vivo X100 Ultra in for review

Say hello to the vivo X100 Ultra - the phone with a claim to the best camera system in the world right now. Sadly, it's also the phone that's not coming to a store outside of China, joining the likes of the excellent Oppo Find X7 Ultra as serial tech heartbreakers.

But let's set the China exclusivity aside for a moment. The vivo X100 Ultra ships with an 80W charger, a case, and a USB-A to USB-C cable.

Specs-wise, this is one of the most complete phones there are. Upfront is a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED with a billion colors, 120Hz refresh rate, and a rated 3,000 nits of peak brightness.

Ticking inside the phone is the current top Android chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and you get either 12GB or 16GB of RAM. The battery is a massive 5,500mAh unit that takes both 80W wired and 30W wireless charging. You get a choice of Space Gray, White Moonlight, and this lovely Titanium, which looks and feels like it has real titanium infused in the frame. It isn't, it's just a color.

Now, let's take a look at the cameras. You get a pair of 50MP sensors for the 14mm autofocusing ultrawide, and the 23mm wide angle with a 1/0.98-inch sensor. The main camera also packs laser autofocus and gimbal stabilization.

The zoom is the best bit - a 200MP periscope camera with an 85mm (3.7x) focal length and a bright f/2.7 lens that can focus from as close as 15 centimeters.

This may very well be the best zoom camera on an existing smartphone. Its sensor is much bigger at 1/1.4-inch compared to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra's 1/2.51-inch imager. The lenses are an 85mm f/2.7 on the vivo and a 75mm f/1.8 on the Xiaomi, making for an intriguing comparison. We'll get to that in a separate article. For now, here are some camera samples from the vivo X100 Ultra's 85mm zoom camera.

vivo X100 Ultra zoom camera showcase

The third image (first row, leftmost) is a macro sample, while the last two images (second row, leftmost) are shot in Zeiss' Portrait Mode with an f/4.0 aperture setting. We won't judge outside of saying these are some of the nicest people photos we've seen from a phone, and that the natural bokeh from the sensor and lens looks impressive.