Photography-focused Vivo X90 and X90 Pro pack MediaTek power
Snapdragon-powered X90 Pro Plus stays China-only
After making their Chinese debut late last year, the Vivo X90 and X90 Pro flagship phone duo are finally ready to make their way to the rest of the world – but the range-topping X90 Pro Plus won’t be coming with them. The photography-focused duo still have plenty to offer, though, including rapid charging speeds, AMOLED screens and (for the X90 Pro) a 1-inch camera sensor that should deliver exceptional image quality.
Both the X90 and X90 Pro use MediaTek silicon, unlike the X90 Pro Plus, which was among the first to use Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPUs. They should still be plenty potent, though, with an eight-core Dimensity 9200 apiece. It comes paired with either 8GB or 12GB of RAM on the X90, and exclusively with 12GB on the X90 Pro. Both phones have 256GB of on-board storage.
The X90 Pro has the lead when it comes to photography, packing a 50MP 1-inch sensor with optical image stabilisation and an f/1.75 aperture. It’s paired with a 50MP, f/1.6 portrait lens and 12MP, f/2.0 wide-angle. All three get Zeiss optics with a reflection-reducing T* coating, and image processing courtesy of Vivo’s custom V2 chip. There’s also a 32MP selfie cam up front.
For the regular X90, the main sensor shrinks to a more typical smartphone size, but keeps its 50MP pixel count, OIS and f/1.75 aperture. There’s also a 12MP portrait lens and 12MP wide-angle, plus a 32MP front-facer.
Both get a handful of new software tricks, including a Cine-flare portrait mode that mimics the light coronas seen on DSLR cameras when shooting backlit subjects, handheld astro photography and a Zeiss miniature effect, which uses tilt shift tech to make reality look more like toy town.
Whichever version you go for you’ll get a 6.78in OLED screen, with 2800×1260 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support. Both are rocking a pair of stereo speakers, and a fingerprint sensor lurks underneath each display.
There’s a 4810mAh battery inside the X90, and a slightly larger 4870mAh cell in the X90 Plus. Both can top up over USB-C at a rapid 120W, but only the Pro variant supports wireless charging, at up to 50W on compatible Qi charging pads.
Right now only the X90 Pro is set to head for Europe, along with Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Thailand and Malaysia. The vanilla X90 will stay in Asia, with European launch plans still in the works. Exact launch dates are also TBC.
Malaysia will be first to get their hands on both phones, with prices set to start at MYR 3,699 (about £700) for the X90 and MYR 4999 (around £960) for the X90 Pro. That’s a considerable jump from the ￥5499 (about £650) and ￥4499 (about £530) Vivo is asking for the X90 Pro and X90 respectively on its home turf, and more in line with what we’re expecting once they arrive in other territories later this year.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor