The Vivo X60 Pro aims to become the best option in Spain for photography lovers, and it presents very good reasons to support this bet.
Vivo is one of the youngest brands in the Spanish market , arriving last October as another alternative from China. But far from being another Chinese brand, Vivo’s commitment has been original like few others; all the devices launched so far fulfill a function, or cover a very specific niche.
The star of the brand, the Vivo X60 Pro, is no exception. We are facing a mobile completely focused on photography, where the vast majority of its innovations are concentrated, and where we find names of the stature of Zeiss and Gimbal .
The advertising slogan of this model is “Perfect Shot”, so we can see that in Live they aim high, as we also saw in the last European Championship, where their brand appeared constantly; But this is a case in which marketing is supported by a good product that lives up to such a promise.
One of the best for photography
I am going to say it in the clearest way possible: the Vivo X60 Pro is one of the best mobile phones to photograph and record video on the market; it might even be the best, depending on the type of user. We have seen too many phones that include many sensors on the back, only to find that our photos are just as blurry as ever; but with the X60 Pro, I feel like I couldn’t get rid of any of the included sensors .
The main one is the 48 MP, a great sensor at the top of the set that is the one that will give us the most joy. The key is not so much in the resolution; this sensor outperforms many 108 MP that I have seen for a simple detail: the aperture of f / 1.48, which allows you to get much more lightusual.
The result is clear photos regardless of the type of lighting we have available; As much as if we have studio lights, as if we use the sun at any point of the day, I have the security of being able to take very good photos.
And if there is no sun, too: the night mode is hard to believe at first, due to the clarity of the photos it gets, as if there was a spotlight where there isn’t; Although in my tests, that has resulted in unnatural photos, at least we can see what we are photographing. We also have access to a night portrait mode.
Vivo claims that Zeiss’s role in these cameras goes far beyond simply putting a sticker next to the main camera, and that it uses the company’s co-engineered imaging system in addition to its optics ; the result is the “Zeiss style” in our photos. I will not presume to know how he does it inside out, but that did not matter to me when I saw the photos he took.
The Zeiss touch is noticeable in one of the most striking portrait mode effects I have seen, a “rotating bokeh”, whereby the subject is sharp and the background is blurred, worse as if we were rotating on an axis.
But without a doubt, the most striking trick is the Gimbal 2.0 stabilization. In effect, we are talking about a physical stabilization, not digital, in which the sensor moves at the same time as our hand , in five axes.
It’s something to see in person, especially since if you look closely, you can see how the sensor moves. But more impressive are the results: in photography, the images are sharper, and in the interface we can see at all times how the Gimbal is working and if we are moving too much.
On video, our recordings get a “soft” effect, as if we were using ?? a real gimbal. However, it has its limitations, and it will help us more to stabilize the video if we are walking, for example, but it will not be able to correct too sudden movements.
It is accompanied by an ultra-wide angle of 13 MP, and although the aperture is f / 2.2, it still takes very good photos and allows the use of technologies such as an ultra-wide night mode with a 120-degree field of view.
Finally, the telephoto lens is usually the most useless sensor of all those that manufacturers put, for a simple matter of low resolution. Not with the X60 Pro, where the 13 MP sensor with 2x optical zoom performs very well, capturing the small details that we might miss.
Finally, we cannot forget about the front camera, especially when it boasts no less than 32 MP and offers such high quality in portrait mode.
Lightweight and complete
This is more than a camera attached to a mobile: the smartphone part is also very well treated. The build quality is very good, with a glass back and an aluminum frame that gives it the “premium” touch that I expected in mobile of these characteristics.
I especially liked that the glass is of the “frosted” type; It is a very elegant matte effect that also prevents fingerprints. There is also a version in blue, with a more attractive effect. The mobile feels very good in the hand, thanks in large part to its reduced thickness and weight, of just 176 grams.
We find all the technologies that we can expect from a modern pointer mobile, including a fingerprint reader on the screen that works very fast, more than others that I have been able to try.
Once unlocked, we find a system that is practically pure Android, without many additions; Although it officially uses a customization layer, Funtouch, in practice not much is added. We barely have a couple of Vivo’s own apps and some pre-installed apps like Facebook’s, which we can remove without problems.
Thanks to this, and to the 120 Hz screen , the system feels very fast and responds perfectly to all our actions. The 2376 x 1080 resolution is decent for 6.56-inch size, and the treatment of colors and blacks is all the good we could hope for, being AMOLED technology.
The fact that it is curved around the edges may please some and annoy others; As a result, the case cannot cover the edges and that can be fatal if we drop the phone looking for the best angle for our photos. It is a choice that has surprised me, but I suppose that Vivo has felt the need to opt for a more premium design in its top-of-the-range mobile.
On the other hand, where it has really cut a bit is in the processor, which is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 ; It is difficult to admit that there can be a high-end Android mobile that does not have the leading chip, the Snapdragon 888, but here it is. Personally, I think Vivo needed to cut corners somewhere to make up for the investment in cameras, and hence the processor choice.
The good news is that the performance is good, probably helped by the 12 GB of RAM. In my tests I have noticed a somewhat lower performance in the most demanding apps, such as video games, but otherwise, it has not been a big problem.
The question is how it will behave in the future, but for now, the Snapdragon 870 is still a good chip. The set is completed with 5G support and fast charging, although it is “only” 33W, the charger is included in the box, and the battery lasts somewhat longer than usual in this sector.
For photographers
The Vivo X60 Pro has made me dream of being a better photographer ; I’ve wanted to learn more about this art, and I can’t think of a better compliment. Added to the quality of the included sensors is a good use of algorithms and features that will surprise anyone, such as Gimbal stabilization.
When concentrating on photography, this mobile suffers in other aspects, such as the power due to its Snapdragon 870 processor. In other markets, Vivo offers the X60 Pro +, with a Snapdragon 888, but for some reason it is not offered in Spain, probably for a reason. price issue.
And it is that the Vivo X60 Pro already has a relatively high price for the hardware it uses: 799 euros . In that price range, there are many more powerful smartphones, with a better screen and with more premium materials; but none, absolutely none, have cameras comparable to these.
Therefore, the Vivo X60 Pro is absolutely recommended if photography is our priority; and if it is not, it may be the excuse we needed to make it so.
