Vivo’s telephoto extender makes the world’s best phone camera better
When Xiaomi and Realme both rocked up to February’s Mobile World Congress with concept smartphones featuring attachable camera lenses, Vivo’s executives must have had a quiet chuckle knowing they were ready to launch the real thing just two months later.
Its flagship X200 Ultra went on sale in China a few weeks ago. Even by itself, it’s probably the best camera phone in the world right now, but it’s made even better by a unique accessory: a custom-made 2.35x telephoto extender lens, which attaches to the phone’s existing 3.7x telephoto for a total of 8.7x optical zoom, or the equivalent of a 200mm lens. It sounds (and looks) absurd, but it’s arguably a natural move for Vivo, which has built its brand around a long-running partnership with Zeiss and a growing reputation for crafting some of the best camera systems in any Android phone.
From a design standpoint, Vivo has split the difference between the two concepts I saw in Barcelona earlier this year. Realme imagined attaching full-size DSLR lenses on a phone’s existing camera, and Xiaomi pitched a custom, compact lens with its own built-in sensor that could magnetically snap onto a phone’s back.
Vivo echoed Xiaomi in cre …