Vivo X80 Pro review: The best Android smartphone 2022?

With the Vivo X80 Pro conjures the manufacturer has a flagship candidate out of a hat for the first time. But there is also a steep price to be paid for this. TechnikNews was at the event in Berlin and has now put the smartphone through its paces for a few weeks.

With the abundance of Android smartphones, it is really difficult to find the perfect one for you. Now another smartphone brand is stepping up, making the choice even bigger: vivo. We have some of the manufacturer's smartphones tickets & info I have already tested it, but it has not yet managed to gain a foothold in the mass market - especially in the high-end sector. But that should change with the latest flagship. I am convinced that the Vivo X80 Pro puts the top smartphones from Samsung and Apple in the shade. You can read why this is the case in the following test.

tl; dr: Conclusion

Let's get to the point. The Vivo X80 Pro is one of the best Android smartphones of 2022. On the one hand, it comes with top performance, along with good multitasking and fast app launches thanks to large RAM. Furthermore, in cooperation with ZEISS, a top camera has been conjured up here that also performs very well at night. The highlights, the fast fingerprint sensor and the lightning-fast charging of the battery, put the crown on the Vivo X80 Pro.

A big problem is the software, which by default closes apps too aggressively in the background and thus does not always allow push notifications to get through. But there is a solution - we have looked at this in more detail below in the "Software" section. Otherwise, the software runs smoothly, appears tidy and adds useful features that Android otherwise lacks.

In my opinion, minor flaws are the length - it could be a bit more compact - and the lack of eSIM support should no longer be an issue in 2022. For a price of 1.099 euros in Austria, it is, in my opinion, the best Android smartphone you can get. On the other hand, the 1.299 euros in Germany could be an argument against buying it for many, which is a shame. But I continue to rave about the Vivo X80 Pro, making it my best smartphone of 2022.

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The first look: packaging & scope of delivery

The comparatively large packaging will be immediately noticeable to most people. While many manufacturers are making their packaging smaller and smaller and saving more and more on the scope of delivery, Vivo is going the other way. The Vivo X80 Pro is probably one of the few smartphones that includes a leather-look case, a power supply and a USB-C cable in the scope of delivery in 2022. Although that's not all: There are also USB-C headphones on top - even if these will not be the purchase criterion for many.

Without the case, the relatively heavy smartphone, which weighs 219 grams (for comparison: iPhone 13 Pro with 209 grams), easily slips out of your hand. However, the case offers grip, is well made and feels very high quality - in contrast to most of the cases supplied.

Conclusion | Scope of delivery: You can expect decent equipment for this price. While this is no longer the case with other manufacturers, you get a high-quality case, a power adapter with charging cable and headphones in one package.

The multimedia king: display

What do you stare at every day? Of course, the display. If your smartphone has a bad display, it will bother you every day. But that shouldn't be a cause for concern with the Vivo X80 Pro. Buyers get a 6,78-inch AMOLED panel with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, along with a resolution of either 2400 x 1080 or 3200 x 1440 pixels. As for the option, you can make this selection in the settings. Apart from slightly sharper fonts and a shorter battery life, the higher resolution is almost unnoticeable. Still, it's a nice-to-have to let the user decide.

The refresh rate can also be adjusted by yourself, this is set to "intelligent switching" in the settings by default. Depending on the user behavior (fast scrolling, static content), it then switches between 60 Hz and 120 Hz.

Picture: TechnikNews

With a display brightness of up to 1.500 nits, the display shines really well even in direct sunlight. Perfect for the summer, to be able to use the mobile phone well on the terrace or on the beach. Even if it can shine very well, it also gets pleasantly dark on the contrary, if necessary.

The rounded edges of the display let the content appear all the way to the edge and, together with the points mentioned above, ensure a good multimedia experience. Even if this results in certain reflections and color distortions at the edge of the display.

Conclusion | Display: In the test, the display convinced with a sharp display and a strong, but realistic color display.

Lightning-fast charging and staying power: rechargeable battery

Charging the battery relatively quickly is no longer a new thing for smartphones. Almost every current smartphone supports fast charging - even if unfortunately no common standard has been agreed upon or is not used. This means that a separate power pack is required for each manufacturer's fast charging function. This is also the case with the Vivo X80 Pro: If you use the power pack supplied by the manufacturer, you can fully charge the 80 mAh battery in just under 4.700 minutes with up to 40 watts. However, you usually don't charge from 0 or even to 100 - so you can expect to use the charger for an average of 20 minutes a day.

You can get through the day with the battery, an average display usage time of 7 to 8 hours was mostly possible review. In the test, however, we had to use the smartphone for a few weeks to bring the battery into its “top form”.

Conclusion | Battery: The battery delivers a mid-range runtime performance of up to 8 hours. If this is empty, the 80-watt power supply is used, which fills it up again in less than 40 minutes.

Quick unlock: fingerprint sensor

Picture: TechnikNews

The real highlight of the vivo X80 Pro is the fingerprint sensor. This unlocks in a flash, your finger only has to touch the display for a moment to unlock it. With other smartphones, you have to wait until you blink before the home screen opens. We were unable to find out whether it is as secure as the sensors of the competition due to a lack of equipment - at least the fingers of others did not work. If you need even more security, you can also use two fingers to unlock the device. The surface of the fingerprint sensor is so large that you can even fit several fingers on it.

Needless to say, it should be clear in 2022: Of course, the sensor is under the display.

Conclusion | Fingerprint sensor: Let's make it short - the highlight par excellence. The currently fastest sensor in a smartphone.

Something special: software and notifications

So far, the vivo X80 Pro has scored very well review - you should have read it carefully. The software actually did too, everything runs smoothly, multitasking works excellently and apps start quickly. The software, which vivo calls "Funtouch OS", is packed with useful extras that aren't available in Android. In addition, everything looks very tidy and reminiscent of stock Android - well done. The only annoying thing: a few apps were pre-installed, which had probably signed advertising deals with vivo. They aren't annoying, but that's not necessarily necessary for a smartphone at this price.

Now we come to a big problem that I'm not the only one to notice. To save battery, operating systems manage app access and updates in the background. This is all well and good, and energy management works wonderfully on most smartphones. Unfortunately, Vivo's default settings are far too aggressive - push notifications don't come through for the majority of apps. Users have to take matters into their own hands in two steps in the settings so that notifications work reliably:

1. Settings -> Apps -> Show all apps -> Select app -> Battery -> Set battery usage to unlimited
2. Settings -> Battery -> "Background power consumption management" -> Select app -> "Do not limit background power consumption"

Even if this means that the smartphone works with notifications, a setting that is not so strict by default would definitely be desirable. Otherwise you always have to check the apps manually, which is also annoying. However, the strict energy management has one advantage: it is much quieter on the smartphone and the battery life is therefore quite long.

For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned: vivo offers version updates for three years. Thus, users should be able to enjoy at least Android 13 and Android 14.

Conclusion | Software: The manufacturer doesn't do much wrong with its in-house software "Funtouch OS". It looks tidy, offers useful extra functions and runs smoothly. However, the user has to do something about the standard strict power management with sometimes non-functioning push notifications, which is a bit cumbersome.

Night Owl: Camera

With the camera, vivo promises a lot through the cooperation with Zeiss. While many manufacturers only work with Zeiss on design, the focus here is on a more profound partnership. There is a special "T* coding" coating on the outside, which is intended to reduce light reflections. Taking photos against sunlight does not bother the smartphone much. Zeiss is also used again and again in the software - for example, there is a "ZEISS Natural Color" in the camera app, which has been specially calibrated to capture the image as realistically as possible. So no AI optimization or color gimmicks. The vivo V1+, the in-house imaging chip, processes all the material.

Picture: TechnikNews

Before we get to the everyday impressions, let's take a closer look at the camera bump on the back. The lenses each have 50 megapixels (main camera; f/1.57; OIS), 48 MP (ultra wide angle; f/2.2), 12 MP (2x telephoto camera; f/1.85; OIS) and 8 MP (5x telephoto camera; f/3.4; OIS). On the front, the user is greeted by a 32 MP (f/2.45) resolution camera.

The smartphone is also excellent in terms of video: the ZEISS Cinematic Video Bokeh function creates an oval bokeh in the film standard aspect ratio of 2,39:1 and thus a widescreen cinematic lens effect. Special is Art Gimbal Stabilization

Test photos

In my opinion, the camera on the X80 Pro makes it the best camera smartphone and even trumps Apple's lenses. If not even better - especially in the dark, the night owl can still shine with bright and not unnatural-looking photos. Apart from that, the camera scores points in all snapshots with strong, but still natural, colors, good contrast and generally good color matching. Only the AI ​​optimization and the HDR mode go a bit over the top when it comes to colors and details. It's best to take a look for yourself.

The following photos have been losslessly compressed for improved loading time. However, they were neither edited nor changed in their way.

Look inside: Hardware

Last but not least, let's take a look inside the Vivo X80 Pro. The latest top hardware is installed here, which leaves nothing to be desired. There is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, which runs together with 12 GB RAM. In our AnTuTu 9 benchmark, the smartphone achieved a score of 1.001.672. It almost couldn't be better - and it takes 5th place in the ranking.

Extras worth mentioning are connectivity such as Bluetooth 5.2, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/a/ac/ax, 2.4GHz / 5GHz MIMO, with Wi-Fi6 support. Of course, 5G is also included. For the best entertainment, there are dual stereo speakers, "Ultra Large Liquid Cooling" for a cool smartphone head during gaming and use, dual SIM function and an AMOLED HDR10+ display. The Vivo X80 Pro weighs 219 grams and measures 164,57 x 75,30 x 9,10 mm.

Only when it comes to storage, vivo is very reserved: 256 GB is the maximum for Germany and Austria. There is more storage in other markets. It's a pity, moreover, it's not expandable.

Conclusion | Hardware: The Vivo X80 Pro has the latest top hardware - Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, 12 GB RAM and all modern connectivity standards. The only thing that is (too) meager is the storage at 256 GB.

Are you looking for the conclusion? We have turned this article upside down – you can find our summary above. Are you in a hurry? You can get the Vivo X80 Pro right here Buy at Amazon.

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