Vivo’s product manager Han Boxiao took to Weibo this week to talk about telephoto cameras, and what he described sounds less like a smartphone spec sheet and more like a pitch for a professional cinema rig.
The topic: The fifth generation Zeiss 200-megapixel periscope telephoto lens “Thanos” is coming to the Vivo X300 Ultra – and if only half of it holds up, the iPhone 17 Pro and the Galaxy S26 Ultra have a real problem.
New zoom sensor with considerable resolution and stabilization power
At its heart is a new Samsung HPE sensor that sits behind Zeiss’ fifth-generation 200MP Thanos telephoto lens, offering improvements in color, focus, HDR and power efficiency. But what stands out is the stabilization.
On most phones, normal telephoto OIS varies between 0.7° and 1°. The 1.2° of the X200 Ultra already made the competition nervous. The
Han Boxiao showed how the lens physically moves in a demo video, and something like that makes you do double duty.
Faster autofocus for moving subjects
Then there is autofocus. A new high refresh rate Blueprint AF engine accelerates telephoto motion capture to 60 frames per second – twice the rest of the industry’s 30 frames per second. Wildlife, sports, kids who won’t stand still – the X300 Ultra is apparently ready for anything.
When you zoom out to the full camera system, things get more interesting. The Neither Apple nor Samsung are even close to that on paper.
A launch in China is expected later this month, with a global launch planned for sometime in the second quarter of 2026 – the first time ever that Vivo’s Ultra series has reached international markets.
