Vivo X300 Ultra review: 56,999 CZK for a phone? After three weeks, I'll tell you if it's worth it

Vivo kept its Ultra phones hidden at home in China for a long time. When the top-tier X300 Ultra model finally arrived here a few days ago, I got my hands on a phone that is attracting the most attention among reviewers globally. After three weeks of daily use, I can say that the **X300 Ultra is truly the best camera phone you can get right now**. And at the same time, it’s a phone for which you have to dig deep into your wallet and then even deeper into your conscience to justify the price.

To start, a small recap. The basic configuration starts at **46,999 CZK**, while the top-tier version I tested, which includes the Photographer Kit with a grip, a 400mm teleconverter, and other accessories, costs **56,999 CZK**. In addition, Vivo offers a trade-in bonus of up to 7,000 CZK, a three-year warranty, one-year display insurance, and a five-year battery capacity warranty, so the final impact on your wallet can be mitigated. Even so, we are talking about amounts that set a completely new standard in the Czech Republic for what people are willing to acquire as a “phone”.

Design evokes emotions

In terms of design, Vivo chose an evolutionary path. The X300 Ultra builds on its predecessor, the X200 Ultra, but has moved a step further in details. Naturally, the most attention on the back is drawn by the **giant circular camera module**, which is centered – this is a big advantage because the phone doesn’t slide or wobble on the table, even though it protrudes a few millimeters above the surface. Around the module is a milled metal ring with knurling, which refers to the focusing rings of professional lenses. Yes, it’s a bit kitschy, but it fits. Moreover, when holding it, you can place your index finger under the module, giving you almost complete control over it. I used it about 70% of the time without a case, and paradoxically, I can’t complain about slipperiness.

My green version has a matte back. Faux leather would look even better, but I understand why the manufacturer decided this way – the matte surface doesn’t wear out, doesn’t get greasy, and still looks decent. The frame is made of metal with a matte finish, and the slightly beveled edges rest comfortably in the palm and **don’t cut like on the Galaxy S25 Ultra**.

But it’s still a large and heavy piece of phone. On the right side, you’ll only find the power and volume buttons, no camera shutter, no switch – Vivo opted for moderation this time. The haptic feedback is precise, and the buttons fall where you expect them. **IP68 and IP69** certification is becoming standard for high-end phones, yet it’s nice to know that the phone can withstand high-pressure hot water – a situation you’d hardly invent in everyday life, but when it happens, you’ll be glad.

Finally, a flat display

The display has a **6.82-inch diagonal**, it’s an LTPO AMOLED panel with a resolution of 3168 × 1440 pixels and a dynamic refresh rate of up to 144 Hz. More important than the number, however, is the shape. While the X200 Ultra had a display curved over the edges, the new model is **flat and straight-edged**. This will be appreciated by anyone who has ever photographed through a curved edge and received unwanted reflections or false touches from the panel when shooting.

The peak brightness is advertised as up to **4,500 nits**, but this is only a short-term value in HDR scenes. In normal use, you’re somewhere around 1,500 nits, which is more than enough for working in bright sunlight – unlike many competitors, you can compose a shot even at noon without crouching in the shade of your body. The panel is calibrated by default, handles HDR well, and PWM dimming at high frequencies is gentle on the eyes. The 144 Hz refresh rate sounds fancy, but it only genuinely manifests in games – when browsing the system, it’s the **classic 120 Hz** like the competition, which is more than enough anyway.

The ultrasonic under-display fingerprint reader works quickly and reliably. It is noticeably faster than classic optical readers; you just need to place your finger for a millisecond, and it’s unlocked.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and a battery that won’t freeze

While the cheaper X300 series models are powered by MediaTek chips, the **top-tier model** opted for the best Qualcomm has today – the **Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5**. It is complemented by a dedicated image co-processor VS1+, 16 GB of LPDDR5X Ultra memory, and UFS 4.1 storage with a capacity of up to 1 TB. In terms of performance, it’s a machine that can easily handle demanding games, but most importantly, it doesn’t stutter when working with RAW files from the 200Mpx sensor. And that’s a volume of data that a typical mid-range smartphone would respond to with a several-second freeze.

After twenty minutes of Genshin Impact at the highest details, the back near the camera module heated up to about 40 °C. This is a relatively low value compared to some of this year’s flagships, although it’s worth adding that the metal frame transfers heat directly to the fingers. Under load, I couldn’t overload the phone enough to significantly reduce performance – the cooling chamber with well-managed thermoregulation does a decent job.

The battery is a separate chapter. **6,600 mAh** in a body under 9 millimeters is truly a small miracle of chemistry – Vivo uses second-generation semi-solid state technology, which it calls BlueVolt. In practice, the phone easily lasts a demanding day when you squeeze something out of it from behind the lenses. With mixed use, including photography and an hour of streaming video, I returned home in the evening with 30–40% remaining power. If you torture the phone with 4K recording, expect it to drain in about an hour and a half (I mean truly almost continuous recording).

Charging with a **100W cable** gets the phone from zero to full in just over 40 minutes, and it handles 40W wirelessly. The manufacturer also guarantees battery functionality down to -20 °C, which is a nice bonus for winter adventurers with a camera in their pocket.

Camera: this is where you pay for the expensive hardware

The core of the entire phone. Vivo has deployed a setup that no competitor dares to copy at the moment – not even Oppo with the Find X9 Ultra, which is otherwise very close in terms of hardware. On the back, you’ll find **three full-fledged lenses**, and each of them has its own specifics that deserve a separate paragraph.

The **main Sony Lytia LYT-901 sensor** with a resolution of 200 Mpx and a chip area of 1/1.12″ is the absolute pinnacle of what can fit into a phone today. Compared to last year, it has a slightly worse aperture of **f/1.85** (previously f/1.69), but a significantly larger chip allows it to capture more light and more detail. The darker aperture here is also intentional – a smaller opening increases sharpness in the corners of the image and reduces chromatic aberration, which was a minor issue with its predecessor. The main sensor’s stabilization reaches **CIPA 6.5**, while lower classes typically hover around CIPA 5.0. The **35mm** focal length instead of the usual 23mm is controversial for some, but for me, after three weeks, it’s a clear plus. A reportage focal length on a mobile phone forces better composition, and portraits from the main sensor look more natural than at the usual 23mm, where faces at the edges sometimes “stretch”.

The **periscope with a Samsung ISOCELL HP0 sensor** also has 200 Mpx and an aperture of **f/2.67** at an 85mm focal length. Compared to its predecessor, which had an f/2.27 aperture, the same applies here as with the main sensor – a darker aperture brings better sharpness in the corners and reduced chromatic aberration. **ZEISS APO** certification means you don’t have to worry about purple fringing in backlight, and **CIPA 7.0** gimbal stabilization keeps the image disciplined even at 10× digital zoom. This, by the way, is a value up to which a usable output can still be extracted from the image. Beyond 230mm, the quality naturally drops, but you’re still above the level of, for example, the Galaxy S26 Ultra or Pixel 10 Pro XL.

The **ultra-wide LYT-818 sensor** is the same as last year, but in the context of the entire smartphone lineup, that’s no complaint at all – on the contrary, it’s still the best wide-angle lens on the market. It has a size of 1/1.28″, which is an **area comparable to the main chips of regular flagships**. In practice, this means you can crop it to 24 or 28 mm and still have an image that elsewhere would be credited to the main camera.

The result in practice? After three weeks of shooting, I didn’t even have to sort through the photos. The dynamic range is consistent across lenses, whites don’t try to escape anywhere, and colors look natural. Vivo in the X300 Ultra has significantly **reined in the previous excessive sharpening** that its earlier models tended to have. The output thus evokes a mirrorless camera rather than a typical smartphone. To switch between two color styles, there are Authentic (natural) and Vibrant (more saturated) profiles, and you can create your own presets and share them with other Vivo phone owners. A small detail that pleased me.

Video is finally not a byproduct

If Vivo has truly made a fundamental leap in this model, it’s the video mode. **All three rear lenses** (and the 50Mpx front camera) can handle **4K at 120 fps**, along with **Dolby Vision** and a **10-bit Log format** with increased data rate. Vivo also supports the APV 4:2:2 codec and ACES certification, which are things that a regular user probably won’t fall off their chair for, but for a filmmaker working in post-production, they have concrete meaning. It means you can drop footage from the phone into a timeline alongside material from professional cameras, balance the colors, and no one will (at least at first glance) know what came from where.

The special Pro Video mode resembles a cinematic camera interface and offers manual control over exposure, focus (including *focus pulling*), color temperature, and shutter speed. You can directly upload LUTs in .cube format to the phone and monitor the resulting color look in real-time during shooting – the same thing professional monitors do on set. A quartet of directional microphones then captures intelligible sound if you speak from a reasonable distance; it’s not a full-fledged replacement for an external microphone, but for vlogging, the sound is surprisingly good.

Where it falters are **handheld night shots**. Even with the gimbal, stabilization on the ultra-wide lens is jittery at night, and details in shadows sometimes get lost in noise reduction. During the day, it’s astonishing, without reservations. Software updates will likely improve this further, but that doesn’t change the fact that at the moment, the **cinematic reputation of the X300 Ultra relies mainly on daytime scenes**.

Photokit for ten thousand: a toy or a work tool?

The Photographer Kit, which you get with the phone for an additional 10,000 CZK, includes a brand new **400mm teleconverter**, a case with mounting, a grip with its own battery and controls, an Arca-Swiss tripod adapter, and a shoulder strap. After three weeks of use, I must admit that **it’s not a toy**, as I originally thought.

The new 400mm teleconverter allows for **native optical zoom that approaches the range of telephoto lenses for mirrorless cameras**. Combined with digital zoom, you can reach the equivalent of 3,200mm, which, in a body that fits in a jacket pocket, is a fact I still marvel at today.

The grip then changes the entire concept of photography. It has a shutter button, a zoom control wheel, a video button, a flash button, and one programmable button – and it also houses an additional battery. For video, it’s crucial because you hold the phone steadily with both hands like a real camera, and shake doesn’t translate as much into the shot. If you genuinely plan to productively photograph or film with the phone on trips, the **photokit makes sense** – especially for wildlife, sports, and concerts. If you just want it “for show,” ten thousand is a very expensive show.

OriginOS 6 and Czech reality

The phone runs on **OriginOS 6 built on Android 16**. The manufacturer promises **5 years of major updates and 7 years of security patches**, which is a significant step forward for Vivo – until recently, the Ultra series only offered three major upgrades.

The overlay itself is **visually fresh and clear**, with extensive customization options for those who truly want to play with design and personalization. AI functionality primarily runs through Gemini with the Circle to Search add-on, but Vivo also has its own generative features in the gallery and recorder.

Pre-installed bloatware is minimal. For service, Vivo adds a three-year warranty, one-year display insurance, and a five-year battery capacity guarantee, which collectively are among the more generous offers on the Czech market.

The price hurts. And the competition twists the knife deeper

Here we get to the core of the entire consideration. **46,999 CZK** for the base model and **56,999 CZK** for the set with the photokit are not numbers in the Czech context that you’d decide on buying while on a tram. And when you look at the competition, the question “why so much?” echoes even louder:

• **Xiaomi 17 Ultra** – starting price 35,990 CZK, in promotions with a trade-in bonus and promo code, it can be acquired for as low as **31,490 CZK**. In terms of hardware, it’s a comparable class
• **Vivo X300 Pro** – the smaller sibling of the same phone, which started at 34,990 CZK, can now be found for **around 25,000 CZK**. It has the same periscope with a 200Mpx sensor and will do 90% of the work of its older sibling
• **Oppo Find X9 Ultra** – the starting European price of 35,999 CZK for the 12/512 GB configuration gives Vivo a tough challenge. In terms of hardware, it’s a direct competitor.

If it were purely about technology, the X300 Ultra would justify its price – at the moment, there is **no camera phone on the market that is consistently better**. However, the price gap compared to the X300 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Ultra is so large that the resulting equation “this phone vs. one with 90% quality for almost half the price” will clearly favor the latter for many people. And then there’s the recently introduced Oppo Find X9 Ultra, which will be the **most serious competitor in this category** – with comparable hardware and a much lower price.

Final Verdict

The Vivo X300 Ultra is currently the **best camera phone on the market**. The hardware setup is unrivaled, the craftsmanship is first-class, the battery is exactly what you want in a flagship, and for the first time in several years, Vivo has truly perfected video – not as a bonus, but as a full-fledged pillar of the entire product. The photokit is not a toy, but an extension that makes sense for anyone who genuinely creates with their phone.

The problem is the price. **Fifty thousand for the phone and another ten thousand for accessories** is an amount in the Czech Republic that you can only justify if the X300 Ultra is a work tool for you – that is, if you are professionally or semi-professionally involved in mobile photography or video creation. For the average user, the X300 Pro for almost half the price is a sufficient alternative that 9 out of 10 customers won’t distinguish from the top model. And for those looking for a top-tier camera phone for significantly less, we have the Xiaomi 17 Ultra or the fresh Oppo Find X9 Ultra.

I’ll add one more personal note. After three weeks of use, I know that **if I had to buy the phone with my own money**, I would rather go for the X300 Pro and use the remaining funds to buy a decent mirrorless camera.

Is the X300 Ultra your dream camera phone, or would you rather choose the cheaper X300 Pro and invest the difference elsewhere?