vivo X70 Pro+ goes live with SD888+ and custom V1 image processor chip

2021-09-16

vivo unveiled the latest iteration of its camera-focused, ZEISS-backed X-series of phones. As usual there are three models with the vivo X70 Pro+ sitting on top. And not just because of its Snapdragon 888+ chipset – there are also upgrades to the display, camera and battery over the Pro+ model that came out in January.

The screen upgrade is quite big, literally. The X70 Pro+ switches over to a 6.78” Samsung E5 AMOLED panel (up from 6.56”) with 1,440 x 3,200 px resolution (up from 1080p+) and it maintains HDR support.

This new display uses an LTPO panel, meaning it can gradually adjust its refresh rate in the range 1 Hz to 120Hz (the X60 Pro+ display could only do 60Hz and 120Hz). The touch sampling rate is 300Hz. The E5 panel also uses 25% less power than the older E4 panels.

The battery is bigger too, now packing 4,500mAh capacity (up from 4,200mAh), charging speed is still at the zippy 55W. A new addition is wireless charging that is almost as fast – 50W. When we reviewed the X60 Pro+, it scored an Endurance rating of 91 hours. The new model has a bigger battery, but also a bigger screen to feed.

Speaking of the review, the phone from January showed some impressive performance, even among the Snapdragon 888 crowd. And this new phone comes with the Plus version of the chipset, meaning a higher clock speed for the prime CPU core (2.995 GHz, up from 2.84 GHz) and a 20% boost to the AI engine.

This brings us to the camera, which while still impressive, hasn’t changed much. The main camera is built around the 50MP Samsung GN1 sensor with 1.2µm pixels (2.4µm with binning), which is sat behind a bright f/1.57 lens. Next up is the ultrawide camera with a gimbal stabilization. It uses a 48MP IMX598 sensor (1/2.0”, 0.8µm pixels) and a 114º lens.

Then come two telephoto modules, starting with the 125mm periscope lens (5x magnification) with an f/3.4 lens and an 8MP sensor, the same as before. The 50mm portrait camera has changed, however, opting for a 12MP sensor with a brighter f/1.6 lens (replacing the 32MP f/2.1 module). All four cameras have some sort of Optical Image Stabilization as well as electronic stabilization.

The lenses feature ZEISS T* anti-reflective coating. ZEISS also contributed the ultra low dispersion glass for the lens, which will reduce glare and chromatic aberration.

One thing that has changed is the addition of the custom V1 chip that handles the image processing and doing some advanced AI magic as well while using less energy than the chipset running the same algorithms. Also, there’s a ceramic “cloud window”, though that’s mostly there for decoration.

Yet another upgrade over the X60 generation is the IP68 rating, which makes the phone dust-proof and water resistant. As is tradition, the phone features vegan leather on the back, available in two colors (Orange and Blue), plus a standard Black color.

Going back to the chipset for a minute, it is paired with fast quad-channel LPDDR5 RAM with 8GB or 12GB capacity and UFS 3.1 storage, 256GB or 512GB. The phones are launching with Origin OS 1.0 (based on Android 11), at least the ones in China are.

The vivo X70 Pro+ will be available in China later this month starting at CNY 5,500 ($850/€720) for the base 8/256GB model. The 12/256GB one is CNY 6,000, finally, the top-end 12/512GB version is CNY 7,000.

For a brief comparison with its siblings, the vivo X70 Pro has an Exynos 1080 chipset, a smaller 6.56” 120 Hz display with 1080p+ resolution, plus a 50 MP main camera with gimbal stabilization, 12 MP ultra wide, 12 MP 50 mm tele and 8 MP periscope (5x), it supports 44W fast charging.

The vanilla X70 gets the a custom Dimensity 1200 chipset, the same screen as the Pro, a 40 MP main camera with gimbal stabilization, 12 MP ultra wide and 12 MP 50 mm module, charging is at 44W. The vanilla phone starts at CNY 3,700, the Pro model at CNY 4,300.

Source (in Chinese)