Does the Vivo X200 Pro take better photos than the Vivo X100 Ultra? Here's the final comparison!
Just 6 months ago Vivo gave us the smartphone with the best photographic zoom on the market, the VIVO X100 ULTRA. Not that the rest of the smartphone was any less, but the camera department certainly stood out in a resounding way. After all, the premises and especially the promises were really interesting (this is Huang Tao's tweet before the release of the 100 ultra). Today we already have to talk about the smartphone that could dethrone it, the Vivo X200 Pro, which together with the 200 and 200 mini are part of the new TOP series of the Chinese brand that surprises us every year with the quality of its products.
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Let's go and see everything about this new battleship and see if it makes sense to buy this or the "old" (so to speak) X100 Ultra today! Be careful, the true successor of the 100 Ultra will of course be the 200 Ultra (which will probably see the light in mid-2025), but given the characteristics of this PRO version it seems logical to put them on the same level anyway.
VIVO X200 PRO PACKAGE
Fortunately, this time too, VIVO has not given in to the terrible idea of reducing the sales packaging to the bare minimum, as unfortunately all the big brands are slowly doing. So we find:
- VIVO X200 Pro (with pre-installed screen protector)
- Rubberized cover
- 90W ultra-fast charger (plus adapter for Italian sockets)
- Type A – Type C charging cable
- Clip for removing SIM tray
- Various booklets
I am of course very pleased to find the original charger, pre-installed screen protector and a good cover in the package so that I can use the smartphone right away without worrying about buying accessories and spending maybe another 60/70 (between cover, screen protector and original charger the prices are the same). The charger output is still Type A and I don't understand why they haven't switched to the Type C standard yet, but it's a detail that doesn't matter. The cover is nice even if it 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 9 days to do 50km, while it had only taken 4 to do 6500.
VIVO X200 PRO 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: really beautiful! This time I tried the Titanium color because I'm not crazy about white, I already have the X100 Ultra in black and Blue seemed a bit too "tamarro" to me. The touch & feel is the usual one that distinguishes VIVO products, super mega premium as I call them, we find the usual maniacal attention to detail.
The camera group is made up of a really large and thick porthole, which protrudes quite a bit, but nothing different from the cameraphones of the last 2 years. Unfortunately there is not much to do here, given the size of the sensors I don't think much better could have been done, so it has to 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, in fact you can point under the porthole with your index finger to hold it better. The imbalance towards the cam group is not felt much but in your pocket it certainly is. I remain of the idea that the maximum weight to define a phone as "portable" is 200Gr, unfortunately for at least 2 years smartphones of this type have exceeded them by far. With this 200 Pro we have lowered ourselves by a few grams compared to the 100 Ultra, in fact we are on the 228Gr which still remain a lot (223Gr just for the black version), but even in this case there is little you can do except accept this choice of VIVO which I don't fully agree with and I'll explain why. This Vivo X200 Pro has a battery installed that is well 6.000mAh, 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 (90w for our X200 Pro) it was perhaps more logical to keep the 5.500 that the X100 mounted and save a few grams of weight. Consider that with the addition of the cover the weight increases by about 20/25Gr. Its dimensions are 75.95 mm x 162.36 mm x 84.9 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 X200 PRO DATASHEET
As always, the HardWare department of a flagship is at the TOP from every point of view, in fact we find:
- CPU: MediaTek Dimensity 9400 octa core, 1x Cortex-X925 at 3,63GHz + 3x Cortex-X4 at 2,80GHz + 4x Cortex-A725 at 2,1GHz, 64bit, 3nm,
- GPU: Immortalis-G925
- RAM: 12 / 16Gb LPDDR5X
- ROM: 256/512Gb/1Tb UFS 4.0
- Display: Samsung E7 6.78″ LPTO (1-120Hz), 2800 × 1260, refresh rate 120Hz, 453 PPI, maximum brightness 4500 Nits, Sampling rate 300Hz
- Camera (Zeiss lenses):
main - 50Mpx, f/1.57, 23mm equivalent focal length, autofocus, 1/1.28″ Sony Lytia 818 sensor,1.22µm,OIS
Wide - 50Mpx, ƒ/2.0, 15mm equivalent focal length, 119°, autofocus
Telephoto - 200Mpx periscopic Zeiss Isocell HP9 1/1.4″ sensor, ƒ/2,67, autofocus, OIS, up to 85mm
Selfie Cam - 32Mpx, f / 2.0 - Battery: 6000mAh with ultra-fast charging a 90w, wireless charging a 30w
- 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
- BT Audio: SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC, LHDC 5.0
- Network bands:
5G : Bande di frequenza n1/n3/n5/n8/n28A/n38/n40/n41/n77/n78/n79
4G LTE FDD: Bande B1/ B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B18/B19/B20/B26/B28A/B66
4G LTE TDD: Band B34/B38/B39/B40/B41
3G WCDMA: Banda B1/B2/B4/B5/B6/B8/B19 - GPS: GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS (L1), BDS (B1I+B1c+B2a+B2b), GALILEO (E1+E5a+E5b), QZSS (L1+L5), NavIC (L5)
- Waterproof: IP68/I69
VIVO X200 PRO CPU
Vivo has chosen Mediatek for its flagship product of this late 2024 and it was not a given. Many users prefer Qualcomm, 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 the Dimensity 9400 a processor from over 3.000.000 of points on AnTuTu. There is not much to say about this CPU except that it runs the already excellent Origin/FunTuch from Vivo perfectly, with absolutely well-tested graphical interfaces. Even on Android, LAGs are now old memories, the processors of the last 2/3 years are so oversized that they could run a PC without problems. We must say that this 9400 goes well beyond all of this and the interaction with thegenerative artificial intelligence, thanks to NPU 890, it's perfect. The consumption is very low and I never felt the smartphone overheating. So let's give this CPU a nice 10.
Having said that, we are talking about a very powerful processor with excellent energy savings. RAM Lpddr5X Maximum speed of 10667 Mbps (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 200 Pro among the most powerful smartphones on the market.
VIVO X200 PRO DISPLAY
The display is excellent, it's a Samsung E7 6.78" with a very high brightness that even reaches the 4.500Nits therefore perfect readability even outdoors under direct sunlight. The refresh rate is 120Hz, in line with the refresh rate that is now a standard. We can set it to 60/120Hz/Auto. My advice is to leave it in automatic mode which, thanks to the panel LPT extension, based on the content we are viewing, if not necessary, the frequency will be lowered until it reaches 1Hz. This feature will obviously bring us a good energy saving since there are situations in which even the minimum frequency of notes is fine. 1Hz (classic case the Always on Display). Tried movies, YouTube videos, games, etc. and I assure you that you will put aside every other device you have at home, because when you switch to something else the visual downgrade becomes evident. The touch sampling rate is 300Hz, the top 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 “slightly” curved on 4 sides. It is a new solution adopted by many manufacturers to please everyone and hoping to end the dispute between lovers of curved screens and lovers of flat screens.
The colors are excellently calibrated and the settings are really numerous. In fact, you can schedule the timing to have the dark mode (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 character sizes, two resolution modes, UHD and HD, three modes on which to set the screen refresh rate, auto-60Hz-120Hz and many other settings. So we can safely say that the Display is also a strong point of our 200 pro.
VIVO X200 PRO AUTONOMY
As I mentioned before, the battery is really very large 6.000mAh. 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 7.5 hours of display on, from 8 to 24. Mixed use 5G/4G/Wi-Fi, 3 hours of hotspot (which consumes a lot), many photos and videos, a lot of whatsapp/telegram, social (FB-IG), some voice calls. Definitely the Dimensity 9400 manages consumption well and combined with the LPTO screen it guarantees excellent energy savings. Android 15 also seems to be more economical than previous versions of Android even if I am now convinced that, as I said before, Chinese ROMs are in themselves less energy-hungry than Global ones. I remind you that all applications do not start by default when the phone is turned on, which means that to start them, and therefore receive notifications, you will have to open them manually or insert them into the autorun menu (settings-apps-authorization management-authorizations-automatic start). As always happens, autonomy is also destined to increase thanks to the various firmware updates that always bring benefits from this point of view.
I must say, however, that I have not seen these 500mAh more than the Ultra version (which stops at 5.500mAh) in terms of autonomy. Probably with some software update it will be possible to improve.
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 90w which allows a full recharge in just over 40 minutes, fast I suppose we could be around 50w. From the battery settings we could put on the lock screen the selection of which type of charging to perform and which to use by default, and change it with just one click. It's the first time I've found this genius on a smartphone and I'm thrilled about it, in fact when I'm not in a hurry I obviously leave the slower but less stressful charging for the battery. As I always remember, never let your smartphone go below 20% of residual charge. Partial charging is always recommended, so even if you find yourself at 50%, charge without worries. There is also 30W wireless charging.
VIVO CAMERA VIVO X200 PRO
In this chapter I will show you how all the sensors of our camera work. VIVO X200 PRO and I will compare them to those of the 100 Ultra, so in each section you will first find the shots of the 200 and then those of the 100 in the exact same lighting conditions. I would like to point out that all the shots were taken in mode AUTOMATIC and without tripod support, so to free hand. I used this shooting condition because it is clearly the most used with a smartphone.
MAIN PHOTO CAMERA
Let's start from the main camera which is the brand new sensor Sony Lytia Lyt-818 from 1/1.28″ f/1.6, equivalent focal length 23mm. Let's say right away that, despite how it may seem, this is not a downgrade compared to the Lyt-900 sensor of the 100 Ultra. In fact, even if this is slightly smaller, it is the latest addition to the Sony family and seems to be the best performing in all conditions but especially in difficult (poor) light conditions.
The collaboration with Zeiss remains an unsurpassable plus, as the lenses are actually among the best on the market. With this X200 Pro the project also continues “BlueImage” 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 compartment the most complete and powerful of this late 2024. And in fact the results are already astonishing, the colors are always very similar to the real ones, the white balance always impeccable and the digital noise almost absent even in night shots. I really like the fact of not saturating the shots taken automatically, a practice often used by some competitors that certainly gives a nice WOW effect but does not return a real photo.
Very good portraits, another strong point, where the skin and the detail on every imperfection make them truly “photo enlargement”, good landscapes, excellent macros even if these 2 scenarios are recommended with the wide and zoom camera. 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 and in the brand new mode Super Raw. The difference between the 2 is that in super raw you will already have a nice and ready file without having to fiddle with editing applications.
A much debated topic was the “Lens Flare” highlighted by many users that even led Vivo to essentially put two software remedies: the first is found in the camera settings and is the “Photo Glare Reduction” option (disabled by default). The second is found in the “edit-delete-glare red” menu where practically, via AI, we can remove objects, people and precisely “lens flare” from our photos. I did some tests but I never detected this problem in an evident way and I always kept the “Photo Glare reduction” option “off”.
Here are some examples of photos taken against the light. In my case I simply saw photos that have some “glare” like any other phone and I would also say camera.
ZOOM CAMERA (PERISCOPE)
Following in the footsteps of the 100 Ultra, here we are faced with a novelty in the field of smartphone photography, a periscope camera with a whopping 200Mpx, Samsung ISOCELL HP9, ƒ/2,67, with autofocus and OIS, equivalent to 85mm. The zoom without loss of detail is up to 3.7x but I assure you that up to 10x you will not notice that you are not shooting with the main one because the quality of the shot is crazy. A clarification: I also did a lot of research on the official Chinese site of Vivo but I did not find a certain data that the cam is precisely this one, the same as the 100 Ultra, let's give it 90%. Virtually no noise, impressive detail. Obviously in the evening you lose a bit of quality, but not that much. Here I propose some shots in the various focal lengths compared to those of the 100 Ultra. The sequence is: 1x, 10x, 30x, 60x, 100x
ULTRA WIDE CAMERA
The ultra-wide-angle camera is not very different from the other 2 but the shots are obviously not of the same level. Vivo has not disclosed which sensor this “wide” is but we know that it is a 50Mpx, ƒ/2.0, focal length equivalent to 15mm, 119°, autofocus. Compared to the 100 Ultra, the wide angle is even more, in fact we go from 116° to 119°. It is clear that, apart from landscapes, there are not many scenarios where this sensor can be used, which in any case does its job very well.
SELFIE CAM
The selfie cam is a 32Mpx and since I am not very experienced with selfies I will not be able to give you a very accurate judgment. From the tests carried out I have however noticed an excellent result in photos taken in difficult lighting 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. The shots against the light are also good, excellent exposure that allows you to keep the subjects in the foreground illuminated and not burn the light source. So excellent work of the HDR.
VIDEO
There are also many video modes, with many different resolutions. There is the Dolby Vision option and the “cinematic portrait”, slomotion, time-lapse, micro film, etc. modes. The quality is naturally TOP, and compared to the 100 Ultra it always comes out on top where the zoom is used. The autofocus is perfect and immediate and the color management is really convincing, on backlight there could be some Lens Flare problems, I did not detect any even if it must be said that I focused on the periscope cam. Here I propose some comparisons both in optimal light conditions and in very difficult light conditions (practically at night) with extreme zoom. The final judgment is up to you.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS CAMERA
Let's start from an important assumption, that is, that the successor of the x100 ultra, or rather Vivo's flagship camera phone, will be the x200 ultra which should be launched (but almost certainly only in CHINA) around mid-2025. That said, I can go out on a limb and say that as of today the 200 pro is superior to the 100 ultra, so if you're looking for the best camera phone at the moment, I think choosing the 200 Pro is almost a must for two reasons: it's a more recent phone, it came out with Android 2, and it will also come out with the global version (FunTouch).
That said, as a final consideration on the camera issue I can go out on a limb and say that in zooms greater than 20X the difference in favor of the 200 Pro comes out decisively. In photos with the main cam instead you don't see any tangible differences, the same goes for videos that are recorded in a similar way. Even in low light conditions I would give the victory to the 200 Pro.
FIRMWARE
At the release, the Vivo X200 Pro mounts the OriginOS 5 based on Android 15, Chinese firmware with Italian language. From the store where I purchased it (TRADINGSHENZHEN) it will arrive with PlayStore already installed (obviously Google services are present). If you purchase it from China (you will find it with absolutely more affordable prices) and you need to do a deep reset, you will then just need to install the playstore, a very simple operation as you will only need to download the APK file from this link (PLAY STORE) and install it by clicking on it. At the moment we do not know if it will be possible to install the global version on a Chinese model, so in case you want to buy it from China, precisely to save money, keep in mind that there will be some (very few) software criticalities that you will have to accept here in Italy. We remind you that in January 2025 it will be available for purchase here in Italy with the FunTouch which is Vivo's global UI, so without any limitations whatsoever.
SOFTWARE CRITICISM
The Chinese Origin OS firmware, as mentioned, brings with it 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 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 have not been able to test it, I am almost certain that it works after the latest firmware update (it was also the case for the 100 Pro Chinese version). The AOD is present with many settings but unfortunately the notifications of third-party applications will not be visible (to be clear, the screen is always on), you can only set calls, sms, gmail. There is the possibility of enabling them via third-party software (setedit), although this step will have to be repeated at each reboot (it is a job of a few seconds but if you always turn off the phone at night like the undersigned it becomes boring). If you are interested, write to me privately and I will explain how to do it. ! 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.
undoubtedly origin OS It is a much more customizable software than Funtouch which is more or less a Stock Android with much less customization.
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
Origin OS is more customizable than its global version (FunTouch) and I can't tell you about all the settings and features you'll find here. Obviously some will only be usable in China, but almost all of them will work very well in Italy too. Here I will only list those that are fundamental and present for me. Let's start with programmed switching off and on which will allow you to turn off your phone at night and turn it on in the morning before your alarm. A function that is not even present on smartphones of the level like the Google Pixel. I even found the possibility of program the off-line mode, if someone does not like having their phone turned off during the night they could also use this to disable data or data and mobile line. In the era of artificial intelligence it could not be missing in the management ofphoto editing.
Here I post some examples for removing subjects from photos. I must say that compared to the first tests I carried out with the 100 ultra the improvement is notable even if I consider Oppo and especially Google a step above in this feature
The possibility of also being excellent 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 Let's say right away that the infamous one is present 20 band, which is essential for some Italian operators and the best frequency that allows for excellent reception even inside homes, so no problem. As regards the 5G the available networks are the following: 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 26, 28, 38, 40, 41, 66, 75, 77, 78, 79 SA/NSA/Sub6. Of course I can't test other operators besides mine which is currently Wind3, but I can assure you that with this one you will really find yourself great. I live in a small town and these are the results of the speed tests in 4G + e 5G which by the way I have never even remotely achieved with any other smartphone, even a global one.
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. I specified exceptional quality because the supported BT audio codecs are all the best performing: SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC, LHDC 5.0
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
On the quality of this VIVO X200 PRO there is very little to complain about, we are at the TOP from every point of view. Camera, processor, display, battery, software, etc. So if you want the best at a very honest price I can only recommend you buy it. I would like to point out that the size is really important, the weight too (especially the weight) so take that into account before any purchase. As for the purchase, there is an important consideration to make: in the first months of 2025 the purchase of the global version will be available, therefore with funtouch software, also here in Italy but the price is not known for now. What is certain is the sure saving that you would get by buying it from China in the Chinese version with Origin OS, a much more complete and customizable software but with some small limitations that I told you about above. The warranty issue would also go from 24 to 12 months (in China it is only one year). My advice is to buy it from China if you do not use the Google voice assistant (Hey google) and surely the saving will be significant.
I bought it on TRADINGSHENZHEN, a site where I had already made purchases. The shipment was very fast to Italy where it arrived in 4 days. Then unfortunately to do the last 50Km the courier was Poste Italiane (intentionally in lowercase) and it took 8 days, for a total of 12 which remain an excellent result. Added to the 2 of order preparation, from the moment of payment in 2 weeks exactly 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 feel like I can absolutely recommend you to buy this beautiful VIVO X200 PRO for the reasons explained so far, you will surely be satisfied with the choice you made!
Vivo 200 Pro 12/256Gb (Italian, Play store, Google Services)
Vivo 200 Pro 16/512Gb (Italian, Play store, Google Services)