Digital camera telephone champ with a key weak spot

I really like cellular cameras, and for the previous 12 months I’ve been having fun with taking snaps with the vivo X200 Professional. Between the incredible digital camera zoom, number of video seize choices, and premium extras, there was lots to love. The X200 Professional wasn’t excellent, although. A bizarre glare subject on the first digital camera, together with loads of bloat, a dearth of AI options, and a ho-hum replace pledge sullied the in any other case nice bundle.

Now, vivo has launched the X300 Professional, its subsequent flagship telephone for international markets. So does the brand new telephone choose up the baton and run even sooner, or does it stumble and fall in a heap? I took it for a spin for a number of weeks to search out out.

The excellent news is that the X300 Professional usually takes high-quality photos throughout the board. Very like the vivo X200 Professional, the 200MP 85mm periscope digital camera (f/2.67, Isocell HPB sensor) is my favourite shooter right here. It captures sharp, detailed snaps whereas doing job of freezing transferring topics. And there’s all the time a snapshot mode in case you’re taking pictures significantly fast-moving topics. Picture high quality holds up nicely out to ~10x, however I additionally discovered that 20x pictures weren’t all the time a whole waste of time. There’s a clear lack of topic element in lots of 20x snaps I took, however the clear strains, pleasantly shallow depth-of-field in some conditions, correct focusing, and principally managed distinction actually helped lots. You possibly can all the time go for the vivo X300 Professional’s enjoyable exterior lens in case you worth larger high quality long-range zoom.

The X300 Professional captures some detailed, full-resolution 200MP pictures, and I’m glad to see the corporate has all however eradicated the splotchiness seen on earlier X collection telephones, such because the X100 Extremely. It additionally tentatively appears like vivo has diminished blown highlights right here in comparison with the X200 Professional, however shot-to-shot occasions nonetheless take round 4 seconds to course of.

Okay, so that you’ve acquired all these megapixels, however what are you able to do with them? Along with full-resolution portraits and panorama/evening mode snaps, vivo now provides a cloud-based AI Story characteristic, which successfully creates a two- or three-part “storyboard” out of a 200MP picture. I like the thought of harnessing all these megapixels to successfully get a number of pictures from one snap, however this characteristic is extremely depending on the scene, and it generally highlights an arbitrary ingredient within the scene or a topic that’s fairly blurry.

What in regards to the different cameras? Properly, the telephone additionally has a 50MP LYT-828 primary digital camera (1/1.28-inch) and a 50MP ultrawide lens (Isocell JN1). The 24mm primary shooter is slightly too extensive for my liking after utilizing the X200 Extremely and its 35mm main digital camera, but it surely nonetheless captures pictures with loads of resolvable element, extensive dynamic vary, and minimal noise. I’m additionally glad to report that the X200 Professional’s unpleasant glare subject has been mounted on the X300 Professional. Thank goodness. Try a comparability under.

After the X200 Extremely delivered a top-tier ultrawide digital camera with the identical sensor as the principle shooter, I’m considerably disillusioned to see the X300 Professional revert to the mid-tier Isocell JN1 digital camera sensor. Unsurprisingly, ultrawide pictures through this digital camera are a transparent step under the first and tele lenses, that includes splotchy textures, sometimes inconsistent colours, and minor ghosting in a few conditions. Luckily, vivo’s processing does assist ship strong ultrawide leads to combined lighting.

Very like different vivo handsets, the X300 Professional provides very sharp output by default throughout all three lenses. This generally will get into over-sharpened territory — see the three.5x shot of the ginger kitten in the principle gallery. I additionally observed that the cameras would concentrate on facial sharpness however fail to supply this identical degree of readability on the remainder of a topic’s physique (reminiscent of arms). Bizarre.

In any occasion, vivo nonetheless lets you cut back sharpness with a devoted slider, but it surely additionally encompasses a new Uncooked Lighting toggle. Keshav Chugh, vivo’s senior product supervisor of imaging results, advised Android Authority that this toggle disables HDR and successfully retains the digital camera algorithms to minimal ranges. In apply, I observed a extra contrasted look with darker shadows and brighter highlights. Nonetheless, I didn’t see a lot of a change when it comes to sharpness within the scene under.

Chugh additionally shared his recipe for photos that seem like you shot them on a “good, costly small digital camera.” This entails enabling the Uncooked Lighting mode, switching to -20 brightness and +10 distinction through the impact adjustment sliders, and utilizing the Constructive Movie fashion. It’s only a pity that vivo doesn’t allow you to rapidly share these recipes as we’ve seen with Nothing telephones.

I’m additionally glad to see some high-quality selfie pictures right here through the 50MP front-facing digital camera. That’s a aid, as I more and more observed the X200 Professional provided disappointing selfie photos the extra I used it as a every day driver. The brand new telephone nonetheless manages to ship clear, sharp snaps at nightfall, and I used to be pleased with the stability between element and noise discount.

Different notable options embrace 4K/120fps Dolby Imaginative and prescient slow-mo seize, 4K/120fps LOG video, and 4K/60fps cinematic video. I assumed video seize was nice, though I observed some minor judder when panning. As for 4K/60fps cinematic seize, the telephone really processes footage after the actual fact within the gallery app, however Chugh advised us that this was nonetheless a local 4K/60fps video and that solely the depth map was processed afterwards. However as with the 4K/30fps possibility, video high quality appears good in ideally suited situations. In any other case, it’s not unusual to see flickering on folks’s faces when utilizing cinematic video in less-than-ideal lighting — that’s an issue I’ve additionally observed on the X200 Extremely. You possibly can view full-resolution picture samples through our Google Drive folder.

The X300 Professional is the primary telephone with the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset, so what must you count on when it comes to efficiency? Properly, Geekbench 6 exhibits that the CPU is a transparent step above the Dimensity 9400 in each single- and multi-core workloads. It’s additionally marginally higher than the Snapdragon 8 Elite on single-core scores however lags behind relating to multi-core workloads.

The first Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 telephones supply a notable lead over the Dimensity 9500 in each exams, significantly in multi-core workloads. In the meantime, GPU stress exams present disappointing ranges of sustained efficiency. It begins off nicely, however rapidly dips to the identical broad efficiency ranges as previous-generation flagship telephones.

Luckily, the X300 Professional handles real-world duties simply high quality. The telephone flew by means of most duties, reminiscent of multitasking, launching apps, and demanding video games. Within the case of the latter, I used to be in a position to play Warfare Thunder at a clean tempo with graphics turned up and a 60fps cap, whereas Genshin Affect additionally delivered a fluid expertise with principally excessive graphics and a 60fps body restrict. Nevertheless it’s price noting that common racing title GRID Legends isn’t supported but, ostensibly as a result of builders not allowlisting the Dimensity 9500 chipset simply but.

Simply my largest subject with the X300 Professional {hardware} is the downgraded battery in most areas. The telephone ships with a 6,510mAh battery in China and a few areas, however a 5,440mAh battery in Europe. This resolution additionally has implications for general endurance. I used to be usually in a position to get four-and-a-half to 6 hours of screen-on time with typical utilization, whereas gentle utilization yielded simply over eight hours. Against this, the X200 Professional, with its 6,000mAh battery in most areas, usually delivered eight hours of screen-on time with my typical utilization. Don’t count on two days of utilization with the X300 Professional’s smaller battery, except you utilize battery saver mode and take different power-sipping measures. What a disgrace.

When you’ve drained the battery, you’ll be able to make the most of 90W wired or 40W wi-fi charging. I’m additionally glad to see the telephone helps PPS charging, because it goes from 1% to a full cost in round 58 minutes through my 65W PPS charger with out the quick charging toggle. That’s nothing particular within the grand scheme of issues, however I’m glad extra manufacturers are embracing fairly quick speeds through the usual protocol.

That is additionally the primary vivo telephone outdoors China with the OriginOS pores and skin, as vivo has dropped the FunTouch OS branding. OriginOS 6 bears greater than a passing resemblance to iOS 26 and its Liquid Glass aesthetic, but it surely additionally brings a number of notable additions. This consists of the enjoyable Flip Playing cards lock display screen wallpaper characteristic, the Movement Prompts characteristic for combating movement illness, Mac integration, extra widgets, bypass charging, and a redesigned notification shade. I’d’ve preferred to see a moist contact mode for the show, together with extra common AI options and extra AI choices that don’t require a vivo account.

I’m additionally glad to report that the X300 Professional is scheduled to obtain 5 main Android OS upgrades and 7 years of safety patches. That’s not fairly on par with Google, Samsung, and HONOR’s seven-year pledge throughout the board, but it surely’s nonetheless a major enchancment over the earlier 4+5 replace coverage.

The vivo X300 Professional is a robust contender for one of many greatest digital camera telephones in the marketplace, owing to incredible digital camera zoom, a slick primary digital camera, and a ton of picture/video choices. Luckily, the telephone additionally delivers a much-needed software program overhaul, quick wired/wi-fi charging, a sturdy IP score, and a responsive fingerprint scanner.

It’s not all nice, although. The most important subject is that many international locations will obtain a downgraded battery, leading to disappointing endurance. vivo doesn’t actually have an excuse when flagships from stablemates OPPO and OnePlus supply big batteries due to dual-cell designs. In any other case, efficiency beneath sustained load is a priority, the ultrawide digital camera looks like an afterthought as soon as once more, and there aren’t many AI options outdoors of images instruments. The telephone can even set you again a reasonably penny at €1,400 (~$1,618), though this matches the Galaxy S25 Extremely.

However, the X300 Professional is certainly price contemplating in case you’re after a superb digital camera expertise and don’t thoughts paying “Extremely” cash. However there are additionally a number of options price contemplating. The OPPO Discover X9 Professional ($1515 at Amazon) provides compelling specs and equally nice digital camera {hardware}, however a a lot bigger battery.

In the meantime, the Google Pixel 10 Professional XL ($1199 at Amazon) brings polished cameras and loads of AI methods, however lags behind when it comes to general horsepower and quick charging capabilities. Lastly, the vivo X200 Professional ($749.99 at Giztop) continues to be accessible in some international markets, and it has a bigger battery than the X300 Professional in all however two international locations, specifically Austria and Hungary.