vivo X70 Unboxing, Review Philippines: Big Sensors Don’t Lie

vivo X70 Unboxing, Review Philippines: Big Sensors Don’t Lie

Review Verdict: The vivo X70 brings big sensors and stellar photo quality to the Philippines, though its overall value will still rely on its official price when it drops on October 8. 

Pros

  • Bigger sensors for the rear cameras
  • Faster charging speeds and bigger battery
  • Good design

 

Cons

  • Dimensity 1200 trails behind Snapdragon 870 in terms of raw processing power
  • No IP rating and stereo speakers

vivo X70 Review Philippines Specs

  • MediaTek Dimensity 1200 processor
  • 12GB RAM
  • 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
  • 6.56-inch Full HD+ (1080×2408) AMOLED display, 120hz refresh rate, HDR10+
  • 40-megapixel f/1.8 IMX766V main camera with 5-axis OIS and PDAF, 12-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera, 12-megapixel f/2.0 telephoto with PDAF and 2x optical zoom, ZEISS T* anti-reflective coating
  • 32-megapixel f/2.45 selfie camera
  • LTE, 4G, 5G
  • WiFi, Bluetooth 5.1, in-display fingerprint scanner
  • 4400mAh battery
  • 44w fast charging
  • Android 11, FunTouchOS 11.1

Barely five months since the launch of the X60 in the Philippines, vivo is back with a new X-series phone – the X70. Save for the different rear camera module layouts, both the X60 and X70 look very similar on the outside.

While the X70 does introduce a number of new (and better) features, does this make it a more compelling upper mid-range phone than its predecessor?

Unboxing and packaging contents

Like the X60, the X70 has the same textured dark blue box that is typical of any premium vivo phone. The Zeiss logo is still there to remind you of vivo’s partnership with the renowned optical lens manufacturer and the former’s focus on camera performance. Inside the box, you have the phone itself, documentation, SIM ejector tool, USB-C cable, 44w FlashCharge power brick, USB-C to 3.5mm jack adapter, and headset.

While the inclusion of a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle is good news to fans of wired cans, we’re still puzzled with vivo still including a pair of earphones that come with a 3.5mm jack–despite that the X70 does not have a headphone jack.

Design

Both the X60 and X70 have the same footprint (down to the display size), and the only way to differentiate them is by looking at the camera module. On the X70, you have all three cameras arranged vertically, with the LED flash placed beside those three cameras. The revamped camera arrangement is due to the bigger sensors used on the X70’s rear cameras. Like the X60, you get that premium satin finish on the X70 that does an excellent job in repelling fingerprint smudges.

The button and port layout are the same: there’s no headphone jack to be found, and the SIM card tray can only accommodate two NanoSIM cards. Despite being marketed as a premium device, the X70 still lacks an IP rating.

Display

Like we mentioned earlier, the X70 has the same panel used on the X60: a 6.56-inch AMOLED display with a Full HD+ resolution, centrally-placed punch-hole, and a 120hz adaptive refresh rate.

The display of the X70 is just as good as the X60 (and the X50, to an extent): you get niceties like support for HDR10+ content, Widevine L1 for Netflix, and the trademark vibrant colors and deep blacks that AMOLED displays are known for. As good as the display is, the X70 still has a single bottom-firing speaker. We really, really hope that vivo would add stereo speakers to the X-series in the future–especially with more affordable rivals already offering it.

Cameras

Although the X70 has a lower megapixel count than its predecessor, the physical size of the sensor is what matters here. The 40-megapixel main camera has 1.0um pixels (vs 0.8um), while the 12-megapixel camera used on both the ultra-wide-angle and telephoto has 1.12um pixels (vs 0.8um). The bigger pixels translate to better low-light performance and better overall photo and video quality compared to the X60.

Like the X60, the X70 is also co-engineered with Zeiss and makes use of the German optical manufacturer’s T* coating.

The newer camera sensors also translate to better performance with video, especially with the X70’s VIS 5-Axis Ultra Stable video and Gimbal 3.0 feature. Check out this sample footage with Ultra Stable enabled:

While the rear cameras get a big sensor upgrade, the X70 uses the same selfie camera found on the X60. That’s not a bad thing, as the 32-megapixel snapper is proven to take great selfies in almost any lighting condition.

Internals and Battery Life

Powering the X70 is a Dimensity 1200 processor that is paired with 12GB RAM and 256GB internal storage. The Dimensity 1200 is Mediatek’s current top-end processor, being manufactured using a 6nm process, and comes with Cortex-A78 cores with the prime core capable of running up to 3.0Ghz.

While all that looks good on paper, we were surprised at how it trailed behind the Snapdragon 870 powering the X60 in most benchmark tests save for Geekbench Compute. This is because the Snapdragon 870 has a more powerful prime core that runs as high as 3.2Ghz compared to 3.0Ghz on the Dimensity 1200.

That does not mean that the Dimensity 1200 is inferior to the Snapdragon 870: Mediatek’s top-end chip has a better 6nm process (vs 7nm) and newer Cortex-A78 cores (vs A77), along with a higher GPU clock speed. This gives the X70 a better edge over the X60 with GPU-intensive tasks like photography.

The X70 performed very well with general multitasking, and while we could not run GameBench with it, overall gaming performance is as close as the X60 despite the differences in benchmark scores.

While they have practically the same dimensions, the X70 has a slightly bigger battery at 4400mAh, along with a faster 44w wired charging solution. Our video loop test got us close to 14 hours of battery life, while it took us around an hour to top up the battery from 20% to 100%.

Wrap up and conclusions

There’s nothing to worry about if the vivo X70 and its Dimensity 1200 processor trails behind its predecessor, as our review shows that the main selling point of the vivo X70 for the Philippines are the bigger sensors used for all three rear cameras.

The bigger pixels of all three rear cameras of the X70 made it significantly better for photos and videos, proving a point that it is not always about megapixels. Pair that with Zeiss’ T* lens coating, and the X70 is one of the best upper mid-range phones you can get if your priority is content creation.

vivo X70 Review Price Philippines

Pricing will definitely play a big factor to the X70 in going against a stiff upper mid-range crowd. While we still do not know about the official price of the X70 in the Philippines, we think that vivo might give it a sub-Php 30k price tag based on its SRP in China.

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