Vivo X500 Camera Details Revealed Before China Launch

Vivo has started revealing the camera hardware behind its next flagship series, confirming key specs for the X500 Pro and X500 Pro Max weeks ahead of the line's official debut in China. With a September 2026 launch now locked in, the mix of official reveals and fast-multiplying leaks around the standard X500 points to a generation built around video and imaging above almost everything else.

A New Main Camera, Co-Developed With Sony

The headline feature is what Vivo calls the Zeiss Super Dynamic main camera, engineered jointly by the company's BluePrint imaging division and Sony. Vivo product manager Han Boxiao laid out the details across several Weibo posts, describing a new 50-megapixel sensor — reportedly named the BluePrint Phantom 900 — built on a large 1/1.28-inch format shared by both the X500 Pro and X500 Pro Max. Vivo is calling the sensor's dynamic range class-leading, citing a figure of 17EV, and backing it with video features aimed at mobile creators: ultra-slow-motion 4K capture, 4K HDR recording, and gimbal-level three-degree optical stabilization.

Telephoto: Where the Pro and Pro Max Split

The two higher-end models diverge once you get to the telephoto camera. The X500 Pro carries a 64-megapixel Zeiss APO telephoto built around a custom Sony LYT-610 sensor, using an unusual GG 1×1 / RB 2×2 pixel layout that Vivo says sharpens autofocus without giving up resolution. Vivo frames it as a direct successor to the periscope work it did on the X100 Pro, with a fixed 85mm-equivalent focal length, full 64MP output, and CIPA 7.0-rated stabilization. The X500 Pro Max goes further with a 200-megapixel Zeiss APO periscope camera, pairing a 1/1.4-inch BluePrint module with a large Samsung-made sensor — the same pairing Vivo used in last year's X300 Ultra. Its standout trick is hardware-based in-sensor zoom, said to deliver two stages of lossless 4x zoom, plus support for an optional 400mm telephoto extender for concerts, sports, or wildlife shots. A "Super Capture Engine" pushes digital zoom as far as 30x while aiming to keep fast-moving subjects sharp.

The Standard X500's Camera Is Still Mostly Rumor

Vivo hasn't officially detailed the base X500's cameras the way it has the Pro models — everything so far comes from leaks. Tipster Digital Chat Station, posting on Weibo, describes a triple-camera setup built around a 50MP Sony main sensor (also 1/1.28-inch, but reportedly without LOFIC), a 50MP ultrawide, and a 64MP periscope telephoto around 70mm. If accurate, that's a clear break from the X300, whose main selling point was a 200MP primary camera. Rather than chasing megapixels on every model, Vivo appears to be saving its most extreme camera hardware for the Pro Max and repositioning the standard X500 as the more accessible entry point. Leaks also point to a redesigned camera module — after generations built around Vivo's signature circular island, the X500 series is expected to move to a horizontal layout, reportedly the biggest design shift the series has made.

No X400, and a September Launch

One thing Vivo has confirmed outright: there's no X400. The company is jumping directly from the X300 generation to X500, skipping the "4" entirely — a nod to tetraphobia, the cultural avoidance of the number four across China and other parts of East Asia, where it sounds close to the word for "death." The X500, X500 Pro, and X500 Pro Max are confirmed for a September 2026 launch in China, though Vivo hasn't set an exact date, pricing, or word on markets outside China yet. A broader global rollout is expected to follow later in the year, with earlier reports pointing to an India launch around the Diwali shopping season.