Overshadowed by the launch occasion for the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely and its extra inexpensive siblings, Vivo introduced the worldwide launch of the Vivo X90 and X90 Professional in early February. We would not blame you in the event you did not take discover of this handset — in any case, it is one more Android cellphone that will not make its method to the US, similar to the Xiaomi 13 Professional hasn’t.
There are some things that make the Vivo X90 Professional particular and value having a look at, although. For starters, it is one of some telephones that includes Mediatek’s top-of-the-line Dimensity 9200 processor, and it even comes with its personal show and imaging co-processor, the Vivo V2. Much more fascinating is the sensor utilized in its major digicam, Sony’s scorching one-inch IMX989, the largest out there in smartphones but.
Mixed with Vivo’s and Zeiss’s imaging prowess, the Vivo X90 Professional is a images beast that has us craving for the IMX989 in additional merchandise; we will solely dream that the Google Pixel 8 and eight Professional will decide it up once they launch.
- SoC: MediaTek Dimensity 9200
- Show: 6.78″ 120Hz OLED, 1260×2800, Q9
- RAM: 12GB
- Storage: 256GB
- Battery: 4870mAh
- Ports: USB Kind-C
- Working System: Funtouch OS 13 (Android 13)
- Entrance digicam: 32MP
- Rear cameras: 50MP major (OIS, f/1.75), 50MP portrait (f/1.6), 12MP wide-angle (f/2.0)
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3, 5G
- Dimensions: 164 x 74 x 9mm
- Colours: Vegan Leather-based Legendary Black
- Weight: 215g
- Charging: 120W wired, 50W wi-fi
- IP Ranking: IP68 mud and water resistance
- Unbelievable major digicam
- Lovely and distinctive design that matches nicely in your arms
- Fees from 0 to 100 in half-hour
- Buggy software program
- {Hardware} regressions in comparison with predecessor
- Much less versatile digicam setup than predecessor
Value and Availability
The most important caveat of the Vivo X90 Professional is that it isn’t out there within the US until you are keen to import it. The X90 Professional is formally solely out there in Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Thailand, and Malaysia. In Europe, the Vivo X90 Professional might be out there in a lot of nations, together with Germany, with availability anticipated by the top of March 2023. In Malaysia, the Vivo X90 Professional is 5,000 Malaysian Ringgit, which is about $1,110 or €1,050 — proper up there with Samsung, Apple, and Google’s premium choices.
The mannequin we’re reviewing right here is the worldwide model, which is the one to contemplate if you wish to import it. In response to Kimovil, the X90 Professional is suitable with US service bands, though your service might have extra blocks in place for {hardware} not formally bought within the US.
Design and show
The Vivo X90 Professional’s design manages to face out from the group. It is out there in a black or crimson vegan leather-based end on the again, which I wasn’t initially satisfied was a good suggestion. Nevertheless, the again is certainly one of many least fingerprint-y I’ve ever skilled, and it presents a greater grip than a glass end ever might. You may additionally immediately discover the large spherical digicam array on the prime, making the Vivo X90 Professional seem like the legendary Nokia Lumia 1020. (Is it a digicam or a smartphone?)
The design supplies an evenly curved back and front expertise, with a severely curved display that the remainder of the trade is shifting away from. In case you’re on the lookout for a cellphone with a big display that’s nonetheless simple sufficient to grip in a single hand, then the X90 Professional isn’t essentially a nasty factor. The show is a 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED display able to as much as 2800×1260 pixels, with 1080p by default.
The curved display is not with out disadvantages. For example, it catches mild reflections much more simply than flat screens, and it loses a little bit of its coloration accuracy on the edges if you take a look at it top-down. It additionally makes some interface parts more durable to achieve in just a few apps and web sites with buttons thus far to the facet that they are on the curved a part of the show.
The Vivo X90 Professional’s {hardware} design is likely to be lovely, however there are some parts that I simply do not perceive. For instance, a small glass or plastic divider just under the digicam bump separates the underside of the cellphone from the highest. It comes with a cheesy “Xtreme Creativeness — Vivo Zeiss Co-engineered” slogan in probably the most horrible handwriting font possible. The slogan will get much more unbearable if you notice the Zeiss emblem already has a outstanding spot to the digicam’s proper. The divider can also be the one area on the again that collects fingerprints like loopy.
General although, the textured leather-based again and the curved display obtain what they got down to do: make the cellphone slim and straightforward to carry on to. That is the least concern I’ve felt about dropping a cellphone with no case in a very long time.
{Hardware} and battery life
Mediatek’s flagship Dimensity 9200 processor is undeniably the centerpiece of the Vivo X90 Professional, and it is accompanied by the corporate’s customized V2 imaging chip. The chip is chargeable for taking some load off the Mediatek processor within the video and photograph processing division and in driving the show. There’s additionally 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The Vivo X90 Professional’s finest function might be its quick charging, and it presents a suitable charger proper within the field. At 120W, the X90 Professional may give you a full cost in lower than half-hour, which we will affirm primarily based on our checks. Due to its dual-battery structure consisting of two small batteries, the cellphone does not get unreasonably scorching within the course of, both. In case you’re nonetheless involved about longevity, an non-compulsory toggle in Settings enables you to flip off quick charging. In case you get a suitable wi-fi charger, you may as well go as much as 50W right here.
As soon as topped up, the battery is nice for a day after which some on the subject of blended on a regular basis utilization akin to music and video streaming, bits of navigation, and quite a lot of scrolling and browsing the online. The one factor missing is the comparatively poor standby battery life, which is stunning given how aggressively the cellphone kills duties within the background.
In comparison with its predecessor, the Vivo X80 Professional, there are just a few regressions. Vivo opted for an optical fingerprint sensor quite than Qualcomm’s spectacular third-generation 3D Sonic Max sensor that the corporate used on final 12 months’s mannequin. Aside from not blinding you with a shiny mild at night time (which optical sensors should do to determine fingers), the sensor additionally had just a few good tips up its sleeve, like the choice to launch user-selectable apps if you contact sure elements of it. It additionally supplied a one-tap enrollment, which the optical sensor sadly does not. That stated, the optical sensor within the Vivo X90 Professional is not unhealthy — it is dependable and quick, and that is a very powerful factor.
Aside from this, we’re additionally taking a look at a pixel discount, with the Vivo X80 Professional providing a 3200 x 1440 show whereas the X90 Professional sticks with 2800 x 1260. Vivo claims this downgrade is a fault of market analysis. However actually, you will be hard-pressed to see a distinction on screens as small as these.
Software program and efficiency
The Vivo X90 Professional’s Funtouch OS 13 (primarily based on Android 13) aggressively kills background duties when not in use, resulting in unintended conduct. It is annoying sufficient when this kills and reloads an article I used to be studying in Chrome or when Sync, my favourite Reddit app, throws me all the way in which again to the highest of a thread I used to be following mere minutes in the past. What’s worse is that this additionally applies to navigation apps. For instance, quite than preserving your present route in reminiscence, a number of navigation apps will restart to their residence screens whereas determining when to vary or the place my cease is.
These points could be fastened by setting apps to Do not prohibit background energy utilization within the battery system Settings, however this can be a workaround you should not must cope with on a cellphone with 12GB of RAM and a 4,700mAh battery that may be totally charged in half-hour.
One other annoyance is Funtouch OS’s preliminary refusal to work with my password supervisor’s autofill capabilities. I attempted organising each Bitwarden and 1Password with Android’s native autofill choice, however after a couple of minutes, the choice to make use of autofill would disappear. As soon as I re-enabled autofill in Settings, it could work once more, however it would not stick for quite a lot of minutes. This downside additionally affected Bitwarden’s legacy accessibility autofill choice, which was inexplicably turned off by the system after a couple of minutes. After I confronted Vivo with the problem, the corporate advisable setting Bitwarden to the Do not prohibit background energy utilization choice. As soon as I did that, each Android autofill and the accessibility service began working.
Vivo, critically, you’ll be able to’t count on the vast majority of your clients to fiddle along with your OS lengthy sufficient to identify one thing like this. Most individuals will simply assume the app or cellphone is damaged.
A fast look at Do not kill my app reveals that Vivo is not the one and even the worst offender on the subject of killing background companies. Nevertheless, I have never run into another cellphone that outright breaks autofill until you flip on some seemingly unrelated choice in Settings.
I additionally bumped into some efficiency points. Regardless of the exorbitant quantity of RAM and a top-of-the-line processor, the cellphone would generally inexplicably decelerate and barely react to enter. I made a display recording of 1 such occasion, the place tapping a hyperlink or hitting an icon could be adopted by seconds of ready earlier than the cellphone reacts. When the Vivo X90 Professional is not struggling via this downside, it is decently quick and responsive. The Mediatek flagship processor and the display with the quick refresh fee make it fly, however be ready for these inexplicable slowdowns.
With these large issues out of the way in which, Funtouch OS is okay. It presents Materials You theming for residence display icons, the system interface, and apps, as all Android 13 telephones ought to. It additionally does not change a lot about Android only for the sake of being completely different. Whenever you swap from Samsung or Google, you should not have issue navigating the interface. The UI can also be clearly associated to Oppo’s Shade OS, on condition that Vivo is a part of the identical BBK Electronics empire. This makes switching between Vivo, Oppo, OnePlus, and iQOO telephones simple.
There are additionally some neat additions in Funtouch OS that I’d like to see in additional Android telephones. For instance, you’ll be able to clone some apps and log into a number of accounts directly; there’s a helpful three-finger gesture to start out split-screen multitasking; and there are fairly just a few customization choices past Materials You.
Cameras
Let’s transfer on to probably the most fascinating a part of this cellphone: The digicam. Vivo and German images skilled Zeiss collaborated carefully to create the digicam system. You may discover these cameras on the again: Sony’s glorious 50MP IMX989 with a 1-inch large sensor, one other 50MP IMX758 portrait lens that provides a 2x optical zoom in comparison with the first one, and a 12MP wide-angle digicam. On the entrance, you will discover a 32MP selfie shooter in a centered punch gap. Nevertheless, in distinction to the X80 Professional, the cellphone does not supply a periscope digicam or any zoom digicam past 2x.
Whenever you first begin with the digicam, you will run into just a few issues. By default, the software program will add a watermark to your pictures, ensuring everybody you share pictures with is aware of that you just took them with the Vivo X90 Professional. You’ll be able to flip this off in Settings, however it ought to be off by default. Whenever you get began with portrait mode or with selfies, you must also disable the wonder mode that the digicam suggests you utilize. In any other case, you will find yourself with unrealistic smoother-than-life faces that set a false magnificence commonplace. Personally, I’d additionally disable mirrored selfies in Settings, however that is a matter of style.
With that out of the way in which, the digicam makes for an incredible expertise. The most effective half is the Zero Shutter Lag, which does precisely what you assume it could. In distinction to many opponents — together with the Galaxy S23 Extremely — the Vivo X90 Professional is able to capturing pictures the second you faucet the shutter button, making you assured that you just will not miss that one second that you just need to seize. This solely works with ample mild, although. For darker scenes, the digicam must seize some further mild after you hit the shutter button, which is to be anticipated.
The 1-inch major sensor makes it potential to create rather more professional-looking images. It has a pure depth-of-field impact that blurs the background, permitting for beautiful pictures. The portrait digicam is equally nice, although if you use it in portrait mode, it is assisted by software program bokeh quite than relying solely on {hardware}. Each of those cameras supply optical picture stabilization that is seen to the bare eye. Whenever you fastidiously transfer the cellphone up and down whereas utilizing the digicam, you will see the lenses attempting to even out the actions.
One factor is much more vital: The Vivo X90 Professional is the primary cellphone digicam I really feel can confidently change my DSLR for product images. Due to its large sensor and the pure bokeh, it gives the impression I count on to see from product images for Android Police. In a fast mock photoshoot of the iPhone 13 and a few extra images I used for our Honor Magic Vs evaluation, you would be hard-pressed to note that these are any completely different from the standard we often try to offer.
Night time mode is one other energy of the Vivo X90 Professional. Like what Google did when it upgraded seize pace between the Google Pixel 6 and the Pixel 7, the Vivo X90 is blazing quick at capturing mild in impossibly darkish scenes. You should utilize the cellphone’s devoted night time mode to seize ever-so-slightly extra mild or the usual images choice, which presents some automated compensation for unhealthy lighting. On prime of that, Vivo presents some further smarts, akin to an evening sports activities mode that prioritizes fast and blur-free capturing over extreme noise discount.
Handheld astrophotography is one other intriguing function enabled by the V2 chip, the unbelievable OIS, and the Sony IMX989 sensor. Fairly than having to prop up your cellphone towards an object or put it on a stand, you’ll be able to merely activate astrophotography mode and shoot the night time sky, leading to a usable photograph. As a metropolis dweller, this was considerably exhausting for me to check correctly, because of mild air pollution, however the pictures I took had been promising and undoubtedly not potential to recreate this rapidly on different telephones.
The town sky is extremely shiny and, thus a nasty instance of how good astrophotography could be
There are additionally a ton of additional modes that can maintain you entertained for a very long time. In portrait mode, you’ll be able to swap between numerous Zeiss-provided bokeh results that emulate completely different bodily lens shapes. In common Picture mode, you’ll be able to shuffle via auto HDR and the non-compulsory Zeiss Pure Shade choice. The Pure Shade choice ought to provide you with extra pure, real looking colours quite than Vivo’s default vivid and shiny coloration science.
Left: Vivo’s commonplace coloration science; Proper: Zeiss’s coloration science
On prime of those choices, a wonderful built-in Professional mode enables you to manually tweak shutter pace, ISO, focus, white stability, and EV, in addition to decide your most well-liked lens. You may as well use a high-resolution mode, an extended publicity mode for numerous shot alternatives, a tilt-shift lens imitation that offers you miniature-like images, double publicity to make use of each the back and front digicam in a single image, and extra.
Contemplating this nice expertise, it is a bummer that the X90 Professional does not supply a correct zoom lens past the 2x portrait lens. The corporate tells me that in market analysis, folks didn’t care about zoom as a lot, which I discover exhausting to imagine. More often than not, I am in a state of affairs the place I might wish to be nearer to a topic or object I am photographing, and a zoom lens just like the 5x on the Pixel 7 Professional or the 10x one on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely supplies that versatility.
1st and third: Vivo X80 Professional at 5x zoom; 2nd and 4th: Vivo X90 Professional at 5x zoom
That is significantly a bummer when you think about that the Vivo X90 Professional’s predecessor, the Vivo X80 Professional, supplied a way more succesful 5x zoom lens. When placing footage side-by-side, you are certain to see the dearth of particulars in shorts from the Vivo X90 Professional instantly. If Vivo included a succesful zoom lens with this cellphone, it could be my go-to digicam for nearly every part. That is much more infuriating when contemplating that the China-exclusive Vivo X90 Professional Plus presents a 3.5x periscope zoom digicam.
For an in-depth take a look at the Vivo X90 Professional’s digicam capabilities, take a scroll via the gallery beneath (and sure, you’ll be able to see the default watermark within the first picture that you shouldn’t overlook to show off within the digicam settings very first thing):
Competitors
In case you’re unwilling to import the Vivo X90 Professional (which we do not suggest), you are most likely questioning what comes closest within the US. Sadly, the Sony IMX989 that wows me a lot is unfortunately not out there in any telephones within the nation proper now, so in the event you’re on the lookout for that actual similar {hardware} configuration, you are out of luck.
There are nonetheless comparable flagship telephones that you just may need to think about for nice pictures as an alternative. The primary that involves thoughts is the Google Pixel 7 Professional, with which I’ve already in contrast the Vivo X90 Professional. Due to Google’s glorious post-processing algorithm and a flexible lens setup consisting of a succesful major lens paired with ultra-wide and an incredible 5x telephoto zoom digicam, it is best to have the ability to simply level and shoot in virtually any circumstance. That stated, the Pixel 7 Professional does not supply a Professional mode and, thus, does not have a lot management over pictures past a brightness and coloration temperature slider.
In case you’re on the lookout for a digicam system that’s equally versatile however comes with extra handbook controls, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely is likely to be different. It comes with a quad-camera setup consisting of a 200MP major, a 12MP ultra-wide, a 10MP 3x zoom lens, and a 10MP 10x zoom lens. This offers you an incredible digicam for many circumstances, and due to Samsung’s new Digicam Assistant, you’ll be able to tweak your pictures as you want them proper as you shoot.
The Xiaomi 13 Professional comes closest to the Vivo X90 Professional when it comes to digicam (it has the IMX989 sensor), however it’s one other one in all these nice Android telephones you’ll be able to’t get within the US.
Must you purchase it?
You can purchase the Vivo X90 Professional in the event you worth an incredible digicam over every part else (and in the event you do not dwell within the US, to keep away from importing it). The Sony IMX989, Vivo, and Zeiss’s post-processing do wonders, creating pictures with pure bokeh that virtually look like taken with DSLR cameras. After all, there are nonetheless bodily constraints which can be exhausting to beat, however the pictures get as shut as they’ll on any smartphone proper now.
Sadly, the Vivo X90 Professional makes lots of the similar errors as its predecessors and different Oppo sub-brand merchandise. The aggressive software program kills background duties manner too quick until you grant exemptions on a per-app foundation, making me query why 12GB of RAM is even mandatory on this cellphone. This does not even translate into an exceptional battery life, which I discovered considerably nice. That stated, the 120W charging pace is one thing you get used to manner too rapidly, permitting me to completely cost it throughout breakfast each morning.
If you’d like a nice-looking flagship with an unbelievable digicam and charging at ludicrous speeds — and also you’re okay with all of the software program points I described — the Vivo X90 Professional is an efficient alternative.
