Vivo X100 Pro review: APO-certified super telephoto It can shoot the sun

1. Foreword: The world's first ZEISS-certified APO telephoto lens mobile phone, vivo X100 Pro, was born

As early as 3 years ago, in 2020, when vivo first cooperated with Zeiss, it put mobile phone imaging in the first place, and then opened a new chapter in self-developed image chips through years of accumulation of experience in image tuning.

Now in 2023, vivo took advantage of the trend and released a new generation of self-developed V3 image chip based on the 6nm process at the 2023 vivo imaging ceremony in July, focusing on the three major technical bases of optics, computing power, and algorithms, opening a new era of vivo imaging.

The first model equipped with the self-developed V3 image chip, vivo X100 Pro, is the protagonist of our evaluation today.

This is also the first time that the vivo X series model has been iterated to three digits.

It is the world's first mobile device certified by Zeiss APO, Zeiss APO lens has two major advantages, one is to eliminate chromatic aberration, such as the "purple edge" phenomenon that we often see, it can be perfectly eliminated, and the other is to improve the light transmittance of the lens, reduce the loss of light, improve the imaging quality, for mobile devices, through the Zeiss APO certification is undoubtedly an important breakthrough.

It not only has made breakthroughs in imaging and computing power, but also brought us the most powerful Dimensity 9300 SoC and the industry's fastest LPDDR5T memory so far.

The vivo X100 Pro has come to our fast technology review room, and we will conduct a detailed and comprehensive review of it.

First of all, let's take a look at the main features of the vivo X100 Pro and the detailed parameters.

1. ZEISS APO Super Telephoto

ZEISS APO certification is an optical certification issued by the German company ZEISS, which is mainly for optical instruments such as microscopes, telescopes, and cameras.

vivo X100 Pro is equipped with a periscope telephoto lens, the world's first lens to mark the "APO" logo on moving images, which is a kind of apochromatic lens, which has the ability to reduce the offset of different colors of light, eliminate the chromatic aberration of more than two colors, and make the telephoto image quality comparable to that of professional cameras.

It is worth mentioning that this periscope telephoto of X100 Pro adopts a group floating lens design, with 2 independent lens groups built-in, which generate relative displacement through the motor, one is responsible for long-distance focusing, and the other is responsible for close-range focusing, so that this telephoto lens can achieve the ability of macro shooting.

2. The first 6nm V3 image chip

Image has always been vivo's strength, in 2021, the first generation of V1 image chip was released, which opened the way for vivo's self-developed chips, and then due to the release of V1+ and V2 image chips in 2022, through the solidification of image algorithms, strengthen super noise reduction, intelligent super-resolution and other functions, greatly improving the brightness and clarity of night photography.

In 2023, vivo adheres to the concept of extreme exploration of images, and releases TSMC's third-generation 6nm process background color V3 image chip, which improves the energy efficiency ratio by 30%, combined with the second-generation FIT interconnection system, which significantly improves the algorithm effect while reducing power consumption.

3. The world's first Dimensity 9300

vivo X100 ProIn order to build a blue crystal chip technology stack, and MediaTek MTK jointly explore the all-large core standard, once again won the first right to launch the Dimensity flagship platform, the world's first MediaTek new generation flagship chip Dimensity 9300, focusing on performance, AI, imaging, battery life, display, security, communication, and games for joint debugging, completely covering 8 major functional tracks, bringing an experience that surpasses the flagship of the same level.

4. The first mass production LPDDR5T 9600Mbps memory

vivo X100 Pro debuts a new generation of LPDDR5T 9600Mbps memory, which is 13% faster than the previous generation LPDDR5X 8533Mbps memory.

However, it should be noted that the vivo X100 Pro is only equipped with the fastest LPDDR5T memory in the 16GB+1TB version, and the rest of the variants are LPDDR5X 8533Mbps.

Here are the detailed specifications of the vivo X100 Pro:

2. Appearance: The new star blue color scheme holds the sun, moon and stars in your hands

The screen size of the vivo X100 Pro remains the same as that of its predecessor, with a 6.78-inch hyperbolic screen on the front, 8T LTPO backplane technology, support for 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and the screen has a maximum resolution of 2800×1260 with an equivalent PPI of 370.

The peak brightness of the screen can reach 3000nit, which is directly doubled compared to the previous generation X90, and the screen can be seen clearly even in the sun.

This screen has a static contrast ratio of 8,000,000:1 and supports 2160Hz high-frequency PWM dimming.

A 32-megapixel front-facing camera is integrated in the center of the upper part of the screen, and a micro-slit earpiece is used on the top, while taking into account the function of the speaker.

The bezels on the bottom of the phone have narrowed a bit, which is at the same level as the bezels on both sides, which is visually consistent.

The color we got is interstellar blue,The back of the mobile phone adopts a star track micro-nano lithography process with an accuracy of less than 1um,The fuselage is attached with thousands of star track lines of different shades,It can change with light and shadow,Bring a sense of starry sky-like depth,But there is no abruptness to the touch,The feel is delicate and silky,It will not be contaminated with fingerprints。

The camera module area adopts a mirror stainless steel lens decoration ring, which complements each other with three cameras to form an embracing lens module, which is an integrated cutting 2.5D round gemstone texture lens, and an integrated round cutting, and the light enters the lens group to present a unique three-dimensional feeling, and the huge camera module integrates three 50 million high-quality lenses.

The lens has the ZEISS logo printed in the center, is covered with a T* coating to resist glare, and a laser focus sensor underneath.

In the upper right corner of the lens module, a dual-LED monochromatic temperature fill light and a color temperature sensor are integrated.

The texture around the lens group adopts the same sunray pattern as Rolex, and the texture and details are full of texture.

The volume button and power button of the phone are located on the right side of the body.

The top of the phone is equipped with an infrared remote control sensor and a noise-canceling microphone.

The speaker is integrated at the bottom of the phone, forming a stereo field with the earpiece speaker on the front of the screen, and once to the right is the Type-C interface, microphone and SIM card slot.

The vivo X100 Pro comes with a clear phone case, a 120W fast charging kit, and a quick start guide.

3. Image: Telephoto is the first to be certified by APO, high-power zoom is clear and free of stray light, and it is a real expert in night shooting

vivo X100 ProThe main camera uses the same Sony IMX989 of the previous generation, 1/0.98-inch image sensor, and it is also the lens with the largest amount of light so far, with a single pixel ruler of 1.6μm, high pixel output to achieve an equivalent of 3.2μm super large pixels, an aperture of F1.75, and a 23mm equivalent focal length.

The telephoto lens is OV64B cut 50 million, 1/2-inch image sensitive unit, the actual output is 1/2.51 inch, the first time the Zeiss floating lens group is used, giving this telephoto lens the ability to shoot macro, compared with vivo X90 Pro+ periscope telephoto, the amount of light intake is increased by 97%.

With a 100mm-equivalent focal length, this telephoto lens achieves 4.3x optical zoom compared to the main camera, up to 100x ZEISS ultra-clear zoom, and supports OIS optical image stabilization.

At the same time, the periscope telephoto of vivo X100 Pro is also the only mobile phone lens in the world that has passed the APO certification of Zeiss.

ZEISS APO lenses are a special lens design that provides sharper and more accurate images by eliminating chromatic aberration. Chromatic aberration refers to the color deviation due to the different refractive indices of different wavelengths of light in the lens.

The ZEISS APO lens adopts a special optical structure, which effectively reduces this chromatic aberration phenomenon and makes the color of the image more realistic and vivid.

Secondly, ZEISS APO lenses also feature high light transmittance, which allows light to pass through the lens to the fullest, reducing light loss and thus improving image quality.

The X100 Pro's ultra-wide-angle lens uses a 50-megapixel Samsung S5KJN1 sensor, a 1/2.76-inch sensor, an f/2.0 aperture, and a 15mm-equivalent focal length.

- Main camera

鲜明

Texture

ZEISS natural color

鲜明

Texture

ZEISS natural color

vivo X100 Pro's main camera,Take advantage of SonyIMX989Super large bottom,In daytime conditions,The amount of light is sufficient,But the sample is not too saturated,In the shooting of sunset scenes,Ensure sufficient light intake,The picture will not be dark,And the main camera does not automatically switch to night mode,The straight picture shows the texture,Very immersive。

vivo still gives users the right to choose between the three color systems of vivid, textured color and Zeiss natural color, and we can freely switch the appropriate color according to different scenes and shoot samples in our own creative form.

- Telephoto

鲜明

Texture

ZEISS natural color

vivo X100 Pro's APO super telephoto lens,With 4.3x optical zoom ability output,50 million pixels of super resolution,The picture is clear and sharp,Even if you shoot a building in the evening,There will be no sticking after the small light strip is magnified,The details of the floor and lights are displayed very well,The picture is very impactful,You can clearly record the details that are difficult to capture with the main camera。

- Ultra-wide-angle

vivo X100 Pro's 15mm ultra-wide-angle lens, although the photosensitive area is not as good as the main camera and telephoto, but in the daytime under well-lit conditions, the imaging performance is also good, suitable for shooting natural scenery or wide buildings and other subjects, creating an open atmosphere, and perfectly eliminating the distortion at both ends of the picture, and there will be no pasting in the zoomed-in image.

- Sample of the night scene

In terms of night scenes, whether you use the main camera or telephoto to shoot night scenes, the exposure, color and resolution can be shown well enough, thanks to the advantages of the main camera in the outsole, the night scenes shot by cropping and zooming can also accurately restore the color of the night, the black is pure, there is no excessive noise, and the samples are vivid and realistic.

Although the telephoto lens only has an actual photosensitive area of 1/2.51 inch, it can still play its unique advantages when shooting night scenes, without too much stray light, it can capture distant details, making night photos more rich and diverse, and will not cause problems such as underexposure and insufficient resolution due to insufficient light intake, but the color of the sample is delicate and the picture is clear.

The vivo X100 Pro's ZEISS T* coating provides excellent anti-glare capabilities, and the 4.3x telephoto lens captures direct light, resulting in a clean and transparent image, and you can even clearly see the texture around the lamp beads when you zoom in.

- Telephoto macro

The periscope telephoto of the vivo X100 Pro takes into account the photographic capabilities of the telephoto macro.

The focal length of 100mm can capture details that are difficult to capture with conventional wide-angle cropping macros, and thanks to the high pixels and large outsole, the clarity and brightness of the picture are greatly improved, so that the macro picture shot has a strong sense of atmosphere, making the whole photo present a professional and advanced feeling.

4. Performance and Gaming: Double U Performance Spike Snapdragon 8 Gen3 High-load gaming power consumption is incredibly low

The vivo X100 Pro debuted MediaTek's new generation flagship core Dimensity 9300 with N4P process technology and 22.7 billion transistors.

Dimensity 9300 adopts an unprecedented all-large-core design, 4 super-large cores + 4 large-core components to form an octa-core CPU, and introduces ARM's latest architecture scheme, namely 1×3.25GHz Cortex-X4 + 3×2.85GHz Cortex-X4 four ultra-large cores, 4×2.0GHz Cortex-A720 large cores, with 8MB L3 cache + 10MB system cache.

In terms of GPU, Dimensity 9300 integrates a new generation of flagship GPU Immortalis-G720, the number of cores has been increased from 11 cores to 12 cores, and the maximum frequency has been increased from 981MHz to 1300MHz, compared with the previous generation of Immortalis-G715, the theoretical peak performance has been increased by 46%, and the power consumption has been reduced by 40% under the same performance.

The Dimensity 9300 chip is combined with vivo's blue crystal chip stacking technology to jointly tune around eight dimensions: performance, AI, imaging, battery life, display, security, communication, and gaming, bringing an experience that surpasses that of flagships in the same class.

The vivo X100 Pro in our hands is the top-of-the-line version, with the first 16GB LPDDR5T 9600Mbps memory, which is 13% faster than the previous LPDDR5X 8533Mbps memory, combined with UFS4.0 flash memory and Dimensity 9300 chip, forming the strongest performance iron triangle today.

Next, we tested the vivo X100 Pro with theoretical performance and gaming tests, during which we adjusted the device's screen brightness to 50%, turned off auto-brightness, turned off memory expansion, and turned on performance mode (BOOST mode).

- Performance testing

The first is the Antutu comprehensive performance test, which ran nearly 2.186 million in an office environment with an indoor temperature of 23 degrees Celsius, and the comprehensive score was more than 40% higher than the previous generation vivo X90 Pro equipped with Dimensity 9200.

The Dimensity 9300 processor, with the blessing of all large cores and the new GPU architecture, is 3.1% ahead of the third-generation Snapdragon 8 in terms of comprehensive performance.

We also did a single test on the CPU and GPU performance of the vivo X100 Pro.

In the Geekbench 6 test, the Dimensity 9300's CPU single-core score reached 2252 points, and the multi-core score directly broke 7500 points, coming to 7646 points, this multi-core score, ahead of the third-generation Snapdragon 8 by about 8.5%, directly beating Qualcomm, and even Apple's A17 Pro, compared with the previous generation Dimensity 9200, the single-core performance has increased by 16.4%, and the multi-core performance has increased by up to 62.3%.

In the GPU test, GFXBench's six 1080p projects were tested under continuous test conditions, and the results were as follows:

Aztec Ruins OpenGL: 209FPS

Aztec Ruins Vulkan: 196FPS

Racing Chase Frame Rate: 143FPS

Manhattan 3.1 off-screen: 257FPS

Manhattan off-screen: 335FPS

Tyrannosaurus Rex off-screen: 567FPS

Compared with the previous generation Dimensity 9200, this generation of Dimensity 9300 has a very obvious advantage in graphics rendering capabilities, with an increase of up to 68.5%, compared with the third-generation Snapdragon 8, a 4.38% lead, surpassing Snapdragon, the first time for Fa Ge.

We also did flash tests on the vivo X100 Pro, with sequential read speeds of 4.3GB/s, write speeds of 3.9GB/s, and an eight-channel UFS 4.0 + MCQ multi-loop queue, which is basically the same as the previous generation X90 Pro.

- Gaming testing

With the blessing of the Dimensity 9300 chip, combined with the self-developed chip V3 chip, the game frame rate can also be inserted to 90~120 frames, allowing users to experience large-scale games with better smoothness.

In order to test the actual performance of the Dimensity 9300, we did not turn on any auxiliary functions, and selected three mainstream mobile games, namely Peace Elite, Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3: Star Railway, and selected the highest frame rate under the highest image quality (image quality first), for game testing, and recorded the frame rate, power consumption, energy efficiency ratio, and temperature performance of the body during the game.

1. Peace Elite

Peace Elite mobile game, 90 fps mode can be turned on in HD quality, and the average frame rate is stable at 89.4FPS after a game, with an average fluctuation of 1.9.

Under the premise that the high-quality 90 frames are close to full frames, the average power consumption is only about 3.6W, and the frame energy consumption is 41.2mW.

In terms of temperature, the front of the fuselage is only 36.8 degrees Celsius, and the back is only 35.6 degrees Celsius, which is about 1 degree Celsius lower than the third-generation Snapdragon 8 model, and the Dimensity 9300's temperature control performance is quite good at standard indoor temperature.

2. Genshin Impact

Then, we tested the Genshin Impact mobile game, with the highest image quality enabling the 60 frame mode while running the map and fighting monsters, the character released the ultimate move without any lag, and enjoyed such a silky frame rate for the first time, after 10 minutes of high load testing, the average frame rate of the game stabilized at 59.9FPS, close to full frame operation, and the average fluctuation was 2.3, which was surprisingly stable.

At this point, we get that the window image is 810p, which is about 10% more expensive than the original 720p.

It has to be said that the Dimensity 9300's Immortalis-G720 shows excellent performance when handling high-load mobile games, and this silky smooth frame rate makes us feel the top gaming experience.

In terms of power consumption, the average power consumption is only 3.9W, which is less than 4W, breaking the record of all models we have tested in the past, and even more than 0.5W lower than the third-generation Snapdragon 8.

With such a low power consumption, the temperature will naturally not be high, and then we checked the temperature of the whole machine, to our surprise, it fell below 40 degrees Celsius, the highest on the front of the fuselage is 38.5 degrees Celsius, and the back of the fuselage is only 36.8 degrees Celsius, compared with Dimensity 9200, the maximum direct reduction is 1.1 degrees Celsius.

This temperature is almost equivalent to the temperature of the third-generation Snapdragon 8 dozen 120 frames of high-quality King Glory, and this generation of Dimensity chips has finally gotten rid of the title of "Huoji".

3. Honkai Impact 3: Star Dome Railway

Finally, we also tested Honkai Impact 3: Star Dome Railway mobile game, the highest image quality + 60 frames mode while running the map while fighting monsters, nearly 10 minutes of game testing, the average frame rate is stable at 59.4FPS, the frame rate fluctuation is slightly higher than that of Genshin Impact, but fortunately, there is no obvious lag during the game.

In terms of power consumption, we were also surprised.

The average power consumption of the third-generation Snapdragon 8 Play Star Iron is around 5W, which is already very good, but the Dimensity 9300 directly pulls the power consumption to less than 4W, with an average of only 3.75W, which has even subverted our perception of flagship chips.

The reason for such a low power consumption is naturally indispensable to the in-depth research and development and tuning of vivo and Dimensity, in this way, the official power consumption is reduced by 40%, which is not an exaggeration.

In terms of temperature, the front of the fuselage is up to 37.5 degrees Celsius, the back is 35.8 degrees Celsius, and holding the phone with both hands is almost insensible.

5. Charging and battery life: 30 minutes of fast full charge, battery life up to 8 hours

vivo X100 Pro is equipped with a negative graphite battery, officially called a blue ocean battery, the energy density has increased by 8.3% compared with the previous generation, the lithium-ion transmission efficiency has also been greatly improved, the battery is large and fast, and the dual-cell design achieves an equivalent capacity of 5400mAh, which is rare in flagship mobile phones.

In addition, the phone also supports 100W dual-core fast charging, 50W wireless charging, and wireless reverse charging.

In this regard, we tested the charging ability and battery life of the vivo X100 Pro.

- Charging test

Before the charging test, we turned on the ultra-fast charging mode, and after testing, the battery was recorded from 1%, 46% in 10 minutes, 81% in 20 minutes, and a full 30 minutes when fully charged.

- Endurance test

For the endurance test, we use a professional endurance test tool - the battery dog produced by Fast Technology for testing.

In terms of test items, the default power test will be carried out to 20%, and at the same time, all test items including CPU high voltage, CPU multi-threading, AI recognition, picture browsing, video playback and web browsing will be checked, and the real load will be restored to the greatest extent by simulating user usage scenarios, infinitely close to the real power consumption.

During the test, in order to ensure that the environmental variables tested by all models remain uniform and to ensure the accuracy of the test results, Battery Dog will automatically adjust the brightness of the screen to 50%, and turn off the automatic brightness and adjust the volume to 30%.

After the battery dog continuous test, the power of vivo X100 Pro was consumed from 100% to 20%, and it took 6 hours, 02 minutes and 10 seconds, and after conversion, the full battery life of the mobile phone is about 8 hours.

6. Summary: A veritable telephoto expert The image king of the domestic flagship

vivo X100 ProAs a large-cup image mobile phone, vivo X100 Pro brings together a large bottom image sensitive unit, a large bottom high-power telephoto macro lens, a full-range high-pixel triple camera, and a self-developed V3 chip.

As a Pro model, it combines the world's first Dimensity 9300 chip, 16GB LPDDR5T 9600Mbps memory and eight-channel UFS 4.0 flash memory to form a new generation of performance beasts, becoming the most powerful king of Android in 2023.

After a period of experience review, we have the following summary of the vivo X100 Pro:

The vivo X100 Pro's Sony IMX989 Super Outsole Camera, combined with the 6nm V3 image chip, greatly improves the daytime production rate, and can show amazing details in low-light environments, and the image quality is extremely delicate.

The 50 million APO super telephoto, magnifying the night scene at will, not only has a high film yield, but also perfectly eliminates the stray light in the environment while maintaining the vivid color, and the sample is clean and transparent without overflow, even if there is no super-large bottom CMOS, the sample after 10x cropping at night will still not appear too much noise.

In other words, the vivo X100 Pro's periscope telephoto lens, its light control and anti-glare capabilities, no other phone has been able to match it so far.

Secondly, with the help of the group floating structure design, it can be focused from far and near, shooting close-up objects, the measured focusing distance is about 15~20 cm, the periscope telephoto lens not only has the ability to shoot close-ups, but also captures extremely small objects, such as the delicate texture of flowers, the tiny body structure of insects, and stimulates our curiosity and desire to explore the microscopic world.

The Dimensity 9300 processor, the world's first launch of vivo X100 Pro, has brought a revolutionary change to the mobile chip industry in the form of an all-large core.

After our actual test, the new Cortex-X4 single-core theoretical performance has increased by 16.4% compared with the previous generation, which is the same as the third-generation Snapdragon 8, and the multi-core performance has increased by up to 62.3%, which is about 8.5% ahead of the third-generation Snapdragon 8.

In terms of GPU, it is about 4.38% ahead of the third-generation Snapdragon 8, surpassing Qualcomm and Fa Ge for the first time, and in our game test, the collapse of high loads: Star Dome Railway is only 2/3 of the third-generation Snapdragon 8 under the premise of full frame, and the temperature can be controlled within 40 degrees Celsius, this generation of Dimensity 9300 finally got rid of the title of the previous generation Dimensity 9200 "Huoji".

Over the years, vivo has been adhering to the principle of "insisting on innovation and pursuing perfection".

vivo X100 Pro, as a new generation of annual flagship, not only brings us an upgrade in image performance and appearance, but also gives us IP68 dust and waterproof, LPDDR5T 9600Mbps full blood memory.

Of course, it is also a fine tradition of vivo to be equipped with an independent Hi-Fi chip, integrating so many top-level configurations, X100 Pro once again refreshes the product positioning of high-end flagships, with full score images, full score performance, and full score configuration, bringing consumers a super full score flagship experience.