Weekly poll: will you pick up a vivo X200, X200 Pro or X200 Pro mini

2024-10-20

Now this is a flagship trio to behold – it’s got a big camera king, it has a capable but affordable middle model and it has a mini that actually deserves its flagship moniker.

We’re talking about the vivo X200 series, of course, which went official earlier this week. vivo only announced availability for China, but it’s a safe bet that at least a couple of the X200 models will become more widely available down the road.

Let’s start with the vivo X200 Pro. With a large 200MP 1/1.4” sensor inside the 3.7x periscope (85mm), this phone promises excellent quality at high magnification settings – you can check out our hands-on review for a peek at what the camera is capable of. The 50MP 1/1.28” main camera rivals 1-inch sensor cameras, according to vivo, but it has a faster read-out speed. The ultra wide camera (119°, 15mm) has a 50MP sensor. The Pro model has a curved 6.78” LTPO OLED display and a large 6,000mAh Si/C battery with fast 90W wired and 30W wireless charging.

The vivo X200 Pro mini is almost as capable as the big Pro, but it’s a good deal smaller with a 6.31” LTPO display (a flat panel). Some would argue that it’s not a true “mini”, but we’d say that things are relative – 71.8mm wide and 187g sure does feel “mini” compared to the 76mm and 223g Pro. And it has a surprisingly large battery with 5,700mAh capacity (that Si/C tech is amazing, isn’t it?) and with the same 90W/30W charging.

The one place where the Pro mini isn’t as good as the Pro is the telephoto camera – with a 70mm lens and 50MP 1/1.95” sensor, it’s not bad, it’s just not amazing like the 200MP wonder of the Pro. Check out our hands-on review for more details.

This brings us to the vivo X200. It’s marginally smaller than the Pro with a 6.67” display (the phone is 74.8mm wide and weighs 197g). However, it is powered by the same Dimensity 9400 – currently, the most powerful chipset on the market, unless the next Snapdragon can turn things around. The main camera isn’t as capable as on the Pros, it’s a 50MP 1/1.56” unit, but you get the same tele camera as the Pro mini (the ultra wide cameras are the same on all three). And the 5,800mAh battery with 90W wired-only charging is much bigger than you would get from certain brands. For more details, check out our hands-on review.

Let’s talk pricing – we only have the Chinese price tags to work with for now, so bear in mind that the conversions are probably lower than what these phones will cost outside of China.

The vivo X200 Pro starts at CNY 5,300 ($750/€685/₹63,000) for a 12/256GB unit. The vanilla vivo X200 is cheaper at CNY 4,300 ($605/€555/₹51,000) for the same memory configuration. Finally, the vivo X200 Pro mini is in between with a CNY 4,700 price tag for the 12/256GB model ($665/€610/₹55,800).

The competition for the vivo X200 series isn’t out yet – that would be the Oppo Find X8, OnePlus 13, Xiaomi 15 and the like, eventually the Galaxy S25 too. There are the iPhones, of course, but those still use 12MP sensors in their tele lenses. And the Pixel 9 series, of course, but the Tensor G4 is miles behind the Dimensity 9400. Plus, the regional availability of Pixels is still quite limited.

With that, we head straight for the polls. The vivo X200 Pro seems like the ideal camera phone, if you like large phones. Do you have any reserves about the price, hardware or software?

The vivo X200 Pro mini packs a lot of camera for its (relatively) small size. We know some of you wish it was even smaller, but the market has been moving away from small phones for years now – even the iPhone Pro and Pixel Pro now have 6.3” screens. What do you think of the X200 Pro mini – yay or nay?

Finally, the vivo X200. This might be the boring pick, but it’s a trusty workhorse at a good price – not everyone cares about cutting edge tech. Would you be happy with the X200 or are you leaning towards another model?