Today, photography remains a critical element in smartphones, but the sport has shifted far away from simply bigger sensors or megapixel counts. Instead, more and more smartphone makers are developing new silicon in-house to satisfy their image quality requirements when off-the-shelf image signal processors or ISPs aren’t enough. Vivo is the latest to leap thereon trend, with a replacement V1 image processor that will debut within the Vivo X70 series coming soon.
Vivo has been pushing the bounds of smartphone photography within the past few years towards rather unorthodox directions. Its most up-to-date achievement is using a physical gimbal system like you’d see on professional camera systems, except during a shrunken-down form. That was introduced in last year’s Vivo X50 Pro and obtain its 2.0 upgrade with the Vivo X60 Pro and Pro+ this year.
For the Vivo X70 series, the corporate are going to be trying something new. Consistent with Vivo Executive VP Hu Baishan, the corporate will introduce its V1 image processor with its next-gen flagship. The chip has been in development for 2 years, consistent with the exec, which suggests it predated its gimbal innovation. The EVP also revealed that Vivo might check out co-developing IP with partners if the present chips within the market don’t satisfy it.
Unsurprisingly, Hu Baishan doesn’t enter technical detail about the V1 chip itself, only suggesting its effects on improving the Vivo X70’s image performance, particularly in portraits or bokeh simulation, night photography, and image stabilization. The latter is especially interesting since the early Vivo X70 doesn’t show an equivalent gimbal system that its predecessors flaunted.
Instead, the Vivo X70, particularly the X70 Pro+, may need a second screen on its back. The phone is also expected to run on a Snapdragon 888, suggesting its launch isn’t too distant. Given that the Vivo X60 series launched earlier this year, that might suggest that the corporate is also adjusting its schedule.
