Bengadgets review said it too .
And btw , this guy its a professional photographer aswell.
Question Vivo x90 pro+ vs S23U
- Thread starter Haskren
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And btw , this guy its a professional photographer aswell.
Kinda more like a 50/50 with each phone having advantages. I look forward to Ben's in-depth review.
Yes, Barry is a pro so I really value his thoughts on this. A lot of people just want the image that pops the most on the phone so they can share on social media. I've been a pro photographer since 2008 - the advantages of a phone that can handle a big sensor is a true game changer, not 200mp
I'm blown away by how fast the Vivo went from being a camera king prominent reviewers raved about, to being an obscure phone only mentioned in brief videos by a couple of youtube Vivo fans
Is there a financial incentive when influencer praise the S23U (ie free phone)? Scrolling through the youtube reviews gushing over the phone seems so disingenuous when the best camera phone is being totally ignored.
The fact its China only is irrelevant - it was China only when they praised it.
Is there a financial incentive when influencer praise the S23U (ie free phone)? Scrolling through the youtube reviews gushing over the phone seems so disingenuous when the best camera phone is being totally ignored.
The fact its China only is irrelevant - it was China only when they praised it.
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He hasn't even used the S23U. - he's explaining why he will only use phones with 1" sensor type. But yeah if you only shoot RAW - only in situations that can turn out great photos - then the Vivo is clearly very good and the 1" sensor tyüe can play it's advantage. But then I feel he will have to drop the x90 as soon as the first phone with 1" sensor type and variable aperture comes out.
But for point and shoot and situations where the conditions aren't good - like trying to shoot a portrait against the sun - the Vivo fails badly. That's where you usually use a flash - but the Vivo flash seems to have no different intensity? Impossible to get something proper out of the Vivo with flash while Iphone of Pixel 7 Pro (haven't had a S23U yet) do turn out usable pictures - not great but usable for social media. Vivo just gives it an utter fail even with gcam and no sense to even try to use the flash. Yes with good HDR flash has much less importance than 10 years ago - but HDR on vivo against backlight for portrait isn't there yet to give me a picture that isn't overexposed while getting detail for the face. (Sun at less than 45° to shooting direction).
There are quite some comparison shots between X90Pro+, S23U, Mate50Pro and some other cams here:
I really feel the Mate50 Pro just turns out way better pictures than the rest. It's clear why it's N°1 on dxomark for me looking at those pictures. I just don't like the colours/exposure on X90 Pro+. Mate50 Pro rules on colours/exposure and both Samsung and Vivo really fail in comparison for my taste.
The audio is also on another level on other phones - dxomark review on audio is out - https://www.dxomark.com/smartphones/Vivo/X90-Pro+#audio - and it's doing badly vs Pixel, Iphone and very likely S23U too (because already S22U was better -and S23U got a big upgrade on Audio recording and slightly better speakers).
I did several trips in the mountains lately - and if I don't put my x90P+ into airplane mode - it just will not get me through 2 days even on light usage. For me overall the back cameras are a draw of Vivo vs S23U, the front camera well it's a failure on x90 series, and except the fingerprint sensor the only advantage I could find would be that Samsung saved the money by dropping apt-x lossless. If you have speakers/headphones that support apt-x lossless but not LDAC that's a huge point. For me missing ANT+ is a much bigger issue - cannot use my x90PP as a bike computer - as nearly all fitness equipment like power pedals use ANT+. And don't get me started on using things like Bluetooth for those - Bluetooth LE is light years behind ANT+ when it comes to battery life. I tried several dual Bluetooth/ANT+ heartrate straps and none even get's 1/4 of the battery life of heartrate straps like the newest ones from Garmin with ANT+ only. But yeah - that's personal preferences - someone needs apt-x lossless - someone else ant+...
BTW - notebookcheck gave the x90 pro+ a very low score for camera overall (while still praising the camera in parts) - not sure how their protocol ended up doing this - but guess it's due to the selfie cam. Battery life get*s commeneted to be on S22U levels (quite reasonable if you don't use Wifi all day...) It's clear that S23 trumps the X90Pro+ on battery life by a lot.
The guy was talking about a camera review . And you talk about battery , audio , bluetooth . You should get some help , im starting to get worried for you .
Indeed.
At this point i am very familiar with the overall pros and cons outside the camera specs. No need to keep hammering home the points like a broken record.
And he now mentions vivo flash being substandard?!? I don't remember ever using phone flash as I hate the look regardless which phone it comes from
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Dxomark who trashed the zoom in S21 and S22 Ulta ?
sorry i am not stupid to follow their ranking.
I only have 1 thing to say about dxomark : M11 Ultra(great phone but 3 years old soon, xiaomi are not some software optimization wizards like google aswell ) is ranked higher than x90 pro plus . That says it all . I got both phones and never in a million years that phone wont have a better camera than the vivo .Even though its still good considering its a phone released 3 years ago .
what about the honor magic plastic garbage bag !!! that phone is PURE S***T and it was ranked for a year as no.1
DXomark = paid reviews and not worth it
I must say i noticed that when Huawei or Honor release any phone it goes straight to top 20 . Even if they release a 200 $ phone .
1. I think the videos are with normal / standard stabilisation. I only use Ultra stabilisation when I'm filming and I like how they look.
2. For the moon photos (min 2:43), I saw some moon photos on the internet taken with the Vivo, and they look like the one in the video, but mine look more like the one the S23 Ultra took. I attached a moon photo I took a few days ago while walking the dog. I took the photo while holding the phone with one hand and the dog was pulling the leash from the other hand, that's why It's a little blurry.
Also, I will be able to test both phones in a few days, my sister just bought the S23 Ultra. In 2 weeks we are going on Holiday in Asia, I will have plenty of time to compare the photos / videos of the 2 phones then.
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If video is your priority, go for the S23U as it seems to have the edge with it's newer OIS. If video is secondary and photography primary camera use, Vivo is the phone for you.
i took 2 Videos with Super steady mood and in low light side by side 14 pro max and x90 pro plus
iphone 14 pro max
vivo x90 pro plus
iphone 14 pro max
vivo x90 pro plus
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8If you lucky there will be some review of the X90 Pro with comparison to S23U in english. You can hope for some Chinese reviews but even in China the X90 Pro+ is not that popular - there will be much more comparisons with Xiaomi 13 Pro.
It's rare that chinese only phones will be reviewed by quality review websites like notebookcheck or gsmarena. Though a review of the X90 Pro is quite likely after the huge advertisement campaign by Vivo and expensive laucnh events... Europe and US are not that likely to feature big events however with the Nokia vs BBK copyright claims. Something strangely rarely mentioned here.
Better battery life is clearly Samsung - many users reporting 10h Dot even on 4G/5G Data. Unherd of for X90 Pro+ (maybe X90 and X90 Pro could get close - they have much better idle drain/battery life).
Price in Europe is definitely in favour of S23U - which sells for 1169 for the 512GB version with warranty, with update policy that will end in 5 years not maybe in 2 years (older Vivo flagships X flagships - only the Funtouch X versions have 3 major updates promised and updates are already running late - no January securiy patch for X90 Pro+ even on trial channel). Yeah no charger but any PD charger works full speed, vs 18w on X90 Pro+.
It's too early to call out the cameras - I feel both aren't top. But Samsung bags Video easily and over 10x zoom. Vivo will likely win 3.5-9x zoom range.
Gorilla Glas Victus 2 vs unknown (likely Schott)
Bootloader Unlock/Root and after updates are over in 5 years likely Lineage OS and others to continue vs crippled software.
Accessibiltiy to Samsung shops for battery replacement in 2-3 years of time - vs unlikely to be able to get any authentic new batteries for the X90 Pro+ outside of China (and looking at the reports on here on older Vivo phones - batteries don't seem to age very well on Vivo flagships)
Android Backup/Auto/Assistant/Maps Timeline and maybe in future more (this list got bigger every 2 years)
The only points that clearly speak vor Vivo are the fingerprint reader and yeah I personally prefer the design too on the Vivo. Though I don't know how well the Vegan leather ages. Some conflicting reports here. And yeah fast charging on original charger with original cable (missing either means slower than Samsung)
Display is identical, processor mainly just a newer batch (but that means lower voltages in general)
Front Camera goes Samsung all the way. Vivo has a midtier phone grade front camera and only 1080P video on the front camera as the sensor does not support 4K/UHD (1440P woudl be possible by third party apps - but none offers that yet. The sensor does support it).
I feel v2 is a joke - seeing that I mainly use Gcam (which cannot use the v2 chip). 8gen2 ISP would be sufficient as I don't see what the v2 brings at all.
Both have much worse colours than Pixel/Iphone in my opinion. Both show great detail at night but that isn't everything. Both have big shutter lag but Samsung at least got the autofocus right (on all cameras and not missing on 2 out of 5) and the autofocus working accurately (while that is not true for the main sensor on Vivo).
Yeah portrait may be better on Vivo 2x camera - but ONLY for typical upper body portrait. If you do full body portrait with the body at 2/3 of the picture size or less - the 2x sensor without autofocus isn't very sharp anymore. Falling back to main sensor is not possible in portrait mode on the Vivo stock camera...
Vivo X90 Pro+ only has Qualcom Fastconnect 6900 vs 7800 on the S23u (meaning no wifi-7, maybe not even wifi-6e, so far no one could confirm it to work! and missing the newest bluetooth LE additions)
S23U got Qualcom X70 modem - unsure what Vivo uses (either botched firmware on X70 or is it x65 or is it a chinese modem?)
Software in general is miles better on Samsung and less buggy. Yeah Vivo is fluid but Samsung too.
I much rather trust Samsung to fix the software deficiencies it has (mainly on camera - everything else seams great) vs Vivo (which has many many fields to catch up - and some like anything google related will not improve except google goes back on offering full support for it's app that aren't system apps. However with EU/USA and so on pressuring google to allow manufacturers to supply phones without google apps as system apps, that strategy will likely widen in future - as it's an indirect pressure point to include maps, assistant and so on as system app - which is impossible for Chinese market phones if China doesn't allow google which is highly unlikely in the next years).
The 2x sensor on the Vivo would be useless if the 1x sensor had variable aperture (because the 2x sensor has only bokeeh that speaks for it, low light/resolution/autofocus and basically everything else are worse vs a crop from the main)
The case on the x90 is a nice plus, but I don't trust cases without air cushion and camera protection - so I don't really see the use for it. If you feel safe enough with that tiny case - you should feel safe enough without any case.
Gcam support will be much better on S23U as there will surely be nice profiles for color/noise while on X90 Pro+ you are left with dubious colours at night on gcams.
If the X90 Pro+ had bootloader unlock and root - some issures would be fixable (like google apps) and if lucky once Vivo stops updates there could be some Lineage OS support. Vivo that way kinda steels the only way for long term life of that phone.6Vivo all the way:
Better battery, biggest it doesn't mean better always (mine last 28-30 hours) with my use, (a lot camera, data, two facebooks, whastapp, telegram, signal, a lot of youtube and business apps like bank aps etc)
Better charging speeds (80w) and 50w wireless.
Better price (buy from aliexpress is like 1000$ or low)
Better cameras and sensors (all 4 of them)
Better low light photos and video
Better design
Vivo gives you charger, cable, and premium case.
Both are fast, there is no clear winner.5
I hope not. Vivo should be able to go straight for March security updates. I guess in 5-6 days there will be the first quarterly Update in the trial channel with March security update.
The December patch came end of December I think. But really adding security patches should be an effort of some hours for a developer except if you need to dig some security holes up for spyware... Android is really modular by now. If Samsung can push that update within hours of google publishing it, can be expected by others to do it within a couple of days for current or last 2 years flagship devices. And no Vivo receives those things at the same time as Samsung, that is at least one month before it's included in the patches (except for actively exploited bugs that could be fixed as soon as possible) Only google software teams will very likely have access earlier.
And the thing is, as soon as those security updates are rolling and published including description there is a much higher chance of the bug to be exploited.
That's why manufacturers get access to them 1 month pre publication!
And that applies to Vivo/BBK too. Not Huawei anymore as they lost their certification. That's why it's really a shame if any Huawei device is updated quicker than the currently newest/most expensive BBK flagship (candybar not foldable).
And yeah I never had my phone hacked so far, but once my sever fully ransomware encrypted because I had setup windows updates to be installed 7 days delayed... (5 days past update Tuesday my remote desktop access got hacked). Any device that is connected to the internet simply needs to be updated quickly once updates are published. With android/linux it's harder than windows Server (yeah I also use Linux servers, but I need one windows server for some work stuff and make damn sure I can quickly restore it should it get hacked because I don't trust Windows much at all). There really should not be any phone out there not updated within 1 month of the security update being published.
E.g. the March security patches have two critical level bugs on Qualcomm hardware. Critical means they can be exploited without physical access or interaction. I didn't look into them but it's highly likely those two bug apply to 8gen2 phones (too).5
Dude why don't you sell your phone, you clearly hate it. From most of your posts, you've made the x90pp sound like the worst phone on the planet. This is a china only release so you should have known what you were getting into.5Ok. i am going to tell my personal experience with x90PP and a short hands on with s23 ultra, which is an incredible phone exactly like the s22u was
1- Camera:
- there is no way s23 camera can produce better pics than x90, its that simple
- even in zoom range ,if its not daylight vivo is better,
- i prefer vivos videos cuz its sharper, but its not conclusive like the photos part
- USE effects and be creative, this phone can produce DSLR quality photos
Battery
- my vivo's battery outlasts my daily driver iphone 14 pro max so for sure its better than s23
- no need to discuss the charging speed, i mean ... come on!
Biometrics:
- comparing both fingerprint and face unlock between these two is a joke, performance is MILES better with vivo
Software experience
i prefer oneui in general and all the useful options it gives but originOS has its own hidden gems, for example Easyshare application on PC and you can mirror wirelessly your phone to your PC Screen. customizing everything, the awesome widgets ,,,,, etc
gaming:
didnt get the chance to play with samsung but daily minimum 2 hours playing marvel future fight, some casual asphalt races and candy crush i can confirm this phone is built for gaming - no heat no lag no dropped frames and most importantly the days with heavy gaming seasions battery lasts minimum 7 to 8 hours SOT
now for unlocking bootloader- personally i dont care
but seriously who wants to unlock their bootloader these days? but if thats what you want. dont buy the vivo
there is no eSim but again "i dont care"
modem and reception and calls quality top notch
now the most important thing: the WOW Factor.
its a head turner, everyone will ask what the hell is this and it gives the this feeling that you have the best device at most of what it does + you are actually the only one have it
