The camera system — twin ~1-inch 200MP main and 200MP 85mm periscope plus a large ultrawide — is the best-equipped on any 2026 phone and the entire reason the device exists.
Video is class-leading: 4K 120fps 10-bit Log with Dolby Vision recorded on-device (no SSD), 8K30 across the rear cameras, and 4K 60fps on every lens including the selfie.
Battery life is genuinely strong — roughly 16 hours active-use score, ~7h heavy screen-on time, and 13–14 hour days with charge to spare, on the 6,600mAh cell.
The Zeiss 200mm/400mm telephoto extenders deliver real, usable optical reach (8.7x and 17.4x) with surprisingly good handheld stabilisation.
100W wired charging refills the big battery in roughly 46–50 minutes, with 40W wireless on top.
Pros & Cons
Vivo X300 Ultra
Pros
The camera system — twin ~1-inch 200MP main and 200MP 85mm periscope plus a large ultrawide — is the best-equipped on any 2026 phone and the entire reason the device exists.
Video is class-leading: 4K 120fps 10-bit Log with Dolby Vision recorded on-device (no SSD), 8K30 across the rear cameras, and 4K 60fps on every lens including the selfie.
Battery life is genuinely strong — roughly 16 hours active-use score, ~7h heavy screen-on time, and 13–14 hour days with charge to spare, on the 6,600mAh cell.
The Zeiss 200mm/400mm telephoto extenders deliver real, usable optical reach (8.7x and 17.4x) with surprisingly good handheld stabilisation.
Detailed Comparison
Cameras
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.
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The 6.82-inch 144Hz LTPO AMOLED is among the best displays available, hitting ~1,900 nits in auto and ~3,300 nits peak.
Deal Breakers
The 35mm (~1.5x) default main focal length is polarising — many reviewers find it too tight/zoomed versus the usual 24mm.
It heats up quickly under sustained camera or gaming load and throttles to roughly 60–65% stability in prolonged stress tests.
The full experience needs the expensive Photography Kit — the global bundle approaches €2,600 and the 200mm lens isn't in every box.
Notebookcheck found it 'hardly better than the X300 Pro in camera performance despite top-notch hardware', and Linus preferred Oppo's less over-sharpened processing.
It launched in China first with a rocky early software state (fixed via updates), and global availability/pricing is limited and steep.
Xiaomi 17
What Reviewers Agree On
Genuinely compact flagship form factor — one of the only small phones that doesn't compromise on the chipset or battery
Exceptional battery life for the size: a 6,330mAh cell (7,000mAh China) routinely delivering 6–7 hours of screen-on time, more on lighter days
Very fast 100W wired charging — roughly 0–100% in 45–61 minutes — plus 50W wireless and 22.5W reverse wired
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is a significant performance jump over the Xiaomi 15, with strong Geekbench and AnTuTu numbers
Bright 120Hz LTPO AMOLED rated at 3,500 nits peak that stays legible in direct sunlight
Class-leading stereo speakers — repeatedly called among the best on any smartphone
Long software commitment: 5 major OS upgrades and 6 years of security patches (EOL February 2032)
Deal Breakers
The ultrawide camera is a clear downgrade — only ~17mm equivalent, poor quality, narrower field of view and still no autofocus
Inconsistent sustained performance: prolonged CPU stress and demanding games (Genshin, Honkai Star Rail) trigger heavy throttling and heat on some units
HyperOS 3 ships with bugs and missing basics (no native screen-on-time counter) and bundles ads in some proprietary apps
The global model's 6,330mAh battery is smaller than the 7,000mAh China version, and the China ROM lacks Google services out of the box
100W wired charging refills the big battery in roughly 46–50 minutes, with 40W wireless on top.
The 6.82-inch 144Hz LTPO AMOLED is among the best displays available, hitting ~1,900 nits in auto and ~3,300 nits peak.
Cons
The 35mm (~1.5x) default main focal length is polarising — many reviewers find it too tight/zoomed versus the usual 24mm.
It heats up quickly under sustained camera or gaming load and throttles to roughly 60–65% stability in prolonged stress tests.
The full experience needs the expensive Photography Kit — the global bundle approaches €2,600 and the 200mm lens isn't in every box.
Notebookcheck found it 'hardly better than the X300 Pro in camera performance despite top-notch hardware', and Linus preferred Oppo's less over-sharpened processing.
It launched in China first with a rocky early software state (fixed via updates), and global availability/pricing is limited and steep.
Xiaomi 17
Pros
Genuinely compact flagship form factor — one of the only small phones that doesn't compromise on the chipset or battery
Exceptional battery life for the size: a 6,330mAh cell (7,000mAh China) routinely delivering 6–7 hours of screen-on time, more on lighter days
Very fast 100W wired charging — roughly 0–100% in 45–61 minutes — plus 50W wireless and 22.5W reverse wired
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is a significant performance jump over the Xiaomi 15, with strong Geekbench and AnTuTu numbers
Bright 120Hz LTPO AMOLED rated at 3,500 nits peak that stays legible in direct sunlight
Class-leading stereo speakers — repeatedly called among the best on any smartphone
Long software commitment: 5 major OS upgrades and 6 years of security patches (EOL February 2032)
Cons
The ultrawide camera is a clear downgrade — only ~17mm equivalent, poor quality, narrower field of view and still no autofocus
Inconsistent sustained performance: prolonged CPU stress and demanding games (Genshin, Honkai Star Rail) trigger heavy throttling and heat on some units
HyperOS 3 ships with bugs and missing basics (no native screen-on-time counter) and bundles ads in some proprietary apps
The global model's 6,330mAh battery is smaller than the 7,000mAh China version, and the China ROM lacks Google services out of the box
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.
Comparing it directly with the Oppo Find X9 Ultra, even though the Vivo looks great at a glance you could edit the Oppo image and get better detail because the Vivo isn't all over-sharpened and crusty.
Schools the Galaxy S26 Ultra in zoom quality without an excessive camera count — shaping up to be one of the best camera phones not just for 2026 but 2027 and 2028.
The 35mm main is divisive — many feel 24mm is better for phone photography and that 35mm is too tight; cropping to 23–28mm shows a noticeable detail drop.
Xiaomi 17
A capable Leica-tuned main and telephoto pairing lets the compact 17 shoot above its class, but the ultrawide is a clear step backwards and default autofocus on people can be unreliable.
The main and zoom cameras are nothing short of excellent, though against the Vivo and Pixel 10 Pro it isn't such a clear-cut win.
The ultrawide is downgraded — poor quality, narrower field of view and still no autofocus.
The ultrawide lens is just 17mm wide, so the images aren't very wide at all.
Reviewers loved the Leica tuning on the base Xiaomi 17, even where exposure occasionally clips highlights.
The 60mm-class telephoto is good, but after a month you find yourself wishing it had more reach.
Like the Ultra, the Xiaomi 17 can struggle to focus on living subjects unless you dig into settings and enable the motion track-and-focus option, which is off by default.
Cameras haven't seen big upgrades over the previous generation.
Display
Vivo X300 Ultra
A 6.82-inch 144Hz LTPO AMOLED, now flat rather than quad-curved. Lab measurements put real brightness near 1,900 nits in auto and ~3,300 nits on a small window — among the best panels on any phone — and reviewers single out content consumption and clarity as standouts.
We measured a maximum of over 1,900 nits in auto-brightness mode and over 3,300 nits when lighting up a smaller portion of the screen.
Consuming content, scrolling the web, pixel-peeping and zooming in on text — it doesn't get any clearer, or with the 144Hz any smoother, than the display on the X300 Ultra.
It delivers an excellent max brightness of around 1,935 nits with a 75% white pattern and a peak of 3,328 nits with a 10% pattern.
Vivo has gone with a flat display this time, a clear shift from the quad-curved style of the X200 Ultra.
It's a 6.82-inch AMOLED with a claimed 4,500-nit HDR peak that can reach that figure in a one-person window watching HDR content; PWM sits around 3.5% at max brightness, better for flicker-sensitive users.
An absolutely stunning display with terrific, bass-heavy stereo speakers to match.
Xiaomi 17
A compact 120Hz LTPO AMOLED that punches well above its size for outdoor brightness, though it uses a different (lower) pixel arrangement than the Pro Max and measured full-screen brightness is well under the headline figure.
The display is as good as it can get on a compact flagship — high-res, vibrant and as bright as 3,500 nits peak.
Measured over 1,000 nits in auto mode and over 3,400 nits on a smaller patch — more than enough for good legibility outdoors.
In controlled testing, manual full-screen white brightness reached only around 1,100 nits — far below the 3,500-nit peak headline figure.
The standard model's screen doesn't use the new pixel arrangement found in the Pro Max version, though it still holds certain advantages.
Peak brightness of up to 3,500 nits keeps everything clearly visible even in direct sunlight.
Performance
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.
Xiaomi 17
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 makes the 17 one of the fastest compact phones around, but sustained-load behaviour is the single most contested topic in the coverage.
Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 on a 3nm process, claiming ~20% better CPU performance and ~35% better battery efficiency than the previous generation, with a Geekbench 6 single-core score of 3,367 and multi-core of 9,830.
If you look at benchmark scores, it is a significant upgrade over the 8 Elite that powered the Xiaomi 15.
After a month it still feels just as snappy as day one, with high-end titles running at top settings and sustained performance over long sessions holding up well.
In a prolonged CPU stress test the Xiaomi 17 did worse than expected, dipping to less than 40% of maximum and spiking continuously rather than holding stable.
In Honkai Star Rail the Xiaomi 17 began throttling after about 3 minutes of gameplay, with the device becoming extremely hot to the touch.
Battery & Charging
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.
Xiaomi 17
The headline reason to buy a compact 17: an oversized silicon-anode battery and very fast charging that together solve the usual small-phone endurance problem.
The massive 6,330mAh battery is truly exceptional for a compact flagship (the China version is 7,000mAh).
You can get a full day of use, up to ~7 hours of screen-on time and sometimes more depending on usage.
In a one-month real-world test, 6–7 hours of screen-on time on regular days was normal, dropping to 5–6 hours on heavy days, with up to ~16 hours in benchmark testing.
Reached close to 9–10 hours of screen-on time on regular use — a genuine full-day battery phone — with 100W wired and 50W wireless charging faster than the iPhone 17 or Galaxy S26.
100W charging takes the 6,330mAh battery from 0–100% in as little as 45–46 minutes.
