The day of the first contact in Berlin, the new top of the range Vivo X80 Pro had been a pleasant surprise: powerful and feature-rich on paper, in practice it immediately seemed to keep its promises, returning a fluid and smooth user experience, and above all distinguishing itself for a high-level photographic department, co-designed with Zeiss to compete on equal terms with other industry leaders.
A few weeks later, and later many days of road testingthat first, favorable impression is confirmed by the daily use of a smartphone perhaps not perfect, but certainly successful, which confirms the progress made by Vivo in recent years.
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Top specs and performance
First of all comes the hardware, and in this sense the X80 Pro, which costs 1299 euros, does not miss anything: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, the Adreno 730 GPU and the Lpddr 5 memories (12 GB of RAM) and UFS 3.1 (256 GB of storage space) together guarantee speed and responsiveness in all conditions of use, from opening apps to carrying out the most demanding tasks, such as running latest generation games with all parameters set to maximum quality.
Then, the 6.78 “Amoled HDR10 + 10-bit display is really very beautiful: large and bright, with a resolution of 3200×1440, it remains legible even in direct sunlight thanks to the 1000 Nits of peak brightnessbut it gives its best when watching content on major streaming services, or when viewing your own videos, shot with resolution up to 8K. Thanks to the Ltpo display technology (what is that?)the refresh rate scales from 1 up to 120Hz with rapid efficiency, optimizing power consumption without slowing down too much performance.
How does the Vivo X80 Pro smartphone take pictures
We put the new phone of the Chinese giant to the test in the field: it keeps its promises with top performance and a high-level photographic department
A photographic department that convinces
The 4 rear cameras work well together as was already the case in the X70 Pro + (with which they share most of the features), but now they can also count on the new V1 + chip, which improves their performance.
At the heart of the main camera is a 50MP (F / 1.57, 23mm) GNV sensor lens optimized to handle reflections and equipped with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) with Active Centering technology (as on the recent Asus Zenfone 9). He is also the only one who can count on 7 lenses, 6 of plastic and one of glass, and the results can be seen in terms of quality with every shot; then there is a 48 MP wide-angle camera with IMX598 sensor (F / 2.2, 14 mm), an 8 MP periscope (equivalent to 125 mm), OIS stabilized, with 5X optical zoom and Hyper-zoom fino a 60X and finally a 12 MP portrait camera with IMX663 sensor, (F / 1.85 50 mm), now equipped with efficient Gimbal stabilization, to facilitate the recording of smoother videos. Obviously, the 32 MP front camera (F / 2.45, 24mm) is not missing.
Given the technical characteristics, the main lens excels in bright light conditions (also thanks to the Zeiss treatment for the lenses, which benefit from the TCoating coating to reduce reflections and glare), but it also stands out in how it handles low light, especially when using HDR to balance out bright lights. Remarkable how even the ultra-wide camera manages to handle low light conditions well, especially when you compare the results with the competition. Telephoto lenses do their job, although as the magnification goes up, they lose quality faster than other high-end smartphones. The stabilization on the 2X zoom dedicated to portraits is also very useful, especially if you shoot in the dark.
Among the innovations introduced by the Vivo X80 Pro (which boasts a software dedicated to photography and videos that is very feature-rich, but sometimes a bit chaotic and complicated to use) we remember the Zeiss Cinematic Video Bokeh function: thanks to it, the phone replicates the behavior of anamorphic film lenses by recreating (also thanks to the intervention of a dedicated algorithm) an oval blur in 2.39: 1 format for both videos and photos. Users also have the option to choose the normal bokeh video effect, which varies to suit the focal lengthat aperture and shooting distance.
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Design premium
The X80 Pro is not the thinnest of the smartphones out there (9.1 mm), nor the lightest at 219 grams, but it remains manageable thanks to the curved edges. To distinguish it from competitors there is certainly the rear designwith 3 of the 4 cameras that are included in a circle while the periscope remains immediately below, included in the large mirrored rectangle of the photographic module.
Beautiful finishes, and in particular the frosted rear glass black (only color available in Europe)which is not afraid of footprints and is pleasant to the touch when holding the smartphone, so much so that you almost regret using the supplied case.
The extra-large fingerprint sensor
Unique in the industry, the X80 Pro’s ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is not only blazing fast, but also extra-large, with an area 11.1 times larger than average. That is it increases its efficiency and the ability to detect the fingerprint, but it also allowed technicians to add functionality beyond just screen unlocking. For example, you can choose up to two of the most used apps to have their icon right in the fingerprint detection area: when you place your finger on it, the X80 Pro unlocks by directly opening the selected app. If desired, it is also You can register two fingerprints of two different peopleto be used simultaneously to unlock a single app (useful for parental controls, for example).
Autonomy and recharge from smartphone flagship
Coming to the battery, 4700 mAh is not a record capacity compared to what is seen on other smartphones of the same range, but in the case of this Vivo they are enough and sometimes even advance. Without special precautions (leaving the refresh rate of the screen always at maximum) and with intensive use, the X80 Pro easily makes it to the end of the day. The rest does the charging: with the 80W charger (included in the package together with the cablethe custody not headphones) in 15 minutes it is already 60%. Vivo’s official wireless charger is also very fast, which with 50W does its job well while also acting as a support on the desk.