New Delhi: Vivo has recently dropped its most awaited X500 series, and honestly, the specs sheet reads like they threw everything at the wall to see what sticks. Three phones this time the standard X500, the X500 Pro, and the X500 Pro Max with the Pro Max sitting comfortably at the top of the pile.
The chip situation is a little messy, which is kind of interesting. Both the Pro models get MediaTek’s recently introduced Dimensity 9600 Pro, by making them the first smartphones anywhere to ship with it. The regular X500, though, gets stuck with the Dimensity 9600M which, let’s be real, is just last year’s 9500 wearing a new badge. So if you’re buying the base model expecting flagship-tier silicon, you’re not quite getting it.
Cameras are really the story here, and vivo clearly knows it. The Pro and Pro Max share a 50MP main sensor built with Sony (the LYTIA L910), Zeiss coating included, with a fixed f/1.57 aperture pulling in 17 EV of dynamic range. The Pro Max gets a “gimbal-grade” 3-degree stabilization system on that main camera; the Pro settles for 1.5 degrees, which fine, still solid, but you can tell where vivo wants your money going.
Then there’s the most favorite part of every Vivo’s X-series device its periscope telephoto on the Pro Max: 200MP, an 85mm equivalent, built around Samsung’s ISOCELL HP0 sensor. That’s a big number. The Pro instead runs a 64MP telephoto co-developed with Sony. Both support an optional Zeiss telephoto extender that reportedly stretches things out to 400mm equivalent, which is genuinely unusual for a phone.
Video’s not an afterthought either both Pro models shoot 4K at 240fps for slow motion, and the Pro Max alone can do 8K at 30fps. There’s 10-bit 422 recording too, plus support for ACES color management, which is the kind of thing colorists care about way more than the average person snapping vacation photos.
Displays follow a predictable pattern: LTPO AMOLED panels at 2K resolution and 144Hz across the board, with the Pro Max’s 6.85-inch screen hitting 4,500 nits peak brightness. The vanilla X500 comes in a bit dimmer at 4,000 nits on its 6.59-inch panel.
Now, if we discuss about battery-wise, the X500 Pro Max houses with an massive 8,000 mAh silicon-carbon cell that’s massive while the Pro trails oddly behind at 6,510 mAh, and the standard X500 lands at 7,500 mAh. All three of the charge at 90W wired and 40W wireless, and all three carry IP68/IP69 protection, running OriginOS 7 on Android 17.
Pricing starts around $821 for the base X500, climbing to roughly $970 for the Pro and $1,045 for the Pro Max, with a maxed-out 16GB/1TB Pro Max reaching nearly $1,940. Sales in China kick off September 24. No word yet on whether any of these are heading beyond China vivo’s staying quiet on that for now.
