The Ultra does have a 200-megapixel camera after all – just not that one

It has been confirmed that one of the Ultra phones incoming has a brand new 200-megapixel sensor from Sony. The sensor is question is the Sony Lytia 901 and the phone is the Vivo X300 Ultra.

Vivo so far hasn't really told us anything about the Vivo X300 Ultra, except to confirm that this phone will be going global for the first time – as revealed at MWC 2026 – while also showing off that it will have a pro-style camera rig.

However, Han Boxiao, product manager at Vivo, has taken to Weibo to share a few more details about the camera in question (via Android Authority), revealing that it will be the first to use the Sony Lytia 901.

This sensor offers a 1/1.12in format with 200-megapixels of resolution on a stacked CMOS image sensor. It's also going to come with a 35mm lens, rather than the wider 23 or 24mm that's common on smartphones.

That's often preferred for street photography and portraiture, but won't be as wide as a typical device, so it's an interesting choice. Vivo says that the combination of new sensor and lens will increase the surface area by over 30% (although it doesn't say what that's compared to), so lower light shooting should get better.

The Vivo X300 Ultra will also flaunt advanced stabilisation, so it should make for a great shooting experience.

X300 Ultra: vivo’s Cinematic Vision at MWC 2026 - YouTube

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But that's not all: Vivo gave us a glimpse of the camera system with an additional telephoto extender making it 17.3x optical. This is something we saw before on the X200 Ultra and there's part of me that just thinks that if you're going that far, you might as well get a big camera with a big lens and enjoy all the advantages of a much larger sensor and a lot more glass.

But then there are advantages to using a phone, which is the computing platform that it sits on: you can edit, share and manipulate images in a phone that you can't do with a camera. Once done, you can slip it in your pocket and walk off, while real cameras are still bulky.

We're going to see a lot of Ultra phones over the next couple of months. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra (the mainstream Ultra) has just been launched, as has the Xiaomi 17 Ultra. We've got the Oppo Find X9 Ultra to come (confirmed for global launch), and the Vivo X300 Ultra joining the party too.

It's a huge spread of phones offering ridiculously powerful camera systems. The question is whether you'll buy one, or just stick with the iPhone 17e.