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Vivo announced three new flagship phones today which are initially only launched in China but are expected to be launched all around the world soon. The three devices involve the X90, X90 Pro, and X90 Pro Plus, which has the brand-new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset announced just last week. The 8 Gen 2 is expected to appear in plenty of Android flagships over the next year, including Samsung’s S23 series, but the X90 Pro Plus has the honor of being the very first to market. It also includes some serious camera hardware, putting it up there with the most ambitious smartphone cameras to date.
Vivo X90 Pro+ is a very special device and the most exciting of the three because no other device yet has Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. Vivo has provided the great 8,900 mm2 cooler to keep thermals in check. It is paired with 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. While it might not have the custom Snapdragon SoC found in the Galaxy S23 series, the smartphone features a custom-designed V2 ISP. It handles tasks such as AI noise reduction, HDR, and MEMC interpolation, and packs 45 MB of SRAM cache.
Vivo has made its X-series of smartphones into photography-efficient devices as most of the X series have good cameras and Vivo X90 Pro Plus is no different. As foretold by earlier leaks, its quad-camera array is spearheaded by a 1-inch 50 MP Sony IMX989 sensor. Its accompanying cast includes a 50 MP Sony IMX785 portrait lens with 2x optical zoom, a 48 MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 64 MP periscope lens with 3.5x optical zoom, and a dTOF laser sensor for depth perception. A 32 MP sensor handles selfies and video calls.
Vivo has coated the X90 Pro’s camera with a Zeiss-developed coating that claims to reduce lens flare and ghosting. Its onboard ISP and large sensor allow users to capture low-light video with latencies as low as 30 ms. Videos recorded are recorded in Dolby Vision, putting it on par with iPhones. 14-bit RAW mode is also supported, along with 8K 30 FPS recording. One can also choose between a multitude of Zeiss pre-sets or custom-tune their camera app for granular control. Vivo also took the opportunity to show off the X90 Pro’s 100x zoom chops.
Vivo X90 Pro+ specs include a 4,700 mAh battery that supports 70 W wired and 50 W wireless charging. An under-display fingerprint sensor enables facial recognition. Wireless connectivity options include 5G, Wi-Fi- 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and NFC. The Chinese version of the smartphone will run Android 13 with OriginOS 13 on top. Prices start at CNY 6500 (US$910) for the base variant. Unfortunately, there’s no word about the phone’s international launch. Looking at some past releases, Vivo could keep it exclusive to the Chinese market for a while and launch its lower-specced siblings globally.
The three phones also include camera systems with Zeiss branding, with the Pro variants sporting a large Type 1-sized main sensor. Vivo uses low-dispersion glass in its main camera lens. The company claims that this, combined with a wide f/1.75 aperture, transmits 24 percent more light to the sensor than the “public” version of this Sony IMX989 sensor. All three have a fixed-focus, 2x telephoto camera designed for portrait photography. The Pro Plus gets a second, 3.5x telephoto with a 64-megapixel sensor, along with a high-res 48-megapixel ultrawide; the X90 and X90 Pro make do with a 12-megapixel ultrawide.
The Vivo X90 Pro Plus starts at ￥6499 (about $910 or Rs.203,000); the X90 Pro and the X90 will sell for ￥5499 (about $770 or Rs.172,000 ) and ￥4499 (about $630 or Rs.140,000), respectively. Unfortunately for us, it’s only launching in the Chinese market for now. Presales for the X90 and X90 Pro start today, with the X90 shipping on November 30th and the X90 Pro on December 6th. The X90 Pro Plus goes on presale on November 28th, and it’s slated to arrive on December 6th.
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