Keen phone photographers can cancel their flights to China later this year: Vivo just confirmed the upcoming X300 Ultra will be sold internationally. That’s a first for the flagship series that has become renowned among smartphone camera nerds for impeccable imagery, courtesy of high pixel count sensors and a deep partnership with glass expert Zeiss.
The soon-to-be-retired Vivo X200 Ultra was only ever available on Vivo’s home soil, with a China-specific version of Android. While you could import one, it never played nicely with things like Android Auto or Wear OS smartwatches bought in the West. That made it a tougher sell over rivals like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra, which did see a worldwide launch. The sequel looks set to rectify that when it officially launches in a few months’ time, and could give Western heavyweights Google and Samsung something to think about.
As well as revealing the design of the phone for the first time at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Vivo also pulled back the curtain on two major X300 Ultra accessories: a second-gen Telephoto Extender kit and a pro-grade Camera Cage.
The 400mm Equivalent vivo ZEISS Telephoto Extender Gen 2 Ultra, to give the bolt-on lens its full name, is the first of its kind to add such extreme magnification to a phone. Vivo is promising clean shots at 1600mm using digital cropping, helped in part by the X300 Ultra’s native zoom lens having a huge 200MP pixel count. “Gimbal-grade” optical image stabilisation and motion-tracking focus are also promised.
The Camera Cage, meanwhile, seems more aimed at videographers than stills shooters. It’s rocking a range of cold shoe mounts for bolting on accessories like lights and microphone packs, has dual hand grips to get a steady hold while filming, and built-in buttons for shutter and zoom control. A ‘multi-level’ cooling fan should keep temperatures in check when recording 4K footage, and of course it plays nicely with the Telephoto Extender kit.
Little else has been officially announced about the X300 Ultra, with Vivo likely saving the juiciest hardware specs for a full reveal in China sometime soon. Rumours and leaks suggest it’ll rock twin 200MP rear snappers – one main, one telephoto – along with a 50MP ultrawide, come powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, and have as much as 7000mAh of battery capacity. That would put it in good stead to rival other Ultra-badged photography flagships like the recently-revealed Xiaomi 17 Ultra and upcoming Oppo Find X9 Ultra.
