Before we start with the Vivo X60 Pro review we would to like make it clear that Vivo has released four variants of this phone namely: the standard X60, X60 Pro, X60t Pro+, and of course, the X60 Pro+. For the sake of this review, we will be considering the global version of the Vivo X60 Pro which has almost the same specs as the X60 Pro+ except that the latter has a Snapdragon 888 CPU and a more sophisticated camera.
The Vivo X60 pro may be a timely launch for the company. As several eyes are fascinated by Euro 2020 football matches going down around Europe – and thankfully with real fans in stadiums – you’ll have caught glimpses of Vivo’s white-on-blue emblem flashing up on boards, slowly working its way into your psyche.
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The huge question, of course, is whether or not the X60 pro is, y’know, really a decent phone. Well, here’s the great news: with a gimbal stabilization system in contrast to anything out there, a really good design, and thought of software system about to stock Google android, it should not be seen as a failure – instead, Vivo seems like it can be a rival for a brand new champion.
KEY SPECIFICATIONS
- OS: Android 11 with Funtouch OS 11.1
- Display: 6.56in FHD+ AMOLED, 120Hz, HDR10+
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chipset
- RAM: 12GB RAM
- Storage: 256GB internal storage
- Rear camera: 48Mp main, f/1.5, gimbal stabilisation, 13Mp ultrawide, f/2.2, 13Mp portrait, f/2.5
- Front camera: 32Mp selfie camera, f/2.5
- Battery: 4200mAh non-removable battery
- Dimension: 158.6 x 73.2 x 7.6/7.7mm, 177/179g
Vivo X60 Pro Design
The Vivo X60 pro measures 158.6×73.2×7.6mm and weighs 179g. It’s thin, that much we established, which helps make it feel lighter than what the numbers can have you ever believe. it is a millimeter smaller in each direction than the OnePlus 9, and it is also smaller than the Xiaomi Mi 11, although the Mi will make nice use of the additional area with a bigger display. As potential competitors go, however, the Vivo X60 pro is among a lot of pocket-sized choices.
The 6.56-inch AMOLED display dominates the front of the X60 pro. Bezels are marginal all around, with the bottom one ever slightly thicker than the remainder. The facet edges of the screen curve gently into the frame, thus gently that there is barely any color shift on the extremes.
The bottom of the phone has multiple tiny cutouts in contrast to the only big one on top. The USB-C port is in the middle, nothing uncommon, then there is the speaker to one side and also the primary mic to the opposite. the card slot is here furthermore, and also the tray is the dual nano-SIM sort, with cards getting in back to back – there is no option for memory expansion on the Vivo X60 pro and there’s not any 3.5mm earphone jack either.
Let’s talk about the rear for a second. Vivo calls the material AG glass, which we understand stands for ‘anti-glare’ and glare, indeed, it doesn’t. It’s sensible at keeping fingerprints out of sight, which is good, however, it is also among the foremost slippery finishes around, notably for individuals with drier palms. The glass is formed by Corning, and its Gorilla Glass 6.
The camera island is the center of attention of the rear’s styling. looking very ‘professional’ while not expressly saying so here, the cluster features an outstanding gimbal-mounted primary cam up high, the 2x table, and also the ultrawide side by side thereunder, all 3 underneath a shared black glass window. A Zeiss badge within the top right corner is about as mini as they get, nevertheless not possible to miss your eyesight.
Vivo says the X60 Pro’s selfie camera cutout is 3.9mm in diameter, which sounds right. it is not absolutely the tiniest – say, a Galaxy S21 features a smaller punch hole. However, there is a moderately huge 1/2.8″ sensor underneath there (bigger than the Galaxy’s), and that we like big sensors.
We additionally like stereo speakers, however, we’re not getting those on the X60 pro. the skinny slit where the display glass meets the top section of the frame is the earpiece’s outlet. however, it’s simply an earpiece for voice calls, nothing additional.
Vivo X60 Pro Display
The 6.56in the display is a curved AMOLED and is supported by a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes the phone feel smoother in use, and also supported by a 240Hz touch sampling rate for faster gaming. The colors on the display are deep and rich, and the contrast is impressive – simply put, it looks great.
As you would expect from a 2021 flagship phone, the display also houses the phone’s fingerprint sensor, which in our testing we did not experience any lagging or slow response in unlocking the device.
There are actually only two compromises we noticed here. The first being that, unlike a few high-end phone displays in 2021, the X60 Pro does not support a true dynamic refresh rate, so it can only switch between 60Hz or 120Hz. That denies you the power-saving potential you get from other competitors, which can refresh slower when appropriate.
And the other issue is, perhaps, more importantly, the display is only Full HD+ resolution, while some rivals within the same price range offer higher resolution QHD+ panels. For most individuals, this really won’t matter – the higher pixel density is very difficult to notice in screens this size anyway – but if you’re weighing up the X60 Pro vs other flagships, this is one of the shortfalls.
As for the cameras, there’s one very particular skill that this Vivo has above and beyond any of its competitors: gimbal stabilization. This means the whole camera module is mounted, almost ‘floating’, within its structure, allowing it to microscopically move to counteract movement and handshake. The results during video recording are truly exceptional – whichever camera you’re using – and we think this, for video shooters, is the biggest reason to consider this phone.
Super as the gimbal system is, some areas of the triple camera system could do with some tidying up, though. The main camera – a 48-megapixel one – captures generally good quality, outputting using four-in-one pixel processing for 12-megapixel results.
Vivo X60 Pro Performance
The Specs is another unit where Vivo has made an interesting compromise. Instead of the top-tier Snapdragon 888 processor found in most 2021 flagships – including the X60 Pro+, the X60 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 870.
The X60 Pro houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor, implying a few core things. First of all, it’s got 5G connectivity. Again, it’s really powerful – and while the 870 has a higher clock speed than the top-spec Snapdragon 888, it’s built on slightly older architecture and, therefore, not the most powerful you will get in a 2021 flagship.
This is basically an overclocked version of last year’s flagship chip, the Snapdragon 865, and is itself a replacement for the Samsung Exynos 1080 chipset that the X60 and X60 Pro use in China. That’s all a bit inside though, so here’s what really matters: you still get 5G and you still get incredible performance, even if it’s not technically the best performance around.
The Vivo X60 Pro ships with 12GB RAM and a massive 256GB storage. That RAM count is further enhanced by a new software called ‘extended RAM’ which essentially allocates unused storage space as temporary RAM when needed, effectively providing the device with an additional 3GB. It’s hard in testing to assess how much this really helps, but I can at least say that the phone handles multitasking very efficiently – the main time RAM gets strained – so something’s going right at least.
Vivo is in a very strange position with its phone software at the moment. In China, the company has retired Funtouch OS, its android skin, and replaced it with a widget-heavy design referred to as Origin OS.
This isn’t shipping on the phone worldwide although. I’ve been testing the global version, that still runs Funtouch, on top of android eleven. Funtouch could be a pretty busy OS, with lots of custom Vivo apps, pre-installed bloatware, and also the company’s clumsy virtual assistant Jovi.
Vivo has additionally assured three years of android OS and security updates for the X60 Pro, which is great for android. it has been aggressive in recent years with its android update schedule, thus I’d expect fairly speedy updates to new android versions once they’re out there.
Vivo X60 Pro Battery life and charging
There’s a 4,200mAh battery within the Vivo X60 pro, a reasonably small capacity in a day when 5,000mAh appears to be the default range, and competitors begin at 4,500mAh. In fact, the X60 Pro’s capacity could be a downgrade compared to the predecessor’s 4,315mAh. whereas that is nominally an insignificant 3-dimensional distinction, 1) batteries ought to be growing, not shrinking, and 2) the new model comes with a lot of power and a lot of power-hungry high-end chipset (SD870 vs. SD765).
All that ought to serve as a preamble to the somewhat unimpressive battery endurance we tend to measure on the X60 pro. that’s to say, outside of video playback, as when dedicated to video playback – one charge is nice for twenty hours straight. For fullscreen video playback, it switches to a 60Hz refresh rate no matter the app, therefore that is the sole result we’ve got, and it is a mighty nice one.
Not so in net browsing. we tend to get half the video playback result – ten hours with the phone locked at 120Hz. changing to 60Hz, we got an additional hour (11:07h). Since the sensible Switch mode for display refresh rate can switch to 60Hz when you are browsing, you’ll expect to land in between ten and eleven hours. it is not an enormous window, in any case.
Wired charging is capped at 33W, which was enough to top the battery up to 62% from zero in half an hour. That’s faster than you will get from Samsung or an iPhone for the most part, but rivals around this price now often deliver 65W speeds or even faster, and in fact you can find faster charging than this on some budget phones this year.
Vivo X60 Pro Price and availability
The X60 Pro is out now in the UK and Europe, along with China, India, a few other Asian countries, and Africa. It is still a doubt as to whether it will be available in the US. In Europe, the X60 Pro costs £749/€799, the same amount that Vivo charges for last year’s X51.
The Chinese price of ¥4,498 and Indian price of ₹49,990 each convert to much less, around £500, and it will cost you about that much to import from Ali Express, other than shipping and customs fees, so an import may be a more affordable option if you like.
What we think about this phone
The X60 Pro is a confident flagship from Vivo, and one that produces fascinating – and typically good – compromises to intensify its strengths.
Those are primarily its style and build – for my cash just about the best of any flagship smartphone this year – and its camera module, where the main lens keeps up with the competition, and the gimbal stabilization makes it the best of the ton for video.
You won’t get a high-resolution display – although at this price only the Mi 11 extremely offers that – and you’ll have to be compelled to place up with a fractionally slower chipset. the shortage of wireless charging or an IP rating is perhaps a lot of off-putting than either of those, and anyone ordering outside of Europe ought to most likely see Funtouch OS as a small amount of a downside.
| WHAT WE LIKE | WHAT WE DO NOT LIKE |
| Useful gimbal video stabilization | No wireless charging |
| Exceptionally thin and light | No IP rating |
| 120Hz AMOLED display | |
| Great main camera |
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