Summary
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Summary
- Vivo X100 Ultra excels over Samsung S24 Ultra with unbeatable camera capabilities like a 200MP telephoto lens.
- X100 Ultra’s flagship status is solidified by its top-tier specs, including Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 16GB RAM, 1TB storage.
- The Vivo X100 Ultra is likely to focus on the Chinese market, showcasing unmatched camera features and stellar performance.
Vivo X100 Ultra outshines Samsung S24 Ultra in camera specs, featuring triple-camera setup with impressive capabilities.
- Beyond cameras, X100 Ultra is a complete flagship with top-tier specs: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, 16GB RAM, 1TB storage, and more.
- Vivo X100 Ultra likely to stay in Chinese market, starting at CNY 6,499; offers unmatched camera features and stellar performance.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is one of the top smartphones of the year, partly due to its mighty camera hardware. However, it faces stiff competition in markets such as China where its rivals offer significantly superior specifications. The newest entrant in that category is the Vivo X100 Ultra — and it beat the Samsung flagship in almost every way.
When it comes to the best camera phones, there is no one right approach to it. Some OEMs go heavy on the hardware, and some resort to computational photography. The Vivo X100 Ultra seemingly dials both up to eleven with camera specs we’ve never seen before (via GSMArena). In fact, most of the phone’s launch event focused on talking about its cameras. So let’s start there.
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An Ultra worthy of the name
Camera specs like no other
The Vivo X100 Ultra has a triple-camera system. The primary 50MP camera has a sensor slightly larger than 1-inch (1/0.98 inches to be precise) with 1.6µm pixels, an f/1.75 aperture, and gimbal stabilization. It is capable of shooting 4K videos at 120fps, Dolby Vision, or in portrait mode. The ultra-wide lens has a 14mm field-of-view with a 1/2-inch 50MP sensor.
Folded optics are already difficult to incorporate into smartphones, and Vivo has somehow managed to do that with a giant camera sensor.
If you find that impressive, the third camera will blow you away. The Vivo X100 Ultra is the world’s first phone with a 200MP periscopic telephoto camera. Previously, such high-resolution sensors had only been used as primary cameras, but Vivo wants to use those additional pixels to offer improved zoom photography. The optically stabilized 1/1.4-inch Samsung ISOCELL HP9 sensor, which seems to have been developed exclusively for Vivo, has an 85mm focal length or about 3.7x optical zoom at full sensor coverage and crops in to provide an extensive zoom range.
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As for other camera features, the Vivo X100 Ultra continues to go overboard with Zeiss T* coating for improved clarity and contrast, a macro mode with up to 20x magnification, dedicated modes for concerts and underwater photography, 3D photos and videos, a 50MP selfie shooter, and a new chip exclusively for on-device image processing.
A complete flagship
Don’t worry, Vivo hasn’t cut corners in the non-photography aspects. The X100 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, 1TB of UFS 4 storage, and runs Origin OS based on Android 14. It sports a 5,500mAh battery with support for 80W wired fast charging and 30W wireless charging. The Vivo X100 Ultra’s screen is no slouch either, with a 6.78-inch E7 AMOLED panel with 120Hz variable refresh rate, 1440p resolution, and 3,000nit peak brightness.
Unveiled in China today, Vivo has not mentioned anything about the X100 Ultra’s global availability. It’s unlikely to make its way to North America, but in its home market, it starts at CNY 6,499 (~$900).
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