Birdwatching with 70x zoom on smartphone
Whoever enjoys going on safari or birdwatching in the wild may be interested in the G2 Ultra telephoto extender, which transforms the X300 Ultra’s 200MP 85mm telephoto camera into a 400mm optical zoom lens. Han Boxiao has shared the first sample photo to demonstrate what this 17.4x zoom (based on a typical 23mm wide-angle smartphone camera) is capable of.
The first picture was taken with the 35mm main camera, revealed for the first time to feature an f/1.85 aperture. Although it is marginally slower than the X200 Ultra’s f/1.7 main camera, the sensor has grown from 1/1.28 inch to 1/1.12 inch, and the resolution has increased from 50MP to 200MP. What is truly impressive is the subsequent 1600mm sample captured using the 400mm teleconverter at f/2.55.
Whilst slightly slower than the Vivo X200 Ultra f/2.3 telephoto setup, this configuration is still considerably faster than the Vivo X300 Pro’s f/2.7 telephoto lens. As the sample shows, the optical 400mm telephoto camera continues to deliver usable results even under 4x digital zoom. Expectedly, the image begins to break down slightly under pixel-peeping scrutiny. That said, this 70x zoom is the best you can achieve with any smartphone camera in 2026; even the Oppo Find X9 Ultra can’t match this reach with its 10x telephoto camera and 300mm teleconverter.
