This article compares the camera systems of the Vivo X300 Ultra and Oppo Find X9 Ultra, two flagship phones that boast impressive zoom capabilities.
For some companies, the evolution of smartphone camera tech can't come fast enough. In the last few years, both Vivo and Oppo have been experimenting with teleconverters, barrel lens add-ons that expand the zoom of their flagship phones to dizzying heights.
This year, two 'ultra' flagships have launched side by side, with similar propositions as true replacements for your dedicated camera. Vivo's X300 Ultra and Oppo's Find X9 Ultra have a lot in common. Both have teleconverters, yes, but the companies have also allied themselves with storied camera brands; Vivo worked with Zeiss on both lenses and its color technology, while Oppo continues its Hasselblad partnership through the camera software, some hardware design touches and its 10x telephoto camera.
Both phones have a lot in common, but what's more interesting are the different choices Vivo and Oppo made with their strongest feature: the cameras. On the Find X9 Ultra, the primary camera has a 200-megapixel 1/1.28-inch sensor. With a low f/1.5 aperture possible, this is an incredibly versatile camera, built to take in light and work well even in difficult shooting conditions. There's also a pair of telephoto cameras.
The first has a 200MP sensor and can zoom up to 3x (70mm equivalent) for portrait photos and general-purpose shots, while the showstopper is an 'ultra' telephoto, capable of 10x zoom at 50MP. It's rare, but we've seen 10x zoom in smartphones, including, briefly, Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra.
However, they weren't paired with such high-resolution sensors. This offers more detail in shots, as well as the ability to digitally crop down to get even closer to the subject — although you won't need to nearly as often. The Find X9 Ultra also has a 50MP ultra-wide camera and a 3.2MP multispectral sensor to strengthen white balance and color accuracy.
However, Oppo's innovative 10x telephoto is the most thrilling part of the phone's penta camera setup. The 10x optical zoom also opens up the possibility of 20x lossless zoom, all before we start attaching Oppo's teleconverter lens. It also has sensor-shift stabilization to improve clarity and reduce the chances of blur. (Vivo has its own solution, which we'll get to in a minute).
The 3x telephoto camera is a convenient midpoint between the main camera and its huge sensor and the incredible range of the 10x telephoto. However, Oppo gets a little too keen on computational photography boosting here and I'd often get shots with ghostly outlines, especially of human subjects. Overly aggressive digital sharpening also made some images look unnatural.
Within the camera app (and arguably too many shooting modes), Oppo's collaboration with Hasselblad gives shooters a Master Mode that blissfully strips away the computational AI tricks and augmentations. This means that while you won't get that AI nip-tuck on telephoto shots, you also won't get nightmarish low-res faces or scrambled alien lettering. I broadly preferred it, though I occasionally missed the better low-light performance of the AI-boosted basic photo mode.
The Vivo X300 Ultra has the exact same 1/1.12-inch 200MP main camera sensor, although it has a narrow 35mm focal length, which could be argued to be more 'cinematic'. Its aperture can go as low as f/1.85, losing again to its Oppo rival. The X300 Ultra ultrawide camera, however, performs head and shoulders above the Find X9 Ultra's version.
Unlike most smartphone ultra-wide cameras, which I cynically view as a lazy effort by companies to add another camera to their smartphones, Vivo went to town. To start, Vivo added optical image stabilization (OIS), which is rare for this focal length. This, combined with a 50MP sensor, means images look crisper and more detailed than those from rival devices, which typically use lower-res sensors. To Oppo's credit, its ultrawide camera isn't bad.
The Find X9 Ultra also has a 50MP camera sensor and a lower f/2.0 lens. However, the sensor isn't as big (the X300 Ultra's 1/1.28-inch sensor is nearly twice the physical size of the Find X9 Ultra's 1/1.95-inch sensor ) and it lacks built-in OIS. There's also a lot less lens flaring on light sources with the Vivo phone, likely due to Zeiss' anti-reflective lens treatment.
The X300 Ultra's telephoto (another 200MP sensor) maxes out at 3.7x zoom without a teleconverter and while you can crop down from that for more 'zoom', it loses a lot of detail and adds a lot of artifacts in the process. Fortunately, for those looking to punch in further, Vivo has you covered. Despite both offering teleconverters, the two companies took different approaches.
If you're looking for pure king-of-zoom credentials, Vivo takes the crown with the furthest total optical zoom, with 400mm focal length (approximately 17x zoom). The X300 Ultra also offers a convenient one-touch icon to transition to teleconverter mode. With all these cameras and shooting options, it can be laborious to swipe to the teleconverter on either phon
Smartphone Camera Teleconverter Zoom Oppo Vivo Hasselblad Zeiss Ultra-Wide Camera Sensor-Shift Stabilization Computational Photography
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