The Vivo X300 Ultra is a Sharp Shooter

There’s a moment with the Vivo X300 Ultra where you stop reviewing it like a smartphone and start treating it like a camera. For me, it happened somewhere between shooting in a chaotic street in Delhi and Miyar Valley in the mountains. Same result both times. Crisp detail, balanced highlights, colours that felt right.

The X300 Ultra isn’t trying to wow you with oversaturated Instagram bait. It is chasing something far more difficult. Accuracy.

The camera is the headline

Let’s get straight to it. This is the best camera system on any phone right now.

The hardware alone sounds excessive. A 200MP 35mm “documentary” main camera, another 200MP 85mm telephoto and a 14mm ultra-wide that behaves like a proper primary sensor rather than an afterthought. But numbers don’t tell the full story.

What Vivo has done here is build a coherent camera system.

The 35mm focal length is a bold choice. Most phones stick to 24mm because it is wider and easier. But 35mm feels natural, almost cinematic. Faces look better. Street scenes feel grounded. It is closer to how you see the world. And paired with a massive 1/1.12-inch sensor, it pulls in an absurd amount of light.

The result is consistency. Daylight shots are detailed without looking artificial. Low-light shots retain texture without smearing everything into a digital mess. Crucially, colours stay consistent across lenses, something most flagships still struggle with.

If the still photography is excellent, the video is where the X300 Ultra becomes slightly ridiculous.

You get multi focal 4K at 120fps across lenses, with Dolby Vision and full 10-bit Log recording. That alone puts the device in a different league. But what makes it special is how usable it is.

The colours match across focal lengths. Exposure shifts are smooth. Highlights roll off naturally instead of blowing out. You can shoot something wide, punch into telephoto and not feel like you switched cameras mid-clip.

There is also a proper Pro video interface with manual controls and LUT preview support, which means you can treat this phone like a compact cinema tool rather than a glorified point and shoot.

Telephoto that actually matters

Zoom on phones is usually a numbers game. Here, it is practical.

The 85mm telephoto with gimbal-like stabilisation is absurdly steady, even in low light. It tracks subjects cleanly and keeps details intact in scenarios where most phones fall apart. You can push it to 10x and still get usable, sharp images without the usual watercolour effect.

It also benefits from proper optical engineering, including ZEISS APO standards and coatings that reduce flare and colour fringing. That sounds like marketing fluff until you shoot into harsh light and realise the image still holds together.

Portraits, unsurprisingly, are excellent. The combination of focal length and refined colour tuning delivers results that look closer to a mirrorless camera than a phone.

There are other small touches that make a big difference.

Street Photography Mode is genuinely fast. You can capture moments quickly without fiddling with settings. Burst shooting is responsive. Autofocus tracking keeps up with moving subjects.

There is also a clear effort to avoid over-processing. The HDR pipeline prioritises natural light distribution over artificial punch, which is why images feel more believable.

Even the display plays a role here. It is tuned as a “viewfinder”, showing colours as they are meant to be captured, not exaggerated.

The rest of the phone keeps up

Thankfully, this is not a one-trick camera strapped to mediocre hardware.

The design leans heavily into camera aesthetics, with a large circular module and a textured back that feels more like gear than gadget. It is big, yes, but surprisingly comfortable thanks to the curved frame.

The 6.82-inch AMOLED panel is excellent. Bright, sharp, and fluid with a 144Hz refresh rate. It handles HDR content particularly well, which matters when your phone is essentially a tool for creating content.

Performance is flagship tier, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. It handles gaming, editing and heavy video work without breaking a sweat. There is also a dedicated imaging chip that speeds up processing and improves dynamic range and noise handling.

Battery life is equally impressive. A 6,600mAh unit with 100W charging means you can shoot all day without any worry. Even intensive 4K recording sessions do not drain it as quickly as you would expect.

Final word

The Vivo X300 Ultra does not just have great cameras. It has a point of view.

It prioritises natural colour, consistency and usability over gimmicks. It treats video seriously. It respects photography enough not to overprocess everything into oblivion.

And in doing so, it becomes the most convincing argument yet that your phone can replace a dedicated camera for most users.

To read more stories from Esquire India's May-June 2026 issue, pick up a copy of the magazine from your nearest newspaper stand or bookstore. Or click here to subscribe to the magazine.