The X500 Pro Max may be Vivo’s new camera flagship, complete with a huge 200MP telephoto and that ridiculous 400mm lens attachment. But what’s really impressive is how little Vivo has stripped away from the two phones sitting below it. The Vivo X500 Pro is particularly interesting. At just 6.36 inches, it pairs MediaTek’s new 2nm Dimensity 9600 Pro with a 6,510mAh battery, 90W wired charging, and 40W wireless charging.
More importantly, it gets Vivo’s new Zeiss TrueDynamic main camera built around the 50MP Sony LYTIA L910, the same sensor family driving the Pro Max’s headline imaging improvements. Its 64MP Zeiss APO telephoto uses Sony’s LYTIA 610 sensor with an 85mm-equivalent focal length and CIPA 7.0 stabilization.
The compact Pro is another photography-first device
The X500 Pro series supports 4K/240fps cinematic slow motion, alongside 17 EV TrueDynamic Log with 10-bit 4:2:2 encoding and ACES support. Vivo has also partnered with DaVinci for an official color-transformation workflow, while 4K/120fps autofocus tracking can reacquire a subject after something passes in front of it.
The smaller X300 impressed us last year, with camera hardware that already punched well above what its size suggested. Now, we are getting a Pro experience on the same form factor.
Even the regular X500 gets the good stuff
The standard X500 drops to the Dimensity 9600M, yet gets a larger 7,500mAh battery, the same 90W wired and 40W wireless charging, and a 6.59-inch Zeiss display. Its 50MP main camera uses the 1/1.28-inch Sony LYTIA 828 previously found in the X300 Pro, paired with gimbal-grade stabilization. The 64MP LYTIA 610 telephoto returns with CIPA 5.5 stabilization, and the phone still records 4K/120fps slow motion, 4K/120fps 10-bit Log, and 4K/60fps cinematic portrait video. So all of your top-tier photography and videography chops are present in the base model as well.
Vivo will even sell a 200mm-equivalent Zeiss Telephoto Extender Gen 2 for the base X500, which weighs 153 grams, measures 96mm long, and supports 14 shooting modes. The X500 and X500 Pro go on sale in China on September 24. The Vivo X500 Pro starts from 6,499 Yuan (about $970), while the base X500 starts at 5,499 Yuan (about $820).
