[Vivo X70 Pro+] piskr:
A Happy New Year to everyone!

Today, when I received the first upgrade of Ocean OS (for Chinese model V2145A) I was thinking, maybe it's time for a little evaluation of the phone.

First thing first: why the Chinese X70 pro+?

It's not the money. After a bad experience with Trading Shengzheng which delayed the purchase for one month, I bought the phone from Wondamobile, but time was not on my side anymore. Weakened € comparing to $ and high demand for the phone drove the price up, and I paid over €1000.

So why the Chinese one? I needed a new phone and I didn't want to wait anymore, besides the global phone was not a reality, even the Indian one was vague at that time. And I really like Chinese phones, this is not my first Vivo, and before I was a lot on Huawei. They usually offer so much versatility and when you get the hang of Chinese configuration you can really make a phone the western one. And talking about the bloatware, a lot of western made phones are massively contaminated too.

Why Vivo?

I'm a kind of character that cares about freedom, I don't want the technical equipment to dictate me configuration, I want to configure my phone myself as I pleased. I started with Motorola when it was a US company, switched to Huawei after its decomposition and finally found a new company giving me enough space about customization in Vivo. Even their Chinese models obviously adapted to Chinese market are open enough and enable customization beyond any other models I've tried, and believe me, I've seen and tried a lot.

Not to mention the perfect state-of-the-art hardware, frequently upgraded and reliable software and excellent battery life.

So, what comes with the OCEAN OS?

Nothing much for westerns at first glance. You can't find most of the improvements you can see on introductory videos (like:

,

,

) on my phone. Yes, you might find them nice and useful, especially if you're an IOS fan, because the new Origin OS is basically an advanced and more featured version of the last IOS. But if you are staying with the original system configuration, you'll face Chinese letters too now and then.

But all new functional applications (Walkman, health, timer, dynamic wallpapers, notifications...) are easy to remove and that is exactly what I did. As you can see in attached pictures, I'm staying with the old fashion android configuration.

And I'm grateful to Vivo allowing me my own customization of the phone after upgrade.

But getting deeper, a lot has been changed anyway. We are talking about a complete system remake, nearly 7GB heavy. Therefore, it's Android 14, polished, totally new look, a better screen, nicer calling app, more useful camera settings and much more. The Origin Os becomes mature with the new upgrade.

The highlights: Display, Camera, Battery, Design

As you can see, the display really shines, serves it purpose in all conditions, and it's a Samsung's masterpiece of 2021.

What about battery? I must admit, I don't measure SOT anymore. Basically, there are two types of phones regarding battery for me: with sufficient and insufficient battery. In between is a gray zone that doesn't really mean anything.

And where is Vivo with the battery. It sevrves its purpose. That means, that for my type of use it usually last two days, sometimes one and something, but never, really never leaves me struggling with the power during one day. I consider myself as a heavy user regarding internet and apps, but I don't do games and don't use stuff around facebook.

About camera: I'm attaching a few comparison photos from X70 pro+ and from Iphone 13 pro max but Vivo is with the initial Origin OS (no Ocean). I consider Iphone slightly better at that time. But after that came two Oceans upgrade and especially the last one targets camera too. I think that regarding dedicated imaging chip, Vivo has a room for improvement. According to the DXOMark data the most worrisome issue in that matter is a slow autofocus: https://www.dxomark.com/vivo-x70-pro-plus-camera-review-flagship-level-camera/

But, as I said, it's too early for a fair camera evaluation, more shooting has to be done and maybe the new system had improved the camera already.

And design: One of the reason I wanted the Chinese phone is that I'm really fed up with the back glass phones. They are heavy and fragile. I really like my faux leader. And it has a good grip, finally I use the phone without a case (except in longer rough outdoor conditions).

On the other side, the long and narrow shape of the phone is not very stable with one hand manipulation. The Iphone 13 pro max is for example heavier, but one hand navigation is somehow easier.

I used to like larger phones, but I changed my mind. Now I believe that previous 6.56 inches phone screens were just right.

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