Vivo’s X60 Smartphone Series, a Collab with Zeiss, Launches Globally

Vivo has officially announced that its X60 series of flagship smartphones that it developed in collaboration with Zeiss is now available across major international markets. The X60, X60 Pro, and X60 Pro+ are the inaugural devices in the Zeiss x Vivo partnership.

Vivo originally announced the X60 series in China in January, but today the phones launch in multiple international markets.

Vivo says that the X60 series provides “professional-grade camera technologies” thanks to its co-engineering partnership with Zeiss. The company says that the partnership with Zeiss is mainly with lens design and system integration.

“To further redefine mobile photography, Vivo and ZEISS have co-engineered an imaging system that has passed the demanding quality management process by Zeiss, including original optical review, camera hardware testing, and actual photography verification,” Vivo explains. “During this process, Vivo absorbed ZEISS’s optical design philosophy and ZEISS has also helped to optimize imaging on the X60 series.”

Vivo says that the X60 series has passed the Zeiss certification process, including requirements to be labeled with ZEISS Optics marks such as T* and Tessar as a result of “the intense collaboration of R&D, design, quality, and testing experts.” Vivo claims that the camera system delivers exceptional imaging effects through excellent aberration control, better image quality, and less stray light, ghosting, and other image artifacts.

“X60 Pro+ has certified compliance to Zeiss T* coating through further innovations on lens coating, which has a visibly improved light transmission, reduced reflections, and effectively achieved less stray light and ghosting and other image artifacts,” the company continues. “As a result, the image quality is significantly enhanced. Moreover, X60 series has implemented Zeiss Biotar portrait style to reproduce the signature bokeh by leveraging advanced technologies including progressive bokeh simulation and distributed blurred spot rotation.”

The Vivo X60 series marks the first time that any smartphone features the unique Zeiss Biotar “swirly bokeh” portrait style.

The X60 Pro+ has a quad-camera array that features a 50-megapixel, 48-megapixel, 32-megapixel, and 8-megapixel set of cameras. The X60 Pro has three cameras (48-megapixel, 32-megapixel, and 8-megapixel) plus a 32-megapixel front-facing camera.

The Pro+ utilizes what Vivo calls a “Dual Main Camera System” composed of that 50 MP Ultra-Sensing Samsung GN1 Sensor with f/1.57 large aperture and 100MP super HD mode, as well as a 48MP Ultra-Wide Gimbal Camera with 114-degree field of view for steady footage control. The below video is very likely a dramatization of the expected result.

Vivo combined electronic image stabilization with an extra Z-axis of rotation for image stabilization and now claims that the X60+ is capable of 5-axis video stabilization “effect” which should allow for more stable, clearer, smoother video and photo capture.

The X60+ also features what the company calls Pixel Shift Ultra HD imaging technology, which combines eight images taken in parallel to create extremely high-resolution finished files. This feature is available even when the camera is handheld, as the X60+ can actively correct for the motion of your hand during shooting.

“The X60 Pro and X60 Pro+ are equipped with Gimbal Stabilization 2.0. For X60 Pro, the Pixel Shift Ultra HD Imaging can be achieved through the gimbal camera system, while for X60 Pro+, its 48MP ultra-wide camera is equipped with the gimbal camera system, realizing 114° wide-angle capture. With it, there is no need for optical distortion correction to meet the super HD, ultra-wide night, and ultra-stable large field-of-view capture needs,” Vivo says.

“Pixel Shift Ultra HD Imaging technology is creatively utilized, supplementing enhancement of image details and sharpness after eight pictures are taken in parallel to help users get ultra-HD images. After zoom resolution is enhanced, pixels are filled when zooming in to simulate higher-resolution optical zoom effect; moreover, Pixel Shift Ultra HD Imaging can replace the traditional demosaicing process to make details richer, reduce moiré patterns and minimize false colors as each pixel has more accurate RGB information, which ultimately brings superior capture experiences with clearer images and more accurate colors to users.”

Vivo has also packed a set of other features into the camera capabilities, such as a sport mode that utilizes the gimbal camera and uses motion detection to track moving subjects, as well as a “Kids Snapshot” mode that is designed to capture ideal-light images of highly-mobile children. It also uses AI noise reduction algorithms to make for overall better low light photos and videos and supports a night mode and night portrait mode, night video mode, super panoramic mode with night scene HDR algorithms, and night scene wide-angle capture.

All the camera features are in addition to the slim design, 120hz refresh rate and 240Hz response rate running on an edge-to-edge AMOLED display that supports HDR10+. The X60 Pro + is powered by the Snapdragon 888 processor while the rest of the series runs on the Snapdragon 870.

For more details on the Vivo X60 series, you can read PetaPixel’s original coverage of the China launch here, but bear in mind there are some differences in what Vivo is offering between regions.

For example, the X60 Pro launched in China with a periscope camera — which is still found on the X60 Pro+ for the global launch — which is not found on the international version of the phone. When asked about its exclusion, Vivo said that it was left off due to “different needs and preferences of consumers in the global market.”

International pricing was not specified per region at the time of announcement, but PetaPixel will update this story accordingly should that information be provided after publication.