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The Xiaomi 17 Pro series has its whole identity built around the rear screen, and its successor is following in its footsteps. The Vivo X500 series, which launched yesterday, skips that hardware entirely. But for folks who want it, the company has a workaround: a clip-on accessory called the Vivo Camera Screen.
Vivo unveiled the Camera Screen alongside the X500 series, pricing it at 699 yuan (~ $105), with a first-sale discount bringing it down to 599 yuan (~ $90). You’ll be able to buy it starting September 24, and it works across the entire X500 lineup.
Vivo Camera Screen Specifications
The screen itself is a 3.92-inch AMOLED touchscreen running at 419 PPI. The body is slim too, measuring 5.65mm and weighing 68g. The accessory connects wirelessly and has a working range of up to 10m.
Magnetic attachment means you snap it on and off without cases or adapters getting in the way. Vivo built six camera modes into the Camera Screen, covering short-video capture, audio recording, unboxing-style product shots, and shots from awkward angles where you can’t easily see your phone’s main display.
What’s thoughtful is that Vivo has adapted the software to mimic the phone’s native camera interface, so switching modes should feel right at home.
The approach here is different from what Xiaomi did with the 18 Pro. Xiaomi committed to a rear panel as a fixed part of the phone, wired in from the factory and running its own set of interactive features. Vivo went the other direction, keeping the X500 series itself unchanged and offering the display as something you buy separately if you actually want it.
Whether that’s the better call depends on what you use your phone for. If you rarely shoot selfies or vlogs with the rear camera, you save nothing by paying for hardware built into every unit, as Xiaomi’s buyers do. If you do shoot that way often, an accessory you can leave off most of the time and pay extra for only when you need it might make more sense than a screen permanently welded to your camera module.
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