<\/p>\nArticle Jumplist<\/p>\n
<\/default:svg><\/button><\/p>\n\n1. Vivo X300 Ultra review<\/li>\n 2. All-around stunning display, decent audio<\/li>\n 3. 144Hz refresh rate: Is it actually useful?<\/li>\n 4. Bonus bloatware on your S$2,499 phone<\/li>\n 5. Imaging Performance (with Photography Kit trial)<\/li>\n 6. Benchmark Performance<\/li>\n 7. Battery Life<\/li>\n 8. Conclusion<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/section>\nVivo X300 Ultra review<\/h2>\n Vivo has moved very fast in Singapore. What was originally years of excluding the Lion City from its flagship X-tier phones has quickly transformed into a fast-and-furious onslaught of its X300 series ( Vivo X300<\/u>, Vivo X300 Pro<\/u>), with its Vivo X300 Ultra arriving on our shores the moment it broke free from its home market.<\/p>\n
To recap, X300 Ultra is the first-ever Ultra release by Vivo overseas (outside of Mainland China), and it packs everything you\u2019d expect from a true premium flagship-grade mobile: the latest chipset from Qualcomm (Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5), a big battery (6,600mAh) with a display to match (6.82-inch AMOLED with 144Hz refresh rate). It also checks the boxes for what people have come to expect in handsets at this level, like its IP68 and IP69 resistance to water and dust.<\/p>\n\nVivo X300 Ultra.<\/p>\n
Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Vivo\u2019s calling card for the X300 Ultra leans heavily on its ZEISS collaboration for its camera lenses, boasting a 200MP main, 200MP telephoto, and 50MP ultrawide, all complete with optical image stabilisation and anti-aberration lenses. There\u2019s even an extra colour data camera to assist all its rear shooters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re feeling especially rich, there\u2019s also the option to \u201ctop up a bit more\u201d (read: another S$800) to rock not one, but two teleconverters (200mm and 400mm) and really push the Vivo X300 Ultra\u2019s camera system to its limits via its Photographer\u2019s Kit. While we won\u2019t score the phone\u2019s review based on these add-ons, we tried them out as an extra bonus to this article.<\/p>\n\nVivo X300 Ultra\u2019s bottom rung, with USB-C port.<\/p>\n
Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Of course, S$2,499<\/b>, even for 1TB storage, feels steep. It\u2019s missing smaller storage variants (which are usually more affordable). Seeing how other 1TB variants have fared here, we know Singaporeans wouldn\u2019t break a sweat at such prices. The real challenge is that this is Vivo\u2019s first Ultra phone overseas, and that\u2019s after it hasn\u2019t brought any flagship models for a really long time until now. The ask is very big for a device with a minimal track record in local mindshare to put their trust (and money) in.<\/p>\n
We will see if the Vivo X300 Ultra is indeed an Ultra you can put your S$2,499 with (S$3,200, if you get it with the teleconverter kit).<\/p>\n
All-around stunning display, decent audio<\/h2>\n\nVivo X300 Ultra playing a music video.<\/p>\n
Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
With its 6.82-inch, 3168 x 1440-pixel resolution AMOLED display, the Vivo X300 Ultra could handle the higher-quality content we threw at it. 4K resolution content still played fine with little to no stuttering. We only wished it were brighter under direct sunlight.<\/p>\n\nContent on the phone looks sharp and colour accurate, if a little dim.<\/p>\n
Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
As far as our eyes can tell, colours are also accurate out of the box. We believe this has to do with its ZEISS Master Color Display tuning, which manages highlights and shadows in your content. If you\u2019re a stickler for good displays, the downside of having 1440p is that 1080p content will have obvious quality loss \u2013 but that\u2019s not the X300 Ultra\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n
The built-in stereo speakers sound pleasant enough to make audio enjoyable, though they do have some bias towards vocals with their clearer separation from other mid-range frequencies. Its audio quality has no major weaknesses aside from its boxy bass, which means it\u2019s not quite tuned for harder-hitting tracks.<\/p>\n
144Hz refresh rate: Is it actually useful?<\/h2>\n\nVivo X300 Ultra\u2019s 144Hz AMOLED display.<\/p>\n
Photo: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Vivo X300 Ultra\u2019s display and its 1-144Hz refresh rate work, but it largely depends on what you\u2019re doing with the phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Using 144Hz depends on individual apps. It even says so (paraphrased) on Vivo\u2019s official website<\/u>. This means that if the developer capped the app\u2019s refresh rate at 60, 90, or 120 frames per second, you\u2019d be less likely to experience higher refresh rates, even if the screen refreshes 144 times a second.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a waste of hardware, since you don\u2019t really want to get bottlenecked by the display on the off chance you have a 144Hz app. For example, the Settings app on the Vivo X300 Ultra can go above 60Hz, and that\u2019s easily tested by choosing Standard screen refresh rate (60Hz capped) or High (up to 144Hz) and swiping through the menus like a maniac.<\/p>\n
What we liked best about Vivo X300 Ultra\u2019s display settings is the ability to cap refresh rates on an individual app level. This way, it won\u2019t restrict content-based apps (video streaming, games, etc.), letting them tap into the highest possible refresh rate, while mundane or routine apps like travel booking platforms and your Contacts app save some battery with a restricted refresh rate.<\/p>\n
Bonus bloatware on your S$2,499 phone<\/h2>\n\n
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\u201cRecommended\u201d game apps come in six pages worth of icons, making it easily a hundred bloatware vectors in just two app folders.<\/p>\n
Screenshot: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Excuse me Vivo, but what is all these doing on my S$2,499 phone?<\/p>\n
Screenshot: HWZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Vivo X300 Ultra comes with OriginOS 6 right out of the box, which is the same international version we saw and tried late last year<\/u>. It replaces FunTouch OS, and it\u2019s even nicer now that it\u2019s finally on the company\u2019s first overseas Ultra phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We particularly enjoyed the level of customisation available even in Android-default stuff, like packing pull-down menu options together with notifications, or really granular settings for games. They\u2019ve also packed a storage cleanup feature into the Settings app, which reduces the likelihood that a user will download other dodgy phone management apps (and step on a malware landmine).<\/p>\n
Sadly, the marvel of its smooth operating system and intuitive menus is quickly marred by the same problem that plagued its preceding premium OriginOS foldable<\/u> \u2014 bloatware.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite having a more pleasant user interface than FunTouch, the X300 Ultra comes with a mountain of preloaded garbage teeming out of multiple app folders, all of which require time and effort to spot and remove. It\u2019s further hampered by the pervasiveness of advertising pop-ups masquerading as important notifications. Unfortunately, the abovementioned storage cleanup feature does not help with this.<\/p>\n
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Note: For users looking to remove all that drivel, delete the entire folder that contains the app icons. Also, remember to disable notifications coming from Vivo\u2019s own app store, V-Appstore.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
At S$2,499 for a 1TB phone, we\u2019re sorry to see that Vivo fans are being treated like consumerist cattle that\u2019s farmed for eyeballs, clicks, and downloads. It\u2019s not that we don\u2019t understand the need for phone brands to make a little bit of pocket money when they promote apps this way. Neither are we entirely against all bloatware, since many top-tier brands use optional apps to promote their own ecosystem and offer power-user features (and we\u2019ve even featured truly helpful ones from specific brands before<\/u>).<\/p>\n
But on the Vivo X300 Ultra, \u201crecommended\u201d apps are, at their best, questionable (from lesser-known third-party sources), with some of the worst choices leading to game apps that are constantly whacked for having misleading gameplay representations. There is little to no quality offered, which is a major security concern for less-savvy users (resulting in another point deducted on top of the bloat and intrusiveness).\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a strange twist, you\u2019d actually get a friendlier OS with less junk through a S$2,578 (1TB<\/u>) Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra<\/u> \u2014 a line we\u2019d never thought we would have to write this year. We were originally going to give it a much higher User Friendliness sub-score in our review, but it\u2019s not right of us to recommend digital perils for nearly no returns.\u00a0<\/p>\n