I compared the two best Android camera phones in 2026 – and it’s surprisingly close

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET

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The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is one of the best phones you can buy right now. However, outside the US, it is facing tough competition from Chinese ultra phones, the latest being Vivo’s X300 Ultra.

It takes on the Samsung phone with a camera system that’s packed with not one or two, but three massive sensors. I was curious how it’d compare to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, so I took the two phones on a photowalk. While I expected Vivo to perform better, Samsung surprised me in a few areas.

Before I dive into the results from both devices, here’s an overview of how their specs compare.

By the numbers

	Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra	Vivo X300 Ultra
Main camera	200MP (OIS, PDAF), 1/1.3″ sensor with f/1.4 aperture and 23mm focal length	200MP (OIS, Laser autofocus, PDAF), 1/1.12″ sensor with f/1.9 aperture and 35mm focal length
Telephoto Cameras	1. 50MP (Periscope tele, OIS, PDAF), 1/2.52″ sensor with f/2.9 aperture and 5x optical zoom 2. 10MP (Telephoto, OIS, PDAF), 1/3.94″ sensor, with f/2.4 aperture and 3x optical zoom	200MP (Periscope tele, OIS, PDAF), 1/1.4″ sensor with f/2.7 aperture telemacro capabilities and 3.7x optical zoom
Ultrawide camera	50 MP (Ultra-wide, PDAF), 1/2.5″ sensor with f/1.9 aperture	50 MP (OIS, PDAF), 1/1.28″ sensor with f/2.0 aperture

Main camera results

Starting with the main camera, Vivo changed its focal length to 35mm this year, so you get optical quality instead of relying on 1.5x digital zoom. Comparably, most other modern phones, like the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, have a smaller 23mm equivalent focal length on the main sensor. Fortunately, you can always set 35mm as the default on the Vivo, if you prefer it.

Also: I compared the 100x zoom cameras on Samsung, Google, and Motorola phones – this model won

I find myself zooming in at 1.2x and 1.5x for my day-to-day shots, so I loved shooting on the Vivo X300 Ultra. However, there were times when I missed having 23mm by default (on the Vivo…

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