Sony Xperia 1 VI vs Vivo X300 Ultra

Sony Xperia 1 VI

A triple system — 48MP main, a unique continuous 85–170mm zoom telephoto with 120mm telemacro, and a 12MP ultrawide. Strong in good light with Sony's no-over-processing look and pro controls; weaker at night and for macro.

• 48MP f/1.9 24mm main (1/1.35"), a 12MP telephoto with stepless 3.5x–7.1x (85–170mm) optical zoom and 4cm telemacro at 120mm, plus a 12MP 16mm ultrawide.
• The longer zoom reach is the highlight — stepless 3.5x (85mm) to 7.1x (170mm), up from 3.5x–5.2x on the Xperia 1 V; telephoto photos are excellent in good light with great dynamic range and accurate colors.
• Sony's lack of the extreme processing you'd find on Pixel or Samsung — combined with a now-capable easy automatic mode — produces brilliant, natural results without forcing manual mode.
• Notebookcheck rated it one of the two best camera smartphones (alongside the OnePlus 13) for travel photography.
• Night photography is a weak point — cameras struggle to focus, results are often grainy or noisy, and Sony's algorithms don't fully kill handheld motion blur.
• Telemacro shots need a tripod and still subject — the camera relies on manual focus with focus peaking, so handheld macro is difficult.
• All lenses can shoot 4K up to 120fps, with real-time eye autofocus and pro-level manual controls — a videographer's toolkit.

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.

Sony Xperia 1 VI

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with 12GB RAM delivers flagship performance that stays snappy, and — unusually for older Xperias — the VI runs cool rather than hot under load.

• Flagship performance — Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with 12GB RAM and microSD expansion up to 2TB.
• Unlike the notoriously hot Mark III/V, the Xperia 1 VI 'doesn't really feel like it's getting toasty at all' under sustained use.
• Handles even the highest-quality games without struggle unless pushed beyond 15–20 minutes of continuous play.

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.

Sony Xperia 1 VI

The standout: the same 5,000mAh cell now lasts dramatically longer thanks to the FHD+ panel — most reviewers reach two days, some a third. Charging is modest at 30W (~80–90 min to full).

• Advertised as a two-day battery despite 5,000mAh — on light use it stretched to the end of a third day, only needing a charge on morning four.
• ~17h20m of PCMark screen-on time, typically rounding into the night with ~30% left — very good going.
• 30W wired gives a full charge in ~80 minutes and ~50–54% in half an hour; an 80% charge limit is available to protect long-term battery health.
• GSMArena: a 30-minute charge replenished 50% and a full 0% charge took around 90 minutes — Sony shaved a few minutes off the Xperia 1 V despite unchanged hardware.
• Dissenting datapoint: one reviewer couldn't reach a second day even with light usage — real-world endurance varies with workload.

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.