Vivo X80 Pro review: A top-notch Android camera phone shooter
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Experiencing the X80 Pro and Imaging Performance
Note: This review was first published on 15 October 2022.
A journey from flagship-lite to true-flagship
Fans of the Vivo X series in Singapore would be familiar with how the Chinese phone brand positioned its variants – there’s a regular, Pro, and Pro+ version up until the Vivo X70 series.
Previously, the Pro+ models weren’t officially available here, which made some buyers extra salty (unhappy) since it was the only variant packing true flagship-grade components. The high-end X60 Pro and X70 Pro we reviewed were nice, but they were fundamentally flagship-lite handsets with prices to match.
Vivo then shuffled its X80 series around such that the Vivo X80 Pro is now a true flagship phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the leading chipset for high-performance mobile phones. With the consistent local availability of Pro models from Vivo, Singapore users can officially get a taste of what Vivo’s flagship-grade quality feels like. The downside is that it places the X80 Pro well within the premium flagship category with a sticker price of S$1,699 before discounts, which is significantly higher than its old S$1,199 Pro phones.
Note: If you’re holding out, there’s a possible Pro+ variant coming much later than the rest of the X80 series, but local availability isn’t guaranteed.
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An excellent display to match its asking price
The X80 Pro’s display is specced at WQHD+ (3,200 x 1,440 pixels) resolution, and it takes advantage of its large 6.78-inch AMOLED panel. That’s an overwhelming ~517 PPI of pixel density, and you’d typically not need more than 300 PPI for your mobile content to appear sharp and clear at arm’s length. Vivo knows this, and it actually sets 1080p resolution as the default render resolution – but you can change that in the settings, and we’d expect 1440p for its asking price anyway. There is, of course, the downside of the phone guzzling more power, but you can choose the resolution based on your priorities.
The content looks great with its excellent display that offers vibrant colours, amazing sharpness, and decent brightness control in most situations. We’d even say it’s one of the X80 Pro’s highlights despite Vivo not marketing its display expertise in its advertising.
Default audio playback, however, is nothing to write home about. Besides having well-balanced stereo sound from its call speaker and bottom grille, it has a mediocre sound profile and clarity with noticeable bloat in its bass handling.
Fast unlocking, faster animations, all within a kiddy-looking UI
Like most flagship-class phones, X80 Pro has quality-of-life features like Always-On Display, Eye Protection, Dark Mode, and personalised animations, but these perks aren’t activated by default either. If you haven’t already, it’s always good to give the Settings app a once-over to get all the perks of the device.
We liked its blazingly fast face and under-display fingerprint unlock, which feels secure and accurate (at least, we couldn't bamboozle either sensor when we wanted to). It never takes more than a single try with the correct face and finger, plus it denies entry if it’s not the owner’s registered biometrics.
Funtouch OS 12 itself (the Android 12 reskin for Vivo devices) cuts across all Vivo’s smartphones, so its circular app icons and juvenile theme should be a familiar experience even for stock Android users. Most of the interface feels pleasant and natural with generous spacing, thick white bar-shaped notifications, and congruent circular logos for anything that requires toggling. It’s also relatively light on bloatware, which helps the X80 Pro’s overall premium positioning too.
It would’ve been excellent if not for its inconsistent font and font sizes and oddly childish default theme. It also has minor UI issues, like missing volume indicators in TikTok and other app quirks.
The rest of Funtouch’s customisation comes from its animations, which you can tweak in the Settings app. The animation styles provide enough variety for users of any other Android reskin (or even iOS converts) to feel comfortable with Vivo X80 Pro past the initial setup stage. We chose faster animations across the board to make the phone feel even more fluid and responsive than default.
High build quality with odd handling
Our gripes with the X80 Pro largely lie with its design choice. The phone is slim and provides a good grip on its sides even without a casing, but its shimmery rear is smooth and prone to sliding out of your hands. An entire quarter of the rear makes up its rectangular camera housing. That’s visually pleasant, but it’s a pain when you’re trying to avoid fingerprint smudges or scuffing it up by accident.
The thin volume and power buttons are not easy to distinguish by touch alone, and the gap between both buttons feels insufficient (Vivo could’ve fixed this by placing one of the buttons on the opposite side).
Fortunately, the premium heft from its 219g body and first-rate build quality make up for these design choices and handling missteps. Another likeable design trait is the thoughtful minimisation of black rims when you face the panel squarely. It feels nearly invisible, yet present enough to help frame your content nicely for extra viewing comfort. Build quality also gets the basics right, like having IP68 ingress protection rating for this pricey device.
Imaging
Before we dive into the features, here's what the Vivo X80 Pro has for its imaging chops:
- 50MP main camera, f/1.57 aperture, ZEISS Gimbal Portrait Camera, OIS
- 48MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 aperture, Macro shooting
- 12MP Portrait, f/1.85 aperture, 2x optical zoom (when compared to main camera lens)
- 8MP Periscope telephoto, f/3.4, 5x optical zoom
- ZEISS Gimbal Portrait Camera + Optical Image Stabilisation + Electronic Image Stabilisation
In summary, it has four rear cameras, two of which provide 2x and 5x optical zoom respectively, and the 12MP Portrait Camera gets built-in gimbal stabilisation (instead of its ultra-wide like before). X80 Pro also offers 60x digital zoom, and its ultra-wide also comes with macro shooting.
X80 Pro also gets some additions to one-up its competition. Beyond its 50MP “Ultra-Sensing” main camera is an additional, dedicated Vivo V1+ imaging chip that uses AI to process graphic and image workloads, like photography/videography/video gaming. It’s also one of the few brands that bothered with an imaging partnership with ZEISS, with the other notable brand here being Xiaomi with Leica.
The ZEISS enhancements are the four different Portrait Shot filters you can use to get different bokeh shapes and styles, letting you use the background as an artistic element in your selfies (they are Cinematic, Biotar, Distagon, and Planar style bokehs).
These ZEISS options are limited to rear camera Portrait shots; you’ll have to rely on Vivo’s default filters for front camera selfies. The filters are also pretty aggressive, so your ZEISS shots will turn out mildly artificial with digital artefacts around the subject.
If you’ve been following our content, you’d also know that the Vivo X80 Pro did very well in a flagship phone camera shootout quite recently. We’ve covered in great detail what X80 Pro’s cameras can and cannot do relative to other possible rivals available on our sunny island.
On its own, the X80 Pro grants impressive imaging capabilities, and most users would not have any major issues with its resulting photos and videos. It offers semi-true-to-life colour reproduction and has decent handling over noise and detail. The extra optical zoom lenses also help to ensure sharp images even when shooting from a distance. Also, the default camera app's interface is easy to understand (for us), but the huge variety of preset options may be overwhelming for users who aren't as well-versed in camera controls.
Like most alternatives, its high zoom mode (60x digital) is also not practical, but you still have plenty of photography modes like ultra-wide, its 2x and 5x zoom, the macro option, and the standard main camera to fulfill 99% of your imaging and recording needs.
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