For the better half of this decade, where computational photography and processing were blowing up in smartphones, it convinced me about one thing: that phones can try to match the quality of professional cameras but may never surpass them. However, Vivo changed that perception with its incredible hardware and software on its flagship X series.
I believe it is in this over reliance of computational photography by other brands that Vivo saw a golden opportunity to level up both its hardware and software game to offer an experience unparalleled. If you ask a serious mobile photography enthusiast today what phone they are carrying, or would like to carry, there's a very high chance they would own or say the Vivo X series. Here's how and why Vivo has now become the gold standard for mobile photography.
Why default ISPs weren't enough?
Most manufacturers are at the mercy of the Image Signal Processor (ISP). It's the brain of your smartphone's computational photography experience and is integrated into the System-on-Chip. Now, every Snapdragon and MediaTek processor comes with an ISP, but Vivo realised years ago that it wasn't good enough. It kick-started something extraordinary.
This is where the V-Chip series comes in, the latest being the V3+ chip found in the Vivo X300 and Vivo X300 Pro. It's Vivo's proprietary, dedicated silicon designed only for imaging. By offloading complex processing tasks and running them through its self-configured chips, the results are often something that no standard ISP has matched yet. This is also made possible with the Zeiss collaboration (which we will get to in a bit).
A good example of when you can see the V chip in action is at night. With features like Night Vision previews, the viewfinder shows you the brighter, detailed image you're about to capture, rather than a black screen. While other phones guess what the dark looks like after you press the shutter button, the V-chip helps the cameras see it before you even take the shot. Which brings us to another significant part of the puzzle.
The Zeiss partnership is beyond just marketing
It's easier for brands to slap the logo of a camera manufacturer, add some filters to make the images look a bit different and call it a day. Well, that's not the case with the Vivo-Zeiss partnership.
It's different from other smartphone camera partnerships because it involves engineering and colour science. The Zeiss T* coating helps reduce lens refractions and different-coloured orbs that sometimes ruin your images.
The coating ensures the flare and ghosting are removed, resulting in a much cleaner, higher contrast image where light sources look like light sources, not smudges. The coating also takes care of one of the most prominent issues that plagues modern-day photography – Lens Flaring, making your photos look great all the time under direct sunlight.
The best work is mostly visible in portrait modes where they aren't just background blurs but recreations of Zeiss' legendary bokeh modes Biotar, Distagon, Planar and Sonnar. Every bokeh has its own character, like swirl effect, cat's eye, which are shapes that not only introduce a bokeh but mimic professional lenses, giving images a distinct artistic signature.
These effects also flex Zeiss' involvement throughout the camera system, in both hardware and software, leaving little to no complaints for end consumers.
Micro-gimbal stabilisation is a feature sent from heaven
Optical image stabilisation is great. It shifts the lens to counteract the shake and achieve stable video footage or photos that aren't blurry. Well, Vivo takes it further with its literal micro-gimbal solution in its main cameras.
Like Apple's sensor shift technology, Vivo's camera system moves the entire sensor to compensate for movement. Vivo claims it's up to three times more effective than standard OIS, which is quite prominent in the end results. With this system, you can pretty much take handheld long exposure shots, and people will never know, as if you've taken them from a tripod.
For those unaware, a long exposure shot is when you keep your phone's electronic shutter open for as long as possible. While this helps capture as much light as possible, shaky hands can ruin the image due to micro-jitters. Vivo's gimbal-like stabilisation counters the shake effectively so that you can still capture crisp images despite having the shutter open for a long time.
Camera tuning is where it's all at
Although I dearly love my Sony A7C, one of the reasons I'd be willing to ditch the same is due to the disciplined camera tuning on the Vivo X series smartphones. For years, the "smartphone look" meant aggressive HDR, which is brightening the shadows until they reeked unnatural and sharpening the details until the subjects and the foreground looked too artificial.
Vivo, on the other hand, take a more mature approach and leans toward a more photographic look. Its textures and Zeiss' natural colour modes are a testament to its image style and tell us exactly how images need to be. Shadows needn't be brought up every time, and natural contrast is more brave. The skin tones are preserved with a richness that feels human, not processed.
Apple, Samsung and Google are making great cameras for the average user. They're reliable, consistent and easy. However, Vivo is building phones for budding photography enthusiasts and everyone who's had enough of the artificial feel of today's smartphone photos.
By combining the V-series chips with its super stable hardware, an incredibly mature colour science, and Zeiss' genuinely-impressive optical engineering, Vivo keeps proving that it's always possible to expect more from smartphone cameras. And that the beauty of an image doesn't lie in its saturated elements but in its deep shadows, strong highlights and natural colours.
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