Smartphone manufacturers are exploring various, including radical, ways to improve the quality of shooting – the Realme brand demonstrated a smartphone with the ability to connect a large external lens at the MWC 2025 exhibition. Vivo intends to bring a similar solution to the market – the upcoming X200 Ultra will receive support for external optics.
Image source: Vivo
The Vivo X200 Ultra smartphone will receive support for external Zeiss lenses, said the company’s head Han Boxiao. Such a lens will work in conjunction with the built-in 200-megapixel camera and periscope optics with 3.7x zoom, providing a focal length of 200 mm or 8.7x zoom at an aperture of f / 2.3. The company is ready to offer a “practical” indicator of 800 mm with 35x zoom, and at a focal length of 1600 mm (70x zoom), image quality will be comparable to 30x zoom without external optics.
The price for high-quality shooting will be the need to carry around bulky external optics. On the other hand, it is encouraging that Vivo is ready to offer a commercial version of such a solution for those who really need it. I would also like to hope that the external optics will receive deep integration with the camera application, including portrait mode with bokeh effect, 4K video shooting at 120 frames per second, night mode and other functions.
Vivo X200 Ultra will debut in China on April 21. The smartphone will receive a 50-megapixel main camera with a 35-mm sensor, a 200-megapixel camera with periscope optics and 3.7x zoom, as well as a wide-angle camera, which will probably match the main one in quality. The company promises a level of video shooting comparable to the iPhone.