vivo X500, X500 Pro and X500 Pro Max hands-on review

vivo X500 Pro Max hands-on and hardware overview

Attending the Chinese launch of the trio earlier today, we spent most of our time with the vivo X500 Pro Max, and it's the largest handset of the three, featuring a 6.85-inch LTPO OLED display, protected by an Armor Glass sheet. Zeiss had a say in the display as well, not just the cameras. The company and vivo worked on calibrating the display, hence why it's marketed as Zeiss Master Color Display. It promises 4,400 nits peak brightness.

The design itself is somewhat familiar - relatively flat back and a big camera bump that houses all the hardware. The interesting bit about this year's design is that the back isn't completely flat, it's actually slightly sloped toward the camera bump. It's reminiscent of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra from back in the days, but this bump here is considerably more subtle.

The back material is AG glass, if you go for the White, Orange and Gray colors, while the Black colorway features a glass-fiber reinforced plastic, which manufacturers like to call "fiberglass" or "glass fiber." The frame is made of aluminum alloy.

IP68/IP69 rated ingress protection is in place just like last year.

But what makes the vivo X500 Pro Max tick? Similarly to last year's X300 Pro, this one rocks the latest and greatest from MediaTek. The Dimensity 9600 Pro chipset sits behind the wheel paired with 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB storage, with 256GB being the default configuration.

The whole system draws power from a 7,800 mAh battery, if you are situated outside of China, and 8,000 mAh if you get your hands on a Chinese unit. The battery supports 90W wired charging and 40W wireless charging if you pair the phone with compatible vivo proprietary chargers.

The camera system is what sets the Pro Max apart. The device debuts Sony's 50MP Lytia 910 sensor capable of 100dB dynamic range and 60fps autofocus tracking while recording videos. The 1/1.28" sensor is paired with an f/1.6 aperture and 3° Gimbal-Grade OIS for smooth video recording. Vivo is particularly proud to offer this sensor on its phones since the two companies worked on developing the imaging hardware.

The main snapper is flanked by a familiar Samsung 200MP f/1.4" sensor, and the lens offers an f/2.7 aperture. When it comes to stabilization, the telephoto camera isn't left out. It boasts CIPA 7.0 Professional Stabilization. The focal length is reported as 85mm, which works up to 3.5x optical zoom, considering the 24mm focal length on the main camera.

The ultrawide snapper has been ported directly from the vivo X300 Pro last year - 50MP, f/2.0, 1/2.75" with 15mm focal length.

Lastly, the Pro Max boasts an array of four microphones for audio and video recording, while the rest of the X500 lineup settles for three mics.

All in all, going for the Pro Max instead of the Pro, for example, gives you a substantially bigger battery, better telephoto camera, a bigger screen (obviously) and a few other niche camera features, which we cover on the next pages.