Vivo is back at it again with another high-profile flagship cameraphone co-developed alongside Zeiss, the legendary photography powerhouse. Just like previous Vivo flagships, the new X200 Pro also comes with an extremely promising camera system.
First up, how have the specs evolved in comparison with the Vivo X100 Pro. Well, the main camera of the phone has scored a new sensor, namely the fresh Sony LYT-818 sensor with a moderately large 1/1.28" size and smaller 1.22µm pixels. The latter reportedly greatly helps the 50MP camera to achieve superb low-light capabilities, which is always nice to see.
However, the focus with this phone is the 3.7X camera, which comes with a six-element floating periscope mechanism. At the rear, we have a large 200MP 1/1.4" sensor with small pixels. Vivo boasts that this camera specializes in concert photography, as well as portraiture, telephoto macro, and nightscapes.
Finally, there's the 50MP ultra-wide, which hasn't changed in comparison with its predecessor. The same applies to the front-facing camera.
On the software front, some highlights are long-exposure landscapes, a street photography shooting mode, a ton of portrait settings and options, 4K HDR cinematic portrait videos, and 10-bit log video fit for post-processing. AI has also been reined in, with AI photo-enhancing and object removal.
Specs
Vivo X200 Pro
Vivo X100 Pro
Main camera
50MP F1.6, 23mm Sony LYT-818, Sensor size: 1/1.28" 1.22µm
With a score of 147.6, the Vivo X200 Pro does a pretty decent job, ranking just slightly lower than the leaders in the space. That's the accumulated score though, combining both the still photo and videography scores, so let us break things down.
In the standard still photo test, the Vivo X200 Pro achieves a score of 157.7, which is slightly lower than what the rest of the phones have achieved. For example, the older Vivo X100 Pro receives 159.1 points, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max, Galaxy S24 Ultra, and Pixel 9 Pro XL score slightly higher, at 158.4, 161.9, and 159.4 points, respectively. While the Vivo X200 Pro is technically last in place, the differences are pretty small, so don't expect anything too drastic.
In the video test, the Vivo X200 Pro achieves 137.6 points, which is noticeably better than the Vivo X100 Pro's 131.3 points. However, the consistency and lead of the other flagships are way ahead here, with significantly higher results.
Vivo X200 Pro camera spider chart
Pros
Excellent zoom camera with tons of sharpness & detail
Good dynamic range and exposure with all cameras
Accurate tone and color temperature
Cons
Noticeable oversharpening in most still photo modes
Some noise artifacts present at low light
Ultrawide is slightly narrower than the industry standard
Main Camera
Vivo X200 Pro daytime and low-light camera samples
The main camera of the Vivo X200 Pro does a fairly good job with detail and overall color temperature. Dynamics are slightly worse than last year's Vivo X100 Pro and all other rivals, and sadly, there's a significant amount of oversharpening here.
The style is also slightly on the "richer side", with stronger contrast and lovely colors, which is something we love when it's done with moderation. Fortunately, that's the case here, though some may want slightly flatter images to edit themselves in post.
The 200MP zoom camera does a fantastic job at all tested focal lengths (3.7X, 5X, 10X), where it actually beats all of its competitors, including the mighty Galaxy S24 Ultra. The consistency in sharpness means that you will get optically excellent results with any of the near-zoom levels, but acceptable results can be achieved even at longer zooms. The dynamic range and exposure are great here, as well as the color temperature, which is mostly true-to-life, not leaning into the magenta or green hues.
Colors, however, are slightly more saturated than the main camera. There's also a lot of oversharpening going on here, too.
Ultra-wide Camera
Vivo X200 Pro Ultrawide samples
The ultrawide camera is also found guilty of oversharpening most scenes, which leads to some tiny but distracting artifacts present all around. The dynamic range and subject exposure are pretty decent. Sharpness in the middle of the frame as well as the corners are all very good. Note that the field-of-view here is the equivalent to 119º, which is a smidgen lower than the flagship industry standard of 120º; this means you can fit ever so slightly less in the frame.
Front Camera
Vivo X200 Pro selfie samples
The selfie camera takes good selfies, with lovely depth of field and good dynamics, but some oversharpening and noise at nighttime is still present here. Still, selfies are good.
Main Camera - Video
Screen capture from Vivo X200 Pro main camera video
With the Vivo X200 Pro, we get better and higher-quality videos in comparison with the Vivo X100 Pro. Dynamic range and exposure are pretty great, but details, while decent, are still not up to par in comparison with the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Pixel 9 Pro XL, or iPhone 16 Pro Max. The oversharpening is much tamer here, on par with the previously mentioned phones. Stabilization is mostly okay.
Ultrawide camera - Video
Screen capture from Vivo X200 Pro ultrawide video
The ultrawide camera takes pretty good videos. Once again, dynamics and exposure are great, corner sharpness and details are very good, and oversharpening has been tamed here.
Zoom camera - Video
Screen capture from Vivo X200 Pro 3X video
The zoom camera delivers awesome sharpness and detail, but with some slight oversharpening artifacts still present. Colors are very true-to-life, and exposure and dynamics are equally good. A great experience taking a video with the telephoto camera, overall.
Selfie camera - Video
Screen capture from Vivo X200 Pro selfie video
4K videos taken with the front camera are good, but they lack detail in comparison with the Galaxy S24 Ultra, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and Pixel 9 Pro XL. Still better than the Vivo X100 Pro, though!
Conclusion
With the Vivo X200 Pro, we get some cautious upgrades in the hardware which mostly deliver decent upgrades in video-recording, but the net gain in the still photo test isn't here. The slightly smaller sensor of the main camera has mostly affected the still photo test, which isn't great to see. We hope that it turns out this is an issue of overall software optimization, which could hopefully get fixed in the near future.
For now, however, the Vivo X200 Pro might not be a great upgrade for Vivo X100 Pro users who have hoped for a big upgrade in the overall photography capabilities of the Zeiss-tuned live of devices.
The main weakness of the new phone stems to the oversharpening present on all cameras in still photo mode, which is surely noticeable and sours the proverbial soup away from the overall positive impression with the phone.
The fact that the phone also tend to oversaturate colors and deliver a slightly richer contrast in comparison with the more mainstream flagships are a double-edged sword: some users might greatly enjoy that specific look, but many could be equally annoyed with the overly too vivid appearance in some scenes.
Overall, the Vivo X200 Pro is a very good cameraphone, which doesn't succeed in overthrowing the current leaders, but ranks nearly as high as them.
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Peter, an experienced tech enthusiast at PhoneArena, is captivated by all things mobile. His impartial reviews and proficiency in Android systems offer readers valuable insights. Off-duty, he delves into the latest cryptocurrency trends and enjoys sci-fi and video games.
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