Vivo’s new flagship has a bigger, better in-display fingerprint sensor

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

The scanner has several advantages beyond just being physically larger. You can register each fingertip with a single press on the screen, instead of having to lift and press it several times as with conventional phones. It works very quickly, even if your hands or the screen is wet. The larger surface area also means you can set the phone up 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 touted its inclusion in a recent phone from Vivo’s gaming-focused sub-brand iQOO. The X80 Pro represents the most mainstream deployment of this technology so far.

As a company, Vivo has done more than any other to popularize in-display fingerprint sensors, having introduced 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 ship with a module that’s larger than the tip of your thumb.

Vivo is also increasingly known for its camera prowess these days, and it’s a big focus with the X80 Pro. The Zeiss-branded camera hardware (complete with trademark T* coating on the lenses) is similar to what we saw with last year’s X70 Pro Plus, though Vivo hasn’t announced a Plus version of the X80 Pro yet. There’s 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 gigantic camera bump. One difference is that the 2x lens now uses Vivo’s gimbal-style optical stabilization.

Vivo is also making use of a new custom imaging chip called the V1 Plus. Like Oppo’s MariSilicon X chip introduced earlier this year, the V1 Plus’ hardware is designed to handle image processing in difficult situations like night-time video capture. Another processing-intensive use case on the X80 Pro is a “cinematic video bokeh” mode designed to emulate the oval bokeh seen in scenes with shallow depth of field shot on Zeiss anamorphic lenses. Vivo says the chip also allows for reduced power consumption.

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

We don’t have pricing or regional release information for the X80 Pro yet. It’s likely to hit Vivo’s typical markets of India, Europe, and east Asia.