Vivo X90 Pro in for review

08 February 2023

Say hello to the vivo X90 Pro - one of two 1-inch type cameraphones in vivo's lineup. Sadly the even more stacked X90 Pro+ is staying in China for now, but the X90 Pro seems fit to defend the company's honor well enough.

It comes in an excellent retail package, stuffed with a case, a cable, and a whopping 120W charger.

The vivo X90 Pro is a tale of two opposing perspectives. On the one hand, it's an excellent package with a 6.78-inch 1260x2800px 120Hz AMOLED display, a 4nm Dimensity 9200 chipset with 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a 4,870mAh battery that goes to 50% in just 8 minutes. There's also Zeiss-tuned cameras with a 23mm f/1.8 stabilized lens on the main unit with both phase detect, and laser autofocus. Those sit in front of the omnipotent Sony IMX989 1-inch type image sensor. Top stuff!

On the other side of the perspective, the vivo X90 Pro is inferior to the China-exclusive X90 Pro+ in some key ways, and it even presents a few downgrades compared to its predecessor, the vivo X80 Pro, pictured below on the left.

The X80 Pro had a sharper 1440p display, and a longer telephoto camera at 5x. The X90 Pro+ stands out with a better chipset in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a better ultrawide camera, and a better zoom camera.

Still, if you judge the vivo X90 on its own merit, it's a solid flagship from head to toe. And you shouldn't get too hung up on subjective comparisons between the Dimensity 9200 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 - the MediaTek chip inside the X90 matches the Snapdragon in both core technology (Cortex-X3, Cortex-A710, and Cortex-A510), as well as efficiency, thanks to the 2nd-generation TSMC 4nm+ process.

As for the main camera, it's the star of the show on the vivo X90 Pro. First, the glass on top of the current largest image sensor on a phone is Zeiss T*-certified. Then, the image processor that makes the images is vivo's second-generation custom V2 chip. It enables modes like Zeiss Cine-fare Portrait, Night Sports Mode, Miniature Effect, Handheld Astro, ad 4K Ultra-sensing Night Video and HDR Night Video.

Finally, our vivo X90 Pro comes in the now-signature Black color with a lovely Vegan Leather option that's more tactile in the hand and exquisite-looking.

We'll have more vivo X90 Pro content for you soon!