Vivo X500 Ultra Tipped for 10x Zoom and a Fourth Camera

The Vivo X500 Ultra could carry a dedicated 10x optical zoom periscope, the kind of reach today’s model can only manage with a clip-on lens. Two well-followed Chinese tipsters, Digital Chat Station and Smart Pikachu, say the lens is in testing, and if it ships next to Vivo’s existing 3.7x telephoto, the phone would become the first Vivo Ultra with four cameras on the back.

There’s a catch worth flagging early. OPPO already builds a 10x camera into its rival flagship, and reviewers keep calling it the weakest lens on that phone. More reach doesn’t automatically mean a better photo, and closing that gap is what Vivo has to prove.

What the Leak Tips for Vivo’s Next Ultra

The claim started with Digital Chat Station, a Weibo tipster with a long record on unreleased Chinese phones, and got a second push from Smart Pikachu, who posted the camera detail on June 2. Both describe a 10x periscope telephoto under test for the X500 Ultra. A periscope folds the optical path sideways inside the body, which is how a thin phone fits a long lens. Neither tipster frames it as locked in, and Vivo has confirmed nothing. A test sensor can still be cut before a phone reaches shelves.

What makes the tip believable is the direction of travel. Vivo’s current Ultra tops out at 3.7x optical and leans on screw-on teleconverter lenses for anything longer, a setup the camera testing lab DXOMARK’s vivo X300 Pro camera test rates near the top of the class. Rivals have moved past the single-telephoto approach. A built-in 10x would let the phone hit long range without an accessory in your pocket.

• 10x optical zoom is the periscope reach now described as in testing for the X500 Ultra.
• 3.7x optical zoom is the longest the current Ultra manages without a clip-on lens.
• Four rear cameras would be a first for the line if the long lens joins the existing trio.

Why Would Vivo Need a Fourth Camera?

Here’s the engineering problem with a lone 10x lens. Jump straight from a wide 1x to 10x and you skip the most-used slice of the zoom dial, roughly 2x to 5x. Portraits, street shots, and most everyday telephoto frames sit in that band. A phone that covers 1x and 10x but nothing solid in the middle has to crop the main camera for those shots, and cropped detail falls apart fast.

That’s why a 10x almost has to arrive with a shorter telephoto beside it, keeping a 3x-class lens for the bread-and-butter range while the long periscope handles distant subjects. Stack those two telephotos on top of the main and ultrawide and you land at four cameras. A clean zoom ladder, wide to far, needs every rung covered.

• An ultrawide for landscapes and tight interiors, around 0.6x.
• The main 1x for everyday shots and the strongest low-light detail.
• A 3x-class telephoto for portraits and mid-range zoom.
• A 10x periscope for stages, stadiums, and far-off architecture.

The X300 Ultra Hardware Vivo Builds On

Whatever the X500 Ultra becomes, it starts from a strong base. The current X300 Ultra runs a ZEISS-tuned trio: a 200MP main on a large 1/1.12-inch sensor, a 50MP ultrawide, and the headline 200MP periscope telephoto built on a 1/1.4-inch Samsung part at 85mm. That gives the X300 Ultra two 200-megapixel sensors on one body, which is rare even among flagships.

The telephoto uses Samsung’s ISOCELL HP0, a 200-megapixel chip tuned for Vivo and paired with the company’s BlueImage processing; Samsung’s wider work on cramming 200-megapixel ISOCELL sensors into phones explains how a chip that dense fits behind a folded lens. Reviewers who shot the phone in the wild, from the early real-world look at the X300 Ultra on, broadly agree the telephoto is one of the best on any phone.

The point for the successor is simple. Vivo isn’t adding length to a weak system. It’s deciding whether to extend one of the strongest telephoto setups on the market, and a second large-sensor lens would make the rear array deeper rather than just wider.

OPPO and Huawei Already Live With the Trade-Off

Vivo wouldn’t be first to a long built-in periscope. OPPO’s Find X9 Ultra runs two of them: a 200MP 3x at 70mm and a separate 50MP unit at 230mm, the latter using a Samsung sensor OPPO calls the largest fitted to a 10x shooter, sitting behind a five-reflection prism. Huawei went another way on the Pura 80 Ultra, putting a movable prism in front of one 50MP sensor so it switches between 3.7x and 9.4x optical paths.

Vivo has a live case study next door. On the Find X9 Ultra, the long lens is the weakest camera on the back. It’s fine in bright light from roughly 8x out, where nothing shorter can compete, yet it can’t match the bigger 3x sensor beside it for detail or low-light bite. Huawei’s switching trick keeps one large sensor for both ranges, which helps consistency, as lab testing of the Pura 80 Ultra shows, though the design can only fire one focal length at a time. You can read the mechanics on Huawei’s official Pura 80 Ultra specifications.

The lesson is about sensor size, not the zoom number on the box. A 10x with a small sensor reaches far and disappoints up close on fine detail. If Vivo bolts one onto the X500 Ultra, the sensor behind it decides whether the lens is a working tool or a spec-sheet line.

Teleconverters and a Vlogging Kit Round Out the Plan

The four-camera talk isn’t the only Vivo accessory news. Smart Pikachu also says new teleconverter lenses are coming for the X500 series, the screw-on optics that push a phone’s reach even further, plus dedicated vlogging accessories. That matters because some assumed a built-in 10x might retire the clip-on lenses entirely. The tip suggests both survive.

For buyers, the split makes sense. The internal cameras cover the zoom you’d shoot daily, and the teleconverters serve the niche of extreme reach for people who want it. Keeping the accessory line alive while adding a long periscope reads as Vivo widening its photography kit, in step with its recent push on AI-driven mobile imaging, instead of swapping one approach for another.

Where the X500 Ultra Rumor Stands

For now this is a credible leak, not a spec sheet. Both tipsters have decent track records, the 10x is described as in testing, and Vivo has confirmed none of it. The X300 Ultra only went global in April, so its successor is likely months out, with Chinese flagships of this class usually landing in the back half of the year.

If the leak holds, the X500 Ultra arrives with a 3x-class telephoto and a long periscope flanking its main and ultrawide, four lenses where the current phone has three. How good that long lens looks will come down to the sensor Vivo fits behind it, and that detail hasn’t leaked yet.