Vivo’s X300 FE has a brand-new design and a unique telephoto extender lens. But it all comes several stops short of our expectations in our review.
Vivo’s X300 FE is priced from Rs. 79,999 for the base 12GB RAM + 256GB storage variant in India
The Vivo X200 FE was a great offering at a starting price of Rs. 54,999. The phone offered a good balance of smart design, capable performance and imaging, making it an easy pick at the lower end of India's premium smartphone segment. This year, things have changed quite a bit. The new Vivo X300 FE is priced at a substantially higher Rs. 79,999. The price tag is a bit hard to digest, given that Vivo's X300 is priced from Rs. 75,999 in India. That said, this new FE does have a new trick up its sleeve. Like the more expensive X300, X300 Pro and X300 Ultra, it also gets the optional telephoto extender lens system. There's a brand-new design and a more powerful processor as well. But the price of the optional lens, combined with its ramped-up price tag, will leave buyers confused at best.
The Vivo X300 FE gets a massive design upgrade over its predecessor. The new design, which features a sculpted 3D glass camera bump (rather than a protruding metal block) and a brand-new horizontal camera layout, looks elegant. The new camera layout also keeps your fingers from coming into contact with the rear cameras, which is vital, given that the X300 FE remains as compact as its predecessor, with dimensions nearly the same as Apple's iPhone 17.
The Vivo X300 FE's design looks stylish and feels premium
We received the Urban Olive Vivo X300 FE unit for review. Its slim design uses an aluminium frame and glass panels that are properly flat. Even the frame is flat on the sides but has smoothened and rounded edges. This, combined with its compact size, makes it very comfortable to hold. The smooth, matte finish on both surfaces makes the phone very slippery, but I'm happy that Vivo provides a colour-matched soft silicone case in the box, which offers grip and basic protection against drops.
Telephoto Extender Lens Gen 2
You will need the Telephoto Extender Gen 2 and the Telephoto Extender Accessories Set to mount the add-on lens.
The Telephoto Extender kit is a watered-down “photography kit” of sorts. I say this because, like the Vivo X300 Ultra, you don't get a grip with a battery and a lanyard (that's available with the Chinese and global kits).
This is not one “photography kit”, but two accessories that are sold separately
In the Telephoto Extender Gen 2 accessory box, you will only get the lens, which is made out of well-crafted aluminium. The Gen 2 is a lighter version of the same lens, made available for earlier models. At 153 grams, it's about 50 grams lighter than the first one, which weighed about 210 grams. With the Telephoto Extender Accessories Set, you get a toughened case with a slide-on adapter ring to mount your extender lens. This modular adapter ring component can be removed when you aren't using the lens. And this is a good idea, as the tough phone case can be used independently as a regular case. Moreover, the slide-on adapter ring for mounting the extender lens is partially made of metal and adds to the overall thickness.
Once you mount the kit case, slide the adapter ring onto it to mount the lens.
After shooting (at a safari or a concert), you can simply press the release button, twist the lens to unmount it, and slide it into your pocket after putting on the protective caps. It's worth noting that it's not possible to use the other two rear cameras with the extender lens mounted on the phone, as the lens barrel still gets in the way of the primary and ultrawide cameras. So, you have to keep mounting and unmounting the extender lens if you plan to use all three cameras.
The Vivo X300 FE has a power-efficient LTPO AMOLED panel
The Vivo X300 FE display has not got any major upgrades. It offers the same properties and features as the X200 FE, so not much has changed. It gets plenty bright outdoors and can easily be viewed in direct sunlight thanks to its high brightness. Given the higher price tag, it's not in the same league as the Xiaomi 17, which offers better colour depth at a slightly higher price. However, it does support the basics at this price point, which is Widevine L1 (for Full-HD playback resolution) and HDR10+ in third-party apps; so the visuals are crisp, vibrant and on point. Speakers sound loud, have rich audio quality (with good bass) and are immersive, making it great for watching shows and playing games. But you will have to max out the volume level to get the best sound.
Origin OS continues to appear very iOS 26-inspired but with a ton of customisation. There are some fun tricks as well. Like an interactive lockscreen (which has its own theming system), the ability to customise your interface down to the smallest details, like the shape of interface elements and some more. Also available is Origin Island, which works similarly to Apple's Dynamic Island feature. It keeps you updated about ongoing background tasks and also helps with multitasking. There are the usual AI features as well, which work on par with the competition.
OriginOS 6 looks great and works even better
Vivo is now more committed to the FE series (given its higher price tag). The company now offers 5 years of software updates and 7 years of security updates, which is much better than what was offered with the X200 FE. Indeed, such a commitment should improve buyer confidence.
Despite its premium price, the Vivo X300 FE does come with a few preinstalled apps, including Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Agoda and Sony LIV. All of these can be uninstalled if not required. Also, despite its Rs. 50K roots, I received only one spammy notification from the V-Appstore during the review.
The Vivo X300 FE does get a performance and efficiency boost after switching from MediaTek to Qualcomm silicon. The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (3nm) chipset, apart from offering good raw performance, is also backed by a sufficiently large vapour chamber cooling system for those who need sustained performance when playing games and using the camera app. The chipset is commonly found in devices with the “flagship killer” title and at a much lower price point, such as the iQOO 15R and the OnePlus 15R.
| Benchmarks | Vivo X300 FE | Vivo X300 | Xiaomi 17 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display resolution | 1.5K | 1.5K | 1.5K |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (3nm) | Dimensity 9500 (3nm) | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm) |
| AnTuTu v10 | 29,48,085 | 31,38,115 | 30,98,607 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 13,947 | 16,031 | 17,252 |
| Geekbench 6 Single | 1,537 | 3,297 | 3,486 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 5,912 | 9,372 | 10,036 |
| Geekbench AI CPU (Quantized) | 4,252 | FTR | 5,332 |
| Geekbench AI GPU (Quantized) | 1,829 | 1,686 | 2,698 |
| 3DM Wild Life | Maxed Out! | Maxed Out | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life Unlimited | 19,317 | 25,925 | 21,221 |
| 3DM Steel Nomad Light | 1,970 | 2,858 | 2,017 |
Gaming performance is pretty good, even though this device isn't really geared toward it. You can play Genshin Impact with smooth, fluid graphics at ‘High' settings, at a rock-steady 60 fps. But increasing it to the ‘Highest' graphics settings will see the frame rate occasionally drop once you have crossed half an hour of gameplay. However, this smooth 60 fps performance is only available when you toggle the phone's performance setting to ‘Boost' gaming mode. The phone cannot even manage Medium settings at 60 fps, in the standard ‘Balanced' gaming mode. Meanwhile, lighter but fast-paced FPS titles like Call of Duty: Mobile perform well even after cranking up all settings.
Daily software performance feels smooth and fluid, partly thanks to the LTPO panel. Multitasking is not an issue, and the 12GB RAM seems more than sufficient for holding apps and games in memory.
The phone does get warm while playing demanding games, but it gets hot when using the camera app. The heat is mainly felt on the display, not so much on the rear panel. After capturing photos and shooting several 4K and 8K video recordings (consecutively), the device shows stuttered visuals when recording 4K video at 120 fps. Unlike most devices that trim down video previews when under load, the video output also turned out messy because of the heat. This usually happens after the phone has gotten hot after 15 minutes of continuous use outdoors.
The Vivo X300 FE will struggle with video once the phone heats up
After shooting 4K videos back to back for about 5-7 minutes in hot morning sun (outdoors), I was also greeted with a prompt asking me to restrict the duration of 4K video recordings (which were barely 1 minute per sample to begin with), or switch to 1080p mode for longer videos. Not a good sign for those who intend to use this phone as a content creation tool!
As you can tell, the camera system strangely lacks a laser-assisted autofocus system, which is offered in competing devices and is useful when shooting in the dark. Another big compromise is the lack of HDR video recording options, given that this phone is aimed at the young “creative” crowd for content creation. Lastly, the 8-megapixel ultrawide shooter is another big miss because it isn't as capable as the other three, and given its lower sensor resolution, it cannot record video in 4K as well. At the same time, it's worth noting that the telephoto camera used here is not very different from the Sony LYT‑602 sensor used in the Vivo X300.
Vivo X300 FE ultrawide camera samples (tap images to expand)
Starting off with the weakest of them all, it's the ultrawide camera. Its output is strictly ‘ok' in perfect (or bright) lighting conditions, but very poor in low light, especially given the phone's price. It does provide that wider field of view, but it's definitely in a different league (in a bad way) compared to the other cameras on the FE. Apart from their low resolution, the images appear quite flat and lack detail and depth. There's purple fringing in the bright spots as well. Overall, I have seen better results from Google's Pixel 10a this year, which is priced a lot lower.
Vivo X300 FE primary camera samples (tap images to expand)
The primary camera gets the job done nicely! There's plenty of detail when shooting in daylight. The camera handles contrasting scenes pretty well, offering good detail in the bright spots and the shadows without any noticeable clipping. However, I noticed that photos captured around sunset, dawn or early morning do turn out a bit soft, because the camera does not take its time as it does in low-light settings. The resulting images are a bit soft, as you can see in the second image above. Low-light captures have some sharpening, show good contrast and detail. This is mainly because the exposures are far longer (1-2 seconds) in dim settings or after sunset, and the OIS/EIS system keeps up.
Vivo X300 FE telephoto camera samples (tap images to expand)
The telephoto camera captures sharp images without going overboard with the processing (provided you stick to its native 73mm focal length. There's excellent background separation, so this is the lens to choose if you want natural-looking bokeh for your subjects. This camera can also focus closer on objects up to 15 centimetres. So, extreme close-ups of people and objects (can also use Super Macro mode) come out really well. One minor niggle is the inconsistent white balance and colours. The camera system can capture the same frame with different colour tones, as can be seen in the last two images above. These colour tones at times were very different compared to the ultrawide and the primary cameras.
Vivo X300 FE 10X telephoto camera sample (tap image to expand)
10X camera samples are also usable but only in daylight, as there's too much AI-enhancing in low-light settings, even though the images appear noise-free. However, you can turn off the AI-enhancement in Camera> More settings> Photo> Smart optimisation> Super telephoto enhancement> Off/Normal/Extreme. And after this, things do improve for the better.
Telephoto Extender Gen 2
Camera samples with and without the telephoto extender Gen 2. Top: 3X telephoto camera (197mm digital AI crop), Middle: 200mm equivalent (native using extender), Bottom: 200mm equivalent (native using extender in low-light) (tap images to expand)
Apart from jutting out, making your pocket heavy and blocking access to other lenses when using it, the extender does what it claims to, which is to shoot clean and crisp photos (with more detail) at its native 200mm focal length in all types of lighting conditions. At a digitally zoomed 400mm and 600mm (with Super telephoto enhancement switched Off), the images do lose a bit of detail, but are still very usable and better than what the smartphone's built-in telephoto camera manages by itself. But you will have to keep your hand steady to capture low-light photos.
Vivo X300 FE selfie camera samples (tap images to expand)
Portrait photos from the primary camera come out sharp and clear with good detail and edge detection. Selfies from the front-facing camera appear a bit soft even in broad daylight. Edge detection isn't very accurate either, as can be seen from the samples above. In low light, images lack detail, with flat textures appearing even softer, and are not usable.
Video quality is a mixed bag. While the ultrawide camera completely misses out on the high-quality 4K resolution due to its sensor, the other cameras are also a bit of a hit or miss. The ultra-wide camera has poor and soft quality and is not really usable in daylight or low light. The primary camera and telephoto offer a good range for shooting video, especially at 4K 60 fps, maintaining a steady frame rate, with good noise-free detail and contrast. 4K 30 fps video recordings come out soft and lack detail in low-light settings. 8K video looks good in daylight but isn't as sharp as the 4K output. One detail about the video output in general is the colours, which appear a bit saturated with oversaturated blues, including the sky in the background.
The Vivo X300 FE has a bigger battery than the X300
Vivo's use of an LTPO AMOLED panel, along with a 3nm processor and a high-capacity carbon-silicon-based battery, results in some interesting battery figures. In PCMark's Work Battery Life test, which runs a bunch of tasks in a loop, the Vivo X300 FE managed a solid 26 hours and 2 minutes before the battery dropped to 20 per cent, at which point the test is programmed to end. With daily use, I easily managed a day and a half of heavy use. Casual use with no gaming and minimal camera use will extend battery life even further.
Charging speeds are impressive, and the Vivo X300 FE, unlike the previous X200 FE, also offers fast wireless charging. But the brand is unclear about when and where this proprietary dock will go on sale. Regardless, you can still settle for standard Qi charging speeds for fast charging. When plugged into the proprietary 90W charger, the device charges to 47 percent in 30 minutes and touches 98 percent in an hour, reaching a fully-charged state in 1 hour and 13 minutes, which isn't the fastest at this price point, but fast enough.
Indeed, the telephoto extender lens makes sense if you are a camera enthusiast looking for a lighter on-the-go setup instead of carrying your usual DSLR. Somehow, I don't see the casual smartphone buyer getting excited about the same, because the extender isn't a necessity but rather an expensive add-on.
Vivo seems to have taken a gamble, and the brand decided to upgrade its value-for-money FE into a high-end premium product this year. It's got a new design and a premium feature like wireless charging and the extender lens system, but everything else is pretty much where the FE was, and that's a problem.
Vivo's existing X300 packs better imaging hardware and also has its own Telephoto Extender accessory (albeit a slightly older one) and better raw performance. And between the two, the X300 is the one to pick at this price point because it offers a 200-megapixel primary camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide and a laser-assisted autofocus system. It's also currently priced lower than the X300 FE at Rs. 75,999. Lastly, there's also Oppo's Find X9, priced at Rs. 74,999 in India, which is an equally good offering to the Vivo X300, sans any photography accessories. If you are looking for a more “Pro-grade” video recording experience, you can also try the Xiaomi 17 (from Rs. 89,999), which has a very capable set of cameras for both photos and videos (save for the soft ultrawide) and a powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC.
The price hike itself will deter current X200 FE owners from upgrading to the new model until the X300 FE gets a big price cut. Its hardware, save for the processor, remains similar to the old one, so the only reason to upgrade is if you want to enjoy the capabilities of the new telephoto extender lens. But be prepared to empty your pockets for this one!
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