As per the scheduled launch date, Chinese smartphone vendor Vivo has announced its flagship phones for 2017- Vivo X9s and X9s Plus. Both the devices are pretty much identical to each other, however, the Plus model comes with better specifications. The devices will be sold only in China at the moment and being Vivo devices, there's no stipulated date on when they will be available outside China.
In terms of design, both the smartphones feature the similar design language of Apple iPhone 7 with the antenna bands running across the top and bottom of the rear, adding better cellular reception. Also, the design is unchanged from the recently launched Vivo V5 Plus, which is the world's first smartphone to feature dual cameras at the front.
Continuing its trend of packing insane front cameras, the Vivo X9s and X9s Plus has dual selfie cameras of 20MP and 5MP. Both the sensors have an aperture size of f/2.0. The company has downgraded the secondary front camera from 8MP to 5MP. However, Vivo says that the 5MP sensor offers better background blur effect, clear focus, and more artistic sense than the previous one. The selfie cameras also come with support for an LED flashlight.
Vivo has added a 16MP rear camera on both the phones with f/2.0 aperture and LED flash. The Vivo X9s comes with a 5.5-inch Full HD display, while the X9s Plus has a larger 5.85-inch Full HD display. The X9s Plus uses a slightly powerful Snapdragon 653 chip, whereas the Vivo X9s settles with the Snapdragon 652 chip.
Both the devices offer connectivity options such as 4G LTE, VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth, GPS, and micro USB port. It' sad to see Vivo using the micro USB port in its flagship phones in 2017. A fingerprint scanner is built right into the home button of both the phones.
In terms of RAM, the X9s and X9s Plus has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The storage is expandable via a microSD card slot. The Vivo X9s measures 152.6×74.2×6.99mm and weighs 155.3grams.
A 3320mAh battery backs the Vivo X9s, while a larger 4015mAh battery backs the X9s Plus. Both the phones also come with dedicated Hi-Fi chip for enhanced audio output. As usual, the X9s Plus has better audio prowess than the X9s because it uses two ES9018 & ES9603 Hi-Fi chips, whereas the X9s has a single AK4376 Hi-Fi chip.
Lastly, the Vivo X9s costs CNY 2698 (approx. Rs. 25,700), whereas the X9s Plus will set you back at CNY 2998 (approx. Rs. 28,600). As mentioned earlier, the availability of these devices outside China is unknown at the moment.
