This Ultra phone could destroy Samsung and Google with long-overdue zoom camera upgrade

The vivo X100 Ultra was the first phone with a 200MP telephoto camera, enabling great long-range zoom as a result. Vivo has subsequently used this 200MP sensor or variations thereof on almost every Pro and Ultra phone since then, but a new leak suggests a major upgrade is coming.

Prolific leaker Digital Chat Station has claimed on Weibo that the rumored vivo X500 Ultra is being tested with a 200MP 1/1.12-inch telephoto camera. Check out the machine-translated screenshot below.

The leaker claimed in a follow-up comment that this would be a Samsung sensor, although the Korean company doesn’t currently have a 200MP 1/1.12-inch sensor in its portfolio. Nevertheless, it would be a significant upgrade on paper over the 200MP telephoto camera seen in previous vivo flagships.

Vivo has generally stuck with the Samsung ISOCELL HP9 sensor or variations, such as the ISOCELL HPB and HP0. These parts all offer 1/1.4-inch sensor sizes, making them significantly smaller than this upcoming sensor. A larger sensor enables greater light capture, which translates into brighter photos with less noise and more detail. A larger sensor also delivers a shallower depth of field, resulting in portrait photos that look more natural. A larger sensor will also have bigger individual pixels, which should make for higher-quality full-resolution shots and lossless-resolution snaps.

If this change is confirmed, then the vivo X500 Ultra would have the largest 200MP telephoto camera on the market, beating the OPPO Find X9 Ultra. It would also be significantly larger than the periscope cameras seen on the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Google Pixel 11 Pro XL. So we hope vivo steps up and offers this upgrade, because it’s been a long time coming.