Vivo X70 Pro review: Superb cameras, and not just that

Vivo recently expanded its premium smartphone range with the X70 Pro and X70 Pro+, taking mobile photography to a new level. The new smartphone series strikes a balance between premium and mid-range phone categories, with a reasonable price-to-performance ratio. Vivo X70 Pro is the vanilla variant, but packs a lot of punch nevertheless. Here's a review of the phone.

For the unversed, the X70 Pro is priced at Rs 46,990 for 8GB+128GB variant, Rs 49,990 for 8GB+256GB variant and Rs 52,990 for 12GB+256GB variant. Our review unit is of the highest configuration.

Vivo X70 Pro specs

Display: 6.56" AMOLED, 120Hz, HDR10+, Full HD+ resolution

CPU: MediaTek MT6893 Dimensity 1200 5G (6 nm)

Camera: 50MP PDAF, gimbal OIS + 12MP PDAF, 2x optical zoom + 8MP PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom + 12MP sensor

Front camera: 32MP f/2.5, 26mm

Battery: 4450mAh, Fast charging 44W

Design and display

Vivo X70 Pro is easily one of the better-looking phones out there, which works in its advantage. The extremely thin profile makes it easy to handle and looks gorgeous. The handset features a premium design, which reciprocates when you hold it in the hand.

The rear panel has an interesting design. The frosted glass-like finish made of fluorite gives a non-slippery feel and even keeps fingerprint smudges at bay. The camera module is slightly protruding, but reasonable considering there are two zoom cameras. The LED flash is stacked inside a metal profile right next to the quad-camera sensors.

Moving on, the volume rocker and the power key are positioned on the right side of the frame, which is likely aluminium. The physical buttons are well within the thumb's reach. At the bottom is the USB Type-C port alongside the speaker and SIM card tray. This leaves the left side frame empty. As expected, there's no 3.5mm jack and the fingerprint scanner is placed under the display. Surprisingly, Vivo X70 Pro packs an IR blaster, which can be used by the remote control app in the phone.

Now, for the display, the X70 Pro features a 6.56-inch Full HD+ resolution panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes a lot of difference in the user experience. The display is also HDR10+ certified, which enhances the viewing experience, especially while viewing multimedia content.

The display is really bright and the content is easily viewable under direct sunlight. Vivo went with a punch-hole selfie camera, which goes with the current trend. The sides are curved, which covers the display from edge-to-edge but it might not be everyone's taste. The touch response time is good, works well during gaming as well.

Cameras

Vivo X70 Pro is advertised as a camera smartphone and it rightly should be. The smartphone offers flagship-grade photos. The main camera sensor allows you to capture vibrant photos and the colours just pop. The cameras manage to capture good details in daylight, excellent dynamic range and punchy colours.

A huge part of the camera is the zoom, which works well. The 2x zoom camera manages to capture good details and sharpness, but there's definitely noise visible, which is not apparent in the 1x shots. Things get interesting with 5x though, as it matches the quality of 2x zoom, which is impressive. Of course, the zoom works well in ideal lighting and the noise is reduced to a minimal level.

There are other camera modes, including wide-angle, portrait and macro. The wide-angle sensor can capture good landscapes without distorting the sides. The quality is not matching the main sensor, but it surely does leave an impression. The camera shoots well even when there's a harsh backlight.

The portrait mode adds a nice bokeh effect and there's good edge detection. Under challenging light conditions, the edge detection is inconsistent, but the night mode is able to work its magic to brighten up your portraits.

The Super Macro mode lets you get really close to your subjects and give your photos a new perspective. In fact, the X70 Pro's macro shots are one of the better ones we have seen. Shooting in macro is effortless with the X70 Pro.

Finally, the night mode in the camera is able to light up the areas really needed instead of just brightening the entire image. Low light images shot on the X70 Pro will exceed your expectations. There's no lens flare, well-contained noise, dark shadows and a good amount of details.

The front camera with its 32MP sensor, comparatively, is an average performer. The details are amiss, colours are a bit washed off and the bokeh effect is not accurate.

Below are some of the camera samples:

Performance

Vivo X70 Pro is powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 1200 chipset, which is a powerful processor clocking at 3GHz through Cortex A78 main core and three Cortex A78 cores at 2.6GHz. The device we reviewed had 12GB onboard RAM and 4GB Extended RAM, which gets borrowed from 256GB. This configuration sounds ideal, but it's not the best out there. The X70 Pro tackles all your day-to-day tasks with ease, but the difference is seen where there's demand for raw power. The X70 Pro does not perform as well as the OnePlus 9 series.

If you're not oh-so-reliant on high-performing tasks, the X70 Pro holds the spec-sheet together and takes care of most of your day-to-day tasks.

Vivo X70 Pro runs FunTouchOS12 based on Android 11, which brings an interesting mix of stock and custom UI experience. You can customise the phone as per your taste or keep things simple. There's not much bloatware to eat up your phone's space. You get eye protection for display in addition to the dark theme, download new fonts, choose your screen calibration and switch between 60Hz or 120Hz or simply get the Smart Switch.

There are a host of dynamic effects, which lets you customise the various effects and animations. Finally, the fingerprint scanner works flawlessly and it's snappy. You just need to get accustomed to the position of the fingerprint scanner to be able to unlock it with a touch.

Battery

Vivo X70 Pro has a decent size of battery, but the battery life is vastly improved over its predecessor. The power-efficient E5 AMOLED display should get credit where its due. The smartphone easily lasted a whole day, with 6+ hours of screen on time. It includes calls, messaging, IMs, social media browsing, internet browsing and multimedia consumption. With increased gaming and binge-watching, the battery tends to drop, but that's expected. Even then, the X70 Pro is one of the best smartphones for battery life in its range.

The smartphone comes bundled with a 44W Flash Charge adapter, which gave us 60 percent battery in just 30 minutes and reached to 100 percent in one hour.

Verdict

Vivo X70 Pro is a well-rounded flagship in a mid-range package. It throws a tough competition in specific areas such as design, camera and battery. There might be other better performing phones out there than the X70 Pro, the Vivo smartphone packs a punch in areas where it excels. The lack of stereos, wireless charging support and average performance are some areas we feel the smartphone lags, but the rest remains competitive to take on the toughest contenders.