The three Chinese ‘Ultra’ phones that should worry | Tech News

Cast an eye round your prepare carriage or native high avenue, and chances are high the smartphones you’ll see glued to most people’s fingers are made by Apple or Samsung. The establishment is robust with these two manufacturers, however there may be a lot more selection – and real innovation – when you look past the norm.

It’s true to an extent that smartphone cameras haven’t improved a lot over the previous few years, however that argument solely actually holds up once you have a look at Apple and Samsung.

Samsung’s Galaxy S26, launched this yr, has wonderful triple cameras, however the {hardware} itself is insultingly just like the S22 that got here out in 2022.

And whereas the iPhone 17 can take great photos, they don’t look that a lot better than the iPhone 16, and even the iPhone 14 in lots of eventualities.

But there are three Chinese corporations making Android phones that have demonstrably higher cameras than even the best Apple and Samsung can muster in 2026. All three corporations have taken to giving their best digicam phones ‘Ultra’ names, that includes three or 4 excellent lenses, large sensor sizes, and refined computational processing.

I’ve been testing out the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Oppo Find X9 Ultra and Vivo X300 Ultra, and every has more completed digicam systems than the newest iPhone and Galaxy rivals. This is essentially down to superior digicam {hardware}, more considerate processing, and inventive partnerships with precise digicam corporations.

I gained’t make you learn to the tip: the Vivo X300 Ultra has the best cameras of any telephone I’ve ever examined, and I’ve examined smartphones professionally for a decade. The important sensor’s trick is to be set at 35mm equal focal size, which is more zoomed in than the same old 24mm that is customary on many different smartphones. It makes the expertise really feel more like capturing with a DSLR.

This, mixed with the unimaginable sensor high quality and tasteful processing, makes for an astonishing telephone digicam. Vivo’s Zeiss partnership is alive and kicking, with crisp, colourfully wealthy photos in auto mode, and a plethora of granular options, together with tasteful movie filters, great portrait mode and an completed, creativity-boosting avenue images mode.

The Xiaomi is available in a very close second (I absolutely reviewed it right here) due to a 1-inch sensor, the biggest of all three phones, and a assured Leica tie-in. It appears blasphemous to rank the Oppo as third best right here, as its digicam continues to be head and shoulders higher than any telephone on the market different than the Vivo and Xiaomi. But I discovered its image processing the least tasteful, although it’s the one model with a 10x optical telephoto lens.

Of course, cameras aren’t all the things. On software program and precise smartphone expertise, the Oppo is the best of the three. Vivo’s software program is apparent and unexciting, but it surely a minimum of doesn’t wholesale copy Apple’s iOS, which is what’s most off-putting concerning the Xiaomi, the telephone that additionally has the worst battery life of the three – although it nonetheless comfortably final more than a day.

So, how has Vivo created such a fantastic telephone digicam? It appears to be down to year-on-year refinement, however with noticeable good points. Where Samsung lobs the identical {hardware} on its phones a number of years in a row and calls it a day, Vivo has upped its sport even in comparison with 2025’s X300 Pro.

The newer Ultra model has a noticeably higher deal with the 200MP important sensor, leaving me with fewer blurred photographs in low gentle. The default ‘vivid’ filter can be good, however there are a number of more to select from that add great selection to photographs, together with a Zeiss-tuned ‘natural’ mode and one that eerily reproduces the look of a traditional Polaroid.

Here are some of my favourites, linked within the beneath hyperlinks so you’ll be able to view them at full decision (hyperlinks open in new home windows):

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Viewed by the telephone’s mammoth 6.82-inch OLED is a great solution to take pictures, although just like the Xiaomi there’s no shutter button on the telephone’s edge – solely the Oppo opts for this. But the Vivo’s 200MP 85mm periscope telephoto at 3.7x optical zoom and 50MP ultrawide are stunningly constant, and as a telephone it feels essentially the most steady to shoot with between all three lenses.

Digital zoom is nice enough on the telephoto that I barely seen the benefit of having the 10x optical zoom on the Oppo, although when you pixel peep, that lens does take the crispest photographs at 10x. Photos from the principle lens are extremely crisp and dial up the dynamic vary for a very competent however barely much less natural look in comparison with the Vivo. It’s additionally glorious in low gentle, and the XPan mode, which simulates the 65:24 ultra-wide panoramic facet ratio of a traditional Hasselblad digicam, may be very enjoyable to make use of.

Xiaomi goes in a little more durable on its aesthetics, with many pictures moody and film-like. It’s additionally the nicest {hardware} design of the three, being essentially the most curved and nice to carry. All three phones have large, mandatory round digicam bumps, and the Oppo’s has an odd hexagonal look. It is a minimum of slimmer than the Vivo’s bump, which is virtually as thick because the telephone itself.

But Vivo packs essentially the most pleasing cameras, and it’s the one I’ve loved utilizing essentially the most. A disgrace, then, that it’s solely obtainable to import from Europe. An extra disgrace is that it prices a staggering €1,999 (£1,749). That’s an astronomical price, whereas the Oppo prices a whopping £1,449, the Xiaomi a relative cut price at £1,299.

It’s laborious to interrupt away from the established order, and when it prices this a lot to go away Apple and Samsung behind, maybe you gained’t be satisfied. But when you do make the leap, take it from me – the pictures you are taking will look so a lot better than these taken together with your present telephone.