Hz refresh rate results in a smooth experience when using the phone, and since it is an LTPO panel, it can change its refresh rate based on the content. There is support for changing the colour reproduction, visual enhancement and of course an Always-on-display.
The Always-on-display can be customized extensively. You can change the style, including the clock, colour and the background. It can also be set to always on, activate during a scheduled time or when the phone has been moved slightly.
Camera
The camera system on the X80 Pro is one of its highlight features. Let’s lay out the specifications of the cameras first –
- 50MP camera with 1/1.3″ Samsung GNV sensor, f/1.57 aperture, OISd
- 48MP ultra-wide camera with IMX598 sensor, f/2.2 aperture
- 12MP 50mm 2X portrait camera with IMX663 sensor, f/1.85 aperture, gimbal
- 8MP periscope camera, OIS, 5x optical zoom, f/3.4 aperture
- 32MP front-facing camera with f/2.45 aperture
The X80 Pro’s camera system has been co-engineered with ZEISS. It features vivo’s custom V1+ chip, which is a co-processor that is designed to improve the quality of photos. The camera system also has a number of features that improve the experience, such as T* coating, ZEISS optics, and glass lenses to reduce dispersion.
The Camera app’s UI has been tweaked slightly when compared to the X70 Pro. A couple of shortcuts have been changed, and the text is a little sharper and stronger when highlighted. All of the extra features such as Double Exposure, Dual View, Astro, Supermoon can be found on the “More” menu.
In good lighting conditions, the X80 Pro performs exceptionally well. When shooting from the primary sensor, photos are exposed properly, have a good amount of contrast and plenty of detail. The Auto HDR does a good job, the autofocus was fast, and I like colours produced, which is the result of the collaboration with ZEISS.
In harder lighting conditions, the X80 Pro also did well. With the combination of the Samsung GNV sensor and stabilization, the photos were mostly blur free, exposed well and looked very natural. The T* coating would sometimes compensate for flairs from rear light sources, however, sometimes it would fail.
Portrait mode on the X80 Pro was good too. It does a good job of separating the subject from the background, and the built-in ZEISS filters are really fun to use. The front camera also produced good shots and good portraits.
An issue I noticed with the X80 Pro was the inconsistency between the modes. Between portrait mode and normal mode in the rear camera, the photos were sometimes wildly different, as you can see in the samples. I also noticed this difference between low-light mode and Night mode. Photos shot in Night mode looked a lot more processed and had a lot more colour saturation.
Here are some samples:
Coming to the videography, the X80 Pro can shoot at up to 8K 30fps, which is on par with other flagships. At 4K 60fps, the video quality was good, but nothing exceptional. Stabilization was impressive though. For the front camera, it supports up to 1080p 60fps with no support for 4K at all.
Software, UI and Apps
The vivo X80 Pro runs Android 12 out-of-the-box with the Funtouch OS 12 skin on top. At the time of this review, the phone was updated with the June 2022 Android security patch. vivo has promised 3 generations of OS updates and 3 years of security updates, which is one year lower than competition devices.
Funtouch OS 12 has the usual set of features such as gesture navigation, RAM expansion, app lock, themes, customisation options and more. The customization options in particular are deep, such as the ability to set different animations for different system actions, customize the Always-on-display, system-wide colours, etc. There is also an Ultra-Game mode that will optimize system resources when starting a game. The software is familiar to use for previous Funtouch OS users, and for new users, the learning curve is simple.
There are three problems that I had with Funtouch OS 12. The first is the amount of pre-installed apps, which is simply too much. There is the usual set of Google apps and vivo’s first party apps, which I don’t mind. However, there are loads of other apps that I simply don’t want, such as Moj, CRED, Byju’s, Takatak, Sharechat, Josh, DailyHunt, etc. On a phone that is worth Rs. 80000, this should not be acceptable.
The second problem was a minor one but still annoying. The vivo Browser app, which I never opened, kept serving me advertisements and recommended articles. I never signed up for it, and I had to turn off notifications from the browser entirely.
The last issue I had with Funtouch OS 12 was also a minor one, and it is a feature called Lockscreen Poster. It is enabled by default and it turns your lockscreen into a rotating carousel of posters. Most of these posters are quite random to me, and while I don’t mind having the feature in Funtouch OS, it should not be enabled by default.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
For biometric authentication, the X80 Pro comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor and also supports Face Unlock. Starting with fingerprint authentication, the vivo X80 Pro uses a 3D Ultrasonic large fingerprint sensor. During my review, I found the unlocking speeds to be one of the fastest I’ve experienced. It was also accurate and rarely failed to authenticate my attempts. Even registering my fingerprints was fast.
The phone also supports some extra features with its fingerprint sensor. You can change the area of detection, set up quick actions, and set up app encryption and a Privacy mode. Interestingly the Privacy mode has a feature to enable two-finger authentication, which is nice.
The Face Unlock feature used the regular front camera sensor for authentication. Since it is not very secure, I did not use it all.
Music Player and Multimedia
There is a pre-installed Music player app in the vivo X80 Pro that can organise and play music from locally stored files. The app has a feature called DeepField, which offers sound effects, headphone adaptation, equalizer and more.
It has stereo speakers that get quite loud and have decent quality. I would say they are on-par with nearly any Android flagship smartphone and slightly behind the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
It has Widevine L1 support, so you can play HD content on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming apps without any issues. However, there is no support for Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos, which is disappointing for a flagship smartphone.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
The X80 Pro features dual SIM dual standby connectivity with support for 5G. It supports fourteen 5G bands including n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n20, n28, n38, n40, n41, n66, n77, n78. 4G VoLTE is supported on major Indian network operators such as Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea. Call quality was good and I did not face any call drops. The SAR value was reported at 1.24W/Kg for the Head and 0.86W/Kg for the Body, which is under the safe limits set by the Government of India.
The phone supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. The USB Type-C port is rated for USB 3.1 speeds, and the phone supports OTG and NFC. Lastly, the phone features support for GPS (L1+L5 Dual Band), GLONASS, BEIDOU, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS and NavIC.
Performance and Benchmarks
As expected for a flagship smartphone in 2022, the vivo X80 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. It has 1 x Kryo Prime CPU (Arm Cortex-X2-based) at up to 3.0GHz, 3 x Kryo Performance CPUs (A710-based) at up to 2.50GHz, 4x Kryo Efficiency CPUs (A510-based) at up to 1.80GHz. For the GPU, it has their latest Adreno GPU, which promises 30% boost in graphics rendering capabilities and 25% improvement in power savings compared to the previous generation.
The performance of the vivo X80 Pro is, simply put, great. It is fast, fluid and smooth, and I rarely faced any hiccups. The phone faced no issues in regular day-to-day tasks, and thanks to the display’s 120Hz refresh rate, animations are smooth. The phone supports RAM expansion, enabling 4GB of extra memory. This meant apps stayed open in the background and multitasking was good.
In gaming, the X80 Pro was one of the best performers among flagship Android smartphones. In FPS titles such Call of Duty, Battlegrounds Mobile: India, the frame rate stayed locked at 60fps. In the heaviest titles such as Genshin Impact, the frame rate stayed above 50, and the phone did not become uncomfortably hot either. The thermals in fact were quite well controlled, thanks to its very large vapour chamber cooling solution. Without a case, you can feel the heat against your fingers, but with a case on, the phone was always comfortable. Overall, for gaming, the X80 Pro performs really well.
Battery life
Regarding the battery, the X80 Pro has a 4700mAh that can charge at a maximum rate of 80W via a wired connection and at 50W wirelessly. Regarding the performance of the battery, it is excellent. With light to medium usage, the phone would last me nearly 2 full days, with a screen-on-time of over 8 hours. With heavy usage, the phone would still easily last me a day.
As mentioned earlier, the X80 Pro supports 80W Flashcharge with its included adapter. I was able to charge the phone from 5% to 100% in about 36 mins, which is fast, but not the fastest. During this period, the phone was noticeably warm.
Conclusion
The X80 Pro has a lot going for it, including a beautiful design, premium build quality, fantastic display and top-notch performance. The primary camera is flagship worthy and there are loads of fun filters and extra camera features. The battery life is also excellent with fast charging. If I had to pick a problem with this phone, it would be Funtouch OS and the amount of ads shown.
At Rs. 80000, the X80 is certainly not cheap. It’s up there with other premium flagships from OnePlus, Xiaomi, Samsung and Apple. If you like Funtouch OS, the X80 Pro is certainly the best vivo smartphone you can buy.
Alternatives
The flagship market is quite competitive with options like OnePlus 10 Pro, Xiaomi 12 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S22 series and the iPhone 13. If the camera is not as important, but you want the performance, check out the Realme GT 2 Pro and save some money.
Availability
The vivo X80 Pro costs Rs. 79,999 for the single 12GB + 256GB model. It is available from vivo India eStore, Flipkart and offline stores.
Pros
- Premium build quality and design
- Great camera with fun ZEISS filters
- Beautiful display
- Strong battery life with fast charging support
- Flagship level performance
Cons
- Funtouch OS has a lot of ads enabled by default
- No Dolby Atmos or Dolby Vision
- No 4K 60fps support in front camera