In this post, we’ll be looking at the Vivo X70 Pro Plus review, everything from the specifications, and features, down to the starting price, market, and availability. The Smartphone was announced by the Chinese tech giants in late December 2021.
The smartphone packs some amazing upgrades from the preceding X60 series. Starting from the camera to the 55W wired charging and the super Qi wireless charging. we were also impressed that Vivo has finally brought an IP68 water-and-dust resistance rating to its flagship.
Although Vivo is one of the biggest phone manufacturers in the world, it is still quite surprising why none of the X70 series is available in the UK and US. However, the phone is readily available in almost every part of Asia. And fr those that would be getting it, it is a beast of a phone that sits among the flagships in the global market.
Although, this is not to say it is all rosy on the inside of the phone, as we found out that the software issue as common to Vivo phones persists. The FunTouch OS which is the original Operating System of all Vivo phones has a lot of bloatware and we still see them in the X70 Pro Plus.
Vivo X70 Pro Plus Specifications.
- Processor: SnapDragon 888 chip
- OS: FunTouch, Android 11
- Display: LTPO AMOLED, 120Hz
- RAM: 8GB/12GB
- Resolution: 1440 x 3200 pixels
- Storage: 256GB/512GB
- Front Camera: 32MP
- Rear Camera: 50MP + 8MP + 12MP + 48MP
- Battery: 4500 mAh
Vivo X70 Pro Plus Features
Design
As we’ve seen, Vivo has steadily been trying to evolve the design of its X-series flagship phones. In many ways, the X70 Pro Plus feels like a step in that direction, while in others it makes some unexpected, and mostly, unpleasant sideways moves.
Let’s begin with the positives. Like the X70 Pro, this is a slim and lightweight phone – using flagship standards. At 8.9mm thick and about 210g, this isn’t a tiny phone per se, but considering the large 6.78inch screen, its other dimensions are relatively small, and with curved edges, it’s a comfort in the hand.
The Vivo X70 Pro Plus is also waterproof, the first from Vivo’s flagship series. The phone has an IP68 rating, the highest around – meaning it can withstand dust and water for almost thirty minutes.
The phone has a rectangular camera module to hold its four rear lenses, with a slightly accented right border – a nod to the stepped camera modules of the preceding X series. Next to that, however, is a large, mirrored glass plate that has the ‘Pro+’ branding and the logos of both Vivo and camera partner Zeiss right in the middle – quite awkward.
Vivo X70 Pro Plus DIsplay
The Vivo X70 Pro Plus comes with one of the brightest displays we’ve seen on any smartphone out there. At 1,500 nits peak brightness, the 6.7-inch WQHD E5 AMOLED 3D curved display gets bright enough outdoors during the day to keep things clear and legible even at 75% of its max brightness.
The Vivo X70 Pro Plus features a 120Hz refresh rate display, with 3,200 x 1,440 pixels resolution, LTPO technology, 300Hz touch response rate, HDR 10 Plus certification SGS Eye care technology, and 10-bit color depth with 1.07 billion color support. These features make it stand out as one of the best displays out there.
The resolution of the display is higher than most of the other flagships and so we were able to produce sharper images on the Vivo X70 Pro Plus than the others. Besides that, the color reproduction and vibrance of the display are brilliant. You can watch your favorite Movies on the display with the HDR10 Plus technology and feel like it’s your Plasma TV.
And the 120Hz refresh rate does the job well in making the experience of exploring the smartphone smooth and seamless. This is a plus for gamers especially those that play high-resolution games. And if you’ve not used a smartphone with a 120Hz refresh rate display you’ll notice the difference as clear as day.
The Vivo X70 Pro Plus hosts an in-display fingerprint scanner as we’ve grown used to in most of our flagships. Technology has come a long way and is now miles ahead of what it was a couple of years back.
Performance
The Vivo X70 Pro Plus is house a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+, the latest and most powerful chipset around up until the recent launch of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It additionally has up to 12GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of storage – though there’s no room to increase the storage space.
Notably – it might look like the X70 Pro Plus is being bettered on graphical performance by the X70 Pro and even the older X60 Pro Plus. That is not so – these two phones come with lower resolutions, so they have an easier time with rendering. All the other phones in that category have similar WQHD+ resolution displays to the X70 Pro+ and thus produce similar results.
Let’s not dwell too long on the phone’s performance, because as you already know, it’s always typical for a phone with this type of chipset; by which I mean, it’s superb. The X70 Pro Plus keeps up with all the important competition in benchmark tests, and in real-life it can game smoothly and multi-task without hassle.
And for networking, the phone supports 5G, of course. Also available are Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 to complete the networking specs and NFC support for mobile payments and other transactions.
How long does the Vivo X70 Pro Plus Battery last?
The latest Pro+ gets a battery capacity increase, minor as it may be – 4,500mAh vs. the 4,200mAh of the X60 Pro+. 5,000mAh would have looked better in the spec sheet and we’re seeing that on some potential rivals, but capacity isn’t everything.
The X70 Pro+ does a good job with longevity considering its hardware. We clocked 14:44h of offline video playback and 14:15h of Wi-Fi web browsing – that’s with the screen set to its nominal 1440x3200px resolution and the refresh rate at 120Hz and 60Hz, respectively (as best as we can tell – it’s not always clear with these adaptive LTPO panels). The voice call result is about average, while standby was on the low end of the spectrum for high-end Snapdragons. Accounting for all that, the X70 Pro+ posted an Endurance rating of 85h – decent, but hardly remarkable.
Availability and price
The Vivo X70 Pro Plus is out now in China, India, and much of South Asia and the Middle East. It is now available in Europe, but not yet officially announced in North America.
In Indian market, the phone costs from ₹79,990 – which is equivalent to around £800 or $1,100 – placing it up there in the premium flagship price band.
Although it is not officially available globally, you can still buy the X70 Pro Plus from AliExpress and other shady market retailers, though you might experience long shipping times and customs fees depending on your country or region.
If you’re in the US or Europe, you might want to consider checking out the Vivo X60 Pro, which is readily available to buy from your favorite store – or some of the other best Vivo phones we’ve reviewed. Otherwise, check out our pick of the best OnePlus phones to buy for more of the competition.
What we think about this phone
The Vivo X70 Pro+ is a fantastic piece of device. You’ll be getting top performance, fast charging, and a stunning display – not to mention one of the absolute best cameras in any smartphone right now.
There are some downsides though. The design of the X70 Pro plus is not that eye-catching, with some misguided design choices that I hope the company will walk on in the next series. Its software struggles also continues too, with an awkward UI and some bloatware that get in the way of a premium experience elsewhere.
Vivo is almost making some of the best flagship phones out there, but it operating system is the last piece of the puzzle. As it stands, that subpar software may be a weak point to some – and it wouldn’t be their fault– but the hardware here could be much better too.
| REASONS TO BUY | REASONS NOT TO BUY |
|---|---|
| Absolutely brilliant cameras | Bloatware |
| Long lasting battery | Kind of bulky |
| Uncompromising performance | Competition can zoom further |
| Fast charging |