Vivo X500 Ultra Leak: Vivo’s next camera flagship is still very much a work in progress behind closed doors. A fresh leak suggests the company hasn’t locked in its telephoto hardware for the X500 Ultra yet, and is instead running three different 200-megapixel periscope sensors through testing before deciding which one makes the final cut.
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What the Leak Claims
According to tipster Digital Chat Station, a reliably sourced leaker for Chinese phone hardware, Vivo’s engineering team is currently evaluating three periscope telephoto sensors of different physical sizes.
| Sensor Size | Approach |
|---|---|
| 1/1.12-inch | Larger, more aggressive telephoto performance |
| 1/1.3-inch | Balanced middle option |
| 1/1.4-inch | Smaller, more balanced trade-off |
The trade-off at play is a familiar one in smartphone camera engineering: a bigger sensor gathers more light and generally performs better at long focal lengths, but it also demands a larger, more complex camera module, which pushes back against phone thickness and design. The smaller options sacrifice some of that telephoto headroom in exchange for a slimmer, more manageable build.
This Isn’t the First Camera Rethink for the X500 Ultra
This leak builds on an earlier report from June, which claimed Vivo had scrapped plans for a dedicated 10x periscope camera on the X500 Ultra entirely. At the time, Digital Chat Station said Vivo cancelled a 10x telephoto prototype and pivoted instead toward a single 200MP periscope sensor paired with in-sensor zoom technology to cover the telephoto range digitally rather than through dedicated optical hardware. Together, the two leaks paint a picture of a camera system still very much in flux, with Vivo weighing sensor size, cost, and design constraints against each other well ahead of any final decision.
This kind of iterative, still-undecided hardware testing isn’t unusual for a flagship this far from launch, and it echoes the same pre-launch uncertainty we’ve tracked in our coverage of the Realme C100x and other recent camera-focused launches and the broader wave of 200MP sensor adoption across China’s flagship camera phones this year.
When’s the Actual Launch?
Don’t expect this one soon. The X500 Ultra is unlikely to arrive in 2026 at all, with a first-half 2027 launch expected for both China and global markets, following Vivo’s usual X Ultra release cadence. That gives Vivo plenty of runway to keep testing hardware before anything is finalised.
The Takeaway
Nothing about the X500 Ultra’s camera system is locked in yet, and this leak, however credible the source, is really a snapshot of an ongoing engineering decision rather than a confirmed spec. With a launch still roughly a year out, expect the sensor story to keep shifting before Vivo settles on a final configuration.
