Vivo announced that the X30 smartphone will arrive in December armed with the Samsung Exynos 980 SoC and 5G support.

Vivo and Samsung jointly unveiled the Exynos 980 chip 5G chip on Thursday in Beijing.

The Exynos 980 chip supports both non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) networking modes, making it the second dual-mode 5G chip after Huawei's Kirin 990 5G. NSA and SA are two ways of constructing 5G network, with the former still relying on existing 4G infrastructure for some functions.

Currently, most 5G smartphones unveiled in China only support NSA mode. But China will kick off the large-scale construction of SA 5G network, so 5G phones will have to support two modes in future.

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

The Exynos 980 SoC is built on the 8nm FinFET process and consists of two Cortex-A77 cores clocked at 2.2GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores running at 1.8GHz.

The chipset comes with the Mali-G76 MP5 GPU to handle graphically intensive tasks like gaming and photo and video editing.

Vivo didn't reveal many specifications of the X30, but rumor has it that it will boast a 6.5" AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. It is also expected to come with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, and pack a 4,500 mAh battery with 22.5W or 30W fast charging.

For photography, the vivo X30 will sport a 32MP camera on the front, and the back will house a quad camera setup (64MP+13MP+8MP+2MP).

Vivo will also launch a Pro variant of the X30, which is rumored to sport a 6.89" 90Hz AMOLED screen, have up to 12GB of RAM onboard, and pack a 4,500 mAh battery with 44W fast charge support.

In terms of optics, the X30 Pro will retain the 32MP selfie camera, but the quad camera setup on the back will be a combination of a 60MP, 12MP, and two 13MP units.

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 premium segment.