Vivo X90 Pro+: Premium smartphone launched in China with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, 1-inch camera sensor, custom ISP and an exorbitant price tag

A torrent of leaks and teasers revealed pretty much everything there was to know about the Vivo X90 series. The Vivo X90 Pro+, in particular, had a tricked-out spec sheet with some of the best hardware in the industry. While the leaks were mostly accurate about the phone, they left out a not-so-insignificant amount of details, which Vivo explained at length at the phone's Chinese launch event. While it is too early to jump to conclusions, the smartphone has the potential to take on, and likely defeat, behemoths like the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra and Xiaomi 13 Ultra.

Starting with the display, the Vivo X90 Pro+ packs a 6.7-inch 1440p Samsung E6 LTPO AMOLED screen clocked at 120 Hz and a peak brightness of 1,800 nits. Vivo claims its refresh rate can drop as low as 1 Hz depending on the workload and its delta E (colour deviation) values are 0.26. Other specs include a touch sampling rate of 1,200 Hz, PWM dimming at 1,400 Hz, and a pixel density of 517 PPI. IP68 water and dust resistance allow the phone to endure a splash or two.

Under the hood, the Vivo X90 Pro+ packs Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. Vivo has thrown in a beefy 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 made it abundantly clear that its X-series of smartphones would put all their eggs in the photography basket. 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.

Other 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.

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