After a series of many leaks and rumours, Chinese smartphone maker Vivo on Thursday officially announced its latest two selfie-centric smartphones, the Vivo X9S and X9S Plus in the Chinese tech market. The Vivo X9S has been launched in China with a price tag of CNY 2,698 (approximately Rs. 25,700 or $400) and will go on sale starting July 20 (Thursday) via company’s official online retail store in Gold, Rose Gold, and Matte Black colour options. On the other hand, the Vivo X9s Plus has been priced at CNY 2,998 (approximately Rs. 28,600 or $440) and will go on sale in China on July 8 (Saturday) at 10:00 AM in Gold, Rose Gold, and Matte Black colour options.
Both the new smartphones are now listed on company’s official China website for pre-booking. Note that, the Vivo X9S will be up for pre-booking on July 14 (Friday), while the bigger version Vivo X9S Plus is now already open for pre-booking on the company’s official website. The main highlights of the Vivo X9s and X9s Plus are their dual front-facing camera setup (20MP + 5MP) and Google’s latest 7.1.1 Nougat operating system. Sadly, the company has made no official announcements about the pricing details and availability of these two flagship smartphones for other markets.
Design:
In terms of design, both the Vivo X9s and X9s Plus smartphones borrow a lot of its characteristics from company’s previous X9 and X9 Plus. The Vivo X9s and X9s Plus are sport a metal unibody design and a sleek back finish with curved metal edges, meaning that the devices come with a relatively premium build quality. Both the smartphones feature capacitive navigation buttons and a front-mounted fingerprint sensor, that is housed underneath a capsule-sized physical Home Button of the devices.
The power-key button and volume up-down keys are all placed on the right-hand edge of the devices and a 3.5mm audio jack is placed on the very bottom edge of the phone. The rear camera lens is still positioned exactly the top left corner and two front-facing cameras are fixed on the top left corner of the front panel. The speaker grilles are seen at the bottom edge of the handsets along with a microUSB 2.0 charging port sitting in the middle. However, the overall design is quite similar to what we have seen on the Vivo’s X9 and X9 Plus.
Vivo X9S Features and Specifications:
Starting with the smaller version, the new Vivo X9S sports a 5.5-inch full-HD Super AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and a scratch resistance 2.5D curved glass coating on top. The smartphone is powered by a 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (MSM8976) octa-core processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded via a microSD card. Talking about its software front, the Vivo X9S runs on Google’s latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system with company’s proprietary FunTouch 3.1 custom UI skin running on top.
In terms of photography, the Vivo X9S comes with a dual front-facing or selfie camera setup, which is the main highlight of this device. However, the dual front-facing camera setup includes a 20-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture and a 5-megapixel sensor. The front camera also comes loaded with company’s Beauty 3.5 software. On the rear side, the Vivo X9S features a 16-megapixel camera with PDAF, an f/2.0 aperture, autofocus and an LED flash module. The company says that the camera has a dedicated DSP image optimization chip for shooting contents in RAW format.
For connectivity, the Vivo X9S offers various connectivity options including dual-SIM dual standby, 4G voLTE, Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac), Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/ A-GPS, USB OTG, an AK4376 audio chip for Hi-Fi audio, a 3.5mm audio jack and a microUSB 2.0 port for charging and data transfer. Sensors on the device include a Proximity sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Accelerometer, Fingerprint (front-mounted), Gyroscope and E-compass sensor. On the battery front, the Vivo X9S packs a decent 3,320mAh non-removable battery. Dimensionally, the device measures 152.6 x 74.2 x 6.99 mm and weighs 155.3 grams.
Vivo X9S Plus Features and Specifications:
Moving on the bigger version, the new Vivo X9S Plus sports a 5.85-inch full-HD AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and a scratch resistance 2.5D curved glass coating on top. Under the hood, the device is powered by a 1.95GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 (MSM8976SG) octa-core processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded via a microSD card. Talking about its software front, the Vivo X9S Plus also runs company’s proprietary FunTouch 3.1 custom UI skin, based on Google’s latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system.
For photography, the Vivo X9S Plus houses the same dual front-facing or selfie camera setup. The dual front-facing camera setup includes a 20-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture and a 5-megapixel sensor with an f/2.4 aperture. The front camera also comes loaded with company’s Beauty 3.5 software. Talking about its main camera setup, the Vivo X9S Plus features a 16-megapixel camera with PDAF, an f/2.0 aperture, autofocus and an LED flash. The Vivo X9S Plus also has a dedicated DSP image optimization chip for shooting contents in RAW format.
In terms of connectivity, the Vivo X9S Plus supports the same connectivity options like the Vivo X9S. Connectivity options offered by the Vivo X9S Plus include dual-SIM dual standby, 4G voLTE, Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/ A-GPS, USB OTG, an ES9318 audio chip for Hi-Fi audio, a 3.5mm audio jack and a microUSB 2.0 port for charging and data transfer. Sensors on the device include a Proximity sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Accelerometer, Fingerprint (front-mounted), E-compass and Gyroscope sensor. On the battery front, the Vivo X9S Plus packs a 4,015mAh non-removable battery. Dimensionally, the device measures 162.59 x 78.84 x 7.25mm and weighs 183.2 grams.
