Vivo showcased the X500 Pro Max: with the phone, you can add a 400 mm telephoto lens and a grip with buttons

In the last few days, Vivo has been gradually teasing the specifications of the upcoming X500 series, but kept the design intentionally under wraps. That has now changed — the brand has released an official image for the first time showing how the flagship will look vivo X500 Pro Max. And right alongside the phone, the reason why even mobile photography enthusiasts should care.

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

As Gizmochina reported, in the posted photo the X500 Pro Max features a large circular camera module placed at the top of the rear panel, while the back of the phone curves slightly upward toward the lenses — this is meant to visually soften the otherwise pronounced “bump” of the lenses. The phone should be available in at least two colors: we’ve seen a silver-green (sage) and an orange version.

But the most interesting part is a pair of modular accessories that Vivo showed right next to the phone: a standalone 400mm telephoto lens and a pro-grade photography grip with physical buttons, including a shutter button. Once attached, the phone turns into something that — in both look and controls — feels like a compact camera. The same device you normally use to shoot 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 feature a similar circular camera-module design, just in a more compact body. The standard X500 model, however, will be completely different from the two siblings — its camera module is expected to be placed in the usual spot in the top-left corner of the rear panel.

200 MPx periscope, a new sensor, and 8K live streaming

Under the hood, there’s the same ambitious lineup. The main camera will get a new sensor co-developed by Vivo and Sony, which in sources appears as BluePrint 900 — 50 MPx, 1/1.28″ sensor size, and LOFIC technology to reduce blown-out 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, aimed at covering zoom up to 30×. The X500 Pro will get a step-down set of specs — a 64 MPx telephoto lens with a Sony LYT-610 sensor and an 85 mm focal length.

Vivo is also heavily focusing on video — the series should deliver 17 EV of dynamic range, 10-bit 4:2:2 encoding with support for the ACES color space, plus dedicated hardware for professional Log recording in 4K at 120 fps. There should also be a native 8K Live output and streaming to supported platforms — in other words, specs you usually see with professional cameras rather than phones.

External telephoto lenses are becoming a trend

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

Vivo has official representation in Slovakia, and you can find its phones at regular retailers like Nay, Planeo, or Datacomp—though this mainly applies to the V and Y mid-range lineups. The flagship models X500 Pro and X500 Pro Max aren’t officially sold here, and Slovak buyers can mostly get them through imports, just like competing Chinese flagships featured in our articles.

The entire X500 series will be officially unveiled September 21, 2026 in China. Whether and when it will also make it into the international lineup—including Europe—has not been confirmed by Vivo yet; in previous generations, it used to take just a few months.

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