Nothing Phone (3a) Pro vs Vivo X300 Ultra

Nothing Phone (3a) Pro

The reason to buy the Pro: a genuinely rare 3x periscope plus telemacro on top of a 50MP Samsung-co-engineered main — flagship-style versatility for budget money, with a weak ultrawide the main miss.

• The periscope is the real deal — a 50MP sensor with 3x optical zoom, 6x in-sensor zoom and up to 60x digital, co-headlined by a 50MP OIS f/1.8 main co-engineered with Samsung.
• Spending the extra $80 over the base 3a gets you the best camera experience in this mid-range class.
• The telephoto doubles as a tele-macro at 70mm and produces excellent close-up shots — versatility you don't expect at the price.
• It's a shame the camera still doesn't stack up against the Pixel 9 series, and the 3x zoom is comparatively weak versus dedicated cameras.
• It's rare to get 4K video from a 50MP selfie camera on a sub-$500 phone — a genuine standout for budget creators.
• Video is capped at 4K30 on the main and telephoto (no 4K60), and while recording 4K30 the phone won't use the telephoto lens.
• The 8MP ultrawide is pretty bad — it's really only there for an occasional wide perspective shot.

Vivo X300 Ultra

The reason the X300 Ultra exists: a near-1-inch 200MP 35mm main (Sony Lytia 901), a 200MP 85mm periscope, and the best ultrawide sensor on the market, tuned with Zeiss. Reviewers near-universally rate it the best-equipped camera phone of 2026 — with two important caveats: the 35mm default is divisive, and on raw image quality it's only marginally ahead of the cheaper X300 Pro.

• At the center is a 200MP main that's nearly a 1-inch sensor (Sony Lytia 901), backed by a 200MP 85mm-equivalent periscope telephoto — the phone is focused on camera quality and, even more so, video.
• Featuring three extra-large image sensors, the X300 Ultra's uncompromising camera hardware earned a solid rating — but it's hardly better than the cheaper X300 Pro in actual camera performance despite the top-notch hardware.
• I'm not sure I've seen better results from even 1-inch sensors — it's so close to 1-inch and the 35mm focal length makes for more cinematic-looking shots; the 85mm periscope is the sweet spot for portraits.
• It still holds the record for the best portrait-mode photos on a smartphone, especially at 85mm and 135mm; the 14mm ultrawide is sharp edge to edge.

Nothing Phone (3a) Pro

The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 is upper-mid — smooth daily and well thermally managed, but raw benchmarks are weak and demanding games drop frames.

• It runs a 4nm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 with up to 12GB RAM (plus virtual RAM) and 256GB UFS 2.2 storage.
• Even under prolonged stress testing the chipset loses very little performance, with excellent thermal-throttling behaviour and no major dips.
• Nothing claims it's 33% faster in CPU, 11% in GPU and 92% better at AI tasks than the Phone 2a — ~40% better CPU / ~90% better GPU than the two-year-old Phone 2.
• Gaming holds 120fps in BGMI and 90fps in Call of Duty, but heavier titles like Asphalt run at 60fps with missing visual effects and drop to ~30–35fps in action.
• You can find ways to get the phone stuttering when moving through heavy apps or gaming, but the performance still can't be faulted for the price.
• Raw Geekbench is weak — against the Galaxy A56 the A56 wins overall (CPU/GPU/UX), with the Nothing only ahead on memory.

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.

Nothing Phone (3a) Pro

A 5,000mAh cell that's exceptionally well optimised — a day and a half of use that out-endures the Pixel 9a — with fast 50W wired charging, but no wireless charging.

• In an extreme multi-task drain test the 3a Pro lasted 9h08m, beating the Pixel 9a's 7h30m — a great improvement showing how well Nothing has optimised it.
• In regular medium-to-heavy use you can expect about 7–8 hours of screen-on time, and a day and a half with moderate use.
• 50W wired charging fully replenishes the 5,000mAh battery from zero in about 56 minutes (50% in under 20 minutes).
• At 5,000mAh it's starting to look modest against newer 6,000–7,000mAh rivals, but it's far from bad.
• There's no wireless charging and no reverse charging — and no charger in the box.
• Long-term battery health holds up unusually well — one owner reported it still at 100% after a year, a first for them.

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.