Apple and Samsung are hard-pressed to match the stunning and powerful camera system of the Vivo X100 Ultra Android smartphone.
Chinese smartphone manufacturers have traditionally pursued flashy numbers on spec sheets with great enthusiasm. You can always depend on them to surpass Apple or Samsung in terms of screen resolution, RAM, cameras, or megapixel count.
But occasionally, these bigger figures have little significance. More RAM than 16GB and 4K screen resolution are not essential necessities for everybody. However, it is important to consider the current trend towards bigger camera sensors.
With a 200-megapixel telephoto lens and the biggest zoom lens sensor ever—1¼ inches—Vivo's new premium flagship phone, the Vivo X100 Ultra, takes the lead in zoom photography.
Hardware and design
With the exception of its massive camera module, which houses the greatest camera sensors available at the moment, the Vivo X100 Ultra seems like a very typical Android phone. It has a standard aluminum frame and a 120Hz resolution curved OLED screen.
This design is familiar to anyone who has seen an Android flagship phone in the last several years. However, the phone is equipped with the best parts, including an ultrasonic Qualcomm in-display fingerprint scanner and a Samsung E7 2K AMOLED display.
Zeiss' T-Coating helps decrease flare in the camera lenses, and the 5,500 mAh battery is a bit bigger than typical.
A Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM powers the system. Once again, strong yet typical material.
The 200-megapixel zoom lens, which produces lossless 85mm images, and the primary camera, which uses the most recent 1-inch Sony LYT-900 sensor, are the main attractions of the setup. Even the ultra-wide and selfie cameras, which are weak points in other phones and sometimes ignored, have a resolution of 50 megapixels.
With bigger picture sensors and quicker aperture speeds than the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, this camera system appears to be the best available on paper.
Features and Software
On top of Android 14, Vivo's OriginOS software is installed on the phone. For some, OriginOS will require some getting accustomed to it as it differs from the majority of Android software. From the form of the app icons to the screen-turning animations, almost every element of the user interface (UI) may be customized.
With an incredible array of modes in the camera app, Vivo has designed a camera user interface (UI) to match the powerful hardware.
Unbelievably, the camera app now has a new "street photography mode" called "Humanistic Camera." It is effectively a camera app within a camera app because of its unique UI.
To be honest, casual users are going to find this really perplexing. That phone, however, isn't for them.
Both battery life and performance
The camera setup on the Vivo X100 Ultra is astoundingly excellent. As previously hinted, the zoom lens is the best in its class; digital zooms up to 235mm (10X zoom) appear sharp.
Because Vivo has more pixels and a bigger sensor that captures more light, its zoom photographs are noticeably clearer and less noisy than those taken by the iPhone 15 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Because of the bigger sensor, zoom photographs also have greater depth and dimension than the comparatively flat images taken by Samsung or iPhone devices.
Videos have buttery smooth pan views because the primary camera is mounted on a tiny gimbal that stabilizes movement.
The enormous battery and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU allow the phone to function continuously throughout the day, and the Vivo X100 Ultra is the first flagship phone with satellite connectivity for usage in emergency situations in remote locations with poor cellular service.
In summary
Since the Chinese phone market is so competitive, the Vivo X100 Ultra has already been crowned the "best camera phone" several times in 2024. I doubt that the next iPhone or Google Pixel phones will be able to surpass it in terms of photography.
The Vivo X100 Ultra is a flawless device overall, but it doesn't particularly distinguish out from the competition. These days, it seems that mobile has only improved in the image department.
For present, the Vivo X100 Ultra is only available for purchase in China, where it retails for 6,499 yuan (US$898).
