I purchased the vivo X90 Pro+.
Powerful phone with 8 Gen 2 and 1″ IMX989 camera
The vivo X90 Pro+ is a smartphone powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
It has a high-performance and power-efficient SoC that exceeds even the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, and its gaming performance is quite high, while its camera performance is also top notch thanks to the 1-inch SONY IMX989 camera and V2 chip.
With IP68 water and dust protection, AMOLED display with 2K E6 material, Hi-Fi DAC, and USB 3.2 Gen 1, it is seamless.
This review is done with the 12GB+256GB version.
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with unparalleled performance
- 1″ SONY IMX989 + Periscope telephoto
- ZEISS T* coating to suppress flare and ghosting
- Actually supports 144Hz refresh rate
- Bright display with 1019 nits actual brightness
- Low touch latency
- Ultra-fast ultrasonic fingerprint recognition
- IP68 water and dust protection
- USB 3.2 Gen 1 port
- Heavy
- Speakers are subtle
- OS is peculiar
| vivo X90 Pro+ V2227A | |
|---|---|
| OS | Android 13 |
| RAM | 12GB LPDDR5X |
| Storage | 256GB / 512GB UFS 4.0 |
| SoC | Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 |
| Display | 6.78inch QHD+ 3200 × 1440 Aspect ratio 20:9 LTPO 120Hz (Unofficially 144Hz supported) AMOLED |
| Size | 164.35 × 75.29mm × 9.7mm |
| Weight | 221.0g |
| SIM | nano SIM + nano SIM |
| Rear Camera | 50MP (OIS / Sony IMX989) + 50MP (Portrait OIS / Sony IMX758) + 48MP (Ultra-wide Sony IMX598) + 64MP (Periscope OIS / OmniVision OV64B) |
| Front Camera | 32MP (Samsung S5KGD2) |
| Battery | 4700mAh |
| USB Port | USB Type-C (USB 3.2 Gen 1) |
| Bands | 2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz 2G CDMA: BC0/BC1 3G WCDMA: B1/B2/B4/B5/B6/B8/B19 4G TD-LTE: B34/B38/B39/B40/B41/B42 4G FDD-LTE: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B17/B18/B19/B20 B25/B26/B28/B66 5G：n1/n2/n3/n5/n7/n8/n12/n20/n28/n38/n40/n41/n66/n77/n78/n79 |
Index
- 1 Powerful phone with 8 Gen 2 and 1″ IMX989 camera
- 2 2K AMOLED display actually supports 144Hz refresh rate
- 3 Ultra-fast in-screen fingerprint recognition
- 4 Fingerprint resistant leather back
- 5 1″ sensor and 64MP periscope telephoto for clean mid-range
- 6 Supports VoLTE for carriers outside China
- 7 Speakers are not good
- 8 Can play even the highest quality Genshin at 60 FPS
- 9 Conclusion
Included are a protective case, charger, USB Type-C to C cable, SIM pin, and instructions.
The protective case is made of leather with the same texture as the main body and has the ZEISS logo on it, so it can be protected without compromising the design.
The included 80W charger is equipped with a USB Type-C port.
USB PD compatible.
It supports Quick Charge 2.0 and is capable of 80W charging with vivo’s proprietary VFCP.
2K AMOLED display actually supports 144Hz refresh rate
The vivo X90 Pro+ features a 6.78″ QHD+ (3200 x 1440) resolution AMOLED display.
It uses Samsung’s latest generation E6 material for external use, which is beautiful with vivid colors.
It’s diamond pixel array.
The screen color temperature setting also allows you to select ZEISS Natural Color.
The vivo X90 Pro+ is officially supposed to support up to 120Hz refresh rate, but for some reason it internally supports 144Hz refresh rate.
Run these commands in adb shell to enable 144Hz in some games:
settings put system peak_refresh_rate 144.0
settings put system min_refresh_rate 144.0
settings put global vivo_screen_refresh_rate_mode 144
Peak brightness is considered to be 1800 nits, and when we actually measured the brightness with the LX-1336B during HDR video playback with automatic brightness adjustment on, it reached a maximum of 1019 nits.
Although there is a difference between peak and full white, it is quite bright and easy enough to see outdoors.
The total touch latency measured by the WALT Latency Timer was 27.6ms.
This is a low latency level on par with gaming smartphones such as the ROG Phone 6.
Since the results were measured at 120Hz, there is a possibility of even lower latency for 144Hz compatible games.
Widevine L1 allows streaming in HD quality on Amazon Prime Video (beta) and others.
Ultra-fast in-screen fingerprint recognition
The vivo X90 Pro+ features the Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor Max, an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint sensor.
It only needs to be pressed once to complete the registration without having to register the fingerprint multiple times.
Authentication is also quite fast, with accuracy unmatched by common optical sensors.
The fingerprint authentication range is wide and comfortable.
Fingerprint resistant leather back
The back of the vivo X90 Pro+ is leather-like and fingerprint resistant.
Weighing 224.9g, it is heavy, but the large protruding camera makes it easy to hold by hooking fingers.
1″ sensor and 64MP periscope telephoto for clean mid-range
vivo X90 Pro+ has
- 50MP (OIS / Sony IMX989)
- 50MP (Portrait OIS / Sony IMX758)
- 48MP (Ultra-wide Sony IMX598)
- 64MP (Periscope OIS / OmniVision OV64B)
quad cameras.
It has the same 1-inch sensor as the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, and the periscope telephoto has been significantly upgraded from the vivo X80 Pro, which was only 8MP, to 64MP.
The leather look is unavoidable in some respects, but the camera area floats away from the surrounding leather areas, making it look a bit clunky.
All photos are handheld and stored here.
By collaborating with ZEISS, the ZEISS Natural Color mode is also included.
When ZEISS Natural Color is turned on, saturation is reduced and more realistic colors can be captured.
When photographed with ZEISS Natural Color on or off, it is clear that the vividness of the sky and foliage colors is indeed less vivid with the color on.
The tints with ZEISS Natural Color on were closer to the actual tints.
Various camera modes have been added in addition to ZEISS Natural Color.
The FOOD mode for cooking seems to adjust to darker colors than usual.
There is also the ZEISS EDoF, which eliminates blurring outside of the in-focus area for a clearer image, and the ZEISS APC, which corrects the perspective of buildings.
Thanks to vivo’s proprietary video processing chip V2, various video processes are performed at high speed.
Zooming in at 1x, 2x, 3.5x, and 100x, in that order, the sky is almost light blue at 3.5x, but there is less detail smashed in.
At 100x, as expected, there is a strange pattern on the poles.
The camera can capture beautiful images up to 8-9x, so it is good for shooting things from a little distance to avoid shadows.
The camera does not shake easily while zoomed in at 3.5x, and even when I saw a bird flying by and rushed to take a photo, the image came out clearly.
The camera zooms in beautifully even when shooting at night.
Although details are more likely to be crushed than during bright hours, it is easy to clearly see the shapes of autumn leaves and patterns on walls even when zoomed in 3.5x under cloudy skies with virtually no light source.
Thanks to the ZEISS T* coating, the lens is resistant to flare and ghosting, which is considerably suppressed even in direct sunlight.
Even when shooting night scenes that include lights, it is difficult to get white pops.
In night view mode, you can also use starry sky mode and long time exposure.
The processing around electric wires is clean and noise is low when shooting night scenes.
It can shoot up to 8K video and can also shoot in Dolby Vision.
Video recording with the front camera is limited to 1080p / 60fps.
Supports VoLTE for carriers outside China
The vivo X90 Pro+ has a speaker on the bottom side, a USB Type-C port and a SIM slot.
In addition to 80W fast charging, wireless charging at 50W is available.
VoLTE is available on carriers outside of China, and since there are many APNs registered, you can even use 5G communication just by inserting a SIM card.
Supported bands are:
- 2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
- 2G CDMA: BC0/BC1
- 3G WCDMA: B1/B2/B4/B5/B6/B8/B19
- 4G TD-LTE: B34/B38/B39/B40/B41/B42
- 4G FDD-LTE: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B17/B18/B19/B20 B25/B26/B28/B66
- 5G：n1/n2/n3/n5/n7/n8/n12/n20/n28/n38/n40/n41/n66/n77/n78/n79
Speakers are not good
Although the vivo X90 Pro+ has stereo speakers, they are not symmetrical and are used both for calls.
Bass is not very good, and the sound feels scuzzy.
This is disappointing for a phone that costs about $1000.
It is equipped with Hi-Fi DAC CS43130.
When using USB Type-C connected earphones, Hi-Fi can be used if enabled in the settings.
The audio output delay was 32 ms when measured with the WALT Latency Timer.
The power and volume buttons are located on the right side.
Can play even the highest quality Genshin at 60 FPS
The vivo X90 Pro+ has the world’s first Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with higher performance than even the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, but with less power consumption.
In Geekbench 5, the Genshin disguised version had 1492 single-core and 5171 multi-core, while the normal version had 1487 single-core and 5189 multi-core.
There does not appear to be any significant performance control in the package name determination.
AI performance measured in Geekbench ML with TensorFlow Lite and NNAPI had a score of 659.
This score is lower than the OPPO Find X3 with Snapdragon 870, which is not clear, so it may be that the NNAPI in OriginOS does not bring out the hardware performance well.
In the 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test, the score was 13390, with a temperature rise from 23°C to 52°C (29°C rise) and battery consumption of 17%.
The strangely high temperature may be due to the fact that the thermal control is loosening up after detecting that the benchmark is running.
In the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test, the score was 3738, with a temperature increase from 25°C to 49°C (24°C increase) and battery consumption of 17%.
The stability is excellent at 94.5% despite the high load.
PCMark Work 3.0, which measures performance in everyday use such as document manipulation, scored 12641.
It is the world’s first UFS 4.0 storage device with LPDDR5X memory.
While the memory performance is much higher than other LPDDR5 memory-equipped models, the storage performance was not fast enough to overwhelm UFS 3.1 phones, except for sequential writes.
The realme GT2 Explorer Master Edition, the first LPDDR5X-equipped realme GT2, also did not have the memory performance, and it may be that the first model is not tuned in time to bring out the performance well.
The vivo X90 Pro+’s game mode can be set to BOOST mode to help stabilize the frame rate and increase the touch sampling rate.
The refresh rate limit can also be adjusted, but this is only an upper limit adjustment and does not mean that games that do not support 120Hz can be run at 120Hz.
The results of gameplay in BOOST mode and maximum touch sampling rate are measured.
When we played Genshin at the highest quality and 60 FPS setting and measured it with WeTest PerfDog, it averaged a whopping 60.0 FPS and consumed 77.61 mW per FPS.
The battery temperature only rose to a maximum of 33°C, and the side frames did not get hot, so it was comfortable.
The Xiaomi 12S Ultra with Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 averaged 58.8 FPS, 82.5 mW of power consumption, and a battery temperature of 41°C. This shows that the vivo X90 Pro+ has higher performance, yet generates less heat and consumes less power.
Gaming smartphones with anything other than Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 are now a thing of the past.
In World of Tanks Blitz, when played at 120 FPS settings and all graphics settings at their highest values, the average was 120.2 FPS, with a power consumption of 40.77 mW per FPS.
High performance and power savings are also demonstrated in non-Chinese games.
Conclusion
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with unparalleled performance
- 1″ SONY IMX989 + Periscope telephoto
- ZEISS T* coating to suppress flare and ghosting
- Actually supports 144Hz refresh rate
- Bright display with 1019 nits actual brightness
- Low touch latency
- Ultra-fast ultrasonic fingerprint recognition
- IP68 water and dust protection
- USB 3.2 Gen 1 port
- Heavy
- Speakers are subtle
- OS is peculiar
The vivo X90 Pro+ can run heavy games with ease thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and its power consumption and heat generation are also quite low.
The display supports up to 144 Hz refresh rate with gaming phone-like low latency, and unlocking is a breeze thanks to the ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint sensor.
The camera takes beautiful photos even when zoomed in thanks to the 1-inch sensor with an upgraded 64MP periscope telephoto, and the various ZEISS camera modes make photography more enjoyable and impressive.
The downside is that it is heavy at over 220g and the speaker is subtle, but there are so many advantages that outweigh them that it could quickly become the best vivo phone of 2023.
The vivo X90 Pro+ is available in China from 6499 Yuan and up.