Vivo X100 Ultra the Digital Camera that can ALSO make calls! Full review!
With this message, “a professional camera that can make calls”, Tao Huang vice president of VIVO He wanted to reveal the extraordinary photographic capabilities of the Vivo X100 Ultra, the flagship which will be released in a few weeks. Obviously with a statement like that the expectations have grown beyond measure, considering that they were already very high given the excellent level reached by its younger brother, the Vivo I couldn't wait to test it
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CONFEZIONE
Fortunately, even VIVO has not been influenced by the ridiculous trend of making increasingly sparse packages (the Pixel 8 pro is an example of this) in fact we find everything we need to open it and use our smartphone as best as possible, and without fear :
- VIVO X10 ULTRA (with pre-installed screen protector)
- Rubberized cover
- Ultra-fast 80W charger (plus adapter for Italian sockets)
- Type A – Type C charging cable
- Clip for removing SIM tray
- Various booklets
I am naturally satisfied to find the original charger and a good cover in the package so I can use the smartphone immediately without worrying about buying something else straight away. A few months ago I bought the Pixel 8 pro and I found practically nothing besides the smartphone (if I remember correctly only the charging cable, the charger, cover and pre-installed film were certainly missing). In my opinion, an absurd choice that forces us to spend at least another €50/60.
The charger output is still Type A and I don't understand why they haven't switched to the Type C standard yet, which is now a standard, but it's a really unimportant detail. The cover is beautiful even if it obviously completely covers the back of the smartphone, which in my opinion is gorgeous. If you want to keep it visible, you will need to buy a transparent one. A special mention goes to the Chinese courier (who I will tell you about later) who brought the product to Italy in about 4 days. Then unfortunately "the last mile" is managed by Poste Italiane and it took 8 days to do 50Km, while it had only taken 4 to do 6500. Any comments regarding the performance of Poste Italiane are up to you.
VIVO X100 ULTRA AESTHETICS
From an aesthetic point of view, the famous Latin proverb “De gustibus non est disputandum” always applies, so I will tell you mine which obviously remains a very personal consideration: VERY BEAUTIFUL! If the eco skin ofOppo Find X7 Ultra it didn't convince me, this classic approach (glass) and the black color in my case (you can also find glossy white and titanium) absolutely yes. The feel that it gives when you take it in your hand is obviously that of a super mega premium product, after all the top of the range Chinese are all built with obsessive attention to detail. The matte finish is the one I love, perfect for not leaving the slightest imprint on the back of our Vivo X100 Ultra.
The camera assembly is made up of a really large and thick porthole, which protrudes quite a bit, but nothing different from cameraphones of the last 2 years. Unfortunately there isn't much to do here, given the size of the sensors I don't think it could have been done much better, so it must be accepted to then enjoy the photographic performances which are truly incredible. All in all you can also find the positive side of this size, you can in fact point your index finger under the porthole to hold it better. The imbalance towards the cam group is not felt much but in the pocket it certainly is. I remain of the opinion that the maximum weight to define a phone as "portable" is 200g, unfortunately smartphones of this type have far exceeded them for at least 2 years. Here we are even on the 229Gr which are really a lot, but even in this case there is little you can do but accept this choice of VIVO that I do not fully agree with and I will explain why. In fact, this Vivo X100 ultra has been inserted a battery of well 5.500mAh, really many and objectively I don't see the reason, let me explain; of course, a larger battery means more autonomy, but with the very high charging speeds available today (80w for our X100 Utra) it was perhaps more logical to maintain the standard 5.000 and save a few grams of weight. Consider that with the cover the weight exceeds 250g and for us men, especially in summer, having it in our trousers is really uncomfortable. Its dimensions are 75.57 mm x 164.07 mm x 92.3 mm with a Display from 6.78" numbers that certainly make it a smartphone that is not very portable and uncomfortable, especially in the summer months when it may have to be put in a trouser pocket.
On the right side we find the volume rocker and the power button below. Over the infrared transmitter and the system speaker. Under the Type C 3.2 (with video output) for charging and the second system speaker.
VIVO X100 ULTRA TECHNICAL DATA SHEET
As always, the HardWare department of a flagship is at the TOP from every point of view, in fact we find:
- CPU: Snapdragon 8 Gen3 Qualcomm SM8650-AB, 1x 3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 + 5x 3.2 GHz Cortex-A720 + 2x 2.3 GHz Cortex-A520
- GPU: Adreno 750
- RAM: 12 / 16Gb LPDDR5X
- ROM: 256 / 512Gb UFS 4.0
- Display Samsung E7: 6.78″ LPTO (1-120Hz), 1440 × 3200 (WQHD+), refresh rate 120Hz, 518 PPI, maximum brightness 3000 Nits, Sampling rate 300Hz
- Camera (Zeiss lenses):
main - 50Mpx, f/1.75, 23mm equivalent focal length, autofocus, 1″ Sony Lytia 900 sensor, OIS
Wide - 50Mpx, ƒ/2.2, 14mm equivalent focal length, 116°, sensor Sony Lytia 600, autofocus
Telephoto - 200Mpx periscopic Samsung ISOCELL HP9, ƒ/2,6, autofocus, OIS
Selfie Cam - 50Mpx, f / 2.45 - Battery: 5500mAh with ultra-fast charging a 80w, 30W wireless charging
- Connections: NFC, Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), 802.11a/b/g/n/, WLAN 2.4G/WLAN 5GHz, Bluetooth 5.4
- Network bands:
5G : Bande di frequenza n1/n2/n3/n5/n7/n8/n12/n20/n25/n26/n28/n38/n40/n41/n66/n77/n78/n79
4G LTE FDD: Bande B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B17/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28/B66
4G LTE TDD: Band 34, 38, 39, 40, 41
3G WCDMA: Banda B1/B2/B4/B5/B6/B8/B19 - Waterproof: IP68
VIVO X100 ULTRA CPU
Vivo chose Qualcomm for its 2024 flagship product and it wasn't a given. Many users prefer it to MediaTek, I who have tried both can assure you that there is no longer a gap between the two, as happened some time ago in favor of the American CPU. Present it SnapDragon 8 third generation, the most powerful on the current market. However, there is one thing to say; the fourth generation of this CPU will debut by the end of the year and coming out just a few months earlier with the previous version could be a small problem. Let's be clear, there will be no substantial difference between the third and fourth generation (none in everyday use). But from a marketing point of view I don't see it as a good choice. Maybe it would have been logical to debut the Ultra a few months earlier.
Having said that, we are talking about a very powerful processor with excellent energy savings. RAM Lpddr5X (12 or 16Gb) and ROM UFS 4.0 (256Gb/512Gb/1Tb) complete this HW department giving you the best from every point of view. Exaggerated multitasking, games at maximum resolution and frame rate, lightning speed for each operation make the 100 Ultra among the most powerful smartphones on the market.
VIVO X100 ULTRA DISPLAY
The display is very good and it is a Samsung E7 6.78" with a very high brightness that reaches i 3.000Nits therefore perfect readability even outdoors under direct sunlight. The refresh rate is 120Hz, in line with the refresh rate that today appears to be a standard, and it can also be set in automatic mode so that based on the contents we are viewing, if not necessary, the frequency will be lowered until it reaches 1Hz thanks to the Samsung panel LPT extension third generation. This feature will obviously bring us good energy savings as there are situations in which even the minimum frequency of 1Hz could be fine (the classic case is always on display). Tried films, YouTube videos, games, etc. and I assure you that you will put aside every other device you have at home, as when you then move on to something else the visual downgrade becomes evident. The touch sampling rate is 300Hz, the best on the market, so you won't miss any commands even when going at the speed of light! As for the form factor we have a display EDGE, therefore curved at the sides. Here the debate will certainly arise between those who prefer this format and those who prefer a flat format, so take this into account if you prefer flat panels.
The colors are well calibrated and the settings are really numerous. In fact, you can schedule the timing to have the dark mode, keep it always active or not use it and dim the backgrounds in the dark mode, ditto for the eye protection mode. There are also three settings for the color tone, standard-pro-bright, two system fonts (plus others downloadable, 5 display sizes, 7 font sizes, two resolution modes, UHD and HD, three modes on which set the screen refresh rate, auto-60Hz-120Hz and many other settings It goes without saying that the Display is a strong point of our VIVO.
VIVO X100 ULTRA AUTONOMY
As I mentioned before, the battery is really very large 5.500mAh. Consequently, thanks also to the Chinese firmware (Origin OS) the guaranteed autonomy can easily cover a day of stress use, even one and a half with moderate use. In my tests I averaged about 6.5 hours display on, from 8am to midnight. Mixed use of 24G/Wi-Fi, 5 hours of hotspot (which consumes a lot), many photos and videos, a lot of WhatsApp/Telegram, social media (FB-IG), some voice calls. The SD 3 gen 8 certainly manages consumption well and combined with the LPTO screen guarantees excellent energy savings. Android 3 is certainly more parsimonious than previous versions of Android although I am now convinced that, as I said before, Chinese ROMs are in themselves more parsimonious than Global ones, remember in fact that all applications do not start by default when turned on of the phone (they must be opened or started automatically). I would say overall very good but not excellent given the battery capacity, it will certainly improve with some firmware updates.
As far as charging is concerned, we have a top gem, namely the possibility of "fast" or "super fast" charging. For sure we can say that super fast equals 80w which allows a full recharge in just over 40 minutes, fast I suppose we could be around 50w. From the battery settings we could also put on the lock screen the selection of which type of charging to perform and which to use by default, and change it with a single click. It's the first time I've found this genius on my smartphone and I'm enthusiastic about it, in fact when I'm not in a hurry I obviously leave the charging slower but less stressful for the battery. As I always remember, never let your smartphone go below 20% remaining charge. Partial recharges are always recommended, so even if you are at 50% recharge without worries. There is also 30W wireless charging.
VIVO X100 ULTRA CAMERA
In this chapter we see the most important and expected aspect of this smartphone, namely the photographic quality. Moreover, the statements of Tao Huang were clear and clear: a professional camera that can make phone calls.
MAIN PHOTO CAMERA
Let's start from the main camera which is the brand new sensor Sony Lytia Lyt-900 by one inch. The quality of the shots, in all light conditions, is excellent but in my opinion it is in the night shots that can make the difference with the competitors. Why did I speak in the future tense? Because although the photos are excellent, the rivals that have already been on the market for a few months (Oppo Find I'm doing this review.
The collaboration with Zeiss However, it remains an unsurpassed plus, as the lenses are actually among the best on the market. With this X100 Ultra the project was also bornBlueImage” a proprietary imaging technology that significantly improves shots in difficult light conditions (dim light, backlight, etc.) which in addition to theISP V3+, the Imaging chip also proprietary, and as mentioned before the Zeiss lenses make the imaging sector the most complete and powerful of 2024. And in fact the results are already stunning, the colors are always very similar to the real ones, the balance white is always impeccable and digital noise is almost absent even in night shots. I really like the fact that the shots taken automatically are not saturated, a practice often used by some competitors which certainly gives a nice WOW effect but does not provide a real photo.
The portraits are very good, another strong point, where the skin and the detail on every imperfection makes them truly "enlarged photos", the landscapes are good, the macros are excellent. There are many settings for all those who want to try their hand at manual shots, obviously there is the possibility of shooting in RAW mode.
The photos I post here were all taken in automatic mode, freehand and with natural color settings (except those specified with "vivid").
The photos are also very beautiful macro. Then there is the super macro mode to be enabled manually, it shoots with the periscopic camera, but I didn't understand its usefulness. Perhaps to be used to capture details of objects that are a little distant and therefore require enlargement.
ZOOM CAMERA (PERSICOPE)
Here we are faced with a novelty in the smartphone photography field, a 200Mpx periscopic camera, Samsung ISOCELL HP9, ƒ/2,6, with autofocus and OIS. The zoom without loss of detail is up to 3.7x but I assure you that if you shoot even at 10x you will not notice that you are not shooting with the main one. Having done several tests and also compared it to the Find This CAM replaces the wide angle in the “super macro” mode.
ULTRA WIDE CAMERA
The ultra-wide angle camera doesn't differ much from the other 2 and takes excellent photos. The sensor is also new, the new Sony LYT-600 da 1 / 1,95 inches, ƒ / 2.0 equivalent to 14 mm. Not very wide angle, just Inline, quite less than its competitors. It remains a useful but not essential lens also because it is not even used for macros (as happens for example on the Find X7 Ultra).
SELFIE CAM
For the first time I find a 50Mpx selfie cam and not being very familiar with selfies I won't be able to give you a very accurate opinion. From the tests carried out, however, I noticed an excellent result in photos taken in difficult light conditions. My test par excellence is the selfie with the sunset behind it, where usually either you manage to photograph the sunset but the subject in the foreground is not illuminated or you photograph the subject in the foreground very well and the sunset is burned out. The shots against the light are also good, the exposure is excellent which allows you to keep the subjects in the foreground illuminated and not burn the light source.
VIDEO
There are also many video modes, with many different resolutions. There is the Dolby Vision option and the modes “cinematic portrait”, slomotion, time-lapse, micro film, etc. The quality is the best I have ever found on a smartphone, the autofocus is perfect and immediate and the color management is truly convincing, with excellent against light. Audio capture via internal microphone is also very good but we can decide to capture it with external devices. In this demo I will also show you the zoom pushed up to around 20X so that you can appreciate its qualities, which in my opinion are really excellent. I suppose it could be the best device out there.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS CAMERA
Let's start from a fundamental assumption, the top will be reached after a few firmware updates as with all devices. But already from now I can safely assert that this X100 Ultra is probably among the best smartphones on the market, certainly on the podium. Having had the fortune of comparing it to the Find Let's say that with smartphones of this level you can definitively say goodbye to the digital camera even for night photos. Night photos where I see a great software work also by the NPU which almost always makes the Vivo's shots better than those of the Oppo. I am very curious to see the in-depth test by DxOmark which had penalized the Pro model, perhaps also because the test was done with a firmware that was not yet optimized.
FIRMWARE
Unfortunately it seems that this beautiful smartphone will not have a global version either, so the Vivo ROM present is the one origin OS (the Chinese one) and not FunTouch (its global counterpart). Luckily for us, let's start by saying that the Italian language is PRESENT! Google services are also present and the phone will arrive with the PlayStore already installed (in the case of purchasing from TradingShenzen) but don't worry as the installation is simple: just download it from this link (PLAY STORE) and install it as a simple APK by clicking on it. The language set will be English, so enter setting-system&update-language and set Italian. At this point open the Play Store which will become in Italian and install all your favorite applications, naturally they will be installed in Italian.
SOFTWARE CRITICISM
The Chinese firmware brings with it other small critical issues that will not allow you to fully enjoy the Android potential we are used to. These do not make it impossible for us to use but they may not be acceptable for some so I have decided to summarize the most important ones in my opinion in a table:
| Function | SI | DO NOT |
| OTA updates | X | |
| Italian Language Menu | X | |
| Applications in Italian – Italian keyboard | X | |
| Google services | X | |
| Google Play applications | X | |
| Notifications Lock screen – Notification bar | X | |
| AOD Notifications Third Party App | x | X |
| BT connection with the machine | X | |
| Android AUTO (not tested) | X | |
| Google Wallet | X | |
| Volta | X | |
| Google voice assistant | X | |
| Alexa voice assistant | X |
As you can see, most of the core features are present. In fact, you will have all the OTA updates (and very quickly too), all the notifications from the applications, the possibility of paying with NFC through Wallet of Google and the connection BT With the car. On Android Auto, although I haven't been able to test it, I'm almost certain that it doesn't work. We will not have notifications from third-party applications, those that you install such as WhatsApp, Facebook, etc., on the Always on Display (to understand the screen is always on) even if there is the possibility of enabling them via ADB commands, but being a a bit complicated operation, I prefer not to use the guide. If you are interested, write to me privately and I will explain how to do it. The AOD is present with many customizations and different themes, but the notifications that can be activated are only those of the system applications, therefore calls, text messages, etc. and Gmail! Speaking of calling, I take this opportunity to tell you that it is possible RECORD CALLS with the default dialer. As for the Google voice assistant (not voice search which works perfectly) there is no way to set it as default, so it doesn't work.
APPLICATION SETTINGS ⚠️ IMPORTANT ⚠️
For all the applications you install you will have a sea of settings for notifications, energy saving, autostart, running in the background and much more. Remember, fundamentally, that in most Chinese firmwares the automatic launch of applications does not happen by default, so with each restart you will have to open the application manually the first time to receive notifications. In our case proceed like this: Settings – App – Permissions management – Permissions – Automatic start. Here you can enable all the applications you want to start when the phone starts, all those from which you want to receive notifications (of course messaging applications such as Whatsapp, Telegram, etc.)
JOVI LENS
Among the many applications and software settings I found this app, "Jovi lens", very convenient. With this you can in fact use the camera to scan documents, scan QR Codes, extract and edit/translate text from documents and much more. Text extraction is very precise and can be carried out on text present anywhere, on a sheet of paper or on a medicine bottle. Of course, all this can also be used in Italian!
OTHER SOFTWARE FEATURES
I can't tell you about all the settings and features of Origin OS here and I will therefore only list those that are fundamental and present for me. Let's start from programmed switching off and on which will allow you to turn off your phone at night and turn it on in the morning before the alarm. A function that is not even present on Pixel 8 Pro level smartphones. I even found the possibility of program the off-line mode, if someone doesn't like having their phone turned off during the night they could use this too. In the era of artificial intelligence it could not be missing in the management ofphoto editing. Here I give you some examples for removing subjects from photos. Good, but there's still a little something to improve, we always wait for some firmware updates to give a final opinion also because when the scene is complicated we invent objects that don't exist
The possibility of also very good cloning applications, a feature that is not essential for everyone but for those who really need it, the non-stock alternatives present in the play store are not remotely comparable to the proprietary ones.
4G/5G NETWORKS – CONNECTIONS
The networks chapter is very complicated and it is also complicated when we talk about "global" phones. In fact, the reception issue depends on the telephone, the area and obviously the operator. For what concern 4G we have band 20, fundamental for some Italian operators and the best frequency which allows you to have excellent reception even inside homes so no problem. As regards the 5G the available networks are the following: n1/n2/n3/n5/n7/n8; /n12/n20/n25/n26/n28/n38/n40/n41/n66/n77/n78/n79. I cannot guarantee full compatibility with all Italian operators, but from the "compatibility check" on the TradingShenzen site with Wind3 the compatibility is total for both the 4 and 5G bands. Vodafone's is almost complete. In my case, ILIAD, I can tell you that the reception and data transfer rate are excellent. I'll post a screenshot of a speed test carried out at home. Keep in mind that I live in a small town and with other operators you can also achieve much lower values.
WiFi 7 e BlueTooth 5.4, perfect for listening to your favorite music in TWS at exceptional quality, complete the excellent wireless connections department of the 100 Ultra.
SATELLITE NETWORK
Our Vivo X100 Ultra also has a satellite network connection which could save your life in dangerous situations where there is no reception. You can only use this feature in China, so it becomes quite useless. In any case, it seemed right to point it out.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
After everything I have told you, we now come to the final considerations. The only doubt that could arise in purchasing this beautiful one VIVO X100 ULTRA it's the fact that the ROM is Chinese. It's a legitimate doubt, especially for those who don't want to accept compromises in either HW or SW. Having said that the HW ones only refer to unnecessary frequency bands, which is not even certain, the software ones instead could certainly disturb. In my case, not using Android Auto and the Google voice assistant, the only slightly annoying sacrifice is the absence of notifications on the AOD of third-party apps. As I told you before, there would also be a solution to the problem, but honestly you can live without it so I didn't even want to try my hand at this solution. On the other hand, it must also be said that the price purchased in China is certainly more than the possible price of a global version.
For everything else and especially if you are a lover of cameraphones then my advice is to not worry and go straight to this one Vivo X100 Ultra. I purchased it on TradingShenzen, a site where I had already made purchases. Shipping was very fast up to Italy where it arrived in 4 days. Then unfortunately to do the last 50km the courier was Italian Post (deliberately in lowercase) and it took 8 days, for a total of 12 which remains an excellent result. Added to the 2 of order preparation, from the moment of payment in exactly 2 weeks I received the smartphone at home, obviously without annoying customs duties! Below are the links for purchases and our discount code
In conclusion, as far as I'm concerned, I would absolutely recommend this beautiful smartphone to you for the reasons explained so far, you will certainly be satisfied with the choice made!
Vivo X100 Ultra 12/256Gb
(Italian, Google services, Play Store present)
Vivo X100 Ultra 16/512Gb
(Italian, Google services, Play Store present)
