vivo X500 Pro Max unboxing and hands-on

We had the pleasure of attending the vivo X500 Pro Max unveiling in China, but we're now back at HQ and can get our unboxing hats on! And boy, is there a lot to unpack here.

First, a word on the phone itself. This is vivo's latest premium flagship that sits just below the Ultra model (in theory more than in practice), and packs some truly impressive hardware.

It's got a spanking-new 2nm SoC in the Dimensity 9600 Pro, packaged with up to 16GB of RAM. It has an 8,000mAh battery inside - that's eight and three zeros, wow!

On the back, it features an impressive triple camera with a 50MP 1/1.28-inch sensor that uses LOFIC (Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor) technology that promises major dynamic range improvements, sitting behind a 24mm f/1.6 stabilized lens. Then, there's a 200MP 1/1.4-inch sensor with an 85mm f/2.7 zoom lens, and a 50MP 1/2.75-inch sensor for the 15mm f/2.0 ultrawide. That's an almost as impressive system as the one on the vivo X300 Ultra, which has the upper hand in the main and ultrawide areas!

We've currently got the non-global vivo X500 Pro Max unit, and it comes with an impressively stacked retail package. You get the phone (a 1TB model with 16 gigs of RAM, btw, memory shortage who?), a USB-A to USB-C cable, a 90W charger, and a case.

You never know; the global variant could match this unboxing experience, but it's more likely that we'll get a charger-less box.

What's in the box

In typical vivo fashion, the case is a soft rubber unit that matches the phone's color. It's a bit slippery, though, and it's known to get hard-to-clean smudges over time.

The case is protective but slippery

Now, let's look at the Creator Kit (or Photography Kit) for the vivo X500 Pro Max. It features 18 (eighteen) different accessories. The main ones are the two teleconverter (read zoom) lenses - a 2.35x (aka 200mm in 35mm equivalent terms) and a 4.7x (400mm) teleconverter. They attach to the phone via a special filter adapter, which goes with one of the two cases on offer.

One of the cases has a MagSafe-compatible magnet; the other offers a detachable grip with additional controls. There are a few camera straps, two lens collars that attach to a tripod (you get a tripod plate), and finally, you get a few filter adapters. Oh, and some replacement lens caps for the two lenses. We've seen these lenses in similar kits for the vivo X200 Ultra, the X300 Pro, and most recently for the X300 Ultra.

But there's one new accessory here - this odd little screen attachment. It's literally an external display with three buttons that's solely meant to act as a Preview accessory for your phone. It's conveniently 4:3 shaped.

You need to pair the accessory via Bluetooth to the vivo X500 Pro, but it could potentially work with other phones as well. It can fully control the cameras of the vivo X500 Pro Max, and a neat trick it has is that it continues to function even if you lock the phone!

The accessory comes with a case of its own, which also enables MagSafe.

The Preview accessory is made of metal, is very thin, and has three buttons and a USB-C port. You get a power on (and off) button, a shutter, and a button to control the screen's brightness (single press and double press for up and down).

the preview attachment

The Preview accessory fits nicely with the MagSafe-enabled case in the Creator Kit.

The preview companion in action

There's a special mode for the Preview inside the vivo X500 Pro Max' camera viewfinder.

This is the retail box of the creator kit.

X500 Pro Max Creator Kit

The vivo X500 Pro Max is currently available in China, but it's coming to Europe on October 27 (and will start selling on November 5).