Introduction:
Viva has come out with a new camera-centric flagship, the Viva X100 Pro. What sorts of cutting-edge features do you get here, and could this be your next camera phone? I'm Will for GSM Marina, and let's find out in our Viva X100 Pro review. The Viva X100 Pro is one of the first phones to come out with the specs of a 2024 flagship.
It has a next-gen chipset, a top-class display, and an impressive camera setup. This setup features a main cam with a large 1-inch type sensor, an innovative periscope zoom, and an autofocusing ultra-wide cam. The cameras are a unique part of the design too. The huge two-step camera bump gives the impression that you're holding a standalone camera.
Our unit is in black with an etched glass back, which curves into an aluminum frame. The phone is on the large side, and it's overall a bit slippery. The phone is IP68 rated too, so if you do drop it into water, it should be able to survive. On the front, the X100 Pro rocks a slightly curved 6.78-inch LPO OLED display. It has a 120 Hz refresh rate and a high resolution that makes for a sharp pixel density of 452 PPI. You also get support for HDR10+ video and 10-bit color depth.
The contrast is great, and so is the color accuracy. The brightness is also excellent here; we measured over 570 nits maximum with the manual slider, which can boost to nearly 1,500 nits in auto mode when in bright sun. Being an LPO panel, its refresh rate is continuously adaptive. You get 120 Hz to smooth out your swiping, and then it dials down as low as 1 Hz when idling to save energy.
For audio, the Viva X100 Pro has a pair of stereo speakers. They have very good loudness, and the sound quality is solid and well-balanced. You can check out for yourself with the provided link. You can wake up and unlock the phone using the optical under-display fingerprint reader.
It's speedy and reliable, but we wish the placement of the reader was a bit higher up. The Viva X100 Pro can come with 256 GB, 512 GB, or 1 TB of UFS 4.0 storage. The interface of the phone is Viva's Fun touch OS 4 running on top of the latest Android 14. There are some differences compared to stock Android. For example, in the recent apps' menu, you can choose between a carousel or a tiles' layout. There are a bunch of options to customize the looks and animations of the interface.
Holding the volume down key can be used as a shortcut to launch apps or do a certain task. There's an ultra-game mode available, and it even has an in-game overlay like you'd find on dedicated gaming phones. Since the Viva X100 Pro has an IR blaster, you can use it to control appliances with it. We only recently got our hands on next year's flagship chipset from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon hn3 in the IQ2, and now we get a taste of the MediaTek equivalent in the Viva X100.
Basic:
It packs a MediaTek Dimension 9300, which is meant to be significantly more powerful than the previous generation as well as more power efficient. In benchmarks, the Viva X100 Pro outperforms 2023 flagships running on a Snapdragon hn2—that's by 20 to 30% in graphics tests and up to 40% in CPU tests.
The Viva X100 Pro is neck and neck with the IQ2, by the way. The performance is every bit next-gen and some of the best you can get right now. The thermal management is quite good too; in our prolonged CPU stress test, the Viva X100 Pro demonstrated great stability. There was thermal throttling during the GPU stress test, but it was still better than many other flagships.
Another upgrade from the previous model is a bigger battery capacity, from 4,870 mAh to 5,400. 5,400 is more than most other phones out there, and the battery life is also very competitive. The Viva X100 Pro earned a great active use score of 13 hours and 53 minutes. The charging speed is quite impressive here, thanks to the 100W charging and the 120W adapter that comes in the box with it. We were able to charge the phone from 0 to 60% in 15 minutes, and a full charge took 31 minutes.
Now on to the cameras, which include something special. The 100mm periscope telephoto has a floating lens; it lets you focus on close-up subjects as well as those that are far away. Besides the zoom, you also get the main camera with a 1-inch type AMX 989 sensor and an ultra-wide cam with autofocus. All three of these cameras have a 50-megapixel resolution.
During the day, the X100 Pro captures superb photos with this main camera. They come out at 12.5 megapixels, and they have abundant detail with a likable, natural rendition. Colors are vibrant, and the dynamic range is excellent. You also get a rather shallow depth of field here, which allows for some natural bokeh in the background.
Two times digital zoom from the main camera is actually excellent, rivaling a dedicated two-times telephoto. The detail level is fantastic, and there's no uptick in noise. There are plenty of options when it comes to portrait mode; you get the choice of five focal lengths—24, 35, 50, or 85mm coming from the main camera and 100mm sourced from the telephoto cam.
There are several Mass-labeled blur styles that mimic the look of certain lenses, and these are all quite solid. In low light, the main camera captures great photos. The exposure and dynamic range are excellent, with well-developed tonal extremes. The auto white balance handles mixed lighting with no issue, and colors remain vibrant. Detail is great, though there's a hint of aggressive sharpening in some.
Pro scenes 4K videos from the main cam have excellent dynamic range and great contrast. The colors are expressive, and detail is good. There's also support for 8K capture at 30 FPS, and it does actually capture some more detail, which you can notice in things like signs and text. When recording in low light, the main camera's performance remains strong. Scenes look bright and lively with very good detail. The dynamic range is good but not quite as good as the still photos.
There is always on electronic stabilization in all modes on all cameras, and it does a good job with the main cam. There is some leftover shakiness when recording with the zoom camera, though. Speaking of the telephoto cam, It's still photos are stellar. It provides 100mm equivalent or 4.3 times optical zoom, and the images are nicely detailed with natural-looking textures. Colors are lively, and dynamic range is excellent.
There's no noise either, and when you zoom further at 10 times zoom, the results are still very good. This telephoto cam's close-up shooting capabilities are remarkable, too. Even without the macro mode on, you get very good magnification and excellent detail. There's also a shallow depth of field and nice separation between the subject and background. If you turn on the macro mode and enable the bokeh, you can further enhance that separation.
It will work better with some subject-in-background combos than others, and you can play with it to get some extreme results. At night, the telephoto cam shots have balanced exposures and wide dynamic range. The detail level is good too. The lens has an astigmatism, which causes a streaky effect in light sources. Strangely, if you disable the automatic night mode or enable the dedicated night mode, you'll get aggressive sharpening. Viva calls its auto night mode "dim light," and better leave it on for a more natural look. The telephoto does a great job with video capture as well.
4K clips are looking nice and sharp with excellent colors and dynamic range. There's virtually no difference between 30 FPS and 60 FPS, either. Now let's talk about the ultra-wide. Its photos have good detail and noise performance, great looking colors, and nicely wide dynamic range. However, the field of view of this ultra-wide camera actually isn't that wide.
At night, with auto night mode, the ultra-wide takes well-exposed shots with nicely developed shadows and well-preserved highlights. Colors are well-saturated, too. The ultra-wide cam's 4K video recording doesn't disappoint. The dynamic range is very good, there's nice contrast, and the colors are on point. Selfies come from the 32 MP front-facing cam. If the lighting is good, the selfies come out with excellent detail. In dimmer light, you get a less pleasant, aggressively sharpened rendition. So that's the Viva X100 Pro. It's an excellent flagship, and it gives.
Conclusion:
In the smartphone world in 2024, you get the next-gen chipset, a top-of-the-line display, and a one-of-a-kind camera system, and the rest of the package is solid as well.
Sure, the ultra-wide could be wider and the uninspiring selfie cam can only record 1080p video, but besides that, there's not much to complain about here.
If you're looking for a top-class camera phone, the Viva X100 Pro deserves a recommendation. Thanks for watching, guys.
If you're looking for an alternative camera phone, one option could be the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, or if the chipset is important to you, you can check out our review of the into 2. Let us know what you think, and I'll see you on the next one.
