Vivo has confirmed that its next flagship smartphone lineup will launch in China in September. The Vivo X500 series will include the X500, X500 Pro and X500 Pro Max, with the company promising significant improvements to photography and video recording. The announcement comes as premium smartphone makers struggle to differentiate phones at a cost advantage as the industry grapples with the memory components’ price crisis.
Vivo X500 series camera upgrades
Vivo says (via) the X500 Pro models will get a new ZEISS Super Dynamic main camera developed by its BluePrint imaging team and Sony. It uses a 50MP BluePrint Guangyu 900 sensor measuring 1/1.28 inches. The sensor is claimed to capture up to 17 stops of dynamic range. Put simply, this refers to how much detail a camera can retain between the brightest and darkest parts of a scene. A wider range can help preserve details in areas such as a bright sky while keeping darker parts of the image from becoming completely black. The 17-stop figure is Vivo’s claim, so its significance will need to be judged through real-world testing.
The company is extending this capability to video, with the X500 Pro series supporting 4K recording at 240fps for slow-motion footage and 4K 120fps HDR video with direct HDR output. The main camera will also offer 3-degree optical image stabilisation, while CIPA 7.0 professional stabilisation is part of the system. Vivo has specifically highlighted the 3-degree OIS for the Pro Max.
Tipster Digital Chat Station claims the X500 series is internally codenamed “Thanos 500” and could use the 200MP HP0 periscope telephoto camera found on the Vivo X300 Ultra. Vivo hasn’t confirmed the telephoto hardware, so this remains a leak.
If it carries over, the large-format telephoto sensor would give the Pro models a strong zoom capability alongside the new main camera. That would keep Vivo competitive with camera-oriented flagships from Samsung and Xiaomi, although the overall camera experience will depend on processing and consistency between lenses.
Compared with the X300 series, Vivo appears to be putting more emphasis on how its cameras handle video rather than simply adding higher-resolution hardware. The Vivo X300 Pro already offered a 50MP main camera and a 200MP telephoto, while the X300 Ultra went further with its 200MP main and telephoto cameras. The X500 Pro’s new main sensor looks less like a straightforward megapixel upgrade and more like an attempt to improve dynamic range, stabilisation and high-frame-rate video. That could make the new generation an upgrade for people who shoot a lot of video, provided Vivo’s claimed improvements translate into real-world results.
For buyers, the X500 series will be worth watching if camera and video performance are priorities. However, the 17-stop claim and high frame-rate recording do not by themselves guarantee better results than competing flagships. Pricing, chipset performance, battery life and independent camera tests will be important once the phones launch.
