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Vivo‘s September event is currently underway, and the X500 Pro series has officially moved from weeks of leaks to a real product lineup. We’ve been tracking this launch for weeks, and much of what surfaced ahead of the event has turned out to be accurate.
The lineup includes Vivo X500 Pro and X500 Pro Max, both powered by MediaTek’s latest Dimensity 9600 Pro, along with a camera system built around a new sensor that Vivo says is the first of its kind.
Vivo X500 Pro
The smaller X500 Pro comes with a 6.36-inch display using Q11 luminescent material developed with BOE. It is a 144Hz adaptive LTPO 8T panel with hardware-level 1-nit minimum brightness, adaptive dimming, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support. The screen also has circular polarization 2.0 and SGS low blue light certification for eye protection.
The camera setup is, as always, the highlight of the X-phones. Its main camera uses the new BlueTouch 900 sensor, which Vivo claims is the first of its kind to reach a 17EV dynamic range. This should be particularly useful in difficult lighting, such as backlit portraits and sunset scenes, where phones often have to balance very bright and very dark areas in the same shot.
The sensor sits behind a Zeiss ultra-dynamic 50MP main camera with Vivo’s upgraded VCS 4.0 system, along with Zeiss T* coating and deep-absorption blue glass.
As for the telephoto, Vivo paired a BluePrint-designed lens with a 64MP Sony LYTIA 610 sensor and tuned it for an 85mm “golden” focal length. The company calls this an industry first for this type of hardware. The ultrawide uses a 50MP Samsung JN5 sensor, while for selfies, you get a 50MP Samsung JN1.
Keeping everything running is a 6,510mAh battery with support for 90W wired and 40W wireless charging. It’s the same figure as last year’s X300 Pro.
Vivo X500 Pro Max
Step up to the Pro Max and the display grows to 6.85 inches, still built on the Q11 panel but now paired with what Vivo calls the world’s first Q11 2K Zeiss Master Color Screen. It brings a custom auto-brightness strategy that Vivo developed specifically for this panel, tuned for more consistent color under changing light.
The bigger difference, though, is around the back. The X500 Pro Max features a 200MP Zeiss APO super telephoto camera using a BluePrint x Samsung HP0 sensor with a 1/1.4-inch size. It also supports hardware-level 4x ISZ lossless zoom.
Vivo is putting considerable effort into keeping moving subjects in focus at long zoom ranges. Several of its own technologies work together here, including an optical telephoto tracking system, a 60fps high-frame-rate system, the Blueprint high-refresh-rate tracking engine, and the company’s NICE algorithm engine.
If the built-in zoom isn’t enough, both the X500 Pro and Pro Max can also work with a Zeiss G2 Ultra teleconverter that provides an equivalent 400mm focal length. The rest of the X500 Pro Max’ camera setup mimics the X500 Pro.
The battery gets a major boost as well. The Pro Max packs an 8,000mAh cell while keeping the same 90W wired and 40W wireless charging support.
Dimensity 9600 Pro and AI features
Underneath both phones is MediaTek’s new Dimensity 9600 Pro. Vivo and MediaTek say the two companies worked closely on the chip rather than treating it as a standard off-the-shelf platform.
The chipset contains more than 33 billion transistors and uses a 2+3+3 all-big-core CPU design with 34.5MB of cache. It is also the first mobile chip to support LPDDR6 memory and UFS 5.0 storage.
Compared with the previous generation, MediaTek claims 17% higher single-core performance and 15% higher multi-core performance, while peak multi-core power consumption is reduced by 61%.
AI is another major part of the chip. Its NPU 1090 can run mixture-of-experts models with up to 30 billion parameters directly on the device. Vivo is using that processing power for features such as one-click highlight editing on both X500 Pro models.
Price and availability
The X500 Pro series starts at 6,499 yuan (~$1,044) in China. Here’s how the different configurations are priced:
Vivo X500 Pro
- 12GB+256GB: 6,499 yuan (~$1,044)
- 12GB+512GB: 7,499 yuan (~$1,119)
- 12GB+1TB: 8,499 yuan (~$1,268)
Vivo X500 Pro Max
- 12GB+256GB: 6,999 yuan (~$1,044)
- 12GB+512GB: 7,999 yuan (~$1,194)
- 16GB+512GB: 8,499 yuan (~$1,268)
- 12GB+1TB: 8,999 yuan (~$1,343)
- Creator’s Package, 16GB+1TB with satellite communication: 12,999 yuan (~$1,940)
Pre-orders for the X500 series are already live in China. The X500 Pro Max will go on sale on September 24 alongside the standard X500, while the X500 Pro will follow on September 29.
Meanwhile, Vivo has not yet announced international pricing or a global release date for the X500 Pro series.
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