vivo X200 Pro mini hands-on review

14 October 2024

Today, vivo unveiled its X200 series with the X200, the X200 Pro, and the X200 Pro mini. Undoubtedly, the mini is the most impressive of the bunch.

Here, mini means smaller, not inferior. The X200 Pro mini has the same display technology, almost the same cameras, and the same new chipset, only in a more compact, and different-looking package.

So what's different? The biggest visual difference is the frosted glass back of the X200 Pro mini. The X200 Pro has a glossy finish.

Vivo made a few leaps with the X200 series over the X100. The first is in design - the new phones are flatter than their predecessors with the mini being the flattest of them all.

Curved vs flat is a long-standing dispute among tech heads but the consensus is that flat sides are easier to handle and flat displays are better for viewing and better-suited for screen protectors. Vivo was more or less the only major player that still refused to make its flagships flat.

What makes the vivo X200 Pro mini truly mini is its display. The 6.31-inch diagonal is a significant step down from the 6.78-inch on the regular X200 Pro. Still, the vivo X200 Pro mini is a 120Hz LTPO AMOLED panel with Dolby Vision, and up to 4,500 nits of brightness.

Ticking inside the vivo X200 Pro mini is the same 3nm Dimensity 9400 chipset. Its processor is truly impressive - it has one Cortex-X925 core running at up to 3.63GHz, and three Cortex-X4 cores at up to 3.3GHz. Then there's the 12-core Immortalis-G925, and 12GB or 16GB of RAM.

The other highlight of the vivo X200 Pro series is the camera system. The X200 Pro mini has a 50MP 1/1.28-inch main sensor (23mm f/1.57), a 50MP 15mm f/2.0 ultrawide with autofocus, and a 50MP 1/1.95-inch periscope with a 70mm f/2.6 lens. It isn't as impressive as the one on the vivo X200 Pro's 200MP, but should still provide solid zoomed-in shots.

The vivo X200 Pro mini runs vivo's new OriginOS 5 with new AI tools like AI Circle to Search, BlueLM Copilot, AI Note-taking, and AI copyrighting. From our brief time with the X200 Pro mini, it feels as snappy and fluid as a flagship should.

The vivo X200 Pro mini weighs 187g, less than direct rivals like the 199g iPhone 16 Pro and 199g Pixel 9 Pro, yet brings a massive 5,700mAh battery. That's 13% bigger than the battery in the Galaxy S24 Ultra! And, vivo is a lot more impressive than its rivals at charging (at least on paper) with 90W wired and 30W wireless.

The vivo X200 Pro mini is up for pre-order now and will start shipping on October 25. You can configure it to your liking - options include 12/256GB, 16/512GB, and 16GB/1TB, and a choice of four colors - Black, White, Pink, and Green. Sadly, vivo hasn't detailed a possible global launch just yet. But fingers crossed we get this little gem outside of China soon!