iPhone 16 Plus vs Vivo X300 Ultra

iPhone 16 Plus

The A18 with 8GB RAM — the same RAM as the Pro this year — delivers strong, future-proof performance, especially as an upgrade from older iPhones.

• The A18 provides enhanced performance and supports Apple Intelligence — 'Pro features at a mainstream price.'
• Optimisations from the new A18 chip clearly improved efficiency over the iPhone 15.
• Your tired old iPhone may run iOS 18, but the iPhone 16 runs it exponentially better — the iterative criticism misses the point for upgraders.
• Owners report great performance and photos, with the powerful chip making the upgrade worthwhile coming from an iPhone 13.

Vivo X300 Ultra

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 plus Vivo's custom imaging silicon delivers flagship benchmark numbers and strong gaming, but the camera-heavy hardware runs hot — sustained stress tests show roughly 60–65% stability and the camera app warms it up fast.

• At the heart is Qualcomm's current flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, supplemented by Vivo's custom VS1 and V3-Plus imaging chips.
• It boots in 16 seconds (vs 21s for the S26 Ultra and 19s for the iPhone 17 Pro Max) and posts an AnTuTu score over 3,800,000, stronger than Samsung.
• In a prolonged stress test it throttled CPU performance to about 60% of peak — in line with other high-powered flagships — and 3DMark stability landed around 63–66%.
• It gets a bit hot after 30–40 minutes of gaming, but with no throttling even past an hour and never uncomfortable to hold; boost mode at max graphics gives around 4 hours of Wuthering Waves on a full charge.
• Native 120fps gaming with smooth/very-high graphics in many titles, with temperature barely crossing 35°C and power draw around 4W in battle-royale modes.
• Under sustained camera/imaging load the front reached ~46.8°C and the back ~45.2°C, and around 47°C the refresh rate drops slightly though not all the way to 60Hz.

iPhone 16 Plus

The Plus's headline strength: the best battery life in the entire iPhone 16 line — undercut by slow charging.

• It's claimed to last up to 27 hours of video playback and up to 100 hours of audio playback.
• The battery on the 16 Plus has been significantly better than the 16 Pro Max for some owners — ~9 hours screen-on-time on a single charge with excellent standby.
• Battery life is excellent, a key reason to pick the Plus and a huge step for those used to a 12 Pro Max.
• Proper fast-charging technology has yet to reach Apple's labs.
• iOS 18 adds an 80–100% charge-limit option and visible cycle count to extend long-term battery health.

Vivo X300 Ultra

Vivo grew the silicon-carbon cell 10% to 6,600mAh while keeping the body the same size. Real-world endurance is strong — ~16h active-use score, ~7h heavy screen-on, 13–14 hour days with charge to spare — and 100W wired refills it in under an hour, with 40W wireless.

• Vivo increased the battery by 10% to 6,600mAh despite the phone being practically the same size on paper.
• In our battery test it earned an active-use score of almost 16 hours; 100W charging took it 0–66% in 30 minutes and a full charge in 46 minutes, plus 40W wireless. A charger is in the box except in Europe.
• On the China version I'm finishing entire 13–14 hour days with 25–30% left; the global version keeps the 6,600mAh cell so battery life should comfortably last 12–13 hours of heavy use.
• Getting nearly 7 hours of screen-on time with very heavy usage from the 6,600mAh silicon-carbon unit, with 100W wired and 40W wireless charging support.
• After a 4-hour heavy-usage simulation the phone still had ~45% battery left, which is solid by today's standards, and 100W wired charging takes about 45 minutes to full.
• In a head-to-head charge race against the Oppo Find X9 Ultra (80W), the Vivo on 100W finished first at 50 minutes 20 seconds to the Oppo's 52:39.

iPhone 16 Plus

At $899 (later cut to $799) it's strong big-screen value, but it sold poorly enough that Apple discontinued the Plus line.

• Reviews summed it up as 'Pro features at a mainstream price.'
• One reviewer recommends the iPhone 16 Plus over the Pro — and is as surprised as you are.
• A year in, it's a no-regrets phone — if you can stretch to the iPhone 17 it's the better 2026 buy, but you won't feel like you're missing much.
• Apple discontinued the 16 Pro/Pro Max after the iPhone 17 launch, but the 16 and 16 Plus stayed on sale new at $699/$799.
• It sold so poorly that Apple replaced the Plus line with the iPhone Air.
• The Galaxy S24 Ultra's price massively undercuts the 16 Plus, so cross-shoppers may save money elsewhere.

Vivo X300 Ultra

This is a deliberately niche, camera-first flagship: roughly €1,175 in China for 512GB, around £1,399 globally for the phone, and close to €2,600 for the full kit. For the people it's aimed at it draws some of the strongest praise of any 2026 phone; for everyone else, a cheaper X300 Pro or the Oppo Find X9 Ultra may make more sense.

• Last year's X200 Ultra was, in my opinion, one of the best smartphones of 2025 — and this is the best smartphone I've ever used, with the best camera application I've ever used, provided with zero script from Vivo.
• The cameras are nothing short of amazing — this is the best Android camera phone, with image quality better than anything from Samsung.
• The versatility here is just ridiculous — more like a phone in a camera than the other way around, a camera system built from the sum of its many parts.
• If you accept the 35mm main, are willing to tolerate AI processing in some scenes, and don't mind the front-camera stabilisation limits, this Vivo is an excellent choice.