vivo X70 Pro+ review

Competition

The vivo X70 Pro+ is available in India for INR 80K (€920) for the mid-spec 12GB/256GB RAM/storage version, and that's a lot of money. But you'd also be getting a lot of phone with a lot of cameras.

A lot of phone with a lot of cameras is also the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G. This one goes for roughly 30% more and that premium mostly buys you the Samsung badge and little more. The two have different takes on zoom, and you know best whether 3x + 10x works better for your needs or 2x + 5x, but neither camera system will disappoint you; that much is certain. We'd call it a tie for display quality, believe it or not, but the Galaxy does win for endurance. Ultimately though, it's hard to justify the difference in price.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max is a lot of phone too, 240g of it, and it's the biggest camera upgrade Apple's done, so it's perhaps worth mentioning here. It's even more expensive (some 60% more than the vivo, for base 128GB storage) and only has a single tele in between the X70 Pro+'s pair. The iPhone's battery life is so good it's hard to believe, but for most other things that can be objectively measured, the X70 Pro+ is as good or better. It's hard to quantify the Pro Max's weight as a status symbol, though.

The OnePlus 9 Pro can be a worthy alternative too, and this one can actually save you a significant amount of money over an X70 Pro+ - 20-ish percent. It, too, puts less emphasis on zoom power like the iPhone, but its 3.3x tele will do, and the couple of 50MP cameras for wide and ultrawide and solid performers. And that's essentially it - fewer, and different cameras for less money - the phones are all too similar in most measurable respects.

This next one is more of an academic dilemma since Xiaomi isn't officially selling the Mi 11 Ultra in India, but we have to bring up that one when it's cameras we're talking about. Perhaps the only more imposing camera island in existence than the X70 Pro+'s, the one on the Mi 11 Ultra has bigger sensors all around and remains our reference for image quality - good as it may be, the vivo isn't that good.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G • Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max • OnePlus 9 Pro • Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra

There's another phone that should be considered here, vivo's own X70 Pro. Arguably the true successor to the X60 Pro+, this one maintains the more pocketable size, while still packing a quartet of rear cameras. It's missing goodies that the X70 Pro+ has, like stereo speakers and an IP rating, but it's notably cheaper at around INR 53K. It does come with some downgrades from the X60 Pro+, however, like the chipset and some of the camera bits, so the door remains open for the previous-gen flagship, if you can still find one.

vivo X70 Pro • vivo X60 Pro+

Verdict

We were huge fans of the X60 Pro+ for its unique blend of pocketability and camera prowess, so we're indeed bummed that its successor by name is now not quite so compact. But it's perhaps not fair to treat it as a successor - the X70 Pro+ is more than that. It builds on the all-out camera formula and adds all the stuff we complained was missing on the older model - water resistance, stereo speakers, wireless charging... even an IR blaster. We'd have to be crazy not to appreciate it.

So the vivo X70 Pro+ is not rushed, but right on time, it's a brand-new model, not just a mere facelift, it slots above the previous Pro+, and it's just good enough to warrant the price increase - if you'll allow us to straight-up answer the questions we posed at the beginning of this review.

Pros

• Standout design, body is now IP68-rated.
• Thoroughly great display - high-res, super-bright, highrefresh rate, can be color-accurate.
• Speedy charging.
• Loud stereo speakers, nice-sounding output too.
• Impressive on paper, the quad camera is great in real life too, with some minor caveats.

Cons

• Has gotten bigger and heavier.
• Only the X70 Pro non-plus is more slippery than this one.
• Battery life is so-so.
• The supposedly mighty Snapdragon 888+ doesn't wow.
• The 2x telephoto could use some color tuning to match the other modules, selfie portraits remain buggy in our experience.