A few days ago we celebrated Xataka Awards 2025. As always, we reward the best devices of the year and, as almost always, talking about super high-end mobile phones is talking about the current Samsung Galaxy – the S25 Ultra this year – and the corresponding iPhone – the iPhone 17 Pro Max-. In this edition we did not see any surprises in this aspect, but we did see a third place that was won by a brand that had never been among the winners: I live with his Vivo X200 Pro.
And much of the credit goes to a camera that my partner Ricardo described as “FUN, with capital letters.”
ZEISS is the visible face, behind it there is much more
Having placed himself as one of the best phones of the year It is not something that can be achieved overnight, especially in a range as competitive as that of mobile phones over 1,000 euros. Many factors come into play in a segment in which the competition is brutal, but much of the weight of that third place is carried by the camera.
The beginning of the Spanish journey in the high range: the X51 5G | Photo: Xataka
This is something they have been working on for five years. It was in 2020 when Vivo landed in Spain with the X51 5Ga model that did not stand out for its processor and other technical characteristics, but for itsa very ambitious camera. Angle, wide angle and two telephoto lenses: a 2x portrait lens and a longer one with 5x optical lenses. They have already started flirting with digital 60x.
A year later they raised the bar with the Vivo X60 Pro. Better screen, better processor, more RAM and three cameras instead of two, but with something that has accompanied them until today: the collaboration with Zeiss. The alliance with this historic brand of objectives translated into photographic modes, but also into agreements to improve main camera lens (with an anti-reflective treatment, for example).
With the X60 Pro the Zeiss label was introduced | Photo: Xataka
With the X70 They returned to the four cameras (two of them telephoto lenses) and the big news was the personalized image chip, the Vivo Imaging Chip V1. Of the style of MariSilicon X by OPPOhelped with image processing and, although the marks they have ended up abandoning them because MediaTek and Qualcomm ISPs are enough, it is a sign of the ambition of the Chinese brand.
We saw the change of nut with the Vivo X80 Pro. Here they answered the question of “How much technology do we put in this mobile” with a “yes”with a special emphasis on the photographic section. The play was repeated in the X90in it X100 and in this third place of the Xataka Awards, the Vivo X200 Pro.
The X80 Pro with its four lenses is still a beast, despite the years | Photo: Xataka
Something that all these models have in common is that the Chinese company has focused on photographic capabilities, but without destroying the advances of previous generations.
Hardware and, above all, software, have evolved generation after generation. When other companies turn around every generation or two, Vivo has gone a little on his way being, in addition, one of those with the best shooting speed in the Android universe.
They have also gone their own way when it comes to processing, a little exaggerated for our taste in certain scenarios, but remaining constant in something that, for many years, was the measuring stick of mobile photography: the portrait.
Vivo X200 | Photo: Xataka
In the analysis of the X200 Pro we commented that “it is a camera that you can trust to, In practically all situations, you have a good result”, and it is something that could be said of all the high-end Vivos since the brand’s arrival in Spain.
Innovation and fun
Curiously, the one that has won the award is not the last Vivo. Just after voting closed, two mobile phones with very similar characteristics appeared on the market: the OPPO Find X9 Pro and the Vivo X300 Pro. The two have a similar approach on camera and both will surely give a lot to talk about for next year.
The Vivo X200 Ultra was a sign of the company’s emphasis on mobile photography innovation | Photo: Xataka
The reason? Their telephoto kits. The one on the Vivo is better resolved because it allows you to use the main sensor – something that the OPPO does not – but the idea is the same: a camera that allows you to attach a telephoto lens that takes advantage of the smartphone’s tele sensor.
To achieve a very long focal length, extremely wide camera modules would have to be created, but with this approach, we have a versatile camera always on us and an attachment that we can use whenever we want.
“It is a camera that you can trust so that, in practically all situations, you will have a good result”
It is an addition, a way to give the user more tools and that They already tried it with the Vivo X200 Ultrabecause the X300 builds on the same as the X200 and lor that Vivo has been building for five years: processed with personality, versatility, filters that really add up and a special focus on portraiture.
And, above all, with a word that different editors have used to describe the camera in each of the analyzes of a mobile phone of this brand:
Fun.
It is what is truly special and differentiating. Because the technical characteristics are extremely similar in phones in the same price range, but it is in the cameras where they allow themselves to provide something that differentiates them from the others.
Photos | Xataka
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