Vivo X300 Pro and Vivo X300: First impressions and camera samples

Vivo X300 Pro and Vivo X300 colors and cases:



The backs of the devices have very fine-grain frosted glass, which feels very pleasant to the touch. In fact, the entire phones make a very nice first impression when held. They feel “just right”, properly balanced, and easy to hold thanks to the flat sides and not too much weight.

Both devices have an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, and it's blazing fast. Even scanning your finger is some sort of dark magic – you don't need to lift your finger and press again anymore. Just swipe across the sensor area, and it'll get a scan that is somehow accurate and good enough for future unlocks.

The cameras: very good first impressions

So, the camera specs differ a bit. The Vivo X300 Pro has a 50 MP main, 50 MP ultra-wide, 200 MP zoom camera, and a 50 MP selfie snapper.

The Vivo X300, on the other hand, has a 200 MP main camera, 50 MP ultra-wide, 50 MP zoom, and 50 MP front one.

But that's not where the differences end. The X300 Pro adds another imaging chip that is dedicated to camera processing. Two, actually — its own V1+ and VS3 chips for complete control over the imaging pipeline. And the combination of the two definitely produces photos we would call “better” over the Vivo X300 samples.

Here are some Vivo X300 Pro photo samples:



And some Vivo X300 photo samples:



The Vivo X300 Pro also comes with a Photography Kit that includes a case, a long physical lens that you can attach to it, and a camera grip to make the whole thing easier to handle (and add a few physical camera controls).

The lens does improve zoom, but it's quite impressive what the “naked” camera can do with the help of AI:



And on yet another note, the Vivo X300 Pro has a “Native Lighting” toggle, which appears to pull back some of the camera processing. We certainly noticed a drop in sharpening, giving me a more “realistic” image. However, the software isn't very helpful in explaining what exactly that toggle does, so hold on until we do some research on the subject before sharing samples and final opinions.

The cameras also have the Street Photography mode, which amps up the shutter speed and adds a pinch of faux bokeh to the background to help you capture moments as they happen. This year around, double-pressing the Volume Down button of the phone immediately takes you to Street Photography mode (this can be changed in settings), so you have quick-access to the mode that's meant to capture fleeting moments.

Performance: first-ever phones with MediaTek Dimensity 9500

The MediaTek Dimensity 9-series are the flagship chips from the silicon slinger and while they are not super-popular in western markets, we do find them to be very competent. The Dimensity 9500 is the second generation 3 nm processor from MediaTek (successor to the Dimensity 9400) and, having the phones in our hands, of course we snuck some 3DMark tests in!



Both the Vivo X300 and Vivo X300 Pro start off with the same high score at around 6900 and ultimately end up throttling to about 3800. This is a very good result, and it's comparable with the iPhone 17 Pro scores that we got on the same test.

But it's notable that the X300 throttles quite quickly – by the end of the second cycle, it's about done.

The Vivo X300 Pro seems to have the more robust thermal management, as it holds the line for about 4 cycles until it ultimately drops to throttled mode.

But we did feel the frames of the phones get quite warm. Not searing hot, but a step to the north of the threshold for comfort.

The MediaTek Dimensity 9500 was actually a product of a partnership between Vivo and MediaTek. And Vivo was not shy about its inspirations - the company said they went on a deep dive to figure out why users like the performance of iPhones. As we know, it’s due to the synchronous development of the hardware and software.