Vivo X100 Pro Review: Next level camera tech

The Vivo X100 Pro is a brilliant phone in every regard, but its cameras truly set it apart. It’s one of the best smartphone camera systems on the market today. Unfortunately, the limited international release might make getting your hands on one quite tricky.

Introduction

Take one look at the Vivo X100 Pro and it’s clear that this device is all about photography, from the gigantic circular camera array to the words “professional photography” emblazoned on the top panel. If camera performance is a top priority when shopping for a smartphone, this is a release to get excited about.

This phone’s predecessor, the Vivo X90 Pro, featured my favourite main camera of 2023. I liked it so much that it has lived in my pocket since, except when I was testing another device for review. With a 1-inch sensor and Vivo’s excellent image processing, the results are fabulous, especially in low-light situations.

However, while the main camera was stunning, it was flanked by slightly less impressive auxiliary cameras, and that’s something that has been addressed on the X100 Pro. The new model features a 50MP resolution on all of its rear cameras, including the ultra-wide and the new 100mm equivalent floating telephoto lens.

It’s not just the cameras that are exciting here, though; it’s also the first phone I’m testing with MediaTek’s latest flagship processor, the Dimensity 9300. It comes with some significant architectural changes, and has the potential to beat the mighty Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in certain situations. There’s lots to explore here.

Vivo has announced the international launch of the X100 Pro, but like its predecessor, it’s unlikely to come to the US or UK. At the time of writing, we don’t know precisely when buyers will be able to get their hands on it, or the price, but it’ll be available in Southeast Asia, including India and Indonesia, as well as certain European markets in the near future.

In Hong Kong, the X100 Pro retails for HK$7,889, which is about £799, however, phones always cost significantly more when they arrive in Europe. The X90 Pro is sold for around €1200 in Germany, and we’re expecting similar pricing with this model.

Design

• Massive central camera bump
• Startrail Blue and Asteroid Black colour options
• Curved edge design with IP68 rating

It’s impossible to talk about the design of this phone without first mentioning the almost comically large camera bump. The circular array is centrally placed, takes up almost the entire width of the back panel and effectively doubles the device’s thickness. It means that this handset looks almost more like a camera than a phone, and it’s sure to be divisive. Personally, I think it looks quite cool, but then I’m a fan of quirky designs.

Aside from the massive camera, the design is otherwise quite similar to the last generation, with significant curvature to the edges of the display, mirrored by the curves of the back panel. I typically prefer a flat display, but the curviness works well here, as it makes the phone feel slimmer than it actually is, and more comfortable in the hand.

This time around, the vegan leather rear has been replaced with Vivo’s signature AG frosted glass back panel. I love the silky-smooth feel of this material and the fact that it’s immune to fingerprint smudges is a big plus, too. My only gripe with it is how slippery it is; you’ll definitely need to keep your wits about you if you plan on using it without a case.

Thankfully, a case is included in the box, and rather than the standard transparent TPU affair, this model comes with a textured black case that looks and feels quite nice and offers ample protection. It’s more important than you might think, as Vivo cases can be hard to come by, unless you import them from China.

My test unit came in the professional-looking Asteroid Black colourway, but a more playful Startrail Blue option is available for those who prefer a more colourful phone.

The packaging is made almost entirely from cardboard, which is nice to see, and has a premium-looking textured finish throughout. Inside, you’ll find the phone itself, a 120W wall charger, a USB-C cable, the black TPU case and a manual.

Screen

• 6.78-inch LTPO display
• 120Hz refresh rate, 2800 x 1260 resolution
• 3,000 nits peak brightness

The display is mighty impressive; it’s large, astonishingly bright and produces excellent colours. With the X90 Pro, I found that sometimes the colours would suffer when using a low brightness level, but thankfully, that’s not the case with the X100 Pro. It looks great in all situations.

This panel can output up to 3000 nits at its peak, which makes it one of the brightest panels around, and you can really see the difference when watching HDR content. It just looks brilliant.

It’s an LTPO display, meaning it can dynamically adjust its refresh rate to match what’s being displayed on screen. This model uses something called the V Frame Rate Management System to adjust the refresh rate based on the speed of your finger swiping to conserve battery life.

There are plenty of eye protection features included, if you’re concerned about such things, and you can choose to enable the new Night Eye Protection mode for a more comfortable viewing experience in the dark.

When it comes to customisation, there are three main colour profiles to choose from, and each can be tweaked to display warmer or cooler tones. The Standard profile looks best, to my eyes, but the Pro gives you a less saturated look, while Bright is the most vibrant.

You can also enable an option that automatically adjusts the colour temperature to match your surroundings, which should help reduce eye fatigue.

Cameras

• 50MP main camera with 1-inch sensor
• 50MP 4.3x floating telephoto camera
• 50MP Ultra-wide and 32MP selfie camera

The cameras are undoubtedly the main attraction on this handset, and I’m pleased to say they do not disappoint.

For the most part, the main camera is the same as the one on the X90 Pro. It still uses Sony’s IMX989 sensor and has a 23mm equivalent focal length with an aperture of f/1.75. However, Vivo says the Zeiss T* coating has been upgraded on the X100 Pro, resulting in a 50% reduction in reflectivity and better image clarity.

It’s the auxiliary cameras that get the biggest upgrades, though. The ultrawide has been bumped up to 50MP, from 12MP, and is slightly wider, with a 15mm equivalent focal length. It’s still the weakest lens of the trio, but it’s a massive improvement over its predecessor and comes in very handy when shooting architecture.

The real star of the show is the new telephoto camera, which is a 50MP sensor with a 100mm equivalent lens. This 4.3x telephoto replaces the 2x camera on its predecessor, it’s much more useful for my needs, and retains the close-focusing abilities of the older model, so it’s amazing for macro shots.

Much like the iPhone 15 Pro, the X100 Pro adds some intermediary digital focal length presets between the physical lenses, and uses pixel binning to offer a near-lossless digital crop. So, if you loved the 2x camera on the older model, you can achieve the same focal length using software.

This means you have a massive zoom range in a device that slides into your pocket. It’s incredibly versatile. I loved using it for candid street photography, as no one bats an eye at a smartphone and with the reach of this camera array, you can achieve shots that just aren’t possible with other systems.

At night, the main camera outperforms the other lenses, thanks to its massive 1-inch sensor, but using night mode the auxiliary cameras hold their own – you’ll just have to hold still for a moment longer as they gather enough light. I was impressed with the stability of the telephoto camera in these scenarios; it’s no mean feat stabilising a 100mm equivalent lens, and whatever wizardry Vivo has achieved with its floating periscope design works wonders.

Around the front, the punch-hole selfie camera is solid, but less remarkable than the rear cameras. It seems to be unchanged from the last generation, still offering a 32MP resolution and an f/2.0 aperture. The results are good, but I was hoping it might inherit the awesome selfie camera found on Vivo’s mid-range V29 devices, which is probably the best selfie camera on the market right now.

The weak point of the X100 Pro selfie camera is that it has a fixed focus, so you can’t take close-up shots, and large group shots might look a little soft too. This is nothing unusual – most flagships are the same – with the only mainstream option to boast this capability being the Pixel 8 Pro.

When it comes to video shooting, you can record at up to 8K30 on the main camera, while the other rear cameras max out at 4K60. Meanwhile, the selfie camera only offers up to 1080p 60fps.

The stabilisation is excellent in all modes, even in 8K where many phones forfeit stabilisation entirely. You’ll get the smoothest results with the main and ultra-wide, and while the telephoto does a good job considering its length, expect the occasional jitter as the stabilisation attempts to catch up with your movement.

Performance

• MediaTek Dimensity 9300
• 16GB RAM
• 512GB storage

The Vivo X100 Pro is powered by MediaTek’s latest flagship chip, the Dimensity 9300, which boasts a new “all-big-core” architecture promising massive gains in performance and better efficiency. It’s backed up by a whopping 16GB of RAM and an ample storage capacity of 512GB.

In benchmarking, the Vivo X100 Pro comes close to matching the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered RedMagic 9 Pro in almost every situation, and it even achieved a higher score in GeekBench 6 multi-core. This is a very impressive feat, especially when you consider that the RedMagic device is a gaming handset with a built-in fan to keep things cool. With a more typical Snapdragon handset, I’d expect the results to be even closer.

In practice, all this power means that the phone feels very responsive and agile in day-to-day use, and it’ll run any game you can throw at it with ease. It manages the thermals well, too. The X100 Pro does get a little warm during extended play sessions, but it never became uncomfortable to hold.

There are dual stereo speakers on the device, one is positioned at the top of the display and the other is next to the USB-C port on the base.

There’s a decent amount of low-end response from these speakers and plenty of clarity in the higher notes, but they aren’t the loudest I’ve encountered. Still, around the house, they do a great job whether you’re watching a video or listening to some tunes.

Software

• Funtouch OS 14
• Based on Android 14
• Minimal bloatware

The international variant of the Vivo X100 Pro comes with Funtouch OS 14, whereas if you buy it in China, It’ll run OriginOS. Both operating systems are based on Android 14, and Vivo promises three generational updates and four years of security updates as standard.

My biggest gripe with the software on the X90 Pro was the amount of pre-installed bloatware; it was exactly the same as Vivo’s mid-range devices, and I felt that it was borderline unacceptable on a premium flagship device. Thankfully, that has been addressed with the X100 Pro and there’s barely any bloat to speak of, aside from a few functional first-party apps.

Funtouch OS offers a tonne of customisation options, and it’s very easy to adapt the themes to match your taste. You can change everything from the animation when you plug in a charger to the fingerprint icon and more. If you’re a bit of a tinkerer, you can have some fun with this operating system.

There’s also a gaming mode built in, and it’ll fire up automatically when you open a game. Then, you can swipe from the side of the screen to bring up a gaming menu to block notifications, overclock the CPU and more. It’s pretty cool to see on a phone that’s not gaming-focused in the slightest.

My main issue with Funtouch OS is that its default battery preservation measures are so extreme that I don’t always get the notifications I need. You have to go in and tweak the settings of individual apps to make sure the OS doesn’t kill them in the background. This has been an issue for years, but it’s still as annoying as ever.

Battery life

• 5400 mAh dual-cell battery
• 100W FlashCharge
• Better support for third-party chargers

The Vivo X100 Pro has a 5400mAh battery, which is larger than average, but despite that, I was a little nervous about its longevity. MediaTek chips tend to be a bit more power-hungry than their Snapdragon counterparts, and with performance like this, combined with such a bright display, I thought we might have issues.

Thankfully, that did not turn out to be the case at all. The X100 Pro can easily see me through a day of heavy usage, and then some. It’s really impressive, especially considering the amount I have been using the camera, which is something that always drains the battery more quickly.

When you eventually do run out of juice, you’ll be back up and running in no time at all. The included 120W brick can take the phone from fully dead to 100% charged in just over half an hour. Impressive stuff.

With the Vivo X90 Pro, I found that I could only achieve these stellar speeds with the included charger, and my portable chargers and car adapters (no matter how fancy) would max out around 25W. To an extent, that’s still true with X100 Pro, but my powerbanks are now able to charge at 50W, which is a massive improvement in usability.

The X100 Pro also supports 50W wireless charging, but again, you’ll need a special charger from Vivo for this, otherwise you’ll be charging at more typical wireless speeds. I had hoped that my 50W Oppo AirVOOC charger would be similar enough, but alas, it only charges the device at around 10W.

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