Vivo X500 Pro Max delivers flagship hardware, but the X300 Ultra remains the camera standout - Big Tech and the digital economy

Vivo’s first Pro Max phone combines a 7,800mAh battery, a 144Hz display, strong telephoto performance and 17 stops of dynamic range. However, its 24mm main camera and smaller ultrawide sensor make it less distinctive than the X300 Ultra.

Vivo’s X500 Pro Max brings many of the features associated with the company’s premium Ultra phones, but it does not fully replace the X300 Ultra as the brand’s most distinctive camera device. Its camera system offers excellent dynamic range and an outstanding telephoto lens, yet the move away from the Ultra’s 35mm main camera and its weaker ultrawide limit the phone’s appeal.

The X500 Pro Max uses a 50-megapixel main camera with a 1/1.28-inch-type sensor. Its Sony Lytia L910 sensor supports LOFIC technology and delivers 17 stops of dynamic range, particularly improving highlight retention. That gives the phone an advantage over the X300 Ultra in this area, despite the newer model’s smaller and lower-resolution main sensor.

However, the main camera returns to a 24mm focal length, a wider perspective commonly found on other flagship phones. The X300 Ultra’s 35mm lens offered a narrower, more purposeful framing that was better suited to portraits and everyday photography without relying on digital zoom. The Pro Max can approximate that view by zooming in, but doing so uses only part of the main sensor and does not provide the same optical result.

The ultrawide camera is another significant compromise. While the X300 Ultra treated its ultrawide as a second main camera, using a large sensor and optical image stabilization, the X500 Pro Max has a much smaller 1/2.75-inch-type sensor. In low-light conditions, this difference can be clear: the ultrawide is more likely to lose detail in bright areas and produce darker shadows than the main and telephoto cameras.

Despite those limitations, the overall camera system remains highly capable. The phone uses the same periscope telephoto camera as the Ultra, described as one of the strongest available on a phone. Vivo and Zeiss also continue to emphasize natural-looking color processing. Video features include Log recording and 4K slow motion at 240 frames per second, while the phone supports Vivo’s teleconverter lenses, including a 400mm model.

The Pro Max also adopts several high-end specifications from the Ultra. It has a 1440p OLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, a 7,800mAh battery designed to last more than two days, and support for 90W wired and 40W wireless charging. Its MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro processor is described as offering performance broadly comparable to the latest Snapdragon platform used in the Ultra.

Priced at €1,799, the X500 Pro Max sits firmly in the ultra-premium category. It is positioned below Vivo’s Ultra line, and it is not intended as a direct successor to the X300 Ultra, which is still expected to receive a sequel. The phone therefore offers a strong combination of display, battery and telephoto performance, but lacks some of the camera character that made the older Ultra especially notable.

The comparison also highlights the challenge facing Vivo’s next Ultra model. With the Pro Max already carrying a premium price, a future X500 Ultra will need to build on the X300 Ultra’s distinctive camera approach and offer enough additional capability to justify its higher position in the lineup.

Sources: The Verge.