When Stuff isn’t being distracted by Vivo’s flagship range, we’re training our eyes on the company’s too-expensive mid-range efforts. Most recently, it was the Vivo V70 FE that passed under our noses, and now we’ve scented the next big thing. That’d be the Vivo V80, which the Chinese smartphone-maker just unveiled in India.
Vivo V80 on the way
If you’re familiar with… smartphones, you’ll know just how iterative most of ’em are. Vivo’s V80 is no different. Almost literally. Compared to the V70, it doesn’t do much to justify the upgrade, other than a bigger 7,200mAh battery. The device is currently scheduled to launch on 6 October in India, with South Africa expected to follow.
When that’ll be, we can’t be sure. The Vivo V70 and V70 FE only landed in South Africa in April this year, two months after their debut elsewhere. Whether that’ll hold for the V80 remains to be seen. We reached out to Vivo’s South African arm to determine a local launch date and price, but hadn’t heard back at the time of publication.
The 6.59in display has at least seen a minor upgrade. The 6.59in size and 1.5K resolution are unchanged, but it’s now repping an OLED panel on top of it all. It’ll still reach as high as 5,000 nits of brightness, and drops down to as low as 1 nit when needed. Where the Vivo V70 got by with a 120Hz refresh rate, the V80 ups that to 144Hz.
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The one area you can almost guarantee to see an upgrade — the chipset — is the one Vivo’s holding close to the chest. For reference, the Vivo V70 included the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, meaning we may see the Gen 5 take its place. Vivo has opted for a new look where the cameras are concerned, with the island now stretching the phone’s width.
Here’s hoping the hardware inside can live up to the Zeiss name, which has lent its expertise here again. It’s still got two 50MP sensors at the forefront, with one of those handling telephoto duties. Vivo’s not spilling the beans about its ultra wide-angle camera, but we’re guessing it’ll stick with an 8MP shooter as we saw on the V70. Flip it over, and you’ll find the 50MP selfie camera embedded in the display.
Official pricing for the Vivo V80 is still unknown at the time of writing. There’s no indication the V80 will be any more affordable than its V70 sibling, which launched with a hefty R23,000 price in South Africa.
