New contenders for best camera phone

Vivo has steadily improved its camera game in recent years, with the X80 Pro in particular being one of 2022’s better camera phones. Now, the company has launched the X90, X90 Pro, and X90 Pro Plus.

The three smartphones all look very similar, sharing a faux leather back and an Oreo camera housing. All three devices also have a metal strip on the back running from left to right, complete with somewhat tacky “Xtreme Imagination” branding. These devices are also available in black and red colorways, although the vanilla X90 also comes in an ice blue color option.

The Vivo handsets also share a few features like a 32MP camera in a center punch-hole cutout, a custom  V2 imaging chip, the Zeiss T* anti-glare coating for the cameras, Origin OS 3 atop Android 13, NFC, and Bluetooth 5.3.

The Pro Plus model is undoubtedly the top-end model of the lot. It’s the only phone in the series to utilize the brand-new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, while also offering a 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED screen (3,200 x 1,440, E6), 4,700mAh battery, 80W wired charging, and 50W wireless speeds.

We also see interesting camera upgrades here. The Pro Plus brings a 50MP one-inch IMX989 main camera, a 50MP IMX758 2x portrait shooter (albeit fixed focus), a 64MP 3.5x periscope camera, and a 48MP ultrawide shooter (114-degree field-of-view). All cameras bar the ultrawide sensor offer optical image stabilization as well.

More reading: The best camera phones worth buying

There’s more to the camera side of things than just the hardware, though. Vivo says the X90 Pro Plus is capable of handheld astrophotography, a tilt-shift mode dubbed miniature blur, horizon correction functionality for shooting skyscrapers and other tall buildings, a lens flare portrait mode, and the ability to freeze subjects in low light.

Looking for something a little cheaper? That’s where the Vivo X90 and X90 Pro devices come in. The two devices share a Mediatek Dimensity 9200 processor, 120W wired charging, a 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED panel (2,800 x 1,260), and a conventional optical in-display fingerprint sensor.

There are several differences between the two models, though. The X90 Pro brings a 4,870mAh battery, 50W wireless charging and IP68 rating, while the standard device brings a 4,810mAh battery, no wireless charging, and an IP64 rating.

These differences extend to the cameras as well. The Pro model still retains the same 50MP one-inch main camera and 50MP 2x telephoto shooter as the Pro Plus. This opens the door for aforementioned features such as handheld astrophotography, tilt-shift, and subject freezing too. But it swaps out the 48MP ultrawide lens in favor of a 12MP shooter, and drops a periscope camera altogether.

Meanwhile, the standard device serves up a 50MP IMX866 main camera, 12MP ultrawide camera (108-degree field-of-view), and a 12MP 2x fixed-focus telephoto shooter.

Expect to pay a starting price of 3,699 yuan (~$518) for the 8GB/128GB Vivo X90, going all the way up to 4,999 yuan (~$700) for the 12GB/512GB option. Meanwhile, the X90 Pro starts at 4,999 yuan (~$700) for the 8GB/256GB variant, topping out at 5,999 yuan (~$840) for the 12GB/512GB model.

Want the Vivo X90 Pro Plus? Then you’ll be spending 6,499 yuan (~$910) for the 12GB/256GB base model, while the 12GB/512GB option will set you back 6,999 yuan (~$980).

Unfortunately, the Vivo X90 series is restricted to China right now. There’s no official word on a global launch but it’s worth noting that the Vivo X80 series saw a Chinese launch several months before the global release as well. So fingers crossed that we see a wider release in short order.