Vivo unveiled the X500 Pro Max: You can buy a 400 mm telephoto lens and a grip with buttons for the phone

In the last few days, Vivo has been gradually teasing the specs of the upcoming X500 series, but keeping the design intentionally under wraps. That has now changed. The brand has shared an official photo for the first time showing what the flagship vivo X500 Pro Max will look like. And along with the phone, the reason why even mobile photography enthusiasts should care about it.

A circular camera module and a telephoto lens you can buy separately

As reported by the website Gizmochina, in the released photo the X500 Pro Max has a large circular camera module placed at the top of the back panel, with the back of the phone gently rising toward the lenses. This is meant to visually soften the otherwise quite prominent “bump” of the lenses. The phone will be available in at least two colors—you can see a silver-green (sage) version and an orange variant.

But the most interesting part is the pair of modular add-ons Vivo showed right next to the phone: a standalone telephoto lens with 400 mm reach and a professional photo grip with physical buttons, including a shutter button. Once attached, the phone turns into something that looks and feels like a compact camera. The very same device you normally use to take photos can be easily transformed into a tool for shooting sports, concerts, or wildlife from farther away.

According to Vivo, the smaller sibling X500 Pro will get a similar circular camera-module design, just in a more compact telephoto setup. The base model X500 is instead set apart from the duo completely. Its camera module is expected to be placed in the classic spot—on the left top corner of the back panel.

200 MPx periscope, new sensor and 8K Live streaming

Under the hood, there’s just as ambitious hardware. The main camera is set to get a new sensor jointly developed by Vivo and Sony, and sources list it under the name BluePrint 900: 50 MPx, 1/1.28″ sensor size, and LOFIC technology to suppress overexposed highlights. The periscope telephoto lens keeps the proven 200 MPx Samsung HP0 sensor (the same one we know from the Vivo X300 Ultra), this time with ZEISS APO certification and CIPA 7.0 stabilization, designed to cover zooming up to 30× as well. The X500 Pro model will get one tier lower specs: a 64 MPx telephoto lens with a Sony LYT-610 sensor and an 85 mm focal length.

Vivo is also putting a strong focus on video. The series should offer 17 EV of dynamic range, 10-bit 4:2:2 encoding with support for the ACES color space, and dedicated hardware for professional Log recording in 4K at 120 fps. There should also be a native 8K Live output and streaming on supported platforms. With specs like these, you’d normally expect professional cameras rather than a phone.

External telephoto lenses are becoming a trend

Vivo isn’t the only manufacturer betting on a detachable telephoto lens this week. A few days later, competitor Honor unveiled a similar concept for the upcoming Magic9, even with an even longer reach of up to 500 mm. It looks like modular telephoto lenses that turn a phone into a hybrid with a compact camera are becoming the new battleground for Chinese flagship makers—just like the megapixel race started a few years ago.

Vivo has official representation in Slovakia, and you can find its phones with regular retailers like Nay, Planeo, and Datacomp. However, that mainly applies to the mid-range V and Y series. The flagship X500 Pro and X500 Pro Max models are not sold officially in our market, and Slovak customers usually get them through imports—similar to other competing Chinese flagships you know from our articles.

The entire X500 series will be officially unveiled on September 21, 2026 in China. Whether and when it will also appear in the international lineup, including Europe, is something Vivo hasn’t confirmed yet. In previous generations, it usually took just a few months.

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