vivo X200 Pro Review – The Best Smartphone Zoom Camera Thus Far

Unboxing the vivo X200 Pro

Starting off our vivo X200 Pro review with the unboxing, the packaging is basically a black box with the model name listed on it, surrounded by a ring, likely emphasizing on its camera prowess. You also get to see the ZEISS logo here to further add to that emphasis. Inside the box, we found the following items:

• Documentations
• Clear protective case
• 90W FlashCharge charger
• USB-C to USB-C cable
• The vivo X200 Pro itself

Specifications

CPU	Mediatek Dimensity 9400 1 x 3.63 GHz Cortex-X925 + 3 x 3.3 GHz Cortex-X4 + 4 x 2.4 GHz Cortex-A720 3nm
GPU	Immortalis-G925
Memory	16GB
Storage	512GB
Audio	Stereo speakers 24-bit/192kHz Hi-Res audio
Display	6.78” 20:9 2800 x 1260 (452ppi) 120Hz LTPO AMOLED, 1 billion colours, 4,500 nits peak brightness, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, Armor Glass
Camera	50MP f/1.6, 23mm (wide), 1/1.28″, 1.22µm, PDAF, OIS 200MP f/2.7, 85mm (periscope telephoto), 1/1.4″, 0.56µm, PDAF, OIS, 3.7x optical zoom 50MP f/2.0, 15mm (ultrawide), 1/2.76″, 0.64µm, AF Laser AF, Zeiss optics, Zeiss T* lens coating, LED flash, panorama, HDR, 3D LUT import Up to 4K @ 120FPS recording
Selfie camera	32MP f/2.0 wide angle camera, 20mm
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6/7, dual-band Bluetooth 5.4 (supports A2DP, LE, LHDC 5 and aptX HD) USB-C 3.2 Infrared NFC GPS (L1+L5), GLONASS (L1), BDS (B1I+B1c+B2a+B2b), GALILEO (E1+E5a+E5b), QZSS (L1+L5), NavIC (L5)
Build	Glass front, aluminum alloy frame, glass back
Battery	6000mAh Silicon Carbon battery 90W wired 30W wireless
Dimensions	162.4 x 76 x 8.2 mm
Weight	223g
OS	Funtouch 15 based on Android 15
Color	Blue, Black, White, Titanium Grey
Ingress Protection	IP69

Performance

In Antutu v10, the vivo X200 Pro took the top spot with ease as it even far exceeded the runner up device. This is thanks to the new Dimensity 9400 chip, which is MediaTek’s newest flagship SoC that will be going against the Snapdragon 8 Elite devices. It’s clearly a step above both the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 9300+ chips.

In Geekbench 6, it seems to be on par with Apple’s new A18 and A18 Pro chips, particularly for multi core performance, something that is rarely seen as Apple’s chips are usually seen far above any Android device in this test. This is also a more fair comparison given that both iPhones are expected to be the focal points until September 2025. Single core may be lagging behind but it still is the highest among all Android smartphones by a good margin.

Moving on to 3DMark, the new Dimensity 9400 chip shows its prowess yet again as it easily trumps over every other smartphone in all three tests. This is also the first time I’m seeing a 5-figure score in Wild Life Extreme, which is an amazing feat. The fact that the vivo X200 Pro is the only smartphone to break the 2,000 mark shows how taxing Steel Nomad is, and it’s shaping up to be a powerful device for 3D apps. It’s worth noting that it does suffer from heat as it had a stability rating of 52.8%, meaning that thermal throttling occurs often.

To further solidify its graphical prowess, it also excelled in GPUScore Sacred Path, Taking the top spot yet again across all three tests. Just in case you’re wondering, some devices are missing VRS scores as the device doesn’t support it but I figure it’s still worth including so everyone has a clearer overall picture.

Lastly on PCMark, I expected it to score much higher in Work 3.0 but for some odd reason, it’s lagging behind even its preceding chip. Performance seems to be on par with the previous generation flagship chips but something tells me that the benchmark might not be quite optimized for MediaTek’s SoCs. With that being said, it’s still a pretty solid score nonetheless so don’t worry about using it as a daily driver.

In case you’re wondering about battery life, the vivo X200 Pro is the only non-gaming smartphone to surpass the 1,000 minute mark in PCMark’s Work 3.0 endurance test. It lasted a whopping 17 hours and 8 minutes (1,028 minutes) before it died. This is likely thanks to its 3nm chip as well as the humongous 6,000mAh silicon carbon battery inside it. In case you’re wondering about charging speed, here’s what we managed to get:

• 15 minutes = 40%
• 30 minutes = 69%
• 45 minutes = 96%
• 48 minutes = 100%

If you’re looking for something more affordable, check out our vivo V29 review by clicking right here.

Camera

While I’m generally happy with its camera performance, the vivo X200 Pro is in a bit of weird spot in this department. The standard wide angle camera, which is typically deemed as the main camera, doesn’t produce particularly great photos. It’s not bad but details are typically on the softer side, though dynamic range is still on the impressive side. The ultrawide and selfie cameras however suffer from soft details and colors being on the blander side, so much so that in areas with a standard room lighting, it’s easy to get blurry shots.

The star of the show is clearly the telephoto camera, and it’s interesting as when you zoom at 2.7x, even the viewfinder spikes up in visual quality. Details are surprisingly sharp and colors are excellent, that even at 20x without any lighting solution, pictures still turn out excellent. It only starts to get weird when you get close to 50x but even then, some pictures turn out rather decently. This is by far the best telephoto camera I’ve experience in any smartphone thus far.

The Good

There are a number of good reasons to consider getting the vivo X200 Pro. For starters, you get a premium and solid build quality. It’s rated IP68 and IP69 for water and dust resistance, and the mixture of an aluminum frame with a glass back feels great on hand. In case you’re confused, the Titanium Grey that the model is listed is just a name for the color and isn’t indicative of the material, but what you get here is pretty good as is.

Next up, the display is certainly worthy of being flagship-quality. It’s an LTPO AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate that supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+. With 4,500 nits of peak brightness, it is one of the brightest displays on a smartphone we’ve seen thus far. For added protection, it uses Armor Glass, which is said to have 11 times better drop resistance compared to its predecessor.

Combined together with its stereo speakers, it makes for a very enjoyable multimedia machine. It can surprisingly produce audio that is quite rich in sound, with a bit more emphasis in bass for a deeper sound profile. It’s also more than adequately loud so you don’t have to worry about not hearing anything unless you’re in the middle of a concert.

It also boasts an excellent array of connectivity features. This includes Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 complete with aptX HD support, USB-C 3.2, NFC, and Infrared. The latter is my personal favorite because it allows you to use the smartphone as a universal remote. This is not limited to just TVs either as you can use it for your air conditioner or anything that support Infrared provided that the app has the right signal for it.

The vivo X200 Pro is also one of the earliest devices to adopt the new Dimensity 9400 chip, which provides quite a decent upgrade in performance as seen in our benchmarks. This, together with the fact that you get a full suite of accessories, especially the speedy 90W charger, makes it a worthwhile investment if you’re looking for a flagship-caliber smartphone. I wouldn’t call it cheap by any means at RM4,699 but considering the price of other flagships, you get pretty good value for what you’re paying.

The Bad

Of course, it has its share of drawbacks. For starters, while the included charger is 90W, I did expect the charging speed to be faster than what I got. I can’t blame vivo for this as it’s likely due to the extra large 6,000mAh capacity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not absurdly slow as you can definitely get it fully charged in less than an hour but I did expect a bit more in this area.

Next up, the camera bump is humongous so it somewhat makes the use of a protective case necessary. Even if you’re not worried about the vivo X200 Pro taking any form of damage, having it lie on a flat surface on its rear is rather awkward it will clearly tilt on one side over the other.

Lastly, while the Dimensity 9400 is quite a strong chip, it does suffer from thermal throttling quite a bit. It’s perfectly fine for regular use as it only gets slightly warm when messaging or using social media at worst but if you use the camera extensively or play certain games like Genshin Impact or Honkai Star Rail, it does get rather hot. If you plan on playing mobile games a lot, you might want to consider investing in a cooler for it.

vivo X200 Pro Verdict

The vivo X200 Pro is an excellent flagship smartphone that boasts excellent performance and multimedia capabilities. The cameras, while great, provide a bit of an odd experience in the sense that the wide camera is not as good as its zoom camera, and every other camera module could use an improvement. If you do take zoom shots a lot, it is quite enjoyable to use as it really works great. Its battery life makes it stand within a class of its own and I hope all the other brands take note of this.

At the end of our vivo X200 Pro review, I award this smartphone with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.

Big thanks to vivo Malaysia for sending us this smartphone for the purpose of this review.