At a look
Skilled’s Ranking
Professionals
- Greatest principal digicam in any cellphone
- Incredible quick charging
- Nice show
Cons
- No periscopic zoom lens
- Shaky software program
- Unreliable reverse wi-fi charging
Our Verdict
The X90 Professional’s principal digicam is the very best round proper now, bar none. The remainder of the cellphone is fairly nice too, however rivals edge it on efficiency, software program expertise, and digicam versatility – so solely purchase this if the digicam is your precedence.
Value When Reviewed
Not obtainable within the US
Final 12 months we topped the Vivo X80 Professional our favorite cellphone digicam of the 12 months – so it’s truthful to say that we’ve been a bit excited for the X90 Professional, which takes issues one step additional with a whopping nice massive one-inch digicam sensor.
It’s already given the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely digicam some stiff competitors, and even this early within the 12 months there’s an opportunity this could possibly be 2023’s greatest cellphone for pictures – effectively, apart from Vivo’s X90 Professional+, which is sadly staying a China unique.
The common X90 is not any slouch elsewhere both, with one of many newest flagship chipsets, a welcome grippy leather-based end, and all the standard quick charging and prime show specs you’d anticipate.
Design & construct
- Large, however snug to carry
- Premium faux leather-based rear
- Large digicam module and busy rear design
I’ve combined emotions in regards to the design of the Vivo X90 Professional, however let’s begin with the nice.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
I’m a fan of the black vegan leather-based end you’ll discover on the rear of the cellphone, which makes it each grippier and extra sturdy than most rivals – and helps it stand out amongst the ocean of glass slabs.
It’s sturdy elsewhere too. The IP68 score ought to preserve the cellphone secure from each mud and water, whereas the display is constructed from Schott Xensation α – a current rival to the favored Gorilla Glass.
I additionally like the truth that, regardless of being fairly a big cellphone general, it feels snug and deceptively gentle within the hand. I say misleading as a result of it nonetheless weighs a wholesome 215g, however someway appears to hold that weight effectively.
So what am I much less of a fan of? For starters, look past the leather-based end and the cellphone’s rear is…busy. There’s a subdued Vivo emblem, a much less subdued blue Zeiss emblem, an odd metallic strip with ‘Xtreme Creativeness’ inscribed in calligraphy, and a honking nice digicam module.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
That digicam stands proud of the cellphone half-centimetre, and feels a bit of extra obnoxious for the truth that solely three of the ‘lenses’ are actual – the bottom-right is solely the spot the place a fourth lens would be on the extra highly effective X90 Professional+, which is simply offered in China. The digicam as a complete might be highly effective sufficient to justify its measurement – extra on that later – however you’ll have to study to dwell with its design.
Display & audio system
- Expansive 6.8in, curved AMOLED show
- Full HD+ decision and 120Hz refresh price
- Commonplace high quality stereo audio system
The show is without doubt one of the few areas the place the X90 Professional doesn’t fairly throw every little thing on the wall, although it’s under no circumstances a foul display.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
You get a big 6.78in AMOLED panel, with curved edges that preserve it snug to carry. The 1260 x 2800 decision is loads, although admittedly is a drop down from final 12 months’s X80 Professional, which packed a QHD+ show, as most of the X90 Professional’s rivals do too.
Equally, the 120Hz decision is nothing to complain about, however it’s a disgrace that Vivo hasn’t used a contemporary LTPO show with totally dynamic refresh price from 1-120Hz, which might permit the cellphone to avoid wasting battery when that quick refresh isn’t actually wanted.
1300 nits peak brightness isn’t dangerous, however once more, yow will discover barely higher elsewhere comparable to on the Galaxy S23 Extremely in the event you typically want to make use of your cellphone in vivid, direct daylight.
This are all nitpicks that imply the X90 Professional’s display positively isn’t the greatest round, however continues to be glorious. It’s vivid, punchy, and engaging, with HDR10+ help for relevant content material. Until display specs are your Mastermind specialty, you’ll discover rather a lot to like right here.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
The stereo audio system are a bit of extra underwhelming, which is to say: they’re tremendous. I discover it exhausting to get too labored up about cellphone audio system both method, and these are fairly normal: adequate to play tunes in a pinch or take a name on speakerphone, however with some clear limitations. Once more: not the very best, however adequate.
Specs & efficiency
- Excessive-end MediaTek Dimensity 9200 chip
- Lags a bit of behind Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 rivals
- 12GB RAM and 256GB storage
Vivo made an uncommon selection with the X90 line. Whereas the top-end X90 Professional+ is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 – the chip du jour for flagship telephones – the X90 Professional makes use of rival MediaTek’s Dimensity 9200.
On paper, it’s a equally specced flagship chip, and needs to be an in depth match, although in benchmarks it really lags a good bit behind 8 Gen 2 telephones just like the Galaxy S23 Extremely or OnePlus 11. On the graphics-heavy GFXBench checks included under, be aware that each different cellphone included runs at the next decision – so what appear to be sturdy numbers for the X90 Professional aren’t really so spectacular.
In actuality, I’m undecided how a lot any of that issues. The X90 Professional is so exceptionally quick and fluid that no-one may ever accuse this cellphone of being sluggish. Critical cellular players may even see the attraction of the small step up within the Snapdragon, however no-one else would ever discover the distinction day-to-day.
It in all probability helps that Vivo ships the X90 Professional with 12GB of RAM by default, which helps with nippy multitasking. The 256GB storage allowance can be beneficiant, although it’s maybe a disgrace that there’s no choice to improve this additional – or develop it with a microSD card.
Naturally there’s 5G help, together with the most recent Bluetooth 5.3 normal and the not-quite-latest Wi-Fi 6 – for some purpose it doesn’t help the newer Wi-Fi 6E, although it’s unlikely your router does both.
Digital camera & video
- In all probability the very best principal digicam in any cellphone
- Glorious supporting lenses
- No periscope zoom
Till now I’ve been upbeat, however maybe not awe-inspired, in regards to the X90 Professional. Right here’s the place that modifications.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
This cellphone was at all times going to return all the way down to its digicam. The Vivo X80 Professional was 2022’s greatest digicam, and it could take some doing for Vivo to exceed that – however it has.
Let’s get the principle draw back out of the best way first: there’s no periscopic zoom right here. The principle digicam and ultrawide are joined by a 2x zoom ‘portrait lens’, which nonetheless will get first rate outcomes as much as 5x magnification or thereabouts. Once more, the China-only X90 Professional+ does get that deeper zoom, it’s simply not included right here, which is a slight disadvantage compared to the likes of the S23 Extremely.
For my cash, the standard of the opposite three lenses greater than makes up for that shortcoming. The very best by far is the principle digicam, which is powered by the 50Mp Sony IMX989 sensor. This 1in sensor is the most important round proper now, which suggests it could seize extra gentle for deeper dynamic vary, broader colors, and much better lowlight efficiency, all bolstered by Vivo’s in-house V2 picture processing chip.
At evening there isn’t any cellphone I’d quite have in my pocket for pictures than this. Brilliant lights are fastidiously uncovered to minimise glare with no lack of element from darker spots of the body. And areas that ought to be darkish – just like the evening sky – have a tendency to remain that method. Different flagships come shut, however none ship fairly the identical impact.
The sheer sensor measurement additionally means this shoots a bit of extra like a mirrorless and even DSLR digicam, with a shallower depth of discipline. Which means you get a pure bokeh impact even with out utilizing portrait mode, and pictures that look extra, effectively, photographic.
There’s a draw back: the shallow depth-of-field means it’s straightforward to get bits of your topic out of focus, so that you’ll need to work a bit of more durable to border pictures. Nevertheless, learn to use it and also you’ll take pictures that merely don’t seem like they’ve come from a smartphone.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
I discover the cellphone’s default colors a bit of over-saturated, however fortunately a single faucet allows the Zeiss Pure Color mode – the digicam firm has lengthy collaborated with Vivo on its digicam {hardware} and software program, together with a T* anti-glare coating on the lenses right here.
The Zeiss photograph mode retains true-to-life tones with none lose intimately or dynamic vary, and I a lot want it. There’s a complete vary of different filters, some powered by Zeiss and a few by Vivo alone, together with a surprisingly good classic movie mode and a quite foolish Zeiss possibility so as to add JJ Abrams-style lens flare to each photograph.
Transfer past the principle digicam and also you get a 12Mp ultrawide and a 50Mp, 2x telephoto. The ultrawide is the weakest of the three rear lenses, with a drop intimately, a flatter color palette, and diminished lowlight efficiency. That criticism virtually feels unfair although, because it’s nonetheless among the many higher ultrawides on the market.
The 2x telephoto is even higher. It’s a disgrace there’s no periscope, however this digicam – which Vivo markets as a ‘portrait’ lens – fares effectively sufficient at low zoom ranges to cowl most use circumstances, and good stabilisation means it could even take acceptable zoomed pictures at as much as 10x, although understandably these can’t compete with a real periscope.
With a smaller sensor, it’s no match for the principle digicam in dimmer gentle, however colors and crispness are higher than the ultrawide manages in different situations, making it a happier substitute. And with a broader depth of discipline, it could cowl for the principle shooter when the bokeh isn’t fairly proper, lending a versatility to the entire setup.
The selfie digicam impresses too. The 32Mp sensor is impressively excessive decision, although the aperture of f/2.5 is a bit more restricted. Nonetheless, pictures impress when that element can shine by way of in good lighting, however don’t anticipate any of the low gentle magic you’ll discover from the cameras on the opposite facet.
Video recording from the rear cameras goes as much as 4K@60fps or 8K@24fps. Until you want the decision, you is likely to be higher off sticking to 1080p, at which level you’re ready to make use of the cellphone’s ‘Extremely’ stabilisation, which is among the many greatest round – and helps ship but extra glorious low gentle capabilities.
Battery & charging
- Comfy all-day battery
- Extremely quick 120W wired charging
- Reverse wi-fi charging appears damaged
If digicam is the principle space the X90 Professional excels, then the battery in all probability comes up second.
The 4870mAh cell is beneficiant, and near the most important you’ll discover in a flagship. Most significantly, it interprets to a cellphone that simply lasts a full day of use, and normally a good bit longer.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
With regards to charging, the 120W charger included with the cellphone is about as quick as they arrive. With the cellphone’s non-compulsory ‘Quick charging’ setting enabled, it restored a formidable 70% of the cellphone’s battery – so mainly a day’s value – in simply quarter-hour of charging, one of many quickest scores we’ve ever recorded.
Vivo has additionally included help for wi-fi charging and reverse wi-fi charging. You’ll be able to technically cost at as much as 50W speeds wirelessly, however solely with Vivo’s official accent, which is offered individually – although it’ll work tremendous at slower speeds on common Qi chargers.
Sadly, I’ve so as to add that I’ve discovered the reverse wi-fi charging – which lets you wirelessly cost different gadgets from the cellphone – to be solely unreliable and borderline non-functional. Attempting two pairs of earbuds and one other cellphone, all start to cost however appear to lose the connection rapidly, solely hardly ever managing to maintain charging. Hopefully that is mounted in an replace, as a result of for now it mainly isn’t working.
Software program & updates
- Ships with Funtouch OS and Android 13
- Plenty of bloatware
- Three years of Android updates
Lastly we get to arguably Vivo’s key weak level in its ongoing makes an attempt to interrupt into Western markets: software program.
The awfully named Funtouch OS continues to be Vivo’s worldwide Android pores and skin (in China it as a substitute ships the distinct OriginOS), and it’s nonetheless fairly irritating.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
There’s some variation right here to be truthful. World variations of the cellphone ship filled with bloatware – a lot of which may’t be uninstalled – however as a rule there’s considerably much less of this on official UK and European fashions.
What doesn’t change is the issue of over-optimisation. Funtouch aggressively manages app networking, battery use, and even permissions within the background, creating issues because it shuts off apps you thought have been operating, or blocks notifications.
Different incompatibilities are more durable to elucidate. For some purpose the autofill functionality of my password supervisor, 1Password, won’t work on this cellphone. It really works on each different cellphone I check, together with the earlier Vivo X80 Professional, however for some purpose I can’t autofill a password to avoid wasting my life on this one.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
One particular enchancment is in long-term help at the very least: Vivo is now promising the X90 Professional will obtain three Android model updates (taking it previous this 12 months’s Android 14 and thru to Android 16) with safety patches over the identical interval.
That’s not as spectacular a dedication as you’ll get from Samsung, OnePlus, Google, or some others, however it’s a step up for Vivo, means you possibly can depend on this cellphone to run effectively for at the very least a number of years.
Value & availability
Vivo has to this point solely introduced European pricing for the X90 Professional’s Western launch, not a UK worth. In France, Spain, and elsewhere, it prices €1,199 – a €100 enhance on final 12 months’s X80 Professional, which was £1,199 for the UK market. Anticipate the X90 Professional to price at the very least that a lot within the UK, if no more.
That costs it fairly straight towards opponents just like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely and Apple iPhone 14 Professional Max, however that’s a giant ask for a cellphone with much less model recognition, fewer restore and guarantee choices, and a much less polished software program expertise.
I nonetheless reckon that this is without doubt one of the greatest Android flagship telephones round, particularly the place the digicam is anxious, however at this worth I’d forgive anybody for sticking with what they know.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
For the complete competitors, try our information to all of the greatest telephones proper now, the greatest cellphone cameras yow will discover, or the greatest Vivo telephones for extra from the model.
Verdict
The Vivo X90 Professional is a strong flagship by any measure, with maybe the very best cellphone digicam you should purchase exterior of China – although it’s not with out compromises.
All over the place from the show, to the chipset, to the software program expertise, the X90 Professional is at all times good – and sometimes nice – however by no means the very best round.
That each one modifications with the digicam, the place Vivo’s cellphone is sort of unrivalled, particularly on the subject of the completely good principal digicam – by itself undoubtedly on the prime of its recreation. The one actual digicam criticism is that with no periscope lens, this lacks the flexibility of some rivals, together with Samsung’s S23 Extremely.
Specs
- 6.78in, 120Hz, 2800 x 1260 AMOLED show
- MediaTek Dimensity 9200
- 12GB LPDDR5 RAM
- 256GB UFS 4.0 storage
- Digital camera:
- Vivo V2 ISP
- 50Mp f/1.75 principal digicam (Sony IMX989)
- 12Mp f/2.0 108-degree ultrawide lens (Sony IMX663)
- 50Mp f/1.6 2x portrait telephoto lens (Sony IMX758)
- 32Mp f/2.45 selfie digicam
- 4870mAh battery
- 120W wired charging
- 50W wi-fi charging
- 5G/4G
- Wi-Fi 6
- Bluetooth 5.3
- GPS
- NFC
- In-display fingerprint sensor
- IP68 water and mud resistance
- 164 x 74.5 x 9.3mm
- 215g
- Android 13 with Funtouch OS 13
