When I posted first-look photos of the Vivo X200 Pro on LinkedIn, a colleague commented that it looked like a camera that could also make calls. Though he said that in jest, after a couple of weeks using this new phone, I am convinced this flagship is more of a camera than a phone… and a spectacular camera at that too. Of course, it’s a good phone too, but I would pick this one up just for the camera. So this review will also have a lot more on the camera than other aspects of the phone.
The Vivo X200 Pro’s design showcases what it is good at, like a man whose muscles tell the world he spends too much time at the gym. The camera bump on the phone is so large and significant that the phone always rests at an angle, like a ramp. If this did not convince you, there is Zeiss branding on the camera ring to push the point a bit more.
I had never reviewed a Vivo X series phone before, though I had tried out their foldables. So while I knew the cameras on these phones were good, I had not experienced this firsthand. And it did not take me long to understand why a lot of people thought these phones maybe had the best camera.
Why the Vivo X200 Pro maybe has the best camera of 2024
The phone comes with Zeiss optics. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
Let’s start with the 200 MP ZEISS APO telephoto camera, which could be considered the USP of this phone. The 100x zoom this camera claims has been done before, but since this uses a larger sensor than competition it gets more light in and this makes all the difference as I discovered one early morning in Mumbai. This camera was able to capture a stunning dawn shot of the Queen’s necklace with the many hues of the sky and then with 10X seek out a boat in the water which I could barely spot with the naked eye. At 30x it did get a bit blurry, but I could spot three men working on the boat and Tricolour flying above them. At 100x, it was tough to keep the camera locked on the subject so far away, but I could get closer to the boat, though there was no more revealing information given how blurry things were.
World’s first smartphone camera with 200 MP telephoto lens. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
But no such issues with moonshots as the camera got some stunning captures even at 30x.
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
And there were some great results at night too where I was zooming at about 20x.
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
But the 50MP ZEISS True Color Main Camera is equally impressive as just regular shots give you the kind of details and colours that are rare even with camera technology having progressed so much across camera brands. I really loved the street photography mode on the camera app which you pull up in the photo mode to click with some ZEISS presets like textured and an impressive B&W.
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
The low light capabilities of the camera are impressive. I tried the Pro mode with a 4s shutter speed to capture Mumbai traffic buzzing in front of some stunning Art Deco buildings on Marine Drive. The captures don’t look like they have been shot on a smartphone. Period.
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
There is a new landscape mode, which used to be common in point-and-shoot cameras but one I have never encountered in a smartphone. The 50MP 119-degree super wide-angle camera captures some classy shots with the right amount of detail and without the frame looking distorted because of the fish-eye effect.
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
In macro mode, the camera is good enough to capture water stains on flowers and other crispt details. The AI in the camera is very functional when you get near a subject to identify a flower as a plant and a clove as a food item.
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
Camera sample. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
The bokeh effect is also very professional and this works even while you are taking random images, like of plants, or using the many portrait modes on offer. I took a lot of portraits of colleagues at an office party and more than one person said the photo was becoming their DP right away.
Vivo has worked a lot on the video capabilities too and almost everything you do with the still camera is available on video as well. There is a stage that not only lets you zoom in on subjects far away but also isolates the audio from there softening the ambient noise in your actual location. I tried this at an Express event where I could zoom in to hear Sunny Deol on stage from the back row where a bunch of students were busy gossiping. You can switch to 4K at 120FPS and Dolby Vision closing in on some stunning frames using up to 20X zoom.
Is the Vivo X200 Pro just about the camera?
It is as powerful as any other Android flagship. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
In my books, the Vivo X200 Pro is a perfect camera for those who are creators and need to capture videos and stills in different situations. Even for photography enthusiasts and nature lovers, there can’t be a more versatile camera phone at the moment given what all this one can do.
To complement the camera, the Vivo X200 Pro comes with a crisp 6.78-inch display with an adaptive refresh rate and a brightness level of up to 4500 nits. I found this useful while framing some shots under the bright winter sun and you can tone it down while you are doom-scrolling yourself to sleep at night.
Vivo is debuting the new Dimensity 9400 Flagship SoC Platform with this phone and in the two weeks I used it, there were no heating issues or stuttering when switching between apps or gaming for long stints. The phone can handle long 4K video recordings well too. With 16GB RAM, the phone is a powerhouse that can handle everything from gaming to multi-tasking and should even be able to handle the slowing down that Android phones encounter after a few months.
The FunTouch OS15 based on Android 15 is something I was a bit skeptical about, but found it to be relatively clean though there is some bloatware that you might want to get rid of. There are regular AI features on offer, though Vivo is not trying to push it down your throat. I found the camera app the smartest of the lot with a lot of AI features and easy tweaks which seem to understand user needs.
Who should buy the Vivo X200 Pro?
A compelling flagship smartphone. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
At Rs 94,999, the Vivo X200 Pro is competing for the top camera honours among smartphones this year and I think it has more than a chance. If you are a creative person or consider yourself a decent photographer, then this is one phone worth investing in. It helps, that this camera also doubles off as a good flagship smartphone.
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