Taking photos my Pixel could never

Vivo made a splash in the smartphone photography space last year with the vivo X200 Ultra, as it offered an optional telephoto extender. This external lens, attached to the 200MP periscope camera, enabled native 200mm or ~8.7x zoom. The company has since brought this same lens to the globally available X300 Pro.

Now, vivo has launched the X300 Ultra, and it maintains an optional 8.7x lens. However, the manufacturer has also launched an even larger telephoto extender that enables a crazy 400mm or ~17x zoom.

With this setup, I can capture legit (i.e., not generative) photos that I wouldn’t have been able to on a Pixel phone. The whole package is truly ridiculous, for more than one reason.

I need to get one thing out of the way. If you thought the original 200mm external lens was enormous, then you’ll have a heart attack when you see the 400mm version. This thing is absolutely gigantic, and vivo has crossed a line in my book. The size of this lens is particularly noteworthy compared to the second-generation 200mm extender (see the third lens in the image above), which is a little smaller and significantly lighter than the original lens.

Things only get worse when you attach the 400mm lens to the phone via the requisite case and adapter ring. We’ve still got a bayonet mount this time, but the new lens is significantly heavier than the 200mm lenses. This makes the phone extremely top-heavy when the lens is connected.

Once you’ve connected the lens and opened the camera app, you’ll see that the X300 Ultra follows the X300 Pro by offering a telephoto extender toggle in many camera modes. This is a more versatile approach than the X200 Ultra and OPPO Find X9 Pro‘s dedicated telephoto extender mode. The dedicated mode meant that plenty of features and modes didn’t actually work with the external lens.

However, the big difference with the X300 Ultra is that tapping the telephoto extender icon now shows you three external lens options. You’ll need to choose which lens you’re attaching: the original 200mm lens, the smaller, second-generation 200mm lens (also known as the G2), or the 400mm extender (the G2 Ultra). This is an understandable move, as it presumably configures the camera UI and other settings accordingly.

OK — but what are the photos like?

One of the first things I noticed about using the 400mm telephoto converter is that it has an obscenely long minimum focusing distance. You literally have to stand four or five meters (13-16 feet) away from a subject to take photos of it. By comparison, the 200mm lens has a minimum focusing distance of roughly a meter (~3 feet). This is an understandable limitation given the long range, but it does make the lens less versatile.

Thankfully, I found that the 400mm lens helped me get some fantastic long-range zoom shots. I took the phone and lens to the beachfront and captured people on the nearby mountain. Seriously.

I’m still not a fan of the over-sharpening here (particularly on the rocks), although you can use image profiles to reduce this if need be. Nevertheless, this is a pretty great demonstration of what’s possible with this lens. And the 800mm shot gave me headroom for some cropping, as you can see in the image above. Yes, that’s a hiker taking a mountaintop selfie.

How far can you push until things start to look wonky? I found that I could still take great 800mm snaps. Picture quality was a gamble at 1,600mm, with edge fringing and a lack of actual detail being the two biggest issues at this range. Meanwhile, 3,200mm photos were often a mess. Even 800mm shots can understandably be sullied by the inevitable heat haze if you’re taking photos of a distant subject on a warm day (check out the third photo and the cropped version below). This might be obvious for many people, but it’s worth keeping in mind nonetheless.

Like many other phones, vivo’s algorithms and AI-driven enhancements can also struggle with complex textures at very long range. Check out the brickwork in the second shot below, which looks as if it’s been drawn on the building.

Nevertheless, the 400mm add-on lens lets you capture some high-quality photos at a distance. It also doesn’t hurt that it delivers some pleasantly shallow depth-of-field effects. Again, we do see some issues at much longer range, but I was happy with most of these snaps. And you’re generally not going to get these types of long-range photos from your Samsung or Pixel phone. Check out the gallery below.

Another thing I really like about the 400mm lens is that it supports vivo’s new custom image profiles. The company lets you create image profiles by choosing a base style and then tweaking up to 12 parameters. These variables include exposure, halo, grain, warmth/hue, highlights, shadows, and sharpness. I opted for a profile with dramatically reduced sharpness and plenty of grain. The result was that I captured some moody photos at the race track. The graininess might not be for everyone, but I especially loved the snap of the orange Porsche. Plus, you can always use the grain slider to reduce the effect.

I haven’t really spent any time with the 400mm lens in low-light scenes, but my time with the original 200mm teleconverter showed darker images than the equivalent lens-free shot. That’s likely because vivo can’t use the more capable main camera for image fusion in these conditions. So I’m not expecting anything different in this regard.

In any event, there’s no shortage of tools at your disposal while the 400mm lens is attached. This includes full-resolution 200MP shots, ultra-stabilized video (up to 2.8K/60fps), 4K/120fps capture, Log video, preset and custom audio capture profiles, and support for the pro video mode. This is in addition to the aforementioned support for color profiles. You understandably can’t use the Film Style video capture mode, though, given its expansive 2.4:1 aspect ratio.

When I first tried out the vivo X200 Ultra and its 200mm lens a year ago, I thought the cons exceeded the pros. Then the X300 Pro arrived with an overhauled software experience, making the external lens a better, more viable proposition. Unfortunately, I’d argue that the 400mm lens also has more cons than pros.

You can take some truly fantastic long-range zoom photos, while there’s no shortage of options to get that perfect picture. However, I think the 400mm lens is simply too heavy and awkward for most people. If you begrudgingly accepted the 200mm lens’s size, then I think the 400mm option is out of the question for you. The new lens is larger and heavier, while making your phone even more top-heavy than the old add-on. This is especially notable given that vivo has also released a smaller, lighter 200mm lens.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you should buy a dedicated camera and lenses, though. You’ll always have your phone with you, so carrying the 400mm lens is still much more convenient than lugging a digital camera and lenses in addition to a smartphone. That means the phone and lens combo will continue to be handy for travel and sightseeing, or for smartphone photography enthusiasts who might already be carrying extra hardware.

However, the biggest challenge for this 400mm add-on lens might be the Find X9 Ultra. OPPO’s upcoming phone will pack a 50MP 10x camera, and it’s heading to global markets too. So you might want to wait for this phone with its integrated camera, rather than splashing out on the X300 Ultra and its bulky telephoto extender.