Vivo X70 Pro+ review

The size and dimensions of the Vivo X70 Pro+ are what you’d expect from a Huawei or a Samsung device. It’s slim, long and has a high-resolution curved display. This is pretty much what makes premium Android smartphones look different from its budget offerings but there’s more to Vivo than just good looks.

The Enigma Black variant is a thing of beauty and mystery. It’s got a satin-smooth finish if you run your fingers over it but if you dig your nails in it feels almost like a sandstone finish. Even if you’re not caressing the smartphone, there’s a fantastic case in the box with a leather finish. The X60 Pro+ has a vegan leather back which disabled wireless charging and water resistance on the thing. The X70 Pro+ fixes that and brings all those features. 

The 4500mAh battery can juice up using the 55W fast charger that comes in the box and it can even sit on a 50W wireless fast charger that Vivo sells separately. So battery life and battery anxiety are not really an issue with the Vivo. It also lasted us a good full day when used on the highest resolution and the highest refresh rate.

We never switched to a lower refresh rate or resolution because the display is just that good! You’d want to spend more time on Netflix and Instagram on this thing. The colour vibrancy and contrast are fantastic for the price. If you sit it next to an Apple iPhone 13 Pro or a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra then the screen will show its warm nature and tonal inaccuracy but unlike the other two, the Vivo doesn’t cost upwards of a lakh! Don’t mistake its colour profile as a downside. The Vivo X70 Pro+ packs more features than your monthly grocery list. It’s got the Samsung E5 AMOLED WQHD+ display with LTPO tech. What that means is that this display is taken from the juggernauts of display tech i.e Samsung, and this particular display has a variable refresh rate between 1 to 120Hz and can play 10-bit HDR content. Variable refresh rate also matches the refresh rate of the content and helps to keep the battery life from dipping quickly.

The 2K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate go a long way in making the content look sharper and the UI feel buttery smooth. The Snapdragon 888+ is also running things on the inside to keep the smartphone from feeling dated and sluggish. Games won’t lag nor will it burn your fingertips from the heat. The Vivo maintains a cool composure with high graphic games on the phone. It’s also loaded with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM along with 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. So don’t expect this thing to slow down any time soon.

The FunTouch OS is also lighter and smoother this time. Apps open and shut with urgency and there are fun ways to customise your home screen with widgets. Although we have to warn you that Vivo has pre-loaded a bunch of apps including Byjus. These apps can be deleted faster than it takes for an OTP to come through so it’s not much of an issue but we asked Vivo as to why a ₹80K smartphone has bloatware and they said it’s a business decision. Paisa!

Another annoyance with the UI is the wallpaper ads. At this point, we’re ready to part ways with the X70 Pro+ simply because it lacks respect for its users and their privacy. The infamous universal search is baked into the UI. So at any point, you want to search for an app, the smartphone will show search results from the web also. You cannot stop the search bar from hunting on the web. The Vivo X60 Pro and X60 Pro+ had the same issue and Vivo has done nothing about it. Even the wallpaper advertisement carousel is a pain to deal with and if you’re not tech-savvy enough, finding the right toggle to turn off the wallpaper ads from the settings menu can require a bit of handholding.

We’re aware that almost all Android smartphones come with advertisements in their UI these days. This is purely a business decision for the brand but an ongoing problem for the user because of privacy and data issues. These ads help bring down the pricing for smartphones that’s why Vivo is able to cram so much tech for ₹80K.

The smartphone is brimming with tech but much of Vivo X70 Pro+’s accomplishments are from the camera tech. To put it simply, this is the best smartphone camera for photos right now! The level of detail, dynamic range and flexibility you can get from the X70 Pro+ camera is astounding. In our review of the Vivo X60 Pro+, we said ‘Best tool for photography, especially when the sun is down’. The X70 Pro+ in comparison is the best camera smartphone. Period. And that is a big deal!

We tried to do a little experiment with the Vivo X70 Pro+’s camera. We put a couple of photos taken on Vivo X70 Pro+, Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Apple iPhone 12 Pro and asked our readers (you) to vote for the best one on Instagram. You can check the highlight of the Insta stories on this link. The Vivo got the most number of votes in portrait shots comparison. Everyone, including us, was surprised as to how easily it decimates the competition! The portrait shots on the Vivo are remarkable. The blur effect, depth of field, the colour and the details. Every single thing is accounted for with the Vivo X70 Pro+ portrait mode. It’s easily the best of the lot.

Wide-angle mode is truly spectacular too. It’s got a lot more detail and very little noise compared to the competition.  Even at night, the Vivo camera doesn’t seem to slip up. The dynamic range and the naturalness of shots are maintained throughout the many lenses at the back.

The Zeiss T* lens coating is paying off in spades. Vivo says it’s using a transmittance glass lens along with a “customized professional imaging chip” called V1. What this means is that the glass is able to capture light without reflections and even lower the chromatic aberration. So the results are sharper and natural-looking photos.

There was a rare occurrence while shooting, where the sunset glared over the cloudy horizon but the monsoon rains continued within our vicinity. This created a very difficult situation for any smartphone camera to capture light and detail. The Vivo X70 Pro+ managed to beat the iPhone 12 Pro. The iPhone 12 Pro seemed to have boosted the colour of the sky and sunset, whereas the Vivo maintained a natural composure without filtering the photo. It’s in these instances that the Vivo feels like a better overall photography tool than any other smartphone. It’s able to adapt and deliver breathtaking photos.

As the sun sets, the Vivo V1 chip starts to stretch its legs. The fast focus will adjust to any angle or distance from the subject. The iPhone 12 Pro simply struggles to focus correctly when the subject is closer at wide-angle. It’s also because the 12 Pro doesn’t have a macro mode like the iPhone 13. When comparing the macro shots with the 13 Pro Max, the Vivo X70 Pro+ keeps up and even beats the iPhone at times. The lowlight shots are sharp, richly detailed and have a high dynamic range. Obviously, the V1 chip also cleans up the noise and keeps the overall shot tidy.

The gimbal camera also retains its maximum glory, offering stable handheld shots in photos and videos. It’s also got Horizon Level Stabilization, something that you find in the latest GoPros. So videos are much more stable than any other smartphone. These are not the best videos you’ll find on a smartphone but the means to capture amazing shots is baked into the X70 Pro+. It has slightly better lowlight performance after the sun’s down but you can’t really flaunt it. Apple iPhones still take the best videos.

If you want to know how many megapixels the Vivo packs, scroll down to the tech specs section. Although that hardly matters here because all the lenses at the back perform brilliantly. So no matter what shot you take, you’ll get the best photo there is on a smartphone. Selfies from the Vivo also pack natural tones with tight exposure control. Something that is a staple with all the lenses — back and front.

One of the best smartphones to surface in 2021. Huawei has left its hot seat in the Indian premium market and after many years of struggling to catch up to Samsung and Apple, Vivo has managed to breakthrough. Partly because it doesn’t cost a damn lakh and entirely due to the fact that it has the best features and the most versatile camera in the business! 

FunTouch OS needs to banish ads entirely if it wants to truly be the best smartphone around. The swift processing and the fantastic display are also the cornerstones to Vivo’s improvement over its previous models. It’s not getting any cheaper though but for what it’s worth, the X70 Pro+ is a fantastic smartphone and you should get it if you love photography.