Vivo X80 Pro First Impressions: A Worthy Upgrade?

Vivo’s previous flagship offerings in India included the X70 Pro and X70 Pro+ (Review). The company has now launched the successor to these models but with a slight twist in the naming convention. The new Vivo X80 replaces the X70 Pro, and you can read our first impressions of it right here. The Vivo X80 Pro on the other hand is the successor to the X70 Pro+ and has launched at the same price of Rs. 79,999.

This new flagship model from Vivo competes with other top-end Android offerings such as the OnePlus 10 Pro (Review), Samsung Galaxy S22+ (Review) and even the Galaxy S22 Ultra (Review), as well as the iPhone 13 (Review). Here are my first impressions of the X80 Pro after using it for a couple of days.

The overall design of the Vivo X80 Pro makes it appear very similar to the X70 Pro+ from the front, but it is quite different from the back. The rear camera module is now a giant rectangular block that takes up about a third of the back panel. However, because it is large and does not protrude much, the phone does not wobble when placed on a flat surface. The glass panels on the front and the rear of the phone have curved sides that make this phone comfortable to hold, and the matte-finished back panel (made of Fluorite AG Glass) does not attract fingerprints. Overall, the phone feels quite premium and looks elegant.

The Vivo X80 Pro has a back panel made of Fluorite AG glass and an aluminium alloy frame

The Vivo X80 Pro has a 6.78-inch E5 AMOLED display with a resolution of 3200×1440 pixels (2K). It is protected by ​​Schott’s Xensation Up glass which easily attracts fingerprints and dust particles. The display features a 120Hz refresh rate and LTPO 2.0 technology lets it drop to 1Hz when needed, to save power. The X80 Pro also has a new 3D ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader similar to that of the iQoo 9 Pro (Review) and it allows for some new tricks. The readable area is much wider than that of regular capacitive sensors, and it can even authenticate two fingers at once. Vivo has also implemented a feature called Quick Actions which lets you launch a specific app the moment you unlock the display with a particular finger.

The fingerprint reader (like on the iQoo 9 Pro) also requires just a single, firm tap to register a fingerprint which makes setting it up very easy. The phone’s display is also said to have a 300Hz touch sampling rate. I played a few rounds Call of Duty: Mobile at the default graphics settings and it ran without any hiccups. The touch sampling rate of the display seemed to be spot on.

Vivo’s X80 Pro runs Android 12 but comes with several preinstalled third-party apps

The Vivo X80 Pro features a new 50-megapixel 1/1.31-inch Samsung GNV sensor for its primary camera, with large 1.2μm pixels and a f/1.57 aperture lens. It also has 4-axis optical image stabilisation (OIS). Vivo has implemented gimbal stabilisation for the 12-megapixel portrait camera this time instead of the ultra-wide camera, like on the X70 Pro+. According to Vivo, the decision to move the gimbal system to the portrait camera was so that users can take sharper portrait photos even in low light. The X80 Pro also features Vivo’s second-generation V1+ imaging chip, which is used to offload image processing duties from the main SoC. 

There’s a 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera which can also shoot macro photos as it has autofocus. This camera does not feature OIS but it does have a 114-degree field of view. Lastly, there is an 8-megapixel periscope-style telephoto camera with 5X optical zoom (125mm), and 2-axis OIS. Selfies are handled by a fixed-focus 32-megapixel front-facing camera.

The Vivo X80 Pro’s camera app gets a new Styles feature for video, which was previously only available in the photo mode. The Cinematic style is brand new and lets you shoot video in a 2.39:1 cinematic aspect ratio and add oval-shaped light flares to the background. Vivo has also added Movie LUTs (look-up table) which are pre-selected colour-graded filters that can be used to change the mood and appearance of your video. The Camera Panning style is also new for photos, and lets you add motion blur to the background of subjects that are still or in motion. Vivo has also brought the Cinematic Style feature to the photo mode, which lets you capture photos in a wider aspect ratio along with software-driven background light flares.

Both the Vivo X80 (left) and X80 Pro (right) come with a quality faux-leather case in the box

The initial batch of photos I took with the Vivo X80 Pro looked very promising. I loved the ultra-wide-angle camera which delivered noise-free photos, not just in daylight but also in low-light scenarios. The 2X portrait camera managed sharp images with excellent detail, but the 5X periscope camera struggled to capture a similar level of quality. Zeiss’ Natural colour mode was quite impressive and seemed to find the right colour tones. I’ll reserve my final judgement of the cameras for the full review, after I’m done testing them thoroughly.

Vivo X80 Pro camera samples (top to bottom): 2X telephoto camera, Primary camera (Astro mode), Ultra-wide-angle camera in Night mode (Tap to see full size)

The Vivo X80 Pro has a 4,700mAh battery that can be charged at up to 80W when connected to the bundled wired charger. The phone also supports 50W wireless charging, but you will need to purchase the proprietary charging stand separately. Considering we now have lower-priced phones that support 150W charging, I expected at least this flagship model to be able to charge more quickly, though 80W is by no means slow. Vivo claims that the X80 Pro’s battery can get up to 70 percent in 19 minutes from empty, and charge fully in 37 minutes. 

As for software, the Vivo X80 Pro runs Funtouch OS 12, which is based on Android 12. In my initial experience, the software ran smoothly but I did not notice several preinstalled third-party apps. With the X80 series, Vivo also claims it will release three generations of Android OS updates and three years of security updates.

The Vivo X80 Pro is available in a single configuration with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage and is priced at Rs. 79,999 in India. Other features that have been inherited from the X70 Pro+ include stereo speakers and an IP68 rating.

A lot of prospective buyers might be wondering whether Vivo will announce an X80 Pro+ model in the near future with even better features than the X80 Pro. However, looking at the specs of the X80 Pro, it’s hard to imagine what more Vivo could add, other than the rumoured upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ SoC. Until that happens, one can assume that the X80 Pro is the company’s flagship model.

Unlike the Vivo X80, the X80 Pro is more of an iterative update to the X70 Pro+. The most notable changes are the newer Qualcomm SoC, faster wired charging, Vivo’s second generation V1+ imaging chip, and the custom Samsung GNV primary camera sensor. This phone seems to be a good all-rounder on paper and I’m quite impressed with what I’ve seen so far, but I’d recommend waiting for my full review for the final verdict, so stay tuned.

Disclosure: Vivo sponsored the correspondent’s flights and hotel for the pre-launch event in Dubai.