Disruptive camera phone that promises to beat iPhone and Galaxy now official: meet Vivo X90 Pro Plus

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Disruptive camera phone that promises to beat iPhone and Galaxy now official: meet Vivo X90 Pro Plus
Not all heroes wear capes, and not all great camera phones carry the Samsung, Apple or Google brand.

The new Vivo X90 Pro Plus is the latest iteration in one of the most exciting camera phone series and it is just as innovative as they get. The X90 Pro Plus just went official in China and it is truly one of the most compelling flagships around.

The main star of the show is a 1-inch main Sony sensor, much larger than what you get on the iPhone 14 Pro Max or Galaxy S22 Ultra. Just look at this one number for the new sensor: it has 77% bigger photosensitive area compared to the 1/1.3" sensor on the predecessor (and on most other mainstream flagships).

Vivo X90 Pro Plus Camera

1-inch main camera and an impressive periscope lens that gives you up to 100X zoom


And while Vivo is not the first company to use that sensor, it has perfected it, so much so that the company has the confidence to say that this camera is the “King of one inch sensors”.

This main camera comes with a fast, f/1.75 aperture lens, maximizing the light that reaches the sensor, plus Vivo uses a special lens coating with Zeiss T* technology that reduces glare and ghosting. The company says the lens has an extremely high Abbe rating, a measurement of light dispersion. The higher the number, the better, and in the case of the Vivo X90 Pro Plus it reaches 81.6, while your typical plastic lens is usually rated at around 30.

In addition to the main sensor super star, you also have not one, but two telephoto cameras. The first one is rather unique: it's a 50mm portrait lens with f/1.6 aperture and fixed focus, and those who value portrait photography would really appreciate this "nifty fifty" lens.

The second one is a periscope style 3.5X zoom lens with a 64MP sensor. Vivo uses some software magic and supports up to 100X digital zoom. Vivo is not the first with such a camera, we came away extremely impressed with the 3.5X camera on the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, which also goes to 100X, so we are very hopeful this one is even better.

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All of the cameras except for the ultra-wide come with optical-image stabilization (OIS), which is especially helpful on the zoom lenses.


On the list of its camera superpowers, Vivo lists the following:

  • handheld astrophotography
  • tilt-shift "miniature blur" mode
  • horizon correction for shooting skyscrapers and tall buildings
  • lens flare portrait mode
  • freeze subjects in low light

Of course, we can talk a lot about the features, but here are some camera samples that Vivo has shown the media to illustrate what this new phone is really capable of:


Super clean detail at night, incredible dynamic range, pleasing tonalities. Color us impressed.


Finally, we have a fourth, ultra-wide angle camera with a lens optimized to reduce distortions. This one uses a 48MP Sony IMX598 sensor and comes with a 114-degree field of view. 

Vivo X90 Pro Plus for Video

Sweet 8K video

Along with 4K video, you can also record 8K quality video at 30fps on the X90 Pro Plus. It supports color calibration with a gray card, so you get that white balance just right. You can also pick between a Zeiss Natural Video 2.0 style or a more saturated Vivo Vivid Color mode.

You also have support for Dolby Vision and LOG, and you can snap away photos at a zippy 10fps rate while recording videos.

All of this camera talk might fool you into thinking that the Vivo X90 Pro Plus has not prioritized other areas of the experience, but that would be a wrong assumption.

Vivo X90 Pro Plus: flagship material


It's packed to the gills with the latest hardware and well-deserving of its flagship place in the Vivo lineup.

The phone comes with a gorgeous 6.78" 1440p OLED screen with 120Hz dynamic refresh rate thanks to LTPO technology. It also gets super bright, hitting a peek of 1,800 nits. All of that weighs 221 grams, or just slightly lighter than an iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Under the hood, you get the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, but that might depend on the market.

All of that is well protected with a durable construction and an IP68 rating for water and dust protection.

For biometrics, Vivo brings back that impressively huge Qualcomm 3D Sonic Max fingerprint scanner built inside the screen.

Powering the show is a 4,700mAh battery, with 80W wired and 50W wireless charging support. These speeds are just crazy, and with the charger inside the box, a full top-up will take only 33 minutes.

Vivo X90 Pro Plus specs



The Vivo X90 Pro Plus will first release in China with a MediaTek chip. Pre-sales in China kick off on November 28th and the launch date is set for December 6th. Vivo did not mention when or whether the rest of the world will get this phone, but chances are that it will arrive to other countries at a later point (and it's likely that the international model will run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2).

The price is flagship-grade but not crazy high: the base 12GB RAM + 256GB storage model retails for around $910 (or 6,500 Chinese yuan), while the beefed-up model with 12GB RAM + 512GB storage goes for around $980 (or 7,000 yuan).

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