vivo X100 Pro review

Android 14 and Funtouch 14

The vivo X100 Pro runs Android 14 with a layer of the in-house Funtouch OS 14 on this global version of the phone (the Chinese-bound X100 Pro uses Origin OS 4 instead). It's more or less the same software package that we just got to experience on the iQOO 12 and, in turn, fairly similar to the previous Funtouch, but not entirely unchanged.

In v14, Funtouch differs from stock Android in terms of stylistic choices, although vivo has now adopted Google's large bubbles for some of the quick toggles - but just one row of them.

Another custom bit, and quite a useful one, can be found in the recent apps menu. You can choose between the standard carousel formation for the task switcher and a tiles layout with two rows of thumbs - sort of like MIUI, only scrollable horizontally. The setting is available right then and there - you don't need to look for it in the menus. Pop-up window mode is available as is split-screen functionality.

Notification shade • Quick toggles • Recent apps • Recent apps • Pop-up • Spilt screen

The lockscreen features a clock and a couple of shortcuts on the bottom, which are for the dialer and the camera by default, but can be changed to Device controls and Wallet.

The always-on display settings are in the lockscreen settings as well, offering plenty of options to tinker with - a wide selection of animations, clock styles, colors and backgrounds.

Lockscreen • Locksreen settings • Shortcut options • Always-on display

The app drawer has an expandable recommended apps category on the top (most commonly used ones), whereas using the vertical scroller on the right would highlight the apps beginning with the selected letter.

Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • App drawer • Widgets • Settings menu

The rest of the UI has plenty of non-stock bits. In the Dynamic effects sub-menu, vivo has grouped a bunch of customization options for the home screen, lock screen and animation effects. There are even various charging and facial recognition animations.

Dynamic effects

The Sound menu holds a few layers of customization as well. Just like Samsung's OneUI, Funtouch takes care of people with hearing problems and you can calibrate the sound to be heard by elderly people or those with impaired hearing. Additionally, notifications and calls get separate volume sliders, but you can now also set volume on a per-app basis. An Audio Super Resolution toggle is thrown into the mix.

The vibration intensity can be adjusted for calls and notifications independently. No system-wide equalizer is available for the loudspeaker, though.

Sound options

Holding the volume down key can be used to launch an app or do a certain task, although the list is limited to the camera app, turning on/off the torch, start recording audio, open Facebook, or open any custom app. The so-called Quick action feature doesn't work when playing music for obvious reasons. A double press on the volume down button is reserved for launching the camera.

Shortcuts and accessibility • Quick action • Smart screen • S-capture • Easy Touch • Smart Sidebar

A dedicated Ultra Game Mode is available, and it has it all. Most of the features are about mitigating interruptions during gameplay by preventing certain apps from displaying notifications. One of the most intriguing options that have been around on vivo phones for a while is the ability to turn off the screen and keep the game running in the background, which can be useful for turn-based games or those requiring some sort of "farming" or "grinding".

Ultra Game mode

Funtouch also offers its own gallery, system manager (iManager), and music player, but the standalone video app is gone from this build. The Google Files apps is used for file management purposes. A Smart Remote app is included to make use of the IR blaster, and a dedicated Themes app is also part of the relatively short list of custom software.

Albums • Music • Themes • Smart Remote • iManager

Benchmarks and performance

The vivo X100 Pro is powered by the Dimensity 9300 chipset and it's yet another first for us after the iQOO 12 brought a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the office just last week.

The high-end chip is manufactured on TSMC's third-generation 4nm+ process and Mediatek says it offers a 40% improvement in peak performance compared to last year's Dimensity 9200 while using 33% less power.

The chip's CPU features four Cortex-X4 cores (one clocked at up to 3.25GHz and three at up to 2.85GHz) and four Cortex-A720 units (up to 2.0GHz) - compare that to the 1x3.3GHz Cortex-X4 & 5x3.2GHz Cortex-A720 & 2x2.3GHz Cortex-A520 configuration of the SD 8 Gen 3's CPU.

The GPU is Immortalis-G720 MC12 and that's a core more than the G715 MC11 in the Dimensity 9200 and two more than the G715s MC10 in the Pixel 8's Tensor G3.

The Mediatek top dog also supports LPDDR5T RAM, but per vivo's official specs only the 1TB storage version has that (16GB of it). Three more memory versions are in existence - 12GB/256GB, 16GB/256GB, and 16GB/512GB, and the way we understand it, those should use LPDDR5X RAM. Storage is UFS 4.0 on all versions. Our review unit is the 16GB/512GB spec.

In GeekBench, the X100 Pro is ever so slightly behind the iQOO 12 in the single-core test - the gap more or less illustrates the 3.25GHz vs. 3.30GHz clock speed difference on the prime Cortex-X4 cores.

In the multi-core test, the positions are swapped, and the gap grows to almost 6% in favor of the Dimensity-powered vivo. Compared to the Dimensity 9200+, represented here by the Xiaomi 13T Pro, the new chipset posts over 50% higher scores, which is at least a little bit impressive.

In Antutu 10, there's virtually no difference between the vivo X100 Pro and the iQOO 12, both scoring 2,100K - over 40% higher than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in the Galaxy S23 Ultra or the Dimensity 9200+ in the Xiaomi 13T Pro. The Tensor G3 in the Pixel 8 Pro managed just over half the Dimensity 9300's score.

In GFXBench, the vivo consistently outscores the iQOO, if by a tiny margin. The Dimensity 9300 scores 20 to 30% higher than last year's Snapdragons too.

It's a bit less black and white in 3DMark, where the ray tracing Solar bay test gives the Dimensity 9300 a very slight edge over the SD 8 Gen 3, wins by a wider margin (14%) in the Wild Life Extreme test, only to lose in the simpler Wild Life by some 10%.

The matter of the Dimensity 9300's stability under prolonged load was hotly debated in the chipset's early days, with one report citing a drop to 46% of initial performance in a 15-minute CPU Throttling test. Indeed, the all-big-core configuration appears intuitively more prone to overheating than competing designs.

However, our customary 60-minute run of that same benchmark did not support those early findings. Starting from an even higher initial result, our review unit's performance dropped gradually over the first 15 minutes of the test to around 80%, where it stayed for a good 40 minutes, and then it dipped a tiny bit further, ultimately only dropping as low as 73% of its initial power. Quite a stable run, and in a way better than the iQOO 12's result (by a little bit, admittedly, but still).

The GPU's behavior was similar to that of the iQOO, and the X100 Pro returned a 55% stability rating in 3DMark compared to the 53% of SD-powered phone.

Overall, we'd say that at least in the X100 Pro's implementation, the Dimensity 9300 is surprisingly stable and quite beefy all at the same time. The phone did heat up in the process of benchmarking, but not to an excessive extent. Pretty solid showing from the new Mediatek chip then.

CPU Throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test