Vivo X80 Pro Review: Premium flagship that flaunts your style

Vivo X80 Pro review Summary:

Editor’s rating: 3.9/5

In May 2022, Vivo launched its X80 Series in India. There are two new phones up for grabs – Vivo X80 and Vivo X80 Pro. The Vivo X80 and X80 Pro claim to give the best-in-class photography experience along with premium specs and features. The phones are priced above 50k and feature Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, 4700mAh battery, quad camera setup, and more. We will today we talking about whether the Vivo X80 Pro is worth the hype or not? Read on.

Vivo X80 Pro Review: Design

The X80 Pro carries the legacy of its predecessor forward with its strong build quality and attractive design factor. It has a design that catches your eye right from the first look. The smartphone comes in a single Cosmic Black color variant and has a matte finish at the back with AG fluorite coating. This coating helps keep the phone smudge free even when your hands are sweaty during the summer season.

The only part that needs frequent cleaning is the huge camera module at the back. The circular camera module has a glossy finish that attracts smudges and dirt quite often and needs to be wiped clean for better photos. There is a periscope under the camera circle and on the right side of the circle sees a LED flash. The back of the device also has Vivo branding at the bottom.

The smartphone weighs 219 grams and feels quite bulky in hand. Operating it with one hand is a task in itself because of its size and weight. It is 9.1mm in thickness which doesn’t make it sleek, so it does feel thick in your hand.

The right and left side frames are curvy whereas the top and bottom have flat frames. The right side has a power button and volume rockers while the bottom edge houses a USB Type-C port, primary microphone, dual SIM slot, and primary loudspeaker. The front side has minimal bezels and a tiny selfie camera cutout at the top of the 6.78-inch OLED display panel.

The Vivo X80 Pro is IP68 rated for underwater resistance of up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes, so one doesn’t need to get anxious if their phone drops into a bucket of water. If the device gets wet, clean it with a clean, dry cloth and then plug it for charging, for safety purposes.

Vivo X80 Pro Review: Display

The Vivo X80 Pro sports a 6.78-inch Quad HD+ E5 10-bit AMOLED LTPO display panel. The big screen size offers good viewing angles and large visuals. 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling smoother but I found them a bit rough in comparison to Samsung’s S22 series display. The display has very slim bezels and 1500 nits peak brightness which makes it clearly visible even under direct sunlight. The display is very bright even when the night light is switched on, which can be annoying. Gaming is also quite fluent on this display.

It supports a touch sampling rate of 300Hz which means it is ultra-responsive to touch. Vivo has added a Gorilla Glass 6 protection on top of the screen to prevent it from any physical damage. There is an in-display 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor which is fast and efficient. It took a few seconds to register my thumb impression but once the setup is done, works like a charm.

The X80 Pro supports HDR10+ for YouTube, Netflix, etc but HDR was not much effective in Amazon Prime due to its limitations. The refresh rate is adaptive and can switch between 60Hz, and 120Hz, and Smart Switch. Smart Switch changes refresh rate according to the need of the apps opened on the screen. A higher refresh rate gives a smoother experience but drains the battery faster, so smart switching might be better.

Vivo X80 Pro Review: Camera

The Vivo X80 Pro boasts a quad-camera setup on the rear end. It includes a 50MP main sensor with OIS, 48MP ultrawide camera, 12MP 2x portrait lens, and 8MP periscope lens with LED flash. The Vivo phone’s camera is one of its highlights as the company markets this series for its photography skills.

The main camera of the smartphone captures detailed images with warm colors and amazing picture quality. The dynamic range of the images is good and shooting under direct sunlight too gives clear images.

48MP ultrawide sensor covers a vast area and gives good scenic shots. The 5x zoom works well in capturing detailed stills but the 10x zoom starts showing noise in photographs clicked. It can zoom up to 60x but it won’t be much useful. The dynamic range is excellent and the colors in the images are paunchy.

Coming to the 12MP portrait lens, the lens gives images with clear edges around the subject as well as the background. The lens has autofocus which means you can click good close-up shots, that are detailed and full of character. There is a macro mode that upscales images to 12MP and takes you closer to subjects to help fill the frame with tinier objects.

The 8MP periscope lens works just fine, but you won’t need it much with the other 3 lenses.

Low-light images taken from the main as well as ultrawide camera are clear, full of details, and do not look grainy. It is only when you zoom in, that images start getting distorted around the edges. The Vivo X80 Pro has one of the best low-light photography performances in the segment.

The camera in Vivo X80 Pro comes with Electronic Image Stabilization so it can deliver high-quality video recording up to 8K, 4K at 30/60fps, and 1080p at 30/60fps.

For selfies, Vivo X80 Pro has a 32MP camera at the front. The selfie lens takes with many filters and effects so your skin looks extra beautiful and glowing. This may annoy some as people want their natural skin tones to reflect in their selfies. For getting skin tone closer to reality, turn off all those filters and effects. Otherwise, the focus is kept on the human subject in the frame, blurring the background to an appropriate level.

Vivo has also continued its partnership with Zeiss for the best photography experience.

Vivo X80 Pro Review: Performance

The Vivo X80 Pro is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset with Adreno 730 GPU and a dedicated V1+ chip for photography. The device aces all the daily tasks and performs them in quick succession without any lags or stutters. Multiple apps run smoothly in the background and 12GB of RAM makes the smartphone even faster. A storage capacity of 256GB allows you to store all your documents, images, videos, audio, and apps without any hassles.

Gaming is also decent on the X80 Pro. Heavy games like Genshin run well in medium frame rates and graphics, but start lagging when HD graphics and high frame rates are switched on. The device faces slight heating issues while charging and playing games, which is not likable in a smartphone priced above 80k.

In the software department, Vivo X80 Pro runs Android 12 with FunTouch 12. The OS is user-friendly and colorful with options for various customizations and personalization. The only weak point of the OS is bloatware. Many would not be happy to see useless folders like Hot Games and Hot Apps on an 80,000 phone. Even if there are, it should come with an option to delete them if the user doesn’t want them.

Here, this option is not available. Though some third-party apps can be uninstalled if you don’t want them. Vivo has assured 3 years of Android OS support and an additional year of security software support on par with Google Pixel smartphones.

Vivo X80 Pro Review: Battery life

In terms of battery life, Vivo X80 Pro gets an upgrade over X70 Series. It packs a 4700mAh battery, which means an extra 200mAh. This was needed as the newest chipset also needed a boosted battery. The battery gives a runtime of approximately 12 hours with moderate usage.

Moderate usage includes calling, social media browsing, typing, messaging, watching videos, and listening to music. If you are heavy user streaming content and playing games for hours, then battery life comes down to 7-8 hours. This means if you are a heavy user, you will have to charge the battery at least once before the day ends.

The x80 Pro comes bundled with an 80W flash charge adapter. The phone takes around 40 minutes to charge from 0 to 100%. There is also a provision for 50W wireless charging which can charge the device from 0 to 100% in 1 hour. Reverse charging can help charge your friend’s or family member’s phone wirelessly, but the charging speed is a mere 10W.

Vivo X80 Pro Review Verdict: Should you buy it?

Vivo X80 Pro is a phone meant for those who need the best-in-class camera capabilities. If you are a premium user looking for a great camera experience, fast processor, and fast charging, this one can cater to all these needs of yours. However, it has bloatware and is pricey but it is meant for those who want to flaunt their premium smartphones and don’t mind paying a huge price for it.