Vivo X300 Pro review – a perfect phone the next iPhone needs to beat
The Vivo X300 Pro is perhaps one of the most underrated camera brands on the market, partnered with Zeiss, the camera system puts Apple and Samsung to shame.
Amateur Photographer verdict
Without a doubt, this is the best camera phone I’ve tested so far this year, and easily outperforms phones from Samsung and Apple.
- Exceptional image quality from all cameras
- Telephoto performance impresses
- Telephoto macro available and is awesome
- Zeiss collaboration gives great portrait options
- Selfie camera with AF
- Lower rated battery in Europe
- Limited availability worldwide (wish it was better)
The Vivo X300 Pro follows on from the X200 Pro, which follows on from the X100 Pro, a phone I was so impressed with, that it changed the way I took product shots for work. The X300 Pro is Vivo’s flagship camera phones and could be considered one of the best smartphones for photography, but is it? Continue reading to find out.
At a glance
- 50MP wide, f/1.57, AF, OIS, 1/1.28inch sensor, 24mm
- 200MP 3.5x telephoto, f/2.67, AF, OIS, 1/1.4inch sensor, 85mm
- 50MP ultra-wide, f/2.0, 1/2.76inch, with AF, 15mm
- 50MP selfie camera with f/2.0, 1/2.76inch, AF
- 4K 120p video with 10-bit Log (4K 60p portrait video)
- 6.78inch 4500 nits, 120Hz, HDR 10+ screen, Armor glass
- 6510mAh Silicon-carbon battery / 5440mAh (Europe), 90W wired, 40W wireless
- 5 years OS upgrades, 7 years of security
Features
All three cameras are Zeiss branded and even the selfie camera has Zeiss branding – not all camera units on Vivo phones get Zeiss branding on other models.
The main 1x camera offers a reasonably bright aperture of f/1.57 (roughly f/1.6) – some phones occasionally offer an f/1.4 aperture, but these are quite rare, so f/1.6 is good to see. The lens is equivalent to 24mm, and offers auto-focus, optical image stabilisation (OIS), and a relatively large 1/1.28inch sensor (with 50MP), and is the largest sensor on this phone, again 1inch sensors on smartphones is relatively rare, and they’ve got to fit multiple camera sensors and lenses in there somehow. The main camera is said to have a “Gimbal grade” stabilisation system for video.
The telephoto camera gives 3.5x telephoto zoom (3.5x on screen, and 3.5x the 24mm main camera), with 85mm equivalent, and relatively bright f/2.7 aperture, with AF, OIS, and a 1/1.4inch 200MP sensor. Previous telephoto cameras on the X200 Pro and X100 Pro have been extremely impressive, so I’m hoping for similar results from the X300 Pro as well, and with a large 1/1.4inch sensor it should produce good results – this is the largest sensor size seen in a smartphone telephoto camera – with Honor also using this size in the Magic8 Pro (although Honor have a slightly brighter f/2.6 aperture).
The ultra-wide-angle camera uses a 50MP 1/2.76 inch sensor, with an f/2.0 aperture, auto-focus, and gives a 15mm equivalent view. Perhaps not as wide as some competitors, but still wide enough for most scenes, although your own preferences may vary. It’s offered as 0.6x on-screen, and not 0.5x if that matters to you. With auto-focus this can be used for ‘Super Macro’ photos, although you will get less distorted images if you use the telephoto camera for close-ups.
The selfie camera sees an upgrade compared to the unit in the X200 Pro, with this now being a 50MP Zeiss branded camera, with an f/2.0 aperture, and auto-focus – yay! An improvement over the 32MP fixed focus selfie camera on the previous model – both give a 20mm equivalent view. There are still some competitors that have fixed-focus selfie cameras, which should be a thing of the past considering Samsung (and Apple) have had auto-focus on selfie cameras for at least 5 years!
All cameras use pixel-binning to give 12MP images, but you can select the higher resolutions if you want. If you’re so inclined, you can even buy a Zeiss branded Telephoto Extender Kit – and this gives you a 200mm equivalent telephoto reach (2.35x the 85mm lens), with further zoom available.
Handling and design
On the back you’ll find the large circular camera unit with Zeiss branding and T* coating. There’s a ring around the main round section, giving the appearance off a ring that you could potentially turn, but this is not possible, as it’s fixed in place. It’s a nice design touch even if it is only decorative, and include “Vario-Apo-Sonnar” branding to go with the Zeiss name.
The volume down button can be pressed twice in quick succession to open the camera app, and by default this opens it into Street Photography mode. You can adjust this to go into your favourite photo mode.
On the left is another button – this button lets you quickly switch on the torch by double-pressing, or holding lets you switch between the sound modes.
The build quality feels extremely pleasing, with a flat front and flat back, Vivo really do seem to have nailed the build and design of this phone. The edges are nicely smoothed on the corners to avoid sharp edges digging into your hand, and the quality feels up there with the best, perhaps even better than some close competitors. There’s an IP68/IP69 rating – with wet hand touch designed to let you use the phone even if your hands are wet.
The phone is available in Dune brown, (this model), Phantom black, Cloud white, and Mist blue.
MediaTek Dimensity 9500 may not have the cachet of Qualcomm chips, but the Geekbench v6 performance is still impressive, with a score of 3503 single core, and 10442 multi-core, it’s very close to the performance of the Honor Magic 8 Pro (with the latest Qualcomm chip).
The battery uses Silicon-Carbon technology in the Lithium-ion battery, giving greater capacity than those without, however, the rating varies depending on the version you buy, with 6510mAh Silicon-carbon battery on the global version and 5440mAh in Europe (Oppo manages 7500mAh with the Find X9 Pro). It’s an unfortunate downgrade if you’re in Europe, but it’s still better than the 5000mAh you get in Samsung phones, so I guess it’s still a win in comparison. There’s 90W wired charging, and 40W wireless charging, and the version I got did not come with a charger in the box.
The camera app
All the camera modes are along the bottom including the video mode – due to there being a high number of modes, it can sometimes seem like it takes a while to get to the mode you want. But you can edit these if you want to make it simpler or add one of the other modes.
Photo styles give you four main styles with Vivid, Zeiss and Texture as options, as well as Black and White. Beyond this there are a range of “Personalised” colour options with the likes of ‘Classic negative, Positive film, Clear blue and many more. These personalised modes can be toned down if you want. I stuck to the main Vivid mode. These colour modes or filters (or styles) can be accessed in most shooting modes.
The Portrait mode lets you shoot at 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 135mm (equivalent) focal lengths, with 85mm and beyond using the telephoto camera. You can also choose preset portrait styles such as “Natural” “Radiant” and so on. There’s a whole range of make-up effects which can easily be switched off, and you can even adjust the level of bokeh effect (from f0.95 to f16 available). Beyond this you can customise the bokeh style with a range of Zeiss branded background blur, designed to give bokeh that is the same as you’d get from specific Zeiss lenses like the Distagon, Planar, Sonnar, Biotar and others, with natural also available. Portrait video also lets you set the background blur level, and “Cinematic” is an option too.
The Pro mode gives you full manual controls, with all lenses available, plus you can adjust the brightness, saturation, contrast and sharpness, should you wish.
Landscape and night includes a number of long exposure modes (very similar to other phones, these do appear to be baked into the main CPU if you ever want to spend some time looking up the features of the latest MediaTek/Qualcomm processor). In here you’ll find a star trails option that allows exposures up to 2 hours long.
Performance
There is impressive colour matching between all three cameras, and noise is extremely well controlled, with all cameras producing images with plenty of detail, as well as lovely colour saturation. If you prefer less vivid images, then the Zeiss colour option does give slightly more muted tones.
Zoom can do an impressive job of giving detailed images up to 10x, and beyond this AI jumps in to help keep detail in shots. Sometimes this gives good results, but as ever, using too much zoom is rarely a good idea, particularly if image quality is a priority of yours, but for sharing on social media it might not matter as much.
The main camera performs well in both good light and low-light, with great looking images. This camera is used for 2x zoom photos, and these too look really good, with “optical quality” results.
The ultra-wide-angle performs well with excellent colour and good noise control, although as the sensor is smaller than the main camera, you can see more noise if you go looking for it.
The telephoto camera really does impress, with impressively sharp images, with plenty of detail that should impress even the most picky photographer including those who like to “pixel peep” and view images at 100%. When you use more zoom, results can look pretty good, although it varies depending on what’s in the frame.
When using the ultra-wide-angle for low-light images, you do notice that the results aren’t as good as the main camera, but results are still impressive, and up there with the best camera phones.
Macro and close-up performance
You can use the ultra-wide-angle camera to take close-up shots, but for the best results using the telephoto camera is a much better option. Selecting “Super Macro” from the top of the screen switches to the telephoto camera, where 3.5x and 7x options are available.
The telephoto camera gives you much more pleasing images when compared to using the ultra-wide angle camera on this (and other brands),with lovely smooth background blur and plenty of detail on the subject.
As mentioned selecting the Super Macro option (at the top of the screen, rather than being a shooting mode), switches to the telephoto camera, and gives additional options, including adding additional background blur, as well as letting you use manual focus if you want.
This is thanks to a periscope telephoto camera that has been setup to allow relatively close focusing and a 2.7:1 macro ratio (roughly 14cm focus distance). You’ll find a similar focus distance on the Honor Magic8 Pro, and a closer (9cm) focus distance on the Oppo Find X9 Pro.
Results really are very impressive, and I would put this up there as one of the best smartphones for telephoto macro photos.
Using the 3.5x telephoto camera for portraits…
The telephoto camera gives great results during the day, and at night, and 85mm equivalent is a very pleasing focal length for portraits too, something that is maximised with the tie-in with Zeiss, with a range of additional options. The bokeh is pleasing, and can be adjusted to give a more creative look if needed.
Video
8K is available from the main camera, and offers 1x and 2x options. 4K is available from all cameras, with the highest framerates (up to 120fps available from the main and telephoto cameras), and 4K 60fps from all cameras including the ultra-wide and selfie cameras. Zoom can be used up to 20x, and when using Full HD and 4K video the results are fantastic.
Value for money
The Vivo X300 Pro offers an impressive feature set, however the £1200 price (for the 512GB version) makes it pretty expensive (from Amazon.de). However, this is very similar to the price of the 512GB Pixel 10 Pro XL, the same price as the iPhone 17 Pro Max with just 256GB ram, and less than the 512GB Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. If the Vivo X300 Pro is available near you, your prices may be even more favourable. Unfortunately it’s not officially available in the UK or the US.
Verdict
I wish Vivo made this camera phone available in every market, as the performance of this model really is impressive. It’s replaced my X100 Pro as the phone of choice when it comes to telephoto close-ups and product shots. It’s also difficult for me to think of any areas where Vivo have compromised, and in terms of the cameras on the phone I’d say they haven’t, as every single camera has auto-focus and Zeiss branded optics.
Build quality is top rate, and with IP68/69 rating you can use it in all kinds of weather and not have to worry about it, although, even with waterproof phones you shouldn’t keep it underwater (or in saltwater) for any extended periods. If this phone is available to buy where you are, then it’s a no-brainer – I doubt you’ll be able to find a better phone.
Controls and options are impressive, and for portraits, close-ups, low-light, and almost every other type of photography I can think of, this camera phone delivers the goods. Portraits are impressive, with lovely background blur (whether you use the Zeiss options or not), and great subject separation which also benefits close-up photos. In fact, I’m so impressed by this phone, that I am seriously considering switching to this from my current Samsung.
Specifications
| Main cameras | 200MP telephoto, f/2.67, 1/1.4inch, 3.5x optical, OIS, AF 50MP main, f/1.57, 1/1.28inch, 1x, OIS, AF, 24mm 50MP ultra-wide, f/2.0, 0.6x, AF, macro, 15mm |
| Selfie camera | 50MP f/2.0, auto focus |
| Video | 8K 30p / 4K 120p, 60p |
| Screen | 6.78inches, 4500 nits, 120Hz, HDR 10+, Armor glass |
| Battery | 6510mAh (China) / 5440mAh (Europe) battery (region dependant) (90W wired, 40W wireless) |
| Chipset | MediaTek Dimensity 9500 |
| RAM/storage | 16GB/512GB (others available) |
| OS/Updates | Android, 5 years (OS), 7 years (Security) |
| Protection | IP68/IP69 |
| Dimensions, weight | 161.2 x 75.5 x 8mm, 226g |
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