Snapping Shanghai and Tokyo with the Vivo X500 Pro Max

We were just in Shanghai for the China launch of the Vivo X500 series, and we had the pleasure of being able to use the new Vivo X500 Pro Max to capture memories not only in China, but on a quick trip to nearby Japan as well. 

Equipped with a new 1/1.28-inch Sony LYTIA L910 sensor that’s co-developed with Vivo, this sensor features LOFIC technology which plays a big role in Vivo being able to tout an ultra high dynamic range of 17 EV stops for videos.

As for the ultra wide camera, it’s mostly similar to last year’s X300 Pro, with the exception of the new Samsung JN5 sensor. It’s still a 50MP camera, with an f/2.0 aperture and a 15mm focal length (0.6x zoom). 

The 200MP telephoto lens, on the other hand, is upgraded with the 1/1.14-inch Samsung HP0 sensor, which was used in the recent X300 Ultra smartphone. It gets OIS, CIPA 7.0 stabilisation and a max optical zoom of 3.5x (85mm), which is one of the optimal focal lengths for shooting portraiture. 

All lenses are ZEISS-branded, and come with the ZEISS T* Coating for better reflection reduction while improving light transmission.

There’s also a telephoto extender kit, and we managed to spend some time with the 400mm extender, so we’ll take a look at how much extra range it gives as well.

Enough about the specs, let’s get into how the photos out of this device look like.

Unfortunately, we seem to be quite unlucky when it comes to Vivo photowalks, with this session being just as overcast as the previous X300 Pro session in Shanghai. However, we had the opportunity to bring the device to Tokyo, Japan for extra photos.

Excellent, colour accurate shots

The shots out of the main camera are excellent and quite colour accurate, even when shooting in overcast or bright situations. 

Depending on the colour profile you’re using, you’ll get slightly different results, so be sure to play around with the different settings on offer. We mostly shot on the Vivid colour profile to help boost the vibrancy of the images slightly and offset the overcast weather conditions.

Jawdropping sharpness at 10x zoom

The 3.5x optical zoom lens affords photos a lot of detail and sharpness, and we particularly enjoyed taking images at the 85mm focal length, although the 10x hybrid zoom also resulted in some stunning results.

Just take a look at the sharpness and vibrancy of the fourth image in both galleries, the phone even managed to capture the water droplets clinging to the plant as well as the spiderweb strands clinging to the top of the flower. 

Portraits are great as well. Skin textures aren’t too aggressively smoothed out, although there is still a bit of blurring and skin tone evening applied. 

Whether it’s the 85mm or the 135mm focal length, photos do turn out quite nicely. Some of the bokeh-ed backgrounds do tend to feel a bit odd, but the phone’s algorithms do a good job at separating the subject (hair and all) from the background. 

We didn’t have the chance to try using the camera in more challenging situations like a concert or sporting event, but we reckon the zoom capabilities would be massively helpful in those scenarios. 

Telephoto extender kit offers even more flexibility

Speaking of which, we had the chance to capture some shots with the 400mm telephoto extender, and it’s just as impressive. Of course, the usual caveats apply in that it’s difficult to take photos of moving subjects, and at the higher zoom levels (particularly 1600mm and 3200mm), you’ll need to prop the phone on a stable surface to minimise hand shake and blur. 

Ideally, you’d have a tripod for even better shots, but we had to take our images fully handheld without even a supporting surface available closely. So, please excuse the slight blur in the images. 

Low light shots retain colour accuracy, with good exposure

Night shots and low-light shots are beautifully exposed as well. More importantly, the phone was able to capture the vibe that we wanted.

Colours are also accurate, and manually changing the exposure gets you some nice, moody shots like the third and fourth photo in the gallery above. 

More about the Vivo X500 Pro Max

The unit we had for testing is the same as what will be sold in the Singapore market, so we reckon imaging performance shouldn’t differ too much, if at all. 

The local availability and pricing for the Vivo X500 Pro Max is not yet announced, so stay tuned and we will update this article when we know more.