vivo X300 Pro · The 200 MP ZEISS periscope flagship that has quietly become a bargain

• 200 MP ZEISS APO periscope – a 1/1.4″ Samsung HPB sensor at 85 mm with 3.7× optical zoom and a 2.7:1 tele-macro, the headline telephoto class of phones costing far more
• Large 1/1.28″ main camera – a 50 MP Sony LYT-828 on a gimbal-style stabiliser, ZEISS-tuned, for clean low-light stills and steady video
• MediaTek Dimensity 9500 – a top-tier 3 nm chip, the alternative to the Snapdragon most of its rivals run
• 6.78-inch 1.5K LTPO AMOLED at 1–120 Hz with a 4,500-nit peak and gentle 2,160 Hz PWM dimming
• OriginOS 6 makes its global debut – the first vivo series sold worldwide on OriginOS rather than Funtouch, with five Android upgrades and seven years of security patches
• IP68 and IP69 rated, in a 226 g body that stays just under 8 mm thick
• 90 W wired and 40 W wireless charging, plus reverse wireless and reverse wired

The X300 Pro is the volume flagship of vivo's X300 line, sitting one rung below the no-compromise vivo X300 Ultra. vivo unveiled it in China on 13 October 2025 and took it worldwide at a Vienna event on 30 October 2025, on sale the same day across Europe at a €1,399 list price.

We normally cover phones the week they launch, so why this one now? Because eight months on, the maths has changed in the buyer's favour. The phone is the same serious ZEISS camera tool it was at launch, but the price has come down hard: vivo's own store has dropped it to around €1,149, European retailers like Alza now list it near €1,099, and imported global units go for about €1,030, roughly €300 to €370 below the launch price. A range-topping camera flagship that has matured, kept its software promises and shed a few hundred euros is exactly the kind of phone worth flagging, and with the next generation expected later in 2026, this is the part of the cycle where the value is best.

Despite carrying a 200 MP periscope, the X300 Pro keeps a clean, restrained body: a glass front over vivo Armor Glass (rated Mohs level 4 for scratch resistance), a glass back and an aluminium-alloy frame, at 226 g and just under 8 mm thick. Packing this much camera into a phone that is neither a brick nor a slab is an achievement in itself.

The sealing is the full flagship treatment: IP68 and IP69. In practice that means it is dust-tight, survives immersion in fresh water to 1.5 m for 30 minutes, and shrugs off high-pressure, high-temperature water jets, the kind of rating you usually only see on the most expensive phones. An ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader and an IR blaster round out the hardware. Europe gets it in Phantom Black, Mist Blue, Dune Brown and Cloud White.

The 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED (a BOE Q10+ panel) runs at 2800 × 1260, a 1.5K resolution at 452 ppi, with a fully adaptive 1–120 Hz refresh rate and a 4,500-nit local peak that keeps the screen readable in direct sun, which matters on a phone you will hold up as a viewfinder. It carries Dolby Vision and HDR10+ for video.

Just as important for daily use is the 2,160 Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, which keeps the backlight flicker low at night and is easy on the eyes at low brightness. A 1.5K panel is a small step down from the 2K screens on the priciest flagships, but at this size the difference is hard to see, and the trade buys efficiency.

Here the X300 Pro takes a different road from most of the phones we cover. Where the vivo X300 Ultra, the OPPO Find X9 Ultra and Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra all run Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the X300 Pro uses MediaTek's Dimensity 9500, a 3 nm chip with an all-big-core layout (one prime core at 4.21 GHz, three at 3.5 GHz and four at 2.7 GHz) and an Arm G1-Ultra GPU. It is not a compromise: in raw benchmarks it sits right alongside the Snapdragon, so this is a top-tier flagship platform, just MediaTek's version of one.

Memory is generous, with 12 GB or 16 GB of LPDDR5X and 256 GB, 512 GB or 1 TB of UFS 4.1 storage, though Europe is sold only the 16 GB + 512 GB configuration.

The X300 Pro is built for endurance, with a large silicon-carbon battery and quick refuelling: 90 W wired FlashCharge and 40 W wireless. It also handles reverse charging both ways, so you can top up earbuds or a watch wirelessly on the back, or run a cable out to another device.

There is, however, one regional difference worth knowing before you buy. Most of the world gets a 6,510 mAh cell, but European units ship a smaller 5,440 mAh battery. This pattern keeps recurring across the industry: lithium cells above certain energy limits count as dangerous goods in air freight and need extra per-market certification, so brands tend to ship a more conservative cell in Europe, and no manufacturer, vivo included, has confirmed the reasoning on the record. It is a real shame on a phone otherwise designed to last all day, though 5,440 mAh of silicon-carbon is still a healthy capacity, and the 90 W charger makes short work of a refill.

The rear system is a ZEISS-tuned trio, and it is the reason to buy this phone:

• 50 MP main, 1/1.28″ on Sony's LYT-828, f/1.57, with gimbal-style OIS. The large sensor gathers plenty of light, so shots after dark stay clean, and the gimbal stabiliser floats the lens to smooth out hand shake for sharp low-light frames and steady video.
• 200 MP ZEISS APO periscope, 1/1.4″ on Samsung's customised HPB sensor, f/2.67, at 85 mm with 3.7× optical zoom and OIS. The 85 mm reach is the classic portrait and distant-detail focal length, and because the sensor is 200 MP you can crop in past 3.7× and still keep usable resolution. A 2.7:1 tele-macro lets it focus close, too, for tight detail shots through the long lens.
• 50 MP ultrawide, 1/2.76″ on Samsung's JN1, f/2.0, 119° field of view, with autofocus that also enables ultrawide macro.

The 50 MP front camera also autofocuses. Video tops out at 8K at 30 fps, with 4K at 120 fps in 10-bit Log and Dolby Vision, where Log preserves the highlights and shadows you grade later. There is even an optional screw-on ZEISS telephoto extender that turns the 85 mm lens into a roughly 200 mm optical reach for those who want it.

Two honest comparisons set expectations. The pricier X300 Ultra goes further on every camera axis, with bigger sensors, a record-class stabilised telephoto and a pair of 200 mm and 400 mm extenders; the X300 Pro hands you most of that ZEISS character for a lot less money. And where the OPPO Find X9 Ultra builds a true 10× periscope into the body, the X300 Pro's built-in reach stops at 3.7× and leans on its 200 MP sensor for distance, so very long shots are where it asks the most of you.

The X300 Pro ships with OriginOS 6 on Android 16, and the X300 series is the first time vivo has sold its main OriginOS platform worldwide rather than the Funtouch OS it used to ship abroad. vivo backs it with five major Android upgrades and seven years of security patches, a strong, long commitment, though note the two figures are not the same: five OS versions and seven years of security fixes, not seven years of new Android.

OriginOS also courts Apple users, with file transfer to and from an iPhone and AirPods pairing, useful for the photographers this phone targets, who often edit on Apple hardware.

The X300 Pro launched globally on 30 October 2025 at €1,399 for the single European configuration, 16 GB and 512 GB. Eight months later that is no longer the price that matters: vivo's own store has dropped it to around €1,149, European retailers now list it near €1,099, and imported global units sell for about €1,030, so the real-world cost today is roughly €1,030 to €1,100, flagship hardware at upper-midrange money.

There is no US availability, as vivo does not sell phones in the United States. Imported global units are cheaper still and carry the larger 6,510 mAh battery, but they skip European warranty and some local bands, so for buyers here the official EU model is the sensible choice. We will update this article if the European pricing shifts.