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It used to be that smartphone photography was considered low-tier; a measly 8MP lens in a camera can’t possibly take photographs that can rival a professional DSLR that costs thousands, can it? And no, at the time, it couldn’t—but with all the technological advancements recently, anyone can capture great photos with just a good smartphone camera!
We’ve just about hit the bottleneck for smartphone technology; the only way to really make a difference from flagship to flagship is not by upgrading the processors, but rather by improving the imaging technology.
Of course, the keyword here is good: even smartphones have tiers, and different smartphones have different hardware specifications that can greatly affect the results. And it’s not just the hardware—image processing power is also very important.
The vivo X100 Pro is one of the most advanced camera smartphones on the market right now. In collaboration with ZEISS, the world-leading optoelectronics expert, vivo has come up with a truly innovative camera smartphone, complete with a 50MP ZEISS 1-inch Main Camera, a 50MP ZEISS APO Floating Telephoto Camera and a 50MP Super Wide-Angle Camera.
But that’s all on paper; how does the vivo X100 Pro actually perform in real life? Well, there’s only one way to find out.
Design and Performance
First, let’s just get the technical specs out of the way: under the hood, the vivo X100 Pro houses the Mediatek 9300 processor, one of the first smartphones to house MediaTek’s newest chipset. With the adoption of a full large-core CPU architecture, the vivo X100 Pro boasts a stated increase of over 40% in peak CPU performance and a 30% reduction in power consumption.
What that means, basically, is that the vivo X100 Pro is not only powerful enough to deal with all your daily tasks and intensive gaming; it also has more than enough power to handle the powerful photography, which we’ll get to later.
Now, on to the battery: the vivo X100 Pro’s 5400mAh ultra large capacity battery is paired with the 100W FlashCharge technology, ensuring that you’ll never run out of juice. We managed to get to 50% in just a little over 15 minutes!
Everyday Photography
In terms of everyday photography, the vivo X100 Pro excels with its colour reproduction, which is pretty on-brand with vivo’s smartphones.
As aforementioned, the ZEISS 1-inch main camera sensor, combines with the new generation of T* coating, can capture more light, more detail, and more emotion, ensuring that every photograph is a masterpiece even if you don’t have any photography experience before.
Here are some examples:
Android smartphones tend to lean far into AI post-processing when it comes to photography, so I was pleasantly surprised that the vivo X100 Pro produced more natural and harmonious colours. Of course, it does still brighten and add saturation to the photos, creating some slight deviations from true-to-life colours, but it’s not as jarring as it used to be.In short, while the images produced may not always mirror reality perfectly, but they fall beautifully within the realm of aesthetic appeal.
Portrait Photography
I have to say, portrait photography is a forte of the vivo X100 Pro. The X100 Pro maintains vivo’s legacy in portraiture, offering one of the best portrait modes in the market.
It accurately captures skin tones and manages background blur effectively, enhancing the subject's three-dimensionality and texture, resulting in visually appealing portraits.
This is all made possible with the ZEISS Multifocal Portrait system, which allows for stunning depth and detail. It supports five golden focal lengths all in one place: 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 100mm, all of which you can tweak before and after the photograph is taken.
Telephoto
The vivo X100 Pro is also equipped with the ZEISS APO Telephoto Camera with f/2.5 aperture, supporting up to 10x digital zoom. In fact, you can even snap clear close-up shots even in low-light environments!
The APO lens, short for apochromatic lens, can also help colour-correct the photographs, reducing chromatic aberration (green or purple edges around the edges of your subject) and thus improving image quality.
Another noteworthy feature is vivo’s Telephoto Sunshot: with the ZEISS APO Telephoto Camera, the vivo X100 Pro can also capture stunning sunsets with rich details and colours. Of course, it’s not just the lens that makes it so; the combination of the lens and vivo’s exclusive post-production software algorithm allows the phone to make some of the best sun photography we’ve ever seen.
The vivo X100 Pro certainly stands out in the imaging department with its natural and comfortable colour reproduction, high-quality imaging, mature algorithms, and comprehensive range of focal lengths. With its arsenal of advanced hardware and software, the vivo X100 Pro has certainly delivered some really impressive mobile photography!