vivo X100 Ultra review

High-res 6.78-inch OLED with Dolby Vision

The X100 Ultra is equipped with a 6.78-inch display that is all sorts of excellent. With a 1,440x,3,200px resolution in a 20:9 aspect, it has a 517ppi pixel density. It's an LTPO OLED panel that can dynamically adjust refresh rates in the 1-120Hz range and uses 1440Hz PWM for dimming. Peak local brightness is listed at 3000nits and there's support for Dolby Vision as well.

In our testing, we measured around 1,800nits with the phone placed under bright light - one of the highest results we've got in the database. The manually achievable 558 nit brightness is more in the below average category - as of late, 800-ish nits is what one would expect, particularly from a high-end device.

Refresh rate

The X100 Ultra supports refresh rates in the 1Hz to 120Hz range and will dial all the way down to the minimum regardless of mode when idling (and the brightness is above a certain threshold). The Smart adaptation and High modes set the ceiling at 120Hz, while Standard limits it to 60Hz. High mode lets you select which apps can use the maximum refresh rate on a per app basis.

Streaming and HDR

The X100 Ultra supports all major HDR standards, including HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. This being a China-only model, it doesn't get HDR support in Netflix, but YouTube did happily serve HDR streams. The Widevine L1 certification ensures high-res streaming of DRM-protected content, including Netflix in FullHD.

vivo X100 Ultra battery life

Our new Active Use Score is an estimate of how long the battery will last if you use the device with a mix of all four test activities. You can adjust the calculation based on your usage pattern using the sliders below. You can read about our current battery life testing procedure here. For a comprehensive list of all tested devices so far, head this way.

The X100 Ultra has a 5,500mAh battery with silicon cathode. This helps improve energy density, helping keep the phone reasonably thin while still offering a large capacity.

In our Active Use testing, the X100 Ultra posted a relatively high score for web browsing, more or less average video playback endurance and similarly ordinary gaming result. The 13-ish hours overall Active Use Score is still alright for the class.

Charging speed

The X100 Ultra is rated for 80W charging when using a cable, and ships with an adapter to match. In our experience, the transferred charging power peaked at around 66W.

Charging speed isn't class-leading on this vivo, the 48 minutes from flat to full being more into 'acceptable' territory. We reckon the silicon chemistry and the single-cell design introduce limitations to the maximum power and speed. Still, it's a comparatively compact high-capacity battery, and there are always trade-offs.

The X100 Ultra supports wireless charging and vivo specs state a 30W maximum power when using one of their proprietary chargers (rated at 50W themselves). We haven't tested the speed with those, however.

Speaker test

A relatively standard two-speaker setup is what you'll find on the X100 Ultra, with the two forming a stereo pair, each only playing its own channel. The phone will switch the tracks to match its orientation in space too. The top speaker also serves as an earpiece for voice calls.

Bottom speaker • Top speaker • Earpiece slit

The X100 Ultra earned a 'Good' rating for loudness in our test, a notch below the X100 Pro, the X90 Pro, and the bulk of the competitors. We'd say it sounds better than the X100 Pro, though - the Ultra has superior low-end and less bathroom-y mids.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.