Vivo X90 Pro Plus Vs IPhone 14 Pro Max Vs Pixel 7 Pro Camera Comparison: Is The New 1inch Camera Sensor That Revolutionary?

Before starting this camera comparison, you should know that you have two different color modes in the Vivo Camera app, Standard with slightly more saturated colors and "Zeiss Natural" with more toned and realistic colors. We'll stick with the default, but we appreciate having the option to use more neutral colors and think other phones should add this option as well.

Main camera

If you go with the default settings, Vivo has very bright colors

You can immediately tell that Vivo prefers these vibrant, highly saturated colors over the dim colors of the iPhone and Google Pixel. The exposure is pleasantly bright, the shadows are raised and it looks very pleasant but not completely realistic. Of course, switching from this to neutral color mode helps here.

We see the same thing in this second shot, where the Vivo image stands out in saturated colors. This look is reminiscent of how Samsung Galaxy phones handle photos, and they follow this color style as well.

This next image shows a preference for warmer colors and brighter exposure on the Vivo compared to the cooler, slightly darker green images on the iPhone and Pixel.

Finally, we have an interesting day shot that does a good job of showing the trend of each phone.

The iPhone has a slightly brighter exposure and a sharper look with cooler green tones, but overall it's much closer to reality.

The Vivo has a cartoonish look with exaggerated colors and shiny shades.

On the other hand, the Pixel has muted colors with slightly underexposed black beats.

Details

The iPhone has some problems with Halo artifacts

The Vivo captures a decent amount of detail, and if you crop the image you can make out small text. The Pixel is close but not as good overall, and the iPhone is a distant third because its photos have the lowest detail.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max has an extreme sharpness that you can't turn off. This leads to visible "halo" or "glow" artifacts, especially around the edges of contrasting objects, such as isolated tree branches in sky backgrounds and more. My Vivo and Pixel devices don't have this problem.

Dim light

Vivo's large sensor makes all the difference

In low light, this large sensor really shines on the Vivo X90 Pro Plus, and when you look at this image on the big screen, you can see the benefits: less noise, sharper details, better capture from a global perspective.

There is also a difference in imaging across the three phones. The iPhone 14 Pro Max fits the true night theme with deep shadows and dark skies, but it can be so dark, you won't even know there are trees behind a building. On the flip side, the Vivo offers a more pleasing image, but not as bright and realistic as real life. Pixel hits the middle here.

In this indoor shot, the Vivo took an overexposed shot of a burning Christmas tree, with pixel-perfect dynamic range and detail preserved.

In this last low-light shot, we can see that the snowman on the iPhone is overexposed, while the Pixel is a bit dark and the Vivo can take a better photo here.

Very wide

Close the call and the winner is up to personal choice.

All three phones have extremely wide profiles: the iPhone has a 13mm field of view, while the Vivo and Pixel are slightly narrower at around 14mm.

The Ultra Wide camera's image processing is the same as any phone's main camera, which means:

• The iPhone has more natural colors with cool green tones and a more contrasty look with less sharp detail.
• Pixel chooses a smooth HDR look with soft and light shadows
• Vivo prefers warm, saturated colors

Overall, the Vivo's extreme colors left this reviewer a bit distracted, but then again, the Zis's normal mode is what you're talking about. The specs are generally larger on the Vivo and Pixel than on the iPhone.

Zoom in on the comparison

Pixel seems to do the best job when zooming

Vivo X90 Pro Plus has two zoom cameras: 2x zoom and 3.5x zoom.

Comparing 3.5x zoom shots to the Pixel's original 3x zoom lens and 3x digital zoom, the Vivo results in less noise and detail, but colors are still more extreme and washed out when zoomed in.

Unsurprisingly, the Pixel comes out on top with 5x zoom, as it has a separate 5x zoom lens that the other two phones lack, but the difference isn't that big.

Also, since all phones use digital zoom, we shot at 10x and found the Pixel to be more natural and clean, while the closely followed Vivo had some artefacts and while there was plenty of contrast, it didn't look remotely as clean as the iPhone. The third was much less detailed than the other two.

Portrait mode

Google had better do something about the Pixel 7 Pro portrait mode mess.

Using the 2X zoom mode seems like the most versatile way to take a photo in portrait mode, but surprisingly the Pixel's 1X and 2X modes are the same as 1.7X and 2.5X, which is how the UI labels the Pixel's camera. Misleading.

The iPhone takes balanced shots with a nice natural look, the Vivo looks too bright to me so it looks slightly processed, while the Pixel has less detail and looks too grainy.

The Pixel just drops out when you switch to front-facing, but the iPhone makes good use of the 3x zoom lens. Vivo's 3.5x zoom lens might be a little too narrow for close-up face shots, but we think it works well for pet shots in portrait mode.

Finally, a straight shot.

Selfie

The Pixel has the widest selfie camera.

The selfie camera follows trends we've seen before: brighter colors on the Vivo, a more balanced look on the iPhone, and darker exposure on the Pixel. The iPhone seems to find the best balance in this initial setting.

You have a wide and close-up selfie mode on all three phones. It's wide pixels wide, so it's easy to fit a large group of people on it.

close

So is the Vivo X90 Pro Plus finally the new camera king we've all been waiting for?

After using it for a while, we think it's a versatile camera that performs well in low light. It takes lovely photos with lots of detail during the day and no visible problems except for maximum color rendering at the default setting, but that's okay.

Vivo X90 Pro Plus vs Google Pixel 7 Pro | Camera test comparison