Vivo X70 Pro+ Review: Makes a statement worth noting

A few months since our review of the X60 Pro, the successor X70 series is here and we have our hands on the Pro Plus variant this time around. The Vivo X70 Pro+ improves upon the precursor with things like a bigger colorful LTPO panel, dual stereo speakers, IP68 water and dust resistance, 50W wireless charging, a more powerful Snapdragon 888+ processor, an infrared port, and some new features and changes in the camera department. So, let’s see how these translate from paper to practice. [Vivo X70 Pro+ रिव्यु: हिंदी में पढ़ें]

Well, I have been using it as my daily driver for quite some time now and this is the Smartprix review of the Vivo X70 Pro+ Indian edition.

Navigate this review:

---

Unboxing | Specs | Design | Audiovisual | Connectivity | Performance | Battery | Camera | Verdict | Pros- Cons |

---

X70 Pro+ comes in an Enigma Black color with a satin finish by the back. It feels very smooth to touch and to a great extent keeps dirt and smudges at bay. The backside has a Vivo logo and a humungous camera panel. Well, only half of it is the actual camera bump, while the rest is highly lustrous for some reason. For style, I presume. It does attract onlookers’ eyes, thus meeting its intended purpose. But incidentally, it’s a fingerprint magnet too.

Speaking of which, both biometric readers — finger and face are on the front and works exceptionally. While seated on a flat surface, if you try scanning your finger, or the regular swipe and scroll, the phone would rock, thanks to that camera mesa. Yet again something incidental, but very apparent.

Now, what joins the front and back is the aluminum frame. Both sides have a gentle curve which ensures comfort in hand. I would any day pick such a design over the squarish in-hand discomfort that is the iPhone 12 and 13 series.

But where the discomfort in handling happens is whilst using the device one-handed. It is a very tall display and the whole body is very soft and therefore can be slippery at times.

Gladly the placement of both volume rockers and power key on the right is within finger’s reach. The fingerprint scanner is also easily accessible.

The left side is vacant. The bottom is where you’d find the SIM card slot, USB-C socket, one of the speaker grille, and microphone. Vivo doubles the top earpiece as the other half of the dual stereo speakers. The top is also where the other mic hole and infrared port resides.

Many of these holes and ports, among other things are sealed to warrant the IP68 ingress rating. This rounds off the design segment on a very reassuring note.

Let’s move to the front now.

Vivo X70 Pro+ Is embellished with a big and beautiful 6.78-inch screen with 2K pixels and 1.07 billion colors. By default, it would be set at FHD+ resolution but you can dial it up to its full potential. The same applies to the adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The Samsung E5 LTPO AMOLED panel can dynamically switch back and forth between 1 to 120 hertz. This variable refresh rate ensures a seamlessly smooth experience while smartly save some power too in the process. Win-win.

There is of course Widevine L1 support for DRM-protected content on Netflix and Prime Video. But even though the display is HDR10+ and HLG certified as well with required color coverage and peak luminance, the Amazon platform wasn’t playing HDR. Netflix on the other hand did.

Now within the display settings, you can choose between DCI-P3, sRGB or tune the color temperature as you want. You can lower or lock your preferred resolution and refresh rate. You can also control standard stuff such as Dark Mode, Eye Protection, auto-brightness (which btw works fine), among other things.

So moving on from visuals to audio, we get an upgraded twin speaker system, although one of them is an earpiece only. The result isn’t the best you get from flagships but is good enough. Somewhat similar is the sentiment for the wired audio situation. Well, there is no headphone jack but the X70 Pro+ is bundled with a USB-C earphone as well as an adapter if in case you have a regular 3.5mm one lying around. The output from the supplied earphone is passable and the build quality is average. But I still appreciate its presence nonetheless.

If you are going wireless, well-read about it in the next section.

Vivo X70 Pro+ is equipped with Bluetooth 5.2 and codecs like aptX HD, aptX adaptive, LDAC. Listening over the Realme Buds Wireless 2 Pro was stable and sound. As for WiFi 6, the Speedtest results were alright. But even though it is dual-band, many a time, the WiFi would be running on a 2.4GHz connection and I will have to manually switch it to a 5GHz channel. If not WiFi, then you can use dual 4G VoLTE cards for calls, messages, and data.

Furthermore, there is NFC, GPS, and future support for 5G (on both SIMs) bands like n1, n3, n5, n8, n28, n38, n40, n41, n77, and n78. Heck, the X70 Pro+ also features an infrared port for controlling smart devices relying on that technology.

And for basic phone calls, the dual mic setup, and even things like VoWiFi for WiFi calling ensures a good conversation.

From connectivity, let’s move to its core.

Vivo X70 Pro+ is the first phone with Snapdragon 888+ processor in India. It is a 5nm chipset with 8 cores arranged in a tri-cluster pattern. This includes an ARM Cortex X1 prime core, three Cortex A78 performance cores, and four Cortex A55 efficiency cores. So, the major improvement over the predecessor is in the top clock speed of that high-performance core which is now around the 3GHz mark. So it’s just a 5% faster clock speed; not a major gain, but a gain nevertheless. A similar is the case with the 20% jump in neural performance thanks to a new 6th gen Hexagon 780 AI engine with 32 TOPs.

Anyways, before we get into X70 Pro Plus’ real-world performance, here’s how it fared in the synthetic tests:

Vivo X70 Pro+ Benchmark	Scores
Antutu 9	825162
Geekbench 5 Single | Multi	1126 | 3678
PCMark Work 3.0	13361
3DMark Wild Life | Wild Life Extreme	5298| 1396
3DMark Wild Life Stress Test | Extreme Stress Test	67.8% | 68.6% stability
Androbench Sequential R/W (MB/s)	1781.46 | 782.01
Androbench Random R/W (MB/s)	292.31 | 319.64
CPU Throttling test (15 mins)	76% of its max performance
Conversion of 2:35min 1080p 60fps MP4 video to MKV using Video Transcoder app	4 Mins

A higher binned core (albeit a slight one) means more performance, but at the same time, it is likely to consume more power and release more heat. In the above X70 Pro+ benchmark tests, the CPU scores have come out great. The GPU (Adreno 660) results also fall more or less in the expected range. And even when it comes to sustainable performance too, it holds up rather well. Sure you’d see the effects of processing bi-product i.e., heat when you put it through the wringer, but those scores are still ahead of its stablemates. So, there’s that.

The Vivo X70 Pro+ is available in up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The Androbench scores and actual day agility in multi-tasking, app-opening, system boot, recent memory retention, etcetera reflect the speed. If by any chance, you feel the RAM isn’t enough, you can convert up to 4 gigs of the storage memory into VRAM or extended RAM. This will take care of less-resourced intensive tasks, while the main memory does the heavy lifting.

Now, the 120Hz refresh rate and 300Hz touch sampling rate also contribute to this feeling of snappiness. You can make this nippy by toggling off the boatload of animations turned on by default. I even take extra steps by lowering the animations to 0.5x in Developer options.

Coming to the software, the Funtouch OS 12 based on Android 11 is a fairly feature-rich skin, but one that asks a lot of privacy permissions for using many of these features. Besides the aforementioned animation galore, you also have things like a screen recorder, one-handed mode, phone clone, Google Discover page on right-hand swipe from homescreen, Easy touch, screenshot toolkit, split screen, etc. I wish there was a theming option like Realme UI. Even the Ultra Game Mode is jam-packed with E-sports mode, Eagle Eye Enhancement, Game Frame interpolation, 4D Game Vibration, Sound Effects, etc. But again I wish there was an FPS meter like Realme’s skin.

That would have come handy in better judging the performance of the games since it was all noice otherwise.

You can enjoy BGMI at Ultra HD graphics and Ultra FPS, and COD Mobile at Very High-quality graphics and Max frame rate. A half an hour shootout in Battlegrounds Mobile India decreased the battery level by 7% and the temperature rose by 4.6%.

So, overall, I’ve had fun using the Vivo X70 Pro+ in the days leading to the review. The internal machinery plays a key role in delivering that.

Anyways, having looked at the performance, here’s how long that would last —

Vivo X70 Pro+ is powered by a 4500mAh cell which ran for 13 Hr 22 Min in the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life test. In regular use, I was getting a screen on time of about 5 Hr 38 Min (default settings). But when I ran it at WQHD+ resolution and still 120Hz VRR, the screen runtime dipped to 3 Hr 59 Mins. In all these cases, the device was easily covering the entire day’s use. And if you need to fill it back, the bundled 66W adapter which tops up at 55 watts should flash-charge it 100% in around the 1-hour mark.

The build quality of the charger and cable is also premium.

Before we proceed to the next part, note that the battery efficiency comes not just from the processor, but Vivo also attributes some of the credit to its new V1 imaging chip. What that is, let’ see.

Vivo X70 Pro+ is outfitted with a 50MP Samsung ISOCELL GN1 as the primary sensor which outs 12.5MP pixel binned shots. This is accompanied by a 48MP 114° ultrawide Gimbal camera, an 8MP periscope telephoto zoom up to 5X (optical), and finally another 12MP telephoto zoom lens up to 2X (optical). Now, this lattermost sensor is smaller in size compared to the Vivo X60 Pro+ but has a larger aperture which should offset the light intake. Other than that the sensor stack is pretty much the same as the previous-gen.

Flip to the front, and there too, Vivo brings over the 32MP sensor from the last-gen setup. The company also continues its partnership with Zeiss for its optics and much more. This time all cameras across the X70 lineup is armed with ZEISS T* Coating which is there to reduce reflectivity and artifacts developing because of it. There’s also the in-house V1 image processing chip behind the scenes. We’ll dive deeper into the photos and pixel peep to find how good the cameras and these new tech are:

Starting off with some stills —

The daylight shots come out carrying ample details and sharpness. The dynamic range and contrasts are also high. For colors, I stuck with Zeiss Natural mode and the results are really pleasing.

Even if you go indoors and the ambient settings are favorable, the photos are nothing short of impressive.

When you turn on the Zeiss mode, the AI enhancement is automatically disabled. And it works vice versa. You can make your selection with taps inside the camera app. The app, by the by, has got plenty of things in it. So, you will probably take some time to know your way around.

In the main viewfinder itself, you get to choose the preferred lens for shooting. It is a matter of sliding and tapping only. There is 0.6x ultrawide, 2x optical zoom, and 5x optical zoom.

Switching from 1x to the ultrawide perspective, there is no edge correction, color disparity, or any unwanted aberrations. The entire frame retains sufficient details and the ultrawide results come out comparable to the main. There has been a one-off case wherein I found some ghosting, contrary to the claims by Zeiss. But like I said, it was a one-time occurrence only.

Then there is the 2x optical zoom lens and for an even longer distance, a 5x optical zoom based on a periscope lens. Since the sensors are different, don’t expect the same level of quality, but they are up to their tasks. The magnified shots are still sharp and details are clearly discernible.

The smart move by Vivo is that they have used the ultrawide for macros too. I like what I got here. I hope you’d too. Interestingly enough, the camera app can turn on macro mode automatically based on your proximity to the subject. This, if appears to be jarring, you can set it as manual too.

Moving to human subjects, the portrait from the Vivo X70 Pro+ cameras is so desirable with proper edge detection and appealing bokeh effects. I say plural because, within the Style section, there are some Zeiss tuned effects as well as some crafted by Vivo. Some of these are funky and might suit to some of yours’ taste.

You can shoot portraits with 2x and 5x zoom as well with no noticeable misstep in detail aggregation and subject isolation.

As for selfies, blurring can be inaccurate in some areas like beard, hair follicles, etc. But you’d see ’em if only you hunt.

Now whence the ambient light reduces, I suggest you use Night mode for selfies, portraits, and everything in between for a better exposed and sharper image with less noise. Otherwise, in some photos, the facial tones of my subjects were inaccurate. In a few of the above photos, you can see the face of the person on the left as overexposed.

The preference towards night mode holds true for after-hour shots in general. It is quick to click, well-metered, and results are more detailed and sharp. But, the Night mode samples are cooler, and in them, you could even see lens flares.

This cooler color temperature doesn’t apply to zooms and super-wide shots and presumably, the main cam is at play here. The ultrawide click especially lacks a significant amount of details and doesn’t look all that good.

In both night and normal portraits, you get an HD mode (self-explanatory). In the nighttime, you can also shoot Supermoon, Astro, long exposure, and double exposure shots with cool effects. And since this has a gimbal mode baked in, you can capture such strenuous shots much easier. The camera app also consists of a full 50MP High-Resolution mode (pixel binned shots are sharper when zoomed in), Google Lens integration, a Pro mode (with RAW format output), and trickeries like Panorama, Slo-mo, Time-Lapse, AR Stickers, etc. tucked within the ‘More’ section.

Switching focus to videos, you get to record up to 8K30 fps with the main camera. But 4k60 fps is more optimal I’d say if you take both file size and quality into consideration. By the way, all lenses support OIS. So that, gimbal and the wider FoV of ultrawide snapper give out good videos without much shakes and jitters. Clearly, you can see why it is a highlight feature. From the outside itself looking at the rear camera panel, you can physically see the gimbal lens moving while in action. Now although this can’t replace the stability ensured by an actual gimbal, it lets you pan the video for some creative shots. And you don’t have to spend extra on a gimbal and can use the phone itself.

So after using the Vivo X70 Pro+ cameras for a while, I am confident about the results I can expect out of it. However, now that we are at the end of the review, let’s see if you should confidently sign the dotted line and purchase the X70 Pro+.

I haven’t had this much fun using a phone in a long long time. Vivo has made the X70 Pro+ so well that it is difficult to fault. Agreed, many of its core specs and strengths like the processor, design, and cameras are iterative upgrades in nature, but this flagship runner has addressed the shortcomings of its predecessor by bringing in features like dual stereo speakers, IP68 ingress rating, and high-speed wireless charging support. Even things like the use of newer LTPO display tech, an infrared port, and new Zeiss enhancements to the cameras are meaningful to the overall experience. Again, the new additions and alterations may not be perfect as there are occasional instances of artifacts like ghosting and lens flare in photos and some discrepancies in extreme lighting conditions. But those are issues only the keenest of eyes would spot.

So, for the asking price of ₹79,990, what you are getting is a beefed-up smartphone from inside that isn’t buffed up outside. The X70 Pro+ is vivacious in looks, very fast in everything it does, and imagery both on and from it pans out great. Ergo, if you are in the market for a new premium smartphone experience, Vivo’s offering is clearly making a statement worth noting.

Vivo X70 Pro+ FAQ

Q. Does Vivo X70 Pro+ has a dedicated microSD slot?

A. No, Vivo X70 Pro+ has no expandable micro-SD Card slot.

Q. What is the SAR value of Vivo X70 Pro+?

A. Vivo X70 Pro+ SAR values are: 0.95 W/kg @ 1gm (Head) & 0.58 W/kg @ 1gm (Body)

Q. Does Vivo X70 Pro+ feature Gorilla Glass Protection?

A. No, Vivo X70 Pro+ doesn’t come with Gorilla Glass. Instead, it uses Schott Xensation protection.

Q. What are the 5G bands supported by Vivo X70 Pro+?

A. Vivo X70 Pro+ supports the following bands: n1, n3, n5, n8, n28, n38, n40, n41, n77, and n78

Q. Does Vivo X70 Pro+ support dual-band WiFi?

A, Yes, Vivo X70 Pro+ supports dual-band WiFi 6 (2.4GHz + 5GHz).

Q. Does Vivo X70 Pro+ support VoWiFi or WiFi calling?

A. Yes, Vivo X70 Pro+ does feature VoWiFi.

Q. How many microphones are on the Vivo X70 Pro+?

A. Vivo X70 Pro+ with two microphones.

Q. Which is the Android update on Vivo X70 Pro+?

A. Vivo X70 Pro+ ships with Android 11 software. At the time of writing, it has the August 01 2021 security update. The Google Play System update is also dated August 01, 2021.

Q. Does Vivo X70 Pro+ feature 4K60 FPS?

A. The maximum video quality supported by Vivo X70 Pro+ is 8K30 FPS. So, yes 4K60 frames per second is here.

Q. Does Vivo X70 Pro+ support HD stream on Netflix and Amazon Prime?

A. Vivo X70 Pro+ has DRM L1 certification and I did HD streaming on Prime Video.

Q. Does Vivo X70 Pro+ support GCam or Camera2API?

A. Vivo X70 Pro+ comes with Level 3 Camera2API support for GCam.

Q. Does Vivo X70 Pro+ support OIS?

A. Yes, Vivo X70 Pro+ does feature OIS on all of its cameras.