Vivo’s new flagship has a larger, better fingerprint sensor on the screen

Vivo has announced its latest flagship phone, the X80 Pro, and its most prominent new hardware feature is a larger on-screen fingerprint sensor. The active area is far larger than the small sensors found on most Android phones these days, which means it’s easier to unlock the phone without looking at the screen to adjust your thumb.

The scanner has several benefits besides just being physically larger. You can detect each fingertip with a single tap on the screen, instead of having to lift and tap it multiple times as with conventional phones. It works very fast even when your hands or screen are wet. The larger surface area also means you can set the phone to require two simultaneous fingerprints for an extra layer of authentication.

The “3D Ultrasonic Large Fingerprint Sensor” technology actually comes from Qualcomm, which calls it “3D Sonic Max” and has announced its inclusion in a recent phone from Vivo’s gaming-focused sub-brand iQOO. The X80 Pro represents the most common implementation of this technology to date.

As a company, Vivo has done more than anyone else to popularize fingerprint sensors in the display, after introducing the world’s first implementation on a shipping phone in 2018. Vivo has demonstrated larger scanning surface areas in “Apex” concept phones, including a “full” display version in its 2019 model, but the X80 Pro is one of the first commercial devices to actually come with a module that is larger than the tip of your thumb.

Vivo is also more and more known for its camera capability these days, and that’s a big focus with the X80 Pro. Zeiss-branded camera hardware (complete with branded T * -coating on the lenses) is similar to what we saw with last year’s X70 Pro Plus, although Vivo has not yet announced a Plus version of the X80 Pro. There is a 50-megapixel main sensor, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, a 12-megapixel 2x telephoto and an 8-megapixel 5x periscope telephoto, all housed in a giant camera bump. One difference is that the 2x lens now uses Vivo’s gimbal-style optical stabilization.

Vivo also makes use of a new custom image chip called V1 Plus. Like the Oppos MariSilicon X chip introduced earlier this year, the V1 Plus’ hardware is designed to handle image processing in difficult situations such as video recording at night. Another treatment-intensive use case on the X80 Pro is a “cinematic video bokeh” mode designed to mimic the oval bokeh seen in low-depth scenes recorded on Zeiss’ anamorphic lenses. Vivo says the chip also allows for reduced power consumption.

The X80 Pro’s other specifications are typical of a 2022 flagship Android phone. There is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage space. The screen is a 6.78-inch 1440p curved OLED panel with a refresh rate of 120Hz. The battery is at 4,700mAh and chargers up to 80W with a cable or 50W wirelessly through Vivo’s proprietary FlashCharge system.

We do not yet have price or regional release information for X80 Pro. It is likely to hit Vivo’s typical markets in India, Europe and East Asia.