Smart Android And Trik-Commenting on Andorid indeed never endless, because smart devices this one is often updated every certain amount of time. So that the market can always be garapnya menerinya with pleasure. And it is not denied if this device has become the lifestyle of each society. To not wonder if the 6th business information and many are turning to mobail smartphone. With Android which thoroughly dominated the mobile industry, choosing the best Android smartphone is almost identical to choose the best smartphone, period. But while Android phones have few real opponents on other platforms, internal competition is intense.
Introduction
There are no less than six members of the vivo X60 series at the time of writing, and vivo isn't making it any easier, offering different handsets by the same name in China and the rest of the world. What we have for you today is the X60 Pro, in international spec.
The X60 Pro that the next few pages will be dedicated to, is powered by a high-end Snapdragon 870 chip, one notch below the ruling SD888. The phone has a beautiful 120Hz 6.56-inch AMOLED display that leaves little to be desired - adaptive refresh rate mostly, but that's hardly expected at this level. It's topped off by a triple camera system that features gimbal stabilization on the main unit, an autofocusing ultrawide, and a classic 2x tele that no one else seems to want to make anymore.
Going deeper in our attempts to clarify things, the X60 Pro here is not to be confused with the X60 Pro (for China), which has an extra periscope and an Exynos chipset, or the X60 Pro+ (this one is seemingly the same in and out of its homeland), which too has a periscope, but also the latest SD888.
If anything, the X60 Pro is most similar to the X60 non-Pro (global), which misses out on the gimbal action, and it's itself essentially a chipset better than its Chinese counterpart. Then there's the X60t, which is just like the X60 Pro, only with a Dimensity chipset instead of a Snapdragon. This is as close to clear as we can do in this much space.
Repetition is the key to learning, so here's a rundown of the X60 Pro's specs once again, in a bit more detail.
vivo X60 Pro specs at a glance:
- Body: 158.6x73.2x7.6mm, 179g; Gorilla Glass 6 front, Gorilla Glass 6 back, aluminum frame.
- Display: 6.56" AMOLED, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1080x2376px resolution, 19.8:9 aspect ratio, 398ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8250-AC Snapdragon 870 5G (7 nm): Octa-core (1x3.2 GHz Kryo 585 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 & 4x1.80 GHz Kryo 585); Adreno 650.
- Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
- OS/Software: Android 11, Funtouch 11.1.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, f/1.5, 26mm, 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF, gimbal stabilization; Telephoto: 13 MP, f/2.5, 50mm, 1/2.8", 0.8µm, PDAF, 2x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 13 MP, f/2.2, 120˚, 16mm.
- Front camera: 32 MP, f/2.5, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8", 0.8µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 4200mAh; Fast charging 33W.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC.
You may note that, while not strictly small, the 4,200mAh battery is a bit smaller than what we've been getting lately. The 33W adapter should help keep it topped up quickly, however, even though we're wondering why the 55W charger of the Pro+ didn't make the cut. Knowing that the Pro+ doesn't have stereo speakers and, really, neither does any vivo but one, the single speaker of the X60 Pro is easier to swallow, if bitter still. Perhaps a pair of earbuds in the box could have made up for it?
vivo X60 Pro unboxing
The X60 Pro ships in a box that's fancier than most and well in line with vivo's previous premium efforts. It's a two-piece spread-out flat square painted in navy blue, with the model name printed in big letters, a likeness of a camera lens and the brand that's supposedly behind that lens, Zeiss.
In typical vivo fashion, there's hardly anything missing from the retail bundle - at a time where even chargers have become optional, this approach is welcome, right? Or wasteful? Who is to say.
Anyway, right out of the box, you'd be getting a plastic snap-on protective shell, a headset that ends in a 3.5mm plug, a 3.5mm to USB-C dongle (because otherwise there'd be nowhere to plug the headset), and the charger and USB-A-to-C cable combo.
Design
If the presentation wasn't enough of an indication that it's a high-end smartphone we're dealing with, the smartphone itself dispels any doubts. A svelte glass-aluminum handset with curved display edges, a frosted back with a very serious looking and to-the-point camera island, and the bare minimum of text to draw unnecessary attention, plus the tiniest of Zeiss logos - it's a design language vivo already got right with the X50 series, and it hasn't changed much for this generation.
Let's stay on the back for a second. Vivo calls the material AG glass, which we gather stands for 'anti-glare' and glare, indeed, it does not. It's good at keeping fingerprints out of sight, which is nice, but it's also among the most slippery finishes around, particularly for people with drier palms. The glass is made by Corning, and it's Gorilla Glass 6.
For a grippier and even less prone to smudges finish, you can look at the vivo X60 Pro+ which comes with a vegan leather rear. Here is our X60 Pro in Midnight Black next to the X60 Pro+ in Emperor Blue.
vivo X60 Pro (left) next to vivo X60 Pro+
The alternative colorway for the X60 Pro is called Shimmer Blue and is one of those paint jobs that you can't really call one single color. It changes hues depending on the angle you look at it and can be anything from cyan to magenta to copper. It's otherwise the same frosted glass.
vivo X60 Pro in Shimmer Blue
The camera island is the focal point (is that a pun we stumbled upon?) of the rear's styling. Looking very 'professional' without explicitly saying so here, the cluster features a prominent gimbal-mounted primary cam up top, the 2x tele and the ultrawide side by side under it, all three under a shared black glass window. A Zeiss badge in the top right corner is about as mini as they get, yet impossible to miss.
This imaging assembly sticks out by 2.3mm - it's quite the bump that's needed to house the gimbal's moving bits and provide it room for... gimbaling.
A step below is where you'll find another Zeiss reference alongside some camera specs in a somewhat hard to read (minuscule and also not very contrasting) typeface. You'd find another camera here on the previous generation, be it a periscope or a macro, depending on the model. On this year's X60s, that space is reserved for the flash and the numbers, and it's a tidier arrangement, we reckon.
vivo X50 Pro (left) next to vivo X60 Pro
Ah, since we're on the topic of the text and it's in vaguely the same whereabouts, the 'Professional photography' insignia on the top plate is the one bit that we're not overly fond of - you slap the professional label on something that's clearly not meant to be a tool for making money in a particular field, and it's suddenly robbed of most of its credibility.
The plate itself is, as best as we can tell, plastic, and it's placed in a cutout in the aluminum frame - a set of choices that we read as a clue for the existence of antennas underneath. The pinhole, on the other hand, we interpret as an opening for a microphone, and these usually don't lie.
The exposed frame is very thin on the sides, a result of the curving edges of both front and back glass panels. The knurled power button is right above the midpoint on the right, the volume rocker over it, with the two physical controls placed in a chiseled, slightly recessed section of the frame. Both buttons are metal as well, and they also click positively.
We'd say they could have been a bit wider to improve usability, but they really couldn't have been - the frame thickness, or rather thinness, wouldn't allow it.
The bottom of the phone has multiple small cutouts as opposed to the single big one up top. The USB-C port is in the middle, nothing unusual, then there's the speaker to one side and the primary mic to the other. The card slot is here as well, and the tray is the dual nano SIM type, with cards going in back to back - there's no option for memory expansion on the vivo X60 Pro. As we already mentioned, but now also proven with the tour of the periphery, there's no 3.5mm headphone jack either.
Bottom plate • Dual nano SIM slot • nothing on the left
The 6.56-inch AMOLED display dominates the front of the X60 Pro. Bezels are minimal all around, with the bottom one ever so slightly thicker than the rest. The side edges of the screen curve gently into the frame, so gently that there's barely any color shift along the extremes.
We know curved displays tend to spark fiery debates, but we experienced no issues with misinterpreted touch input causing weird behavior of the phone.
The AMOLED display allows the X60 Pro to have a fingerprint reader embedded under the panel. It's the optical variety, and predictably, it is fast and reliable. Perhaps the one gripe we have is that it's placed relatively low (particularly so if you're coming from a Galaxy). It's a quick adjustment though.
Vivo says the X60 Pro's selfie camera cutout is 3.9mm in diameter, and that sounds about right. It's not the absolute tiniest - say, a Galaxy S21 has a smaller punch hole. However, there's a reasonably big 1/2.8" sensor under there (bigger than the Galaxy's), and we like big sensors.
We also like stereo speakers, but we're not getting those on the X60 Pro. The thin slit where the display glass meets the top section of the frame serves as the earpiece's outlet. But it's just an earpiece for voice calls, nothing more.
The vivo X60 Pro measures 158.6x73.2x7.6mm and weighs 179g. It's thin, that much we established, and that helps make it feel lighter than what the numbers will have you believe. It's a millimeter smaller in every direction than the OnePlus 9 (well, at least an OP9 made for Europe or North America, like the one we have at the office), and it's also smaller than a Mi 11, though the Mi does make great use of the extra space with a larger display. As potential competitors go, however, the vivo X60 Pro is among the more pocketable options.
Impressive 120Hz AMOLED
The vivo X60 Pro features a 6.56" FullHD display that has all kinds of good things going for it. It's an AMOLED, so you get the inky blacks, and it also supports 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate, so it's also plenty smooth.
It's bright too - we measured 818nits under bright ambient conditions with the adaptive brightness enabled. In full manual operation, the number is 472nits, pretty high itself.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 472 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 818 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 379 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 797 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 489 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 503 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 499 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 733 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 404 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 823 | ∞ | |
| 0.31 | 398 | 1284:1 | |
| 0 | 416 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 856 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 498 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 926 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 457 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 725 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 450 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 821 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 386 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 794 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 454 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 627 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 511 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 716 | ∞ | |
| 0.349 | 498 | 1427:1 | |
| 0.434 | 613 | 1412:1 | |
And then, it's color accurate. Its Professional preset has already excellent sRGB reproduction, which gets essentially perfect with a small nudge of the color temperature slider to the right to negate the slightest of blue shifts. The out-of-the-box Standard preset has a strong blue cast, but that too is easily handled with a more drastic slider intervention, resulting in a very faithful reproduction of DCI-P3 content.
HDR10+ capability is also on the list of things the vivo X60 Pro's display can do, and we got HDR streams in both YouTube and Netflix, though Amazon Prime Video wasn't as cooperative.
The X60 Pro handles refresh rate in a relatively conventional way - you get 60Hz, 120Hz and auto (Smart Switch) modes, with the auto being a simple 120-60 switch as opposed to the granular steps of recent flagship efforts.
In 120Hz mode, you'd be getting the full 120Hz pretty much constantly - the UI, browsers, social apps, the lot. The camera viewfinder and certain apps (Google Maps, for one) will still force a switch to 60Hz, however, as will all video playback apps when you go into fullscreen mode - when browsing the video app for content or playing in windowed mode, it'll still be in 120Hz.
The Smart Switch mode maintains 120Hz for UI only when you're touching the display, otherwise it drops to 60Hz, and that's the behavior in social apps. Oddly, in browsers, it will default to 60Hz as soon as you open the browser, with no spike to 120Hz when swiping around.
The 60Hz mode is, well, 60Hz for everything all the time.
vivo X60 Pro battery life
There's a 4,200mAh battery inside the vivo X60 Pro, a fairly small capacity in a day when 5,000mAh seems to be the default number, and competitors start at 4,500mAh. In fact, the X60 Pro's capacity is a downgrade compared to the predecessor's 4,315mAh. While that's nominally an insignificant 3% difference, 1) batteries should be growing, not shrinking, and 2) the new model comes with a more powerful and more power-hungry high-end chipset (SD870 vs. SD765).
All that should serve as a preamble to the somewhat unimpressive battery endurance we measured on the X60 Pro. That is to say, outside of video playback, as when dedicated to video playback - a single charge is good for 20 hours straight. For fullscreen video playback, it switches to a 60Hz refresh rate regardless of app, so that's the only result we have, and it's a mighty great one.
Not so in web browsing. We got half the video playback result - 10 hours with the phone locked at 120Hz. Switching to 60Hz, we got an extra hour (11:07h). Since the Smart Switch mode for display refresh rate will switch to 60Hz when you're browsing, you can expect to land in between 10 and 11 hours. It's not a huge window, in any case.
Voice call longevity was on the lower side of average at 21:24h, and the standby draw was pretty high as well. Ultimately, the vivo X60 Pro's Endurance rating stands at 77h.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.
All test results shown are achieved under the highest screen refresh rate mode. You can adjust the endurance rating formula manually so it matches better your own usage in our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.
Charging speed
The vivo X60 Pro ships with a proprietary 33W charger branded FlashCharge 2.0 - compare to the 55W Super FlashCharge 2.0 unit of the Pro+. Using this bundled adapter, we clocked 56 minutes from flat to full, with 69% showing in the battery indicator at the half-hour mark.
The charging speed is very good, but there are faster options available. Plus, the X60 Pro has one of the smallest batteries around. Having said that, there's a tangible generational improvement, which we do appreciate.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- OnePlus 9
100% - Oppo Find X3 Pro
100% - Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
97% - Realme 8 Pro
88% - Xiaomi Mi 11
83% - vivo X60 Pro
69% - Poco F3
67% - Galaxy S20+
62% - vivo X50 Pro+
60% - Galaxy S20 FE (25W)
57% - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
56% - vivo X50 Pro
55% - Galaxy S21+ 5G
54% - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
50% - Motorola Moto G100
37% - Galaxy S20 FE (15W bundled)
37%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- Oppo Find X3 Pro
0:28h - OnePlus 9
0:29h - Oppo Reno4 Pro 5G
0:32h - Realme 8 Pro
0:38h - Xiaomi Mi 11
0:50h - vivo X60 Pro
0:56h - Poco F3
0:56h - Galaxy S20+
0:57h - Galaxy S20 FE (25W)
1:10h - vivo X60 Pro
1:10h - vivo X50 Pro+
1:11h - Galaxy S21+ 5G
1:12h - Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
1:21h - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
1:32h - Galaxy S20 FE (15W bundled)
1:35h - Motorola Moto G100
1:54h
Speaker test
Much like all other vivos (but one), the X60 Pro relies on a single speaker to do its sound output - a bottom-firing one. Stereo speakers are fairly common at this asking price, so the X60 Pro is somewhat at a disadvantage here.
It's not bad in terms of loudness - quite the opposite. The X60 Pro ranked in the 'Very Good' category in terms of sheer volume in our test, about on par with potential competitors. Its sound quality can hardly be described that way, however, with clunky mids and nearly non-existent bass and treble.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Android 11 + Funtouch 11
The X60 Pro runs Android 11 with the proprietary Funtouch 11 layer on top, a combination we're already familiar with from the V20 that launched on Android 11 all the way in October last year. We noted a shift towards a less custom user interface back then, but that could have been due to the early release date. This version here isn't quite as stock, but rather more Funtouch-y.
The basics are either standard or close to it, even though the icons are thoroughly themed - the app drawer is stock, the task switcher is stock-ish (with a 'Clear all' button), the quick toggles in the notification shade have the usual circular design, the notification cards themselves are standard too. A welcome addition to the brightness slider is a switch for 'auto', usually buried in settings on stock-leaning UIs.
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Task switcher • App drawer • Quick toggles • Notifications
Since the phone's software is based on Android 11, it offers the Android 11-intrinsic features. For instance, the notifications are now grouped into categories, so 'Conversations' from messaging apps won't get lost in the clutter. In case you've dismissed something by accident, there's detailed notification history. Other notable Android 11 features include Bubbles (a Messenger-like chat heads functionality), better permission handling, a built-in screen recorder, and the completely overhauled power menu.
With the return of the full-on Funtouch, in addition to the custom multimedia apps, we see a custom dialer and messages apps. The iManager is here to stay as well, a utility for clearing memory cache, data usage analysis, virus scans and the like.
You have the standard set of navigation gestures with additional quick access to Google's Assistant by swiping diagonally from the lower-left and lower-right corners of the screen.
Album • Video • Dialer • Messages • iManager • Navigation
There's also a fair bit of options to tweak the UI appearance. You can change the font, mess around with the themes, and choose between a handful of Always-on display styles. The Dynamic effects menu lets you change the system animations and effects.
General settings • Always-on display • Themes
The Ambient light effect, for example, lights up the edges of the display for notifications, calls and even lets you choose which apps to trigger the effect. It's not something we haven't seen before - Samsung, OnePlus, and Xiaomi do that, but vivo takes it one step further and lets you choose not only the style but also the duration of the ambient light effect. You can turn this into a substitute for notification LED.
Dynamic light effects
There are some gaming-centric features on the X60 Pro, grouped under the Ultra Game Mode in settings. A handful of options to minimize the disturbance during gameplay like blocking notifications and heads-up notifications are at your disposal.
Last but not least, this mode gives you the freedom to turn off the phone's screen while the game is running in the background. This would save an immense amount of power when playing some types of online or turn-based games.
Ultra Game Mode
There's a sidebar with a list of optimized settings for the current game and another one for quick settings during gameplay.
Game Assistant sidebar
Synthetic benchmarks
The X60 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 870 chipset - Qualcomm's second-best chip on offer that's an even higher clocked version of the SD865+, itself a souped-up SD865. That means an octa-core CPU in a 1+3+4 configuration with the prime core going all the way up to 3.2GHz.
Vivo is making a moderately big deal of its 'Virtual RAM' technology to improve perceived performance. The X60 Pro allocates 3GB of its UFS 3.1 storage for dumping some of the app processes running in the background that it deems less important. That should, in theory, allow you to have more apps open at the same time and speed up the user experience.
On the other hand, the 12GB of real RAM already available sounds like an ample amount of memory for pretty much anything you could think of doing on a phone, though 'more is more' remains a strong argument. In any case, we have no objective means of testing vivo's claims in this regard.
We do have GeekBench for CPU testing, and the X60 Pro with its SD870 excelled here. It only got beaten (expectedly) by the SD888-powered OnePlus 9 in terms of single- and multi-core performance, with the Exynos Galaxy S21+ 5G also squeezing in ahead of the vivo in single-core. Mind you, vivo's appears to have a notably better implementation of the SD870 than the Moto G100 we had just last week.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
3629 - vivo X60 Pro
3490 - Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
3476 - vivo X50 Pro+
3411 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
3302 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
3296 - OnePlus 8T
3126 - OnePlus 9R
3117 - Motorola Moto G100
2860 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
2703
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
1129 - Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
1091 - vivo X60 Pro
1034 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
996 - OnePlus 9R
969 - Motorola Moto G100
950 - vivo X50 Pro+
930 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
906 - OnePlus 8T
893 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
886
Antutu paints a similar picture - it's only the SD888 OnePlus 9 that can outmaneuver the SD870 X60 Pro. The Poco F3, another SD870 handset, is just behind the vivo, while the Moto G100 is nowhere near.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
715196 - vivo X60 Pro
639612 - Poco F3
631850 - Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
622276 - vivo X50 Pro+
621433 - OnePlus 9R
617766 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
602934 - OnePlus 8T
576625 - Motorola Moto G100
556137 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
543986 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
500114
The OnePlus 9 has about a 20% advantage over the X60 Pro in graphics tests in GFXBench and the Galaxy S21+ outperforms the vivo too - that's entirely normal. The vivo is more powerful than anything which isn't packing a 2021 flagship chipset, however.
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
119 - Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
111 - vivo X60 Pro
96 - OnePlus 9R
93 - Motorola Moto G100
91 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
90 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
89 - OnePlus 8T
88 - vivo X50 Pro+
85 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
85
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
100 - vivo X60 Pro
86 - Motorola Moto G100
79 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
78 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
77 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
75 - vivo X50 Pro+
74 - OnePlus 9R
60 - OnePlus 8T
60 - OnePlus 9
60
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
70 - Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
66 - vivo X60 Pro
59 - OnePlus 9R
57 - Motorola Moto G100
56 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
54 - OnePlus 8T
53 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
52 - vivo X50 Pro+
51 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
50
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
58 - Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
54 - vivo X60 Pro
51 - OnePlus 9R
49 - Motorola Moto G100
47 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
46 - OnePlus 8T
46 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
45 - vivo X50 Pro+
43 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
42
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 9
43 - Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
37 - vivo X60 Pro
35 - OnePlus 9R
34 - Motorola Moto G100
33 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
31 - OnePlus 8T
31 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
30 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
26
GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
43 - OnePlus 9
40 - vivo X60 Pro
34 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
32 - Motorola Moto G100
31 - OnePlus 9R
31 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
31 - Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
30 - OnePlus 8T
29
The vivo inches ahead of the Moto G100 in 3DMark and is on par with the Galaxy S20+ in Exynos trim. The OnePlus 9 and the Galaxy S21+ are comfortably in the lead in this one as well, as expected.
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G
5757 - OnePlus 9
5667 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
4225 - vivo X60 Pro
4203 - OnePlus 9R
4154 - Motorola Moto G100
4114
The vivo X60 Pro packs some high-performance silicon and uses it to its full potential. The combination of the high-end Snapdragon 870, fast UFS 3.1 storage, and generous 12GB of RAM (with an extra 3GB of 'virtual RAM'), means you're fully equipped for the most demanding tasks. Still, the SD888 will give you the upper hand, and if ultimate performance is important, the OnePlus 9 can give you that at essentially the same price as the vivo.
Gimbal-mounted 48MP main unit, 2x tele, ultrawide with AF
The vivo X60 Pro has a triple camera on its back, a classic set of a regular-wide main unit, an ultrawide and a short tele. While common in principle, the setup of the X60 Pro does have some standout features.
Chief among those is the gimbal - the primary camera is mounted on a moveable platform that can correct for translation shake along the X and Y axes as well as rotation around all three axes. The sensor itself is the Sony IMX598 - a 1/2" imager with 0.8µm pixels and a Quad Bayer color filter array, which Sony has customized for vivo use. The lens has a fast f/1.48 aperture and a focal length equivalent to 25mm.
The ultrawide angle camera uses a 13MP 1/3.1" Samsung S5K3L6 sensor coupled with a 15mm-equivalent lens (post-correction) with an f/2.2 aperture. Most importantly, this camera features phase-detect autofocus, which lets it focus both far and near.
The third module is a 2x tele. Another S5K3L6 sensor is paired with a 50mm-equivalent focal length lens, a solution that fell out of favor on smartphones as makers tried to push for more and more zoom. The aperture on this one is f/2.46. There's no OIS on this one.
Over on the front, there's a 32MP selfie camera based on the Samsung S5KGD1 Tetrapixel sensor (1/2.8", 0.8µm). This one reports its focal length at 24mm while the aperture is f/2.45 (vivo is very specific with the apertures).
The camera app we see on the X60 Pro is an improved and more straightforward version of the one we had on the V20 - the confusing lens icon for access to the ultrawide is now gone, and switching all three focal lengths is done with the classic 'x'-based selector.
The chief modes are switched with side swipes as on most other phones, and the 'More' tab lets you access less common modes. From there, you can also customize the modes you have available in the viewfinder.
There's a Pro mode that lets you tweak photographic parameters yourself, and it works with all three rear cameras. You get to select ISO (50-3200), shutter speed (1/12000s-32s on the main cam, 1/12000s-0.6s on the other two), white balance (presets and a temperature slider), focus distance (no focus peaking), and exposure compensation (-3/+3EV in 1/3EV increments), with easily accessible auto buttons on all and a global 'restore' button to revert everything to auto. A live histogram and a level are also at your disposal.
Camera UI
Daylight image quality
Daylight images from the X60 Pro's are notably very saturated - it's the thing that hits you in the face even from the thumbnails. We'd argue that a notch down on color would be better, but we also understand how vivo might be going for a more universally appealing, vivid look.
Contrast is high, but that doesn't mean the extremes are neglected and dynamic range is actually reasonably wide as well.
Detail levels are about right for the 12MP resulting resolution, but there's a certain blurriness or ghosting here and there - as if there's misalignment between stacked frames. Noise is kept very low, barely visible as fine grain in the sky if you look hard for it.
Daylight samples, main cam (1x)
The 48MP photos out of the X60 Pro aren't as high on the color saturation, while noise is visibly more. There's not a meaningful increase in detail to warrant using the nominal resolution mode.
Daylight samples, main cam, 48MP
The 2x telephoto takes photos that are a little more saturated still. Dynamic range is good but not great - you may not get a very gradual fall off at the very extremes, but we wouldn't say the photos look bad for it. Sharpness and detail, meanwhile, are hard to fault, and the minimal noise levels are also a strong point.
Daylight samples, tele cam (2x)
The ultrawide camera is one of the better units you can get in the midrange. Sharpness is excellent as ultrawides go, while noise is nearly non-existent. There's a fair bit of purple fringing along contrasting edges, especially towards the periphery of the frame, but that's fixable if it bugs you all that much. Dynamic range is very wide, and colors maintain the saturated look with a hint of extra warmth added on top.
Daylight samples, ultrawide cam (0.6x)
The ultrawide's autofocusing capability with really short minimal focus distance lets you take some impressive close-ups, 'macro' style. It also enables you to draw attention to a nearby subject and 'place' it in a scene, one of the traditional uses of ultrawides which smartphones with fixed focus lenses don't normally allow.
You can, indeed, get right up into your subject, and that might mean problems for lighting (no ring lights on this one like on the Moto G100), but if you make sure the phone's not casting a shadow, you should be good. Sharpness does drop significantly off-center, plus the depth of field is fairly thin at such short subject distances, so a stable hand is recommended - vivo recommends a tripod right there in the viewfinder.
Close-up samples
Low-light image quality
In low light, the vivo X60 Pro applies some level of Night mode trickery by default, in Photo mode, as evidenced by the progress indicator in the viewfinder, though it's very quick and doesn't get in the way.
Images out of the main cam look very appealing, with well-developed tonal extremes and a wide dynamic range. Color saturation continues to be on the 'overdone' side of optimal, but we'd take that over the loss of saturation. Detail is excellent, noise is present but minimal.
Low-light samples, main cam (1x)
The proper Night mode does make some difference, subtle as it may be. It brings brighter exposures, giving the lower midtones a gentle nudge, and the images have an extra bit of pop (not that photos in Photo mode are lacking in it). We're not seeing much benefit in the highlight region, but that was already very well contained in the regular photos, so nothing to complain about. A minor reduction in noise is also observed.
Low-light samples, main cam (1x), Night mode
The 2x zoom level is delegated to the main cam in most low-light situations, though the actual tele did capture samples 4, 8, and 11 below. 4 and 8 do look very detailed on a pixel level, 11 - not so much, while the main-cam-sourced shots are softer when examined at 1:1. At fit-to-screen level, they all maintain the respectable dynamic range and vivid color rendition of the main camera and are overall very likeable.
Low-light samples, tele cam (2x)
In Night mode, all 11 samples below came from the main camera. Again, the differences are minor and are mainly in the darker regions, which get a small boost. There's a drop in sharpness in 4, 8, and 11, where we're comparing tele camera Photo mode images vs. main camera Night mode ones, so if your scene is a bit better lit, you might get superior results shooting at 2x in Photo mode.
Low-light samples, tele cam (2x), Night mode
The ultrawide continues onto the same path of commendable performance in the dark. Even if it can't quite match the main unit's dynamic range, it still does better than most ultrawides and will give you great results in all but the dimmest of light.
Low-light samples, ultrawide cam (0.6x)
Dedicated Night mode makes the smallest of differences on the ultrawide, to the point where we even got a few slightly softer images shooting that way. Full auto in Photo mode works best for the ultrawide.
Low-light samples, ultrawide cam (0.6x), Night mode
Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the vivo X60 Pro stacks up against the competition.
vivo X60 Pro against the Galaxy S20+ and the OnePlus 9 in our Photo compare tool
Portrait mode
The X60 Pro can take portraits at 1x and 2x zoom levels using the respective cameras. Both modes produce roughly similar results in terms of detail, though the main cam has a grittier, sharper look. Subject detection is mostly good, though we did see some mishaps every now and then in one or two shots of a sequence, but we also usually got at least one keeper - ideally, you should take several shots, just in case. Dynamic range is excellent in moth modes, colors are mostly great as well, though the red skin tones in the second sample below are a bit off.
Portrait samples, 1x
Portrait samples, 2x
The promo materials mention the Zeiss Biotar simulation mode for recreating the characteristic swirly bokeh look of that particular lens lineup of the German optics company. It takes a specific background for the effect to be most visible, here are a few samples.
Portrait samples, 1x, Biotar style
Portrait samples, 2x, Biotar style
Selfies
The 32MP selfie camera of the X60 Pro takes 32MP selfies, and that's a bit much for looking at your face on a pixel level. Still, at 1:1, in balanced lighting, detail is really good, dropping to okay in high-contrast scenes where HDR and sharpening take a toll. Still, those scale down really nicely to 12MP if you care enough to do it. Colors are somewhat muted, particularly so next to the rear camera's output, but also in isolation. Dynamic range is once again excellent.
Selfie samples
We had a weird experience with the selfie portrait mode on the X60 Pro - half the time it would show the blur applied in the viewfinder, only to capture a regular photo for you to see in the gallery. We couldn't pick up any pattern when and why it did it - perhaps a firmware update will address it.
The portraits, when we did get them, had somewhat iffy subject detection, particularly around clothes. As is usually the case, your mileage will vary with these.
Selfie samples, Portrait mode
Video recording
The vivo X60 Pro records video up to 4K60 with its main camera or 1080p at 30fps with the ultrawide. It gets trickier at the 2x zoom level where you do get the option to shoot at up to 4K60, but the actual tele cam records up to 1080p at 30fps, while both 4K modes as well as 1080p at 60fps are outsourced to the main camera.
There are two levels of stabilization available (as well as an off switch), with 'Standard' being accessible across the board, while 'Super anti-shake' is only available on the main camera and locks you at 1080p at 60fps. On the main camera, both levels of stabilization are gimbal-assisted, while the other modules only rely on EIS.
You get to choose between the h.264 and h.265 codecs, with the more space-consuming and more widely-compatible h.264 being the default option.
4K footage from the main cam (50Mbps bit rate) is crisp and detailed and only a little noisy. However, somewhat surprisingly, given the stills performance, videos are low in saturation and have a limited dynamic range. This remains true in all resolutions and frame rates on all three cameras.
4K30 at the 2x zoom level reveals its digitally zoomed-in roots and isn't as sharp as what a dedicated camera could output, so we're wondering why vivo chose to do things this way - the 2x tele has the resolution to record 4K on its own, and the sensor specs say it's capable of 30fps readout as well.
The 1080p/30fps mode at 2x zoom actually looks a lot better - it shows a wider dynamic range and livelier colors. The resolved detail is actually better than in the pseudo-4K.
The ultrawide camera's 1080p maintains the look of the main one - the narrow dynamic range and muted colors. Detail is very good for a 1080p clip, which is nice.
The standard stabilization in 4K30 on the main camera will get you exceptionally stable footage when you're just pointing the phone in one direction. It will also stabilize walking relatively well, but we've seen that done more smoothly, even without a gimbal.
A quick comparison against the X50 Pro from last year, the original gimbal camera phone in vivo's lineup, shows there isn't much of a difference. The older phone has slighly slower transitions at the beginning and end of pans (something which you may enjoy or not), but other than that the stabilization is mostly unchanged.
The 1080p 60fps 'Super anti-shake' mode on the main camera doesn't strike us as spectacularly stable. While, once more, the phone will remain fixed on a subject if you're not moving, there's a fair bit of wobble in walking footage.
Walking-induced shake will also make it to the ultrawide's footage, but not quite as prominently. Again, when you're just pointing the phone at a subject, the footage is super steady.
Perhaps most impressive is the performance of the 2x tele camera (at 1080p/30fps, because it's the main unit taking over in the other modes). Either it's the most stable 2x capture we've seen, or is somewhere there in the top 3.
Here's a glimpse of how the vivo X60 Pro compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.
vivo X60 Pro against the Galaxy S20+ and the OnePlus 9 in our Video compare tool
Competition
The vivo X60 Pro is a premium handset with a well-rounded feature set, and we very much enjoyed its company.
It's not alone in this position, however, and it's worth exploring other options. First among those should be the X60 non-Pro. Essentially the same phone, minus the gimbal stabilization on the main cam, the X60 has the same chipset inside, virtually identical camera system, and basically the same display (only flatter). We don't have one to review, but looking at the specs, we might be inclined to pocket the 20% difference in price and go non-Pro.
The OnePlus 9, meanwhile, goes for X60 Pro money, and does a few things differently, which you might prefer. For one, it's got a big-sensor ultrawide to go with its bigger-sensor main cam, giving it an advantage in the dark. Then, there's the latest proper top-end SD888 which is one better than the vivo's SD870. Tha OP also packs stereo speakers and boasts longer battery life, as well as quicker charging. The X60 Pro has the zoom advantage thanks to its 2x tele, plus the much classier looks and more premium build.
The Galaxy S20+ can very likely be had at the same price as the X60 Pro, and while a case could be made that it's too mainstream it's also very capable. The Galaxy has a higher-res display, an IP68 rating and stereo speakers, plus a microSD slot, and, well... it's a Samsung if that's your thing. The X60 Pro has the AF ultrawide as the standout feature in this bout, and that could be more than it sounds, to the right person.
An autofocusing ultrawide can be had on the Asus Zenfone 7 Pro too, where it's also part of the most capable selfie system on the market thanks to the flip mechanism. The Zenfone is huge compared to the vivo, and the X60 Pro is the easy choice if you're after pocket-friendliness.
vivo X60 • OnePlus 9 • Samsung Galaxy S20+ • Asus Zenfone 7 Pro ZS671KS
Verdict
The vivo X60 Pro is a premium-priced entrant into the upper midrange, and these are perhaps the toughest sells.
It's among the finest-built handsets that you can get, and the color version we reviewed has an understated beauty that we find very stylish. The AMOLED display is simply gorgeous, the chipset is predictably potent, and the cameras are excellent for most anything.
Outside of an unimpressive speaker and a somewhat short battery life (which is made up for by the slim body), the X60 Pro doesn't do much wrong. In fact, this phone is looking like a winner.
Pros
- High-quality build, technical no-nonsense looks, rich retail bundle.
- Wonderful display - bright, accurate, HRR.
- Very high marks for performance.
- Great camera image quality across most scenarios, ultrawide in particular is especially useful.
- Excellent video stabilization.
Cons
- Battery life is not competitive for most tasks.
- There's only one loudspeaker and it's not a very good one (even if loud enough).
0 Response to "vivo X60 Pro review"
Post a Comment