vivo X70 Pro+ review

Brand new Funtouch 12 with good old Android 11

Even though vivo is launching the X70 series pretty close to the Android 12 release, they are still running a custom build of Android 11. The proprietary software's version has been bumped up to 12. It's still the Funtouch flavor, as their OriginOS remains exclusive for the Chinese market for now.

Funtouch 12 significantly departs from Funtouch 11's "core values". The stock-ish looking and functioning main UI elements and menus have been substituted with a highly customized and customizable UI. Some of the changes are pretty nifty, too, including the system menus being tailored towards a single-handed use. Some of the menus' content moves to the lower half of the screen when you swipe down, but not all, which is odd.

Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • Settings menu

The recent apps menu, for example, has one of those useful proprietary features. You can choose between the standard carousel formation and a horizontal tiles layout - sort of like MIUI, only scrollable horizontally.

The app drawer, although stock-ish looking, has an expandable recommended apps category on the top (most commonly used ones), whereas using the vertical scroller on the right would highlight the apps beginning with the selected letter.

Recent apps • Recent apps • Notification shade • Quick toggles • App drawer

The notification shade has been revamped too, in terms of looks mostly - the quick toggles are now square-shaped, and the accent color around the menus (including the quick toggles icons) is blue, and there's no way to change either. Applying different themes would only change the icon pack and wallpaper.

The rest of the UI gets plenty of love too. In the Dynamic effects sub-menu, vivo has grouped quite a few customizable aspects of the home screen, lock screen, animation effects, etc. There are even various charging and facial recognition animations.

The Ambient light effect gets more granular control with the option to enable it only during a limited time period, or you can choose which apps to trigger it.

Dynamic effects • Ambient light effect

The always-on display settings are in a different sub-menu, however, but the phone still gives you plenty of options to tinker with - a wide selection of animations, clock styles, colors, backgrounds, the lot.

Always-on display

To our surprise, there's no way to summon the fingerprint reader icon on a locked screen unless the motion sensor detects movement - sure, it's very sensitive, but still. Single tap doesn't work, whereas the double-tap-to-wake function is buried in the Smart motion menu. However, if you get familiar with the scanner's position, you can just rest your fingertip on top and wait for the unlock. Which, by the way, is snappy and reliable. No issues there.

The Sound menu holds a few pleasant surprises. Just like Samsung, vivo is paying attention to people with hearing problems, and you can calibrate the sound to be heard by elderly people or those with impaired hearing. Additionally, notifications and calls get separate volume sliders. The vibration intensity can be adjusted for calls and notifications independently.

Sound options

The previously mentioned Smart motion menu holds a handful of familiar screen-on and screen-off gestures along with some new additions. One of those requires you to wave in front of the screen during an incoming call to answer hands-free - useful if you're cooking, for example.

Smart motion menu

Holding the volume down key can be used to launch an app or do a certain task, although the list of the latter is limited to launching the camera app, turn on/off the torch or start recording audio. The so-called Quick action feature doesn't work when playing music for obvious reasons. Why isn't there a double-press option for Quick action though?

Quick action • S-capture • Screen-split • Easy Touch

Lastly, there's a little something for the gamers. A dedicated Ultra Game Mode is available, and it has it all. Most of the features are about mitigating disturbance during gameplay or letting certain apps display heads-up notifications. One of the most intriguing features that have been around on vivo phones for a while is the ability to turn off the screen and keep the game running in the background. Especially useful for turn-based games or those requiring some sort of "farming" and "grinding".

Ultra Game mode

All in all, the new Funtouch 12 runs great, and you can even make it snappier by disabling most of the animations and speeding up the transitions. Yes, Funtouch 12 gives you the freedom to do so. However, those that want to use Android as Google intended might not be okay with the colorful iconography and the highly customized system menus and animations.

Performance and benchmarks

The X70 Pro+ is is equipped with the Snapdragon 888+, the mid-cycle refresh to Qualcomm's top-tier chipset for 2021. It comes with a higher-clocked prime core (up to 3.0GHz instead of 2.84Hz) but maintains the same clock rate for the other seven clocks in the 1+3+4 CPU. The Adreno 660 GPU is unchanged.

The phone is available in three memory and storage configurations - 8/256GB, 12/256GB, and 12/512GB and our review unit is the middle option. There's also 'virtual' RAM, as if 12GB isn't enough, for your phone to dump less immediately important apps and processes without entirely closing them.

In GeekBench, the supposed advantage of the SD888+ over the SD888 doesn't materialize, and the X70 Pro+ is on par with other SD888-powered handsets as well as the Exynos Galaxy S21s. It's still a very potent CPU, of course, under both single-core and multi-threaded loads.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• vivo X60 Pro+
  3749
• vivo iQOO 7 Legend
  3715
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  3673
• nubia Red Magic 6S Pro
  3660
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  3636
• ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G
  3582
• Realme GT 5G
  3555
• Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
  3521
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  3518
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  3515
• vivo X60 Pro
  3490
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  3489
• Galaxy S21+ 5G
  3476
• vivo X70 Pro+
  3469
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  3316
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  3244
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  3191
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  3140
• OnePlus 9R
  3117
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  3050
• vivo X70 Pro
  2956
• Xiaomi 11T
  2834

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• vivo X60 Pro+
  1143
• vivo iQOO 7 Legend
  1142
• nubia Red Magic 6S Pro
  1140
• Realme GT 5G
  1139
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  1130
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  1126
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  1126
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  1126
• ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G
  1124
• Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
  1117
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  1109
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  1107
• vivo X70 Pro+
  1106
• Galaxy S21+ 5G
  1091
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  1085
• vivo X60 Pro
  1034
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  1020
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  972
• OnePlus 9R
  969
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  926
• vivo X70 Pro
  875
• Xiaomi 11T
  742

Antutu does allow the vivo to shine, posting one of the highest scores we've seen, if not quite as high as dedicated gaming efforts like the Red Magic 6S Pro. Then again, the predecessor, X60 Pro+, is right up there with the new model.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• nubia Red Magic 6S Pro
  866437
• vivo X70 Pro+
  837833
• vivo X60 Pro+
  836826
• Realme GT 5G
  810433
• ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G
  804626
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  797484
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  794016
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  749132
• Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
  735588
• vivo X60 Pro
  720352
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  717879
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  711090
• vivo X70 Pro
  694499
• OnePlus 9R
  676913
• Xiaomi 11T
  590837

In graphics benchmarks, the X70 Pro+ returns to the more conservative results we saw in GeekBench, putting out SD888-level scores in the offscreen tests. In onscreen tests, the display's QHD resolution means it's not really competitive with 1080p rivals when it comes to fps count.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• nubia Red Magic 6S Pro
  127
• Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
  120
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  119
• vivo X60 Pro+
  119
• ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G
  118
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  118
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  116
• vivo iQOO 7 Legend
  114
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  113
• Realme GT 5G
  112
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  111
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  111
• Galaxy S21+ 5G
  111
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  109
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  107
• vivo X70 Pro+
  105
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  99
• OnePlus 9R
  93
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  92
• vivo X70 Pro
  85
• Xiaomi 11T
  77

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• nubia Red Magic 6S Pro
  107
• vivo X60 Pro+
  105
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  104
• Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
  103
• vivo iQOO 7 Legend
  101
• Galaxy S21+ 5G
  100
• ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G
  93
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  91
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  83
• vivo X70 Pro
  77
• Xiaomi 11T
  72
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  60
• Realme GT 5G
  60
• OnePlus 9R
  60
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  60
• vivo X70 Pro+
  58
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  58
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  58
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  57
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  57
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  55

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• nubia Red Magic 6S Pro
  74
• vivo X60 Pro+
  71
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  70
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  70
• vivo iQOO 7 Legend
  70
• Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
  70
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  69
• ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G
  69
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  69
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  68
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  67
• vivo X70 Pro+
  66
• Galaxy S21+ 5G
  66
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  66
• Realme GT 5G
  65
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  64
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  59
• OnePlus 9R
  57
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  57
• Xiaomi 11T
  47
• vivo X70 Pro
  45

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• vivo X60 Pro+
  62
• vivo iQOO 7 Legend
  62
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  62
• nubia Red Magic 6S Pro
  62
• Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
  59
• Realme GT 5G
  55
• ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G
  54
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  54
• Galaxy S21+ 5G
  54
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  50
• OnePlus 9R
  49
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  49
• vivo X70 Pro
  40
• Xiaomi 11T
  40
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  36
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  34
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  33
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  33
• vivo X70 Pro+
  33
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  33
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  33

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• vivo iQOO 7 Legend
  5873
• Realme GT 5G
  5872
• nubia Red Magic 6S Pro
  5865
• Sony Xperia 1 III
  5807
• Galaxy S21+ 5G
  5757
• ZTE Axon 30 Ultra 5G
  5714
• OnePlus 9 Pro
  5701
• vivo X60 Pro+
  5695
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
  5691
• Asus Zenfone 8 Flip
  5677
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
  5676
• Xiaomi Mi 11
  5673
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
  5653
• Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro
  5556
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
  5547
• vivo X70 Pro+
  5332
• Realme GT Explorer Master
  4255
• Motorola Edge 20 Pro
  4206
• Xiaomi 11T
  4172
• OnePlus 9R
  4154
• vivo X70 Pro
  4148

The X70 Pro+ did quite admirably under sustained CPU load in the CPU Throttling Test app - for a Snapdragon 888(+), that is. Its performance dropped to about 80% of its initial result around 15 minutes into the test, where it settled for the remainder of the one-hour run. I wasn't quite as stable in the 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test, where it only managed a 65% stability rating.

CPU Throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test