[First Cut] Vivo X60 Pro: Classy, compact and cameras with a touch of Zeiss

This seems to be the week of phones with high-profile camera brand tie-ups. Hot on the heels of the OnePlus 9 series which came with Hasselblad partnership comes Vivo with its V60 series, which has a tie-up with Zeiss optics. We have had a chance to take a look at the Vivo X60 Pro to see what it brings to the table.

Classy and surprisingly compact

The look itself left us impressed. The Vivo X60 Pro is not too different in overall design from the X50 Pro we saw last year, but then the X50 Pro was a very good-looking phone and the X60 Pro follows in its very good-looking footsteps. At a time when phones are getting a little large, the X60 Pro is surprisingly on the compact side. It is 158.58 mm tall and a surprising 7.59 mm thin, and tips the scales at a relatively lightweight 177 grams. That is very compact and light for a phone with a 6.56-inch display and a 4200 mAh battery.

It feels good in the hand too, with a frosted glass finish on the back (we got the Midnight Black edition), or to use Vivo’s term, “Satin Finish.” Yes, the slightly layered rectangular camera unit juts out and will also pick up dust in its slight step-like structure, but we like the quiet class the whole phone exudes, right from the curved glass front with Schott Xensation protection, to the smooth, gently curving Gorilla Glass 6 back. There is a tiny blue Zeiss logo on the camera unit, and on its lower portion is the Zeiss Vario-Tessar branding. some lens specifications. Right on top of the phone are the words “professional photography.” And that takes us to the cameras.

Not THAT big on megapixels, but big on features

There has been a lot of hype around the “Zeiss optics” of the Vivo X60 series, and well, the cameras do promise a lot on paper. Vivo has opted to stay out of the massive megapixel and quad camera battles – the X60 Pro comes with a triple camera arrangement at the back with a 48-megapixel Sony IMX 598 sensor with Vivo’s famous Gimbal stabilization (which works like a Gimbal for more steady videos and has been upgraded to version 2), and two 13-megapixel sensors, which chip in for functions like ultrawide, macro and portrait. There is also a 32-megapixel front-facing sensor.

Most of all, there are sackfuls of shooting options here, which Vivo claims will give you a very special camera experience – there are the Zeiss biotar portrait mode, Pixel Shift Ultra HD imaging, Pro Sports mode, Super Night Portrait, Ultra Wide Night Mode, and Kids Snapshot, among others. If OnePlus had kept the Hasselblad effect on its cameras understated, Vivo is clearly being more upfront about it. How it all works, of course, is what matters (hint: wait for the review).

Snapdragon 870 cometh

There is some very powerful hardware onboard the X60 Pro as well. The display is an AMOLED full HD+ one with a 120 Hz refresh rate with the option to switch between 60 Hz and 120 Hz automatically using the “smart switch” system. The device is also the first in India to come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor, which is a step below the 888 but is still very much flagship class. Paired with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage, it should be able to handle pretty much everything you can throw at it. There are alas no stereo speakers (or a 3.5 mm audio jack)and no expandable memory, but on the flip side, you do get 5G (for what it’s worth), Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi, and GPS.

All of which runs on Android 11 with Vivo’s Funtouch OS 11.1 running on top of it. The UI might not be the geeks’ favorite with its surfeit of apps and features, but consumers might not mind it as much. Powering the phone is a 4200 mAh battery and there is a 33W charger in the box as well with support for FlashCharge. No wireless charging, though.

At Rs 49,990, the X60 Pro gets right into the OnePlus 9 zone and brings its own camera weapons to the fight. Just how well it does in comparison to that Never Settler and indeed other phones in the zone will be revealed in our detailed review. For now, we can say that the Vivo X60 Pro has got the looks and most of the specs to be a top-flight flagship. To find you just how Snappy that Dragon is or how zesty the Zeiss is, stay tuned for our review.

There is some very powerful hardware onboard the X60 Pro as well. The display is an AMOLED full HD+ one with a 120 Hz refresh rate with the option to switch between 60 Hz and 120 Hz automatically using the “smart switch” system. The device is also the first in India to come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor, which is a step below the 888 but is still very much flagship class. Paired with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB of storage, it should be able to handle pretty much everything you can throw at it. There are alas no stereo speakers (or a 3.5 mm audio jack)and no expandable memory, but on the flip side, you do get 5G (for what it’s worth), Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi, and GPS.

All of which runs on Android 11 with Vivo’s Funtouch OS 11.1 running on top of it. The UI might not be the geeks’ favorite with its surfeit of apps and features, but consumers might not mind it as much. Powering the phone is a 4200 mAh battery and there is a 33W charger in the box as well with support for FlashCharge. No wireless charging, though.

At Rs 49,990, the X60 Pro gets right into the OnePlus 9 zone and brings its own camera weapons to the fight. Just how well it does in comparison to that Never Settler and indeed other phones in the zone will be revealed in our detailed review. For now, we can say that the Vivo X60 Pro has got the looks and most of the specs to be a top-flight flagship. To find you just how Snappy that Dragon is or how zesty the Zeiss is, stay tuned for our review.