Heres the upgrade to my favorite phone camera of last year

Vivo rarely has a presence at MWC, but this year it bucked that trend in a big way, with the reveal of its next flagship phone, the X300 Ultra, alongside an upgraded telephoto extender lens and professional camera cage. The company isn’t ready to launch the handset just yet — or even reveal very many of its specs — but gave us an early look at what it’s cooking up; that smartphone-sized 400mm lens is wild to behold in person. Vivo also confirmed that whenever it does arrive, it will be the first Ultra to go on sale outside China.

The only concrete detail about the X300 Ultra itself Vivo would confirm is that it will have a 200-megapixel telephoto camera. That was true of last year’s X200 Ultra too though, so we’re still waiting to find out what upgrades Vivo has in store from my favorite phone camera of last year.

The 200-megapixel sensor will apparently be taken full advantage of by the new Telephoto Extender Gen2 Ultra, an optional lens that will strap onto the phone’s rear. Telephoto extenders have proved popular with manufacturers since Vivo introduced one with the X200 Ultra, also supported on the X300 and X300 Pro, with copycats launched by both Oppo and Honor. Vivo is now upping the ante by jumping from a 200mm equivalent focal length up to 400mm in a lens co-engineered with long-term camera partner Zeiss.

It’s clearly thicker and heftier than the first-gen extender, but otherwise looks similar. It’s joined by a redesigned camera grip case which appears to have picked up a few additional buttons and controls. Look closely and you’ll also spot that the case no longer has a cut-out for the touch-sensitive shutter button found on the side of the X200 Ultra, hinting that it’s been removed from the phone itself — something we confirmed during an in-person session with the phone at MWC.

The telephoto will be joined by an entirely new accessory, a “pro-grade” camera cage, a collaboration with phone photography accessory manufacturer SmallRig. In a press release Vivo says the cage will include an “array of cold shoe mounts and quick-release ports,” together with physical buttons for shutter and zoom controls, and a dedicated cooling fan for intense video shoots. It’s a sign that Vivo’s ready to pitch the X300 Ultra not only as a device for photography enthusiasts, but as a true productivity tool for professional photographers and videographers.

While previous Vivo Ultra phones have been exclusive to China, the X300 Ultra has been promised a release “in global markets” some time later this year. It remains to be seen how widespread that release will truly be — it’s almost certain not to include the US, and Vivo’s patchy history of European releases makes that a question mark too — though Vivo executives we talked to insist that Europe won’t be left out this time.

“It’s for professional video creators” seems to be the inevitable endpoint for any smartphone camera innovation, so it’s not a huge surprise to see Vivo take this turn with its camera-focused phone. We weren’t permitted to take any photos with it, but we were able to hold the video setup to marvel at how light it is. And yeah, it’s light, compared a full-sized camera rig. In any case, you gotta hand it to MWC — it’s really coming through with the weird phones.

Update, March 2nd: Added additional details learned at the MWC show along with hands-on impressions.