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Around the beginning of 2023, a blockbuster product from a major manufacturer was exposed, code-named - Thanos.

Thanos, the ultimate villain in the movie "Avengers: Infinity War", collected all 6 Infinity Stones and almost wiped out the protagonist group, with unprecedented combat power.

Carrying the title of "Tathagata of the mobile phone industry" and the momentum of "rectifying the mobile phone industry", vivo's first Ultra-class imaging flagship was officially released on May 13 after nearly a year of long exposure and preheating.The X100 Ultra, with its one-inch main camera, Zeiss APO lens, true 200-megapixel periscope, ultrasonic fingerprint, full glass back cover, and 2K-level display, also raised six "Infinity Stones" and snapped its fingers at its competitors.

(Image source: vivo)

After attending the press conference, Xiao Lei placed an order for a 16GB+512GB white X100 Ultra at the vivo official flagship store on JD.com the moment the price was announced. However, the release date was actually the end of May, and after about two weeks of "waiting", this Thanos finally came into my hands.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

To be honest, before the release of X100 Ultra, there has been considerable controversy about this phone industry tyrant: its release date is mid-2024. Those who are familiar with the release rhythm of flagship products probably know that October is the time when Qualcomm/MediaTek release the next generation flagship SoC, and the imaging super cups of various manufacturers have completed the iteration as early as the beginning of the year, and even saw price cuts during the big promotion. If X100 Ultra does not have enough hard power, it may be difficult to convince the public.

As for why Xiao Lei spent money to buy this flagship, he actually wanted to see how vivo adjusted the 200-megapixel periscope telephoto lens, and also wanted to see what new ideas would be born from the collision of the most luxurious imaging hardware and computational photography.Precisely because this is a product that I purchased with my own money, Xiao Lei can personally guarantee that this content is absolutely objective and neutral. There will not be any content that is merely for show, nor will it have a mediocre and moderate conclusion like in the "water-balancing" reviews. Therefore, you can "eat it with confidence" about this content.

It should be particularly noted that compared to the "quick experience" of only two or three days or one or two weeks, Xiao Lei has used the X100 Ultra in depth for three months and truly used it as the main phone in life scenarios. Therefore, this experience report will be more of a reference for friends. In the future, Lei Technology will also use "long-term testing" as a special experience column, so please pay attention.

So, can this late-coming imaging flagship of vivo live up to the title of "Thanos"? What is its daily use experience like? Don't worry, I will give you my long-term use report of vivo X100 Ultra.

Heavy feel: exterior design gives way to luxurious configuration

Before unboxing the X100 Ultra, I had used the X100 Pro and X100S for a while. They have the same family-style design, so I wasn't surprised when I first used them. But the Deco lens on the back is seriously raised, and the large-curved dual-curved screen still makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

In terms of appearance design, I personally think that the X100 Ultra is the most gentle one among all the flagship super cups this year. It did not turn to the plain leather solution to take into account the weight and three-dimensional control of the whole machine. This is completely different from Xiaomi 14 Ultra, OPPO Find X7 Ultra and Huawei Pura 70 Ultra.I chose the most foolproof white color. In fact, I haven’t seen such a pure white glossy glass back panel in an extra-large cup for a long time.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

Perhaps because the internal stacking is too fierce, the vivo X100 Ultra has grooves on all four sides. When holding it for a long time, the grooves can disperse the support points to a certain extent so that the user will not feel too tired. However, the large-arc hyperbolic screen is a big problem. Even with the grooves on the frame, the discomfort when holding it is still obvious.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

The discomfort when holding it also comes from another aspect, that is, the huge lens group Deco on the back. Compared with the X100 Pro released last year, the bulge of the X100 Ultra is even more obvious. Although it does not have a double-layer structure like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, it is inevitable that your fingers will touch the position of the lens group.If you hold it horizontally, the lens group will affect the holding comfort even more. Therefore, I don’t often use the X100 Ultra to play games.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

The X100 Ultra's controversial design also includes the screen. This 2K resolution E7 display panel from Samsung is not bad in actual appearance, but its shape is not satisfactory. The curved design on both sides causes the side of the screen to be green when viewed from the side, and the large black borders on the upper and lower sides also affect the visual experience. If you have to rate this screen, the deduction points are almost all in the shape, not the quality itself.

Perhaps to appease consumers, vivo thoughtfully provided X100 Ultra users with a free AR film plan. I applied for this plan before the sale. About four days after receiving the phone, I received a notification from the nearest after-sales center that I could go and replace the AR film. The whole process was quite smooth, which I have to give a big thumbs up. But in the final analysis, the effect of AR film as a soft film is still far behind that of a hard film, and the anti-fouling ability of this film is quite poor. About half a time after changing the film, the center area was firmly stuck by unknown stains and could not be cleaned.

Overall, the X100 Ultra is the "Thanos of the mobile phone industry" and its body is as strong and large as the movie character "Thanos". But this is actually easy to understand. The 1-inch main camera + 200 million pixel periscope telephoto lens already occupy a large space in the fuselage. At the same time, it also needs to be stuffed with a large-capacity 5500mAh battery and a 3D VC ice-sealed heat dissipation layout.The thickness of the fuselage is unavoidable.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

X100 Ultra is actually a microcosm of the current era of flagship super cups. In order to pursue luxurious imaging solutions and ultra-large capacity batteries, the external design must give way to these hardware stacks. This is why it is difficult for imaging super cups to break out of the "vicious circle" of the center lens group Deco. It's not that they don't want to do it, but it's too difficult to do it. But at least vivo's aesthetics are online. Whether it's the white in my hand or the main color titanium, the overall color tone and texture are adjusted very well. I believe this is also what many consumers like about X100 Ultra.

The image is really "Thanos", only one step away from "becoming a god"

When I first chose to purchase an imaging flagship, I also considered OPPO Find X7 Ultra and Xiaomi 14 Ultra, but considering that my need for telephoto lens far outweighs the main camera, I finally chose the X100 Ultra with better hardware.

In terms of hardware, the X100 Ultra has a relatively rare triple-camera solution. The main camera uses the mainstream LYT-900 sensor, with 50 million pixels and a large aperture of F1.75; the telephoto camera is the HP9 jointly developed by vivo and Samsung, with an astonishing number of 200 million pixels, a sensor size of 1/1.4, and an aperture of F2.67; the ultra-wide-angle camera is the LYT-600, with 50 million pixels and an aperture of F2.2.

The focal length of the main camera is set at 23mm, which is not a native focal length that is easy to "take photos". In most scenes, I would choose 1.2X or 1.5X, which is equivalent to 28mm or 35mm. In addition, since vivo has cancelled the 2X lens that was well received by the previous generation, the 50mm focal length also needs to be achieved through digital cropping of the main camera. The main camera needs to cover the focal length from 23mm to 50mm, which is very stressful.

Not only that, the HP9 chosen by vivo has an equivalent focal length of 85mm. Therefore, the main camera not only has to cover the golden focal lengths of 23mm, 28mm, 35mm and 50mm, but also has to be digitally cropped between 50mm and 85mm, which results in a more obvious loss in image quality when not using the official default focal length.

Judging from the hardware alone, the three sensors provided by vivo X100 Ultra are all at the first-tier level, but the lack of medium focus and ultra-telephoto parts has to be compensated by algorithms.

Compared with Sony's previous generation 1-inch large-bottom main camera IMX989, the LYT-900 has major improvements in imaging speed, power consumption, full-well capacity, and dynamic range. When shooting at the 23mm native focal length, I felt the advantages brought by these improvements.For example, when taking “snap shots” in cloudy scenes, the X100 Ultra has faster imaging and computing speeds, and can capture more wonderful details.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Texture Mode)

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Vivid Mode)

Whether it's the cleaner waving his broom quickly or the water jet gushing out from the entrance of the Apple Store, it can be captured in an instant and the picture is relatively clear.

As mentioned earlier, the focal lengths I like to use most in daily life are actually 28mm, 35mm and 50mm, but in the system version when I got the X100 Ultra, there were some problems with the algorithms for these golden focal lengths.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Texture Mode)

At 50mm focal length, the overall tone of the X100 Ultra has an indescribable "dirty" feeling, with a lot of noise in the picture, which is not a good look. However, at 85mm telephoto, the overall image is greenish, and both sensors have their own problems in the initial system version.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Texture Mode)

This Samsung HP9 telephoto lens will also have irregular tonal changes when the algorithm intervenes. These changes are almost uncontrollable, and the viewfinder cannot preview the calculation traces of the algorithm, which means that what you see is often quite different from what you shoot.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Zeiss Natural Color Mode)

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Zeiss Natural Color Mode)

For the above reasons, netizens jokingly called the X100 Ultra "the best camera" in the early days of its release, implying that vivo had been holding back for so long but still failed to do a good job in the imaging part. However, in the subsequent versions, the focus was on adjusting the color consistency and algorithm intervention issues.

It is not difficult to see that after several versions of changes, the X100 Ultra's processing of colors has become close to what the human eye sees, the suppression of highlights is relatively gentle, and the shadow part will not be violently enhanced through algorithms to please the eye.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Zeiss Natural Color Mode)

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Zeiss Natural Color Mode)

It is rumored that the reason for the delay of the release of vivo X100 Ultra is the large telephoto lens. How to make 200 million pixels cover a longer focal length to achieve better imaging effect is a difficult problem to solve. From my three-month experience, vivo tried to use algorithms to improve the image quality and handed over the calculation part to the independent imaging chip V3+, and the effect was actually quite good.

For example, this sample photo was taken near the former site of the Shanghai People's Hotel. In the ultra-telephoto range of 230mm, the high-pixel + computational photography solution was used to retain the details of the building while preserving the warm tones of the sunset.Whether it's details or tones, the X100 Ultra lives up to expectations.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Zeiss Natural Color Mode)

As mentioned before, the X100 Ultra relies on a native 85mm telephoto lens to cover focal lengths of 135mm, 230mm and above, which puts considerable pressure on the algorithm. For example, when using the ultra-telephoto lens to shoot Lingna Belle, the algorithm aggravates the shadow of her hair, which does not look very good.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Zeiss Natural Color Mode)

I personally think that vivo has shown absolute strength in both imaging hardware and computational photography, but how to reconcile hardware and software is still a challenge. Just like in the night scene environment, vivo has regained its home court and can almost take a blockbuster movie with just a casual shot.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Texture Mode)

Computational photography is at a high level in vivo's current imaging strategy. Active algorithm intervention can indeed make photos look more pleasing to the eye. For example, the strategy of suppressing highlights in night scenes once made me think I had become a photography master. However, once the algorithm is accidentally lost, the photos taken may not be satisfactory.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Texture Mode)

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Texture Mode)

After several versions of updates, I think the imaging performance of X100 Ultra in normal mode is already satisfactory, but in terms of operation, I still hope to add a manual EV adjustment option to the camera's main interface, which will allow users to freely choose exposure strategies and increase the success rate of taking satisfactory photos.

Along with the release of X100 Ultra, there are two new imaging modes: Human Street Photography and Stage.

I think Humanistic Street Photography is the most successful imaging mode of vivo. The overall logic is copied from professional SLR, providing rich customization options while reducing the intervention of algorithms. If necessary, you can even turn off the HDR option to let "street shooting" return to its pure form.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Humanities Street Photography)

Since most of the image algorithms have been removed, more accurate capture can be achieved in this mode. There is also an exclusive tone "Black and White" in Humanities Street Photography. I often use it to shoot art exhibitions. The high-contrast tone is full of texture.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Humanities Street Photography)

The Humanistic Street Shooting mode is indeed very useful, but I still hope that the operation logic can be more "intelligent". For example, in the Auto mode, the F4.0 large aperture is turned on by default. To be honest, the large aperture effect simulated by calculation is not natural, which seems to run counter to the original intention of the Humanistic Street Shooting mode. Vivo has given two custom setting modes, C1 and C2, in this mode. This logic is also very "camera",But I don’t think it’s necessary to completely copy the camera’s “save” settings, as it would be difficult to respond in time when there is a need to capture a scene.

The "Stage" mode first released by X100 Ultra can be called the epitome of vivo imaging. In addition to fully utilizing the hardware performance of telephoto, computational photography is also brought to the extreme. From the sample photos, even with a focal length of 460mm, X100 Ultra can still capture the model clearly. According to my on-site observation, vivo may have "quietly" added some beauty algorithms to ensure an excellent overall look.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Filming/Stage)

(Photo source: Lei Technology Filming/Stage)

To summarize briefly, as the "image destroyer", the overall idea of ​​X100 Ultra is to put the image at the top priority of the entire mobile phone. Therefore, we can see that in order to adjust the HP9 200 million pixel telephoto lens, not only was the release delayed, but several system versions were released within a month after the release, with one-to-one optimization of color, focus, imaging and other aspects. However, I personally think that X100 Ultra is too dependent on algorithms, which may cause excessive pressure on the computing power of computational photography. In the three months of use, "algorithm failure" and "focus blur" often occur, and the stability needs to be strengthened.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

But I still like to call the X100 Ultra a "camera that looks like a mobile phone" because in more than 90% of the scenes, I can get a satisfactory photo after pressing the shutter, especially in extreme scenes such as night scenes and concerts, the X100 Ultra has a very high output rate.

Ultimately, the difference between mobile imaging and professional imaging lies in "enjoying the result" and "enjoying the process". Most professional photographers value the pleasure of pressing the mechanical shutter button. If the framing is good, they will start to professionally retouch the photo to create a professional, perfect photograph. However, mobile imaging is for the general public. As a user, I hope that after pressing the shutter button, I can get a good-looking photo, nothing more.

In this regard, I think vivo X100 Ultra has given a perfect answer.

OriginOS 4 has powerful customization and few system ads

When I decided to buy the X100 Ultra, I really only had one requirement: the ultimate imaging experience. But from the moment I received the phone, I tried to use it as my main phone to experience OriginOS 4, which currently has the highest Cool Security rating.

The first step to start using your phone as your main device is to change your phone. Vivo's phone switching assistant is the most comprehensive one I've ever experienced. It supports three types of data transfer: Android to Android, Android to iOS, and iOS to Android. You can choose to transfer data or change the phone as a whole. However, if you switch from an iPhone to a vivo, Live Photo and HDR photos will become invalid, so you need to pay special attention to this.

The overall feeling of OriginOS 4 is that it is rich in customization and the animation is very smooth, but it is not right to say that it has no minor flaws.

1. The frame rate is limited by default.

The X100 Ultra locks the frame rate to 60Hz by default after installing a new app. To be honest, as a top flagship priced at 6K+, I don’t think vivo needs to limit the frame rate of the app for this power-saving strategy.

(Image source: Lei Technology)

But if you actively turn on the highest frame rate mode every time you install an application, then OriginOS 4 can ensure full frame operation and will not secretly reduce the frame rate or lock the frame like other systems. This is worthy of praise.

2. There is a problem with the name of vivo's official application.As we all know, during the FunTouch period, vivo's official apps were generally named "i+XXX", such as i Theme, i Music, etc. These names are left over and overlap with the vivo apps of OriginOS, which is a bit confusing. Although this is indeed a bit nitpicking, vivo currently has the most popular customized UI on the Internet, and I think it's okay to have higher requirements than other companies.

3. Vivo has too few ways to beautify its screen.There are too few excellent third-party icons provided in iThemes, and some high-quality creators don’t seem to pay much attention to the development of vivo themes. A few days ago, a colleague of mine officially joined vivo and bought a vivo X100 Pro, but found that the author of the icon pack he had used for many years did not join the development of OriginOS themes, so he had no choice but to give up and choose Blue Factory. Similarly, there are not many applications that support first-level operations for atomic components so far.

OriginOS 4 has another advantage worth praising: very few system ads. Of course, vivo's system ads are few, but users still need to turn them off manually, such as the vivo wallet, which can be extremely concise when all ads and promotion pages are turned off. As for why I said "very few" instead of "none"? That's because vivo weather has an information flow ad that can't be turned off.

(Image source: Lei Technology)

Vivo's insistence on using ultrasonic fingerprint scanners for the super-large cup is one of the reasons why I firmly chose the X100 Ultra.Although this generation does not continue the wide-area ultrasonic fingerprint solution, the unlocking speed and recognition efficiency of single-point ultrasonic are unmatched by ultra-thin fingerprints.

AI has become vivo's killer feature. Is this a true AI phone?

Vivo’s other killer feature is AI, which is my favorite feature after long-term use.

Blue Factory's AI is mainly reflected in the AI ​​assistant Blue Heart Xiao V, which is a GPT-like conversation assistant. From the initial "search-type question and answer", it has gradually evolved to the use of AI to generate pictures, AI beautify, etc. However, my favorite is still the AI ​​elimination and document AI assistant.

During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, I took the X100 Ultra to Changsha. As we all know, Changsha is a popular tourist city. If you want to join in the fun and take some tourist photos, you can't avoid a lot of passers-by in the photo. Vivo's AI erasure is the most stable among all brands. Even if it is a large area of ​​erasure, it will not feel too inconsistent.

(Image source: Lei Technology Mapping/AI Elimination)

Of course, in the face of such a large-scale elimination, I am already very satisfied to have achieved this effect.

AI Docs can help me polish my articles, continue writing, simplify the length, or adjust the required copywriting style according to the tone of different platforms. This idea is somewhat similar to Apple's AI, but vivo has used it early, and it is more in line with the Chinese context.

(Image source: Lei Technology)

Performance needs to be improved, charging speed is not fast enough

Finally, I would like to talk about the performance of the X100 Ultra.

The X100 Ultra is equipped with the flagship three-piece hardware that we are all very familiar with.That is Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, UFS4.0, and LPDDRX5.In daily use, this performance triangle, combined with OriginOS 4, basically does not cause any lag or unsmoothness.

(Image source: Lei Technology)

As mentioned in the design section, due to the severe protrusion of the Deco lens on the back of the X100 Ultra, there is nowhere to put your left hand when holding it horizontally, especially when playing games, with the intense battle, it also increases the chance of your fingers dirtying the lens. Therefore, the X100 Ultra is not a very suitable device for me to play games for a long time.

In addition, the X100 Ultra heats up quickly during gaming, and although the temperature is not hot enough to burn your hands, it is not as comfortable as most performance flagships. Recently, when I was playing "Naraka: Bladepoint", I often received prompts that the game's performance load was too high.This "easy to heat" is also reflected in the long-term photo and video recording process. As the temperature rises, the battery power drops much faster than usual.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

According to my personal usage habits, I also made a battery life test table of X100 Ultra for reference only:

(Photo source: Produced by Lei Technology)

Speaking of battery life, we have to talk about the X100 Ultra's battery solution: 5500 mAh + 80W wired fast charging + 30W wireless fast charging. To be honest, I don't have a high demand for 100W fast charging, but the X100 Ultra has a large battery capacity. Among the current mainstream flagships, if it does not reach 100W, the charging speed is actually not fast.

(Image source: Lei Technology)

The charging protocols of X100 Ultra are much less than those of X100 Pro, especially PPS only supports up to 44W, and 20V VFCP has also been cut off, which are standard on X100 Pro.I hope vivo can keep the charging protocol as unified as possible in the X200 series. After all, this is an aspect in which the blue factory has an excellent reputation, and the traditional skills cannot be lost.

There are also some details, such as the vibration motor of X100 Ultra. Although it chooses the 9595 X-axis solution, the overall adjustment is relatively tight and the vibration feedback is good.It’s just that OriginOS 4 has too few designed vibration interactions. Even some of the camera’s focal length switches have no vibration feedback, and there is also a very obvious delay in some scenes. I hope that the vibration feedback can be adjusted in future system version updates.

Overall, as an "image destroyer", the overall user experience of X100 Ultra is not bad, and some functions are also very popular, such as AI elimination and atomic notification. However, in terms of details, OriginOS 4 still has many imperfect and unsophisticated details, and the optimization of performance release needs to be improved. But the X200 series is already on the way, how much time does this late "thanors" have?

Summary: A mobile phone built with the idea of ​​a camera

During the three months I used the X100 Ultra, I traveled to many cities with it and took many photos of my life. Whenever I looked through these photos, I would always sigh: "I can take such beautiful photos." Even my friends would ask me which camera I took the photos I posted on WeChat Moments.

(Photo source: Lei Technology Photography/Vivid Mode)

So I started thinking, instead of putting the X100 Ultra in the position of a mobile phone to discuss whether it is successful, it is better to say that this is the first time that vivo has placed such a high priority on imaging, so that the X100 Ultra has become a qualified mirrorless camera rather than a powerful flagship phone.

So the question is, is the X100 Ultra worth buying?

I think before you wonder whether to buy X100 Ultra, you need to figure out what you need?

Very suitable for: If you have very high requirements for taking pictures and know nothing about professional photo editing tools, then the X100 Ultra is still worth buying.

May not be suitable: If you need to consider all the factors of a flagship phone: performance, design, feel, battery life, imaging, etc., there are many other good choices besides X100 Ultra.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

You can wait:If you are an X90 Pro+ user, I think at this awkward time, you might as well wait for the X200 series. It is rumored that the X200 Pro will also have a 200-megapixel telephoto lens. By then, perhaps the Blue Factory will have a more mature tuning solution and the experience will be more complete.

In any case, I don’t regret buying the X100 Ultra as soon as it was released. The emotional value it brings to me far exceeds its own significance. Moreover, it is an excellent mobile photography tool, so it is totally worth the money. Of course, I am also looking forward to what kind of imaging solutions vivo will come up with in the X200 series to surpass “Thanos”.