This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
With Apple killing the iPhone Plus and Google raising prices for its Pixel series, we have less and less choice for a sub-$1000 flagship phone with a big screen, a great camera and excellent battery life.
But what if there was a phone that would have better image quality than most popular flagships, longer battery life than those phones and much faster charging? A practically no-compromise, all-around device that can do it all for a price of less than $800. That would almost be too good to be true, wouldn't it?
Well, there is one, but it is criminally underrated, few people talk about it, and I want to change that.
I'm talking about the Vivo X200 Pro.
Yes, the yesteryear Vivo X200 Pro, rather than the newer Vivo X300 Pro. With few differences between those two models, for most people it makes no sense to consider pricey X300 Pro, when the Vivo X200 Pro is now discounted to less than $800.
A better buy than an iPhone
The Vivo X200 Pro price is just too good to ignore
Vivo is, of course, not officially sold in the United States, but the phone is available at stores that import Chinese phones, such as WondaMobile or TradingShenzhen. Those are not major retailers like Best Buy, but they are legitimate small stores with a good reputation.
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And the value you get with the Vivo X200 Pro is insane: a model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage costs just under $800. Compare this to the eye-watering $1,400 that Apple asks for an iPhone 17 Pro Max with 512GB storage (and the iPhone only has 12GB of RAM)!
The camera advantage
Vivo is typically known for delivering more realistic colors than your typical smartphone and its manicured look. But there is more than that: the X200 Pro actually comes with the Samsung HP9 sensor (1/1.4-inch), the largest telephoto sensor ever put in a smartphone.
The image quality from this 3.7X telephoto camera is noticeably better than your popular flagships. Plus, you have one unique feature: Telephoto Macro. Rather than using the ultra-wide lens for macro (like an iPhone or Galaxy do), Vivo uses the telephoto lens. This is a game-changer! You no longer need to put your phone right next to your subject to get a macro, you can shoot from a convenient distance and you get amazing natural bokeh that you can never get out of an ultra-wide lens.
And I was also happy to see that the X200 Pro is the rare Android phone that can record good video. With 4K 10-bit LOG recording, you get excellent quality video out of this phone.
The battery life and performance advantage
While Vivo is mostly known for its superb camera quality, the battery life of this phone is amazing. It was long ranked the longest lasting phone on our battery ranking, and deservedly so with a massive 6,000 mAh Silicon-Carbon battery.
This phone can comfortably give you close to 9 hours of screen on time, and with average use that works out to around two full days off the charger. That is really impressive.
And even when you need to top it up, you can fully charge the phone with its included 90W charger in just 53 minutes. Super convenient!
And if you have any doubts about the chipset in this phone — don't. The X200 Pro runs the MediaTek Dimensity 9400, which actually beats the Apple A18 Pro and the Snapdragon 8 Elite in the heavy gaming benchmark 3DMark Steel Nomad Light.
And thanks to a massive vapor chamber, the phone can sustain 60FPS in games like Genshin Impact at lower temperatures than most flagships.
Still, not for everyone
Still, while the Vivo X200 Pro seems like an amazing deal for a customer in Europe or Asia, it might seem like more of a risk in the United States.
With an imported phone, you don't get the trade-ins you typically have at carriers. Apple and Google often offer $500–$800 trade-in credits for old devices, effectively making a new iPhone or Pixel much cheaper than an imported Vivo.
Many people just don't want to spend the full $800 upfront. It's much easier on the wallet to buy a phone on 0% interest monthly plans, which you cannot do with such an import.
The third element is resale value. Most Android phones are not very good at keeping it, while an iPhone 17 Pro Max will still retain roughly 50-60% of its value after two years. I still think that reselling an iconic phone like the Vivo X200 Pro would be easier than some less-capable phone, but it's still not as easy as reselling an iPhone.
On software, I would also avoid Chinese ROMs of such phones at all costs. They are known for aggressive battery management that kills background apps, and this often results in delayed or missed notifications for essential apps like WhatsApp or Gmail.
Last but not least, imported Chinese models often lack Android Auto support and may have issues with some banking apps or Google Pay.
A word of caution about repair
The last important warning to keep in mind is about repairs.
While you do get a warranty on some of the websites that sell imported phones, they do not have repair stores or repair programs in the US or most Western countries. You either have to rely on local shops, or you have to ship the device back to China or Hong Kong at your expense if you crack the screen. And this can take weeks or months. So if you know yourself to be the kind of person who occasionally drops their phone, buying an imported phone might not be a good idea.
Final Words
I really hate to see the profiteering in smartphones in recent years. A decade ago, I was hopeful that with the advent of new technology, everyone could have a great phone for a price of about $200-$300. In retrospect, that was so naive.
Technology has gotten so much better, but the big companies are just not interested in giving consumers good affordable phones. They are built on a notion of selling X million of flagship phones at the highest price possible.
So having gems like the Vivo X200 Pro at a discounted sub $800 price really hits a soft spot for me. Would you import such a phone, though? Or are you still weary about all the complications of phone imports and so on?
Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.
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