Vivo will be launching its range of premium smartphones, the X50 series, here in Malaysia next week on 21 July. These include the standard X50 as well as the X50 Pro, but unfortunately, we were told the range-topping X50 Pro+ will not be offered in the Malaysian market.

It’s a little bit of a letdown, given that the X50 Pro+ is the true flagship smartphone in the series; it is the only device in the lineup with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset. The other two devices, on the other hand, are powered by a more modest Snapdragon 765G SoC. It’s still quite a capable chip, of course, but it doesn’t exactly offer flagship-tier performance.

Nonetheless, the X50 and X50 Pro are still pretty interesting premium smartphones, especially the latter. What makes this phone particularly unique is its quad camera system; more specifically, the 48MP f/1.6 primary sensor, which features a gimbal system for stabilisation. This promises better stability over conventional optical image stabilisation, and based on my brief time with the phone, it certainly does.

As for the other three sensors in the X50 Pro’s quad camera system, they’re quite adequate. There’s an 8MP f/3.4 periscope telephoto sensor, an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle shooter, and a 13MP f/2.5 portrait lens. According to Vivo, this combination of sensors allow the phone to do up to 60x “Hyper Zoom.”

Besides that, the X50 Pro also comes with a 6.56-inch 1080p AMOLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate. Not only is it a reasonably fast display with bright, vibrant colours – it’s an AMOLED panel, after all – it curves on either sides of the phone as well. This definitely adds a premium touch to the X50 Pro, even though other phone makers have done it before.

Other specifications of the X50 Pro include 5G connectivity, 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of non-expandable storage, a 32MP f/2.5 selfie camera, a 4,315mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging, and an in-screen fingerprint sensor.

As for the standard X50, it’s largely similar to the Pro model, but it doesn’t have the sophisticated gimbal-style camera or dual curved display. Instead, it sports a more conventional quad camera system made up of a 48MP f/1.6 main sensor, a 13MP f/2.5 portrait shooter, an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle lens, and a 5MP f/2.5 macro camera. It also features a slightly smaller 4,200mAh battery, but the 33W fast charging is retained.

The Vivo X50 and X50 Pro will be introduced in a Malaysia next week on 21 July via an online live stream on Vivo Malaysia’s Facebook page. We’ll find out then exactly how much these two smartphones will cost locally.