Vivo targets shutterbugs with new 5G handsets

Chinese smartphone vendor Vivo is ratcheting up resources to target photography enthusiasts with its latest 5G-powered handsets X30 series.

The move came after Vivo shipped the largest number of 5G smartphones in China in the third quarter of this year and consolidated its reputation as one of the most aggressive players in establishing a beachhead for commercializing 5G.

Priced from 3,298 yuan ($470), the X30 series features what the company calls a "super telephoto periscope" lens. The lens supports a zooming capability of 60 times.

It also comes with the Exynos 980 chip, which is jointly developed by Vivo and Samsung. Exynos 980 supports both nonstandalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) networking modes.

Vivo said earlier that more than 500 of its research and development engineers have partnered with Samsung for the past 10 months to jointly develop the chip. It has shared with Samsung more than 400 features and functions it accumulated to complement the latter's platform.

Exynos 980 has an integrated 5G modem, which can enable peak downloading speeds of 2.55Gbps in a sub-6GHz spectrum. It also can greatly improve energy efficiency.

Vivo has already unveiled several 5G devices in China, and its iQOO Pro targets middle-range consumers with a very aggressive pricing strategy. Its NEX 3 5G is positioned to appeal to the premium segment.

Liu Hong, president of Vivo China, said the company will launch 5G smartphones that are priced below 2,000 yuan in the first half of 2020, and it aims to cover all price ranges from 1,000 to 6,000 yuan for 5G smartphones in the future.

In the third quarter of this year, the company has shipped the largest number of 5G smartphones, accounting for 54.3 percent of the 5G smartphone market in China, data from the market research company International Data Corp show.