For those who do not like long reading and do not want to go through my text, I have a tip. If you just want to take pictures of nature without people and don't mind the mediocre speaker quality, the phone is an ideal buy. In terms of parameters, this is an excellent phone. But if you want to take pictures of people, God forbid their faces, and you want to save your nerves and money, this text is for you: -) Competition:
I can't help but share my deep impressions of the Vivo X300 with others. First of all, I have to say that I am not a heavy user. So far I've made do with the Huawei P30, but it's still a phone that's more than five years old. The battery is getting old and the Android hasn't been up to date for a couple of years, but it's still sufficient for normal photography. I wanted something in a similar size with a diagonal of up to 6.3 inches. Most phones are a lot bigger these days. The ideal adept was the Samsung S25. Except I wouldn't get much help because Samsung doesn't innovate and just recycles the same photo chip for at least the last three series and it shows when you take pictures. I wouldn't buy a new phone just for the performance. Then there's the Google Pixel, but it doesn't undercut the price and it doesn't have the power to spare. Not to mention the battery and its quality. Google doesn't know how to do this. Then there's the Xiaomi 17 Pro. It is the only one that comes with a display on the back, a 6300 mAh battery and a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. The only downside is that it is designed for China. Or there's the Iphone with a different ecosystem. And then Vivo came along. Last year 2024 came with the X200 Pro mini. Unfortunately, it was not intended for the European market. Or i.e. the phone worked, but not for all GSM bands. In some tests, the phone was comparable to the Iphone 16 pro in terms of photography. That already sounded promising. That's why I was thrilled that Vivo came out with the X300 for the European market this year. The price wasn't undercut much, but Vivo came up with an interesting offer in the form of a buyout bonus and gifts worth several thousand. The phone is guaranteed for up to 3 years. Another plus is that Vivo offers up to a five-year warranty on the battery after registration, with the capacity not dropping below 80%. The terms and conditions say you can only use the warranty once, but it's still a great option. I'm not aware of any competitors offering anything similar.
First impression:
Normally I don't write reviews and rather wait for the first tests to appear so I don't buy a rabbit in the bag. Even the foreign tests focused only on the higher-end X300 Pro series. And the reviews were full of praise, especially for the photography. Due to the lower price valid until the end of November 2025, I didn't want to wait and unfortunately ordered the X300 in pink only. Out of the decent box, the phone looks premium and robust. It has a protective film applied to the display from the factory. The camera module is giant, but centered. I'm not sure if the back module can withstand normal pocket carry, as the manufacturer doesn't state that they used tempered glass here. It's probably not a bad thing to stick a protective glass on the photomodule, but the question is what it will do to the quality of the photos. The phone comes with a silicone case. It looks nice, but it's quite slippery in the hand. Unfortunately, the case is the same color as the phone and there aren't many other alternatives on the market yet. If you put your phone in a case in a different color, there's no way to tell it's in a pink shade. That's how I intended it, because it's strange that Vivo only offers a pink shade for our market. In other markets, the phone is available in two other shades, but more on that later. Android 16:
The phone has Android 16 operating system installed with the latest updates. Vivo has the OriginOs superstructure here, which is unified for the entire market this time. The system runs absolutely smoothly and I didn't encounter any inaccuracies in the translation anywhere, nor were there any Chinese characters. Everything was running as it should. It's also a 16 GB memory and the latest Mediatek Dimensity 9500 processor. Except for one system crash, everything ran perfectly smoothly. Like most phones, there is bloatware installed in the form of Temu, Instagram or Facebook apps. But all the apps could be uninstalled. Vivo also promises up to five system updates so great. Display:
The display is perfect and has thin bezels. There are a lot of options in the settings when it comes to eye protection. This has Vivo and similar brands (Honor, Oppo, Xiaomi. ) well done. There is also a higher PWM frequency for those who are sensitive to screen flicker. There is nothing to complain about here. Apps and games run absolutely smoothly and benchmark scores are among the highest. The phone heated up minimally even with the initial setup. It was the same when charging the battery. Vivo has taken inspiration from Apple and offers the option of a front-facing camera in addition to the so-called. of the island. However, this only worked for native apps. This is especially true of the music player. This could not be used for normal applications. I haven't tried notifications. Another plus is the lightning-fast ultrasonic fingerprint reader. It works in all circumstances. So far everything has been fine and I have been happy with the phone. Sound:
And we come to the first negative, and that is the sound system. The phone has a main speaker at the top and bottom. When holding the phone in landscape, it creates a nice stereo impression. Just don't turn the volume up to maximum, because then you'll be disappointed with the sound quality. I compared it to my year-old Huawei P30 and the X300 makes up for it with more volume at most. I still have to say that the Huawei is a bit thinner and there is still a memory card slot and an audio jack connector. Some might argue that you can't fit a quality speaker into a thinner body, but the competition shows that it is possible. Unfortunately, Vivo can't do this, and it was one of the criticisms of the higher-end X300 Pro. I'm not such an audiophile, so it wasn't a major minus for me.
Photography:
And now the most important thing, and that's taking pictures. That's why I ordered the phone. As far as photo chip parameters are concerned, you can't complain and there is the Isocell HPB chip, which promises excellent photos on paper. I'll just add that the X300 Pro has a higher quality main camera, the LYT-828, which is why this model is more expensive. The camera interface itself is full of settings. This is probably the best Vivo has worked out. The photos were perfect at first sight. The phone works well with backlight and maintains natural contrast. I tried the optical zoom and everything was great at first glance. But then I enlarged the photo and it wasn't great anymore. When zooming more than 3x, the phone no longer shoots reality, but uses AI. The edges of the objects are blurred. It is most visible on the bricks and the roof, where it is already an oil painting. Same if you shoot at a higher resolution. When shooting at 50MP there is more detail, but the photos already go through AI processing. When shooting up to 200 Mpx, the output has nothing to do with reality. If there is text in the footage, the AI will make sure that all characters are distorted. Not to knock Vivo, the latest Pixel uses this to some extent when zooming. Portraits are another stumbling block. At first glance, everything is razor sharp. But when you enlarge the photo, you will break out in a cold sweat. What Vivo is doing with the eyes is, in a word, scary. Vivo basically edits only the face out of the entire photo. This is most apparent in artificial lighting, when the photo becomes Anime. The eyes are so strangely accentuated. Especially in the iris and lower lid line, there is a thicker contour and different texture. It colors the face an artificial white shade ala Geisha style. In some photos it's basically an oil painting, but only in the face area. In China, users probably prefer these parameters, but after all, in Europe we have different preferences, and Vivo itself emphasizes that it has adapted OriginOS for the European market. I should add that I didn't shoot only in portrait mode and I turned off all beautification options in the settings. The result was similar for all modes. And that brings us to another oversight on Vivo's part, as the higher-end X300 Pro was supposed to offer the option to turn off AI when taking photos. Vivo thus justifies the higher price of the X300Pro.
This is also the focus of the YouTube channel under the profile: i-shoppers dated 6.11.2025, where it compares this phone along with the Vivo X200 FE and X100 Ultra. The Vivo X300 is the only one to visibly use AI processing when taking facial photos, and it shows in the photos at a glance. I should also point out that the Vivo X200 FE sells for about 16k and has better quality photos in this. What to add.
I didn't give up and compared the phone with the Iphone 15 Pro. That's a two-year-old phone. When shooting a macro, the photos were more or less comparable. For night photography, the Vivo clearly has the upper hand and there is more detail. And that's about all the X300 has going for it, because for daytime shooting, the Vivo is not better by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm not an Apple enthusiast. With the 15Pro, basically all the photos were real shots without AI intervention. Especially for portraits, the Iphone excelled, and I didn't shoot in RAW or set other features like I did with the X300. I want to say that even the Huawei P30 has better - more realistic photos than the Vivo X300 when shooting people. And that's a 2019 P30. That's over six years old, and I have yet to say that the rear module on the Viva is about ten times the size of the P30. This is, in a word, an incredibly wasted potential of the X300. After these impressions, I didn't even have the desire and time to test the video, which can be shot in 4K.
The front camera of the Vivo X300 has a higher resolution compared to the Iphone 15 Pro and should be more detailed according to the parameters. The quality is basically very similar and there's not much more detail and there's also AI intervention. This is all the sadder because the more expensive X300 Pro uses the same camera. I must add that I had the latest available firmware version 16.0.16.24 installed on my phone. W30, which brings security from November 2025. Otherwise, according to the changelog, Vivo hasn't even focused on camera adjustments in this update like previous updates.
To be fair to Vivo, I should point out that Vivo doesn't use AI when shooting in RAW, but I don't know who among regular users wants to edit those photos back into a regular format afterwards. Not to mention the size of one photo is at least 30 MB.
From my description, it's probably clear how excited I am about the phone. Vivo has set a nonsensical pricing policy given the parameters. If you want a compact phone under 6.3 inches and you want a quality camera, you don't have many other alternatives. Either there is the Pixel 10 Pro, which is in a similar price range, only with the difference that it will have half the memory. Or you need to wade into the waters of Apple. The 17 Pro is already under 30k. So it has half the memory, but at least you can be sure that it doesn't make things up and the residual price will be different in the future. When the X300 discount ends in December 2025 and the phone is at the full price of 27k, the purchase won't make sense at all. It's possible that Vivo will allow AI to be turned off when taking photos in the future, but the question is whether anyone wants to wait for that and essentially be a beta tester. It's a great pity, because otherwise the X300 has potential. I forgot to mention Viva's policy on battery capacity. For the European market, it has a capacity of 5255 mAh. The model sold in China has 6040 mAh. Nowadays, this is a common situation even with competitors. The funny thing is that the X300 sold in Hong Kong has a battery capacity of 6040 mAh. It has the same firmware and 5G network support as the model sold here, and it comes in three colours. I could understand if the phone was cheaper here, but the prices are comparable. For example, the competition in the form of Oppo Find X9 Pro will offer 7500 mAh battery capacity the same for all markets.
