Full Reviews of Vivo X100 Pro:
The Vivo X100 Pro packs an incredibly versatile pro grade camera system tuned by ZEISS that in some ways beats the iPhone 15 Pro, Pixel 8 Pro and even the Galaxy S23 Ultra. But does it have what it takes to be crowned the new “King of Camera” phones? Let’s dive in for an in-depth review.
Pros
- class-leading low-light photography
- Stunning portrait shots with excellent edge detection and true-to-life skin tones
- Massive lossless hybrid zoom up to 100x using periscope and wide angle lenses
- Gorgeous sunsets, night skies and cityscapes in photos
- Buttery smooth, stabilized 4K 60fps HDR video recording even in low light
- Fantastic dynamic range retaining highlights and shadows
- Vivid, punchy colors that can be toned down
- very fast charging with huge 5,400 mAh battery
Cons
- Bulky heavier design with large camera island
- Only 3 years of Android OS updates promised
- No wireless charging support
- Ultrawide camera could be improved
Camera Hardware Fit for Pros
The Vivo X100 Pro features a multilens camera array co-engineered with ZEISS, legendary optics pioneers for 170 years. The massive camera bump houses:
Main Lens: A large 1-inch type IMX989 Sony sensor shoots 50MP images with advanced Quad Phase Detection and Dual Pixel Pro Autofocus ensuring subjects are always in focus. The f/1.6 aperture pulls in plenty of light.
Periscope Telephoto: An 8MP f/3.4 lens offering 5x optical zoom and further 60x hybrid lossless zoom thanks to its folded optics allowing insane 100x space zoom total! OIS minimizes handshake.
Ultrawide Lens: While perfectly serviceable, a humble 48MP f/2.2 ultrawide does seem slightly underwhelming given the other heavyweight lenses.
Portrait Telephoto Lens: A classic 50mm focal length and f/2.0 aperture that creates gorgeous portrait shots with buttery bokeh.
Selfie Camera: The 16MP front camera has a wider angle 100 ̊ field of view and f/2.36 aperture capturing all your friends in a selfie.
This versatile quad camera setup offers immense creative flexibility letting you truly shoot like a pro!
Stunning Low Light Photos
Coming to its actual performance, the X100 Pro captures night time photos with perfectly exposed highlights and shadows retaining an astonishing amount of detail in the darkest scenes. Noise is non-existent even in night skies thanks to multi-frame compositing and new RGBW sensors with white (clear) pixels that let more light in.
Even at high 10x hybrid optical zoom levels in low light, photos remain remarkably stable and vivid with lower noise grain than the iPhone 15 Pro. And I haven’t even gotten to the mind-bending 100x space zoom’s low light prowess!
Beautiful Portrait Photography
For capturing stunning portraits and people photos, the custom 50mm f/2.0 portrait lens gives amazing subject separation with buttery smooth bokeh gradients reminiscent of full-frame DSLR lenses costing thousands.
Edge detection around hair, glasses and complex fabrics is immaculate keeping the subject fully in focus. Realistic skin tones and superb micro & macro contrast ensures faces remain lifelike with incredible details on eyes, facial features and micro expressions holding up even under pixel peeping.
The portrait lens combined with the high-resolution main sensor allows for lossless 8K 30fps video recording so you can extract 33MP photos from portrait videos!
Super Steady Gimbal Style Video
The Vivo X100 Pro features a unique micro gimbal optical stabilization system allowing insanely stable handheld video without any jitter, shake or distortion commonly seen when walking and moving while filming video.
This 3-axis mechanical gimbal smoothly compensates for tiny hand movements completely smoothing out videos. Most optically stabilized smartphone cameras rely only on the lens module to reduce handshake but the X100 Pro’s sensors themselves are stabilized even better than leading action cameras.
So you can run, walk, ride and move while capturing usable 4K 60fps footage that stays crackingly sharp with no warping or jelly effects making this a vlogger’s delight!
100x Space Zoom Redefines Phone Cameras
Now for my favorite mind-blowing party trick that makes the X100 Pro’s camera unlike any other – its unbelievable periscope telephoto lens that enables a crazy 100x space zoom!
Thanks to folded optics technology that uses a prism allowing the telephoto camera to perceive scenes sideways relative to the phone body, it achieves a 5x optical zoom and maximum 60x hybrid zoom with the 50MP main camera’s crop.
But using the full 1-inch sensor, it pushes all the way to a seismic 100x space zoom that even surpasses most DSLR lenses out there!
I was able to clearly read text on objects from two football fields away. This has instantly made zoom photography my new creative obsession trying to see how far I can push it.
Be it nearby architecture details, animals and birds, aircraft in the sky, or even craters on the moon – with a steady hand or tripod, the shots I’m able to achieve are simply incredible pushing the boundaries of what phones can do!
SD Card Support for Unlimited Photos & Videos
The Vivo X100 Pro pushes smartphone photography into DSLR territory with its huge camera sensors and photographers will be thrilled to know it includes support for micro SD cards up to 1TB allowing you to store thousands of professional grade 21:9 cinematic videos and lossless RAW photos!
Since the phone itself ships with ample 512GB storage space, you likely won’t ever need expandable storage. But pros shooting 8K videos or 100MP photos will appreciate the headroom.
Diving Into Photos
Anyway, enough talk about megapixels and sensor sizes. how do actual real world photos turn out?
In full auto mode, images have plenty of detail albeit a characteristic Vivo look with punchy colors (especially greens) that may not suit those wanting natural accuracy.
Exposure and dynamic range are fantastic bringing shadow details while retaining cloud/highlight details avoiding blown-out skies that often ruin outdoor photography.
Noise is very well controlled even in indoor shots and night skies maintain spatial detail. Ultrawide images do show some distortion but that is expected from most phones (besides iPhones).
Ultimately, the camera’s photo output quality does live up to flagship standards and easily beats mid-range phones. Unless you want true neutral color science like iPhones, you’ll find dynamic images from the X100 Pro that make them instantly social media ready.
Blazing Fast Portraits
My favorite mode is the custom 50mm portrait lens that creates professional shots similar to my Sony A7 III in terms of subject separation and pleasing background blur gradients. Edge detection is quick and accurate with no lag or hunting even in low light.
Since portraits rely heavily on color science for natural skin tones – I’m pleased to report the x100 Pro delivers warm, accurate skin tones devoid of artificial smoothing or blemish removal seen in Chinese phones.
Micro-contrast and details like hair, eyelashes and fabric textures shine through wonderfully making subjects pop in typical Vivo high contrast style.
The 16MP selfie camera also gets far more detail than expected retaining facial details reasonably well. However aggressive face beauty cannot be fully disabled which smoothens skin excessively.
DSLR Style Controls
Now given its highly advanced camera system aimed at professionals, the X100 Pro offers extensive manual controls letting you fine tune settings.
You get manual ISO from 50 to 25600, shutter speeds from 1/8000s to 32 seconds, white balance, exposure compensation, histogram, focus peaking, zebra overlays and full HDMI output!
This unlocks long exposure night photography, full manual video, external displays and even RAW photography leveraging the Pro mode.
The Apollo camera app offers creative options like multi-frame noise reduction, star trails, manual lenses, posture guides, video filters, AR emojis and more. Overall, it provides an excellent interface letting you tweak every setting possible or just point and shoot.
How Does It Compare Against the iPhone 15 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra?
Let’s see how the Vivo X100 Pro holds up against the latest iPhone 15 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra flagships:
Low light Photography
In night time shots with tricky mixed lighting, the X100 Pro reveals more details in shadows and highlights giving images a stunning dynamic range. Accuracy of colors, white balance reproduction along with lack of noise in skies sets it apart.
Even at high 10x hybrid optical zoom levels in low light, photos remain remarkably stable and vivid with lower noise grain than the iPhone 15 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Portrait Photography
Both rival phones take excellent portraits with great edge detection and bokeh. But the custom 50mm focal length portrait lens on the X100 Pro allows for flattering perspective and background separation that beats even full frame cameras in some instances!
It also shows warm, pleasing skin tones devoid of excessive smoothing effects seen on Chinese phones. Plus the 8K 30fps video recording from portrait lens unlocks next level editing.
Zoom Capabilities
The 100x space zoom on the Vivo X100 Pro smokes the 10x optical zoom on iPhone 15 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra delivering insane focal lengths letting you see the unseen!
At high zoom levels, it maintains excellent colors, crisp details and lower noise versus completely degraded quality on the other phones at max zoom.
Video Recording
Both the latest iPhone and Galaxy shoot stabilization video with gorgeous cinematic bokeh. But the X100 Pro’s unique gimbal-style stabilization creates almost distortion-free video when moving shooting at resolutions up to 8K.
Regular Photo Quality
For everyday photos, the Vivo X100 Pro delivers flagship grade quality with mesmerizing vibrance albeit not as true-to-life as Apple iPhones. It brings out details well with great dynamic range and lower noise.
So should you buy it for photography and videos?
If top-notch photography and videography prowess is your priority, then absolutely yes! The Vivo X100 Pro has a uniquely versatile camera setup for every scenario.
Its powerful sensors shoot incredibly detailed 50MP stills with great dynamic range and its innovative gimbal + optical stabilization produces rock steady videos when moving.
Low light photography is equally stellar showing elements invisible to the human eye. Portrait photos get amazing subject separation unmatched even by full-frame cameras.
And the wizardry of 5x-100x hybrid zoom lets you record moments otherwise impossible on smartphones with insane quality retention up to decent 60x zoom levels.
So thanks to its cutting edge camera hardware full of exotic technologies combined with extensive manual controls, there’s really nothing else like the X100 Pro for mobile creators and photography enthusiasts wanting pro-grade DSLR-style versatility and quality in their pocket!
While the OS updates situation should definitely improve, the cameras alone make this an irresistible option for visual storytellers to consider, easily cementing Vivo as the revolutionary new leader in smartphone photography.
