Vivo unleashes the X100 Ultra to take on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra

Harish Jonnalagadda
·2 min read
Vivo X100 Ultra.
Vivo X100 Ultra.

What you need to know

  • Vivo's X100 Ultra is now official in China, with the phone featuring a 1-inch main camera and 200MP telephoto that goes up to 3.7x optical zoom.

  • The phone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and has a new thermal management solution.

  • The device will be limited to China, and won't debut globally.

Samsung has the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Xiaomi has the 14 Ultra, and with OPPO launching the Find X7 Ultra this year, it was only a matter of time before Vivo followed suit. The Chinese manufacturer unveiled the X100 Ultra in its home country, and while the device shares a lot of the same features as the X100 Pro, it has upgraded cameras.

The 1-inch Sony LYT-900 camera is the same as the X100 Pro, but the Ultra gets a new telephoto lens — a 200MP f/2.7 sensor with OIS that goes up to 3.7x. Vivo says the sensor will deliver usable shots up to 20x zoom, and although the device doesn't have two telephoto lenses — like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and Find X7 Ultra — Vivo is rolling out the ability to shoot images and videos at similar focal lengths.

Vivo is using the same 6.78-inch AMOLED panel, and it goes up to 3,000 nits when viewing HDR content. The X100 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, with Vivo eschewing MediaTek hardware. There's 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage on the base model, with configuration options going up to 16GB/1TB.

Vivo X100 Ultra
Vivo X100 Ultra

There's a larger 5500mAh battery, and like the Magic 6 Pro, it uses a silicon carbon design that should allow better longevity. Vivo is rolling out a new 50MP camera at the front as well, and its integration with Zeiss means you get a lot of the same shooting modes.

There isn't much in the way of design changes, but the X100 Ultra is available in titanium, grey, and white color variants.

The X100 Pro has terrific cameras in its own right, and I'm interested in seeing how the X100 Ultra holds up against the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. Annoyingly, the X100 Ultra won't be launching globally, with Vivo limiting the device to China.