The sequel to one of 2025’s best camera phones could have bonkers hardware

If there’s anything Apple and Samsung agree on, it’s that camera hardware doesn’t need to be upgraded every year — or, more like, every four years. I bet Google would join the club, too. On the other hand, Chinese brands have been persistent in pushing past existing boundaries and making seemingly unimaginable changes to existing phone cameras. Last month, we witnessed the camera battleground heat up again with detachable telephoto lenses shipping with the latest OPPO and vivo flagships. And now, the latter is set for another major upgrade ahead of its upcoming top-of-the-line camera monster.

According to the leaker, the primary 200MP camera would stick to a 35mm focal length — just as its predecessor, the vivo X200 Ultra, did with a 50MP camera. Other notable 200MP camera phones, such as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, use a much smaller 23mm focal length.

While the focal length is independent of the sensor’s resolution, the longer distance will result in images with a slightly narrower field of view but a shallower depth, meaning better natural portraits even with the primary camera. With the increased resolution, you can expect much higher image quality, both in portrait mode and otherwise.

The leaker further adds that the 50MP ultrawide-angle camera remains unchanged over the previous generation in terms of specs, featuring a rather unusual 1/1.28-inch size.

Additionally, in an older leak, the leaker said the camera features large apertures but didn’t provide exact figures. For context, the vivo X200 Ultra from last year had an f/1.7 aperture for the primary camera, f/2.3 for the telephoto, and f/2.0 for the ultrawide. We can expect the figure for the new 200MP primary camera to be slightly better. Based on the same leak from September, the phone is also likely to get an improved Zeiss T* coating, which should negate any flaring effects better than the current generation.

There’s no information about an add-on telephoto kit, but there should be one — considering the X200 Ultra got its own, and so did the recently launched X300 Pro.

Finally, the leaker claims the vivo X300 Ultra would be powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, unlike the X300 and X300 Pro that feature MediaTek’s latest Dimensity 9500. In terms of availability, vivo might limit sales to China once again, though we hope we’re wrong.