Vivo X80 Series: Everything You Wanted To Know

Ever since Vivo launched the X60 series in March 2021, the company seems to have stuck to a bi-annual release cycle for its flagship smartphones. This is why we saw the company also announce the X70 series in the same year. Now that it's been seven months since the X70 series arrived, it was about time Vivo launched the first of its 2022 flagships — and that is precisely what they did earlier today when it launched the Vivo X80 series in China. The two smartphones that are part of the X80 lineup include a 'vanilla' Vivo X80 — and a pricier X80 Pro. It remains to be seen if the company has plans to launch a Pro+ edition of the X80 series.

An interesting thing that Vivo has done this time around is to offer the Pro variant of the phone in two different processor options. The Vivo X80 Pro, therefore, can be purchased either with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip or a MediaTek Dimensity 9000 inside. The vanilla X80, on the other hand, only comes with the Dimensity 9000 SoC. At first glance, the Vivo X80 lineup seems to be an incremental update over the X70 series in terms of design language — so what's new?

The more accomplished of the X80 twins, the Vivo X80 Pro — at first glance — looks quite similar to its less expensive sibling. With both devices being offered in similar color options as well, the only visual cue that can help you differentiate between the two is the rear camera array. Unlike the X80's triple camera setup, the more expensive X80 Pro gets an additional camera lens, thereby endowing it with a quad-camera setup at the rear. Less noticeable things include the slightly larger dimensions, thickness, and weight. While not noticeable to the average Joe, the slight differences in size between the two devices mean that the X80 Pro is able to pack a 4,700mAh battery — as opposed to the 4,500mAh unit on the X80. At 6.78-inches, the display used on the X80 Pro is the same size as the X80, except this time around the resolution — at 3200 x 1440 pixels — is much higher. The refresh rate (120Hz) and the contrast ratio (8000000:1) remain unchanged, though.

The processor options are where the X80 Pro gets incrementally more interesting compared to the X80. This Pro version of the X80 comes in a standard variant that uses Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip from Qualcomm. For those interested, Vivo also offers them the option to buy the same phone with a Dimensity 9000 chip. It would be interesting to check if there are significant performance differences between the two — although recent benchmarks have shown that the two are evenly matched. Like the vanilla X80, the X80 Pro also comes in 8GB and 12GB RAM options with two storage variants: 256GB and 512GB (both UFS 3.3).

The Vivo X80 series runs Vivo's own OriginOS based on Android 12. The pricing for the different variants of the device include a Vivo X80 with 8GB+128GB at 3699 yuan ($560), a 8GB+256GB variant at 3999 yuan ($610) and two 12GB variants: 256GB at 4399 yuan ($670) and 512GB at 4899 yuan ($745). The Vivo X80 Pro comes in two packs of prices. The Dimensity edition has a 12GB+256GB version available for 5999 yuan ($915), while the 12GB+512GB version will cost you 6699 yuan ($1020). The Snapdragon version of the Pro comes in three sizes: 8GB+256GB for 5499 yuan ($840), 12GB+256GB for 5999 yuan ($915), and 12GB+512GB for 6699 yuan ($1020).

Both phones come in three color options; black, turquoise, and orange. As always, these new smartphones have received a China-first launch. Vivo has traditionally launched its X series devices in several Asian and European countries, and we expect that to happen with the X80 lineup as well. U.S. customers, however, are still out of luck, and the only way for them to get the Vivo X 80 series would be to import them.