vivo launched its X200 FE smartphone in India last week as a new model in the X200 series. This gets a smaller screen compared to the X200, but has a bigger battery, while maintaining a similar 3x periscope telephoto camera, ZEISS optics and doesn’t miss out on IP68 + IP69 ratings for dust and water resistance. Is this the best compact phone in the price range? Let use dive into the review to find out.
| Box Contents |
| Camera |
| Battery Life |
| Conclusion |
Box Contents
- vivo X200 FE 5G 12GB + 256GB version in Phantom Grey colour
- Protective case
- USB Type-C Cable
- 90W FlashCharge wall adapter
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick start guide and Warranty information
Display, Hardware and Design
The vivo X200 FE sports a 6.31-inch (2640 x 1216 pixels) 1.5K 20:9 aspect ratio, 460 PPI flat LPTO OLED display and 1-120Hz refresh rate since it has an LTPO panel. The display is bright even outdoors under sunlight, since it has HBM brightness of 1800 and the screen has up to 5000 nits peak brightness compared to 4500 nits in the X200. The colour output good as well since it has 1.07 billion colors. The ZEISS Master Color Display brings visuals to life, said the company.
You can select from standard (default), professional and bright screen colour modes. You can select smart switch that can switch or force it to 60Hz or 120Hz. It has 2160Hz High-frequency PWM dimming.
Visual enhancement optimizes the color and contrast in apps like YouTube, Netflix and Prime Video for more vivid display effects. It has scratch- and drop-resistant Shield Glass, co-developed with German glass expert SCHOTT, which is Schott Xensation Core glass.
It also has HDR 10+ support, which works for YouTube and Netflix. The phone doesn’t have a notification LED, but this has an always-on-display that shows contextual info and notifications all day or as per schedule.
The phone has a 50MP autofocus front camera inside the punch-hole. There is an earpiece on the top edge which works as a secondary speaker. There is a small bezel below the screen. It has an in-display optical fingerprint scanner. The haptic feedback is good, and there is also an option to control the strength manually.
Coming to the button placements and ports, the phone has a power button and volume rockers on the right. On the bottom, there is a dual SIM slot, primary microphone, USB Type-C port and a speaker grill. The secondary microphone is present on the top along with a vent for speakers.
The IR blaster is actually present on the back. The phone has an aerospace-grade metal frame with a smooth matte finish that offers a good grip and doesn’t slip out of your hands easily.
The Luxe Grey color variant that we have complements nearly any color, embodying a timeless beauty, said the company. It also comes in Frost Blue and Amber Yellow colours, all with a matte finish. The matte finish is enhanced by approximately 40% compared to traditional AG, resulting in a finer touch and a more sophisticated appearance, said vivo.
This is complemented by this frosted texture, so the texture and hues appear softer and more refined under light—understated yet undeniably premium, the company added. The phone weighs 186 grams, and is just 7.99mm thick. It has IP68 + IP69 ratings for dust and water resistance. The phone has MIL-STD-810H certification for military-grade drop resistance.
Camera
- 50MP main camera with Sony IMX921 sensor, f/1.88 aperture, OIS
- 8MP 106° ultra-wide camera with OmniVision OV08D10 sensor, f/2.2 aperture
- 50MP IMX882 3x periscope telephoto camera with f/2.65 aperture
- 50MP auto focus front-facing camera with 1/2.75″ Samsung JN1 sensor, f/2.65 aperture
The phone has aura light with 1800K–5000K smart color temperature adjustment that is good. There are also dual aura lights for the front camera on the top edge which might be useful for shooting selfies in low light.
The camera UI is the same as other phones running Funtouch OS. It includes several features such as AR stickers, Pro mode, long exposure, 50MP mode, supermoon, and more.
Coming to the camera quality, the daylight shots are brilliant, and it is recommended to enable HDR option which automatically switches on HDR according to the shot, so that the dynamic range is good. The camera can focus quickly. The 8MP ultra-wide camera does a decent job.
The main highlight is the 50MP periscope telephoto camera that offers 3x zoom, 6x loss less zoom, and it goes up to 100x for hyper zoom. The quality is good up to 20x, after that you don’t get much details. Wish it had telephoto macro option like the T4 Ultra or even macro option from the main camera. You can shoot 2x macros from the main camera and 3x macro from the telephoto camera, but you can’t go too close.
The portrait mode is good as well, with good edge detection. The phone has ZEISS optics and 7 ZEISS Style Portrait options. Low light shots are good with a lot of details and less noise, and the OIS helps as well to stabilize the images. The night mode automatically enables ultra dark mode if there is very less light, and that makes it better, but it takes a few seconds to process. There is also supermoon mode, which is a good addition. The 50MP front camera does a good job in both daylight and low light.
Check out some camera samples below
It can record videos at 4k resolution at up to 60 fps from the front and rear cameras. It has standard and ultra stabilization, but the resolution is down to 1080p in standard and ultra options since it crops the content. OIS does a good job in stabilization. There is a cinematic portrait video option which is limited to 1080p 30 fps.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the phone runs on Android 15 with Funtouch OS 15 on top. It has Android security patch for July 2025. The vivo X200 FE will get 4 years of Android OS updates and 5 years of security updates, same as the other phones in the X200 series.
Funtouch OS 15 brings vivo’s Priority Scheduling model for 15% faster app startup time, has zRAM compression algorithm, resulting in a 40% boost in compression speed, vivo’s Origin Animation for a more natural and intuitive user experience. The Lightning-Speed Engine offers faster app launches, and Aqua Dynamic Effect adds a visually pleasing touch to system interactions.
There is artificial intelligence feature to automatically improve photo quality, AI erase to remove objects, glare and passers-by. Live wallpapers are now seamless, and there is also customized call background.
There is Link to Windows that enhances collaboration between your vivo device and PC. It also has Circle to Search feature and Gemini-powered AI Note Assist and AI Transcript Assist. The AI powered call translation feature lets you translate calls between English, Hindi, Indonesian, Thai and Chinese.
Out of 12GB of LPDDR5X Ultra RAM, about 11.06GB is usable, out of which 5GB is free when the default apps are running in the background. There is additional 12GB RAM expansion feature. Out of 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage, 219.4GB is free out of the box.
Since the phone has an IR blaster, it comes with a Smart Remote app. Apart from the usual set of utility and Google apps, it comes preloaded with a lot of apps such as Facebook, PhonePe, Netflix, Snapchat, Agoda and LinkedIn. These apps can be uninstalled, but they come back after reset.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
The phone has an optical in-display optical fingerprint sensor which immediately unlocks the phone just by keeping your finger on the sensor. You can add up to 5 fingerprints. There are different animation styles that display when you unlock, which you can disable. The phone also has face unlock that can unlock the phone in seconds, but it is not as secure as fingerprint.
Music and Multimedia
The default Music Player also has equalizer and DeepField sound effects. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. There is audio super resolution, and super audio features. Audio through the stereo speakers is crisp and loud. Audio through the headphones is good as well. However, it misses on the LHDC codec, which is a bummer.
This has Widevine L1 so that you can play HD content on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and other streaming apps. It also supports HDR playback on YouTube and Netflix.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
It has the usual set of connectivity features such as 5G with support for n1/n2/n3/n5/n7/n8/n18/n20/n25/n26/n28/n34/n38/n39/n40/n41/n48/n66/n77/n78 bands, and supports Airtel and Jio 5G out of the box. There is also dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 7 802.11 be (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz), Bluetooth 5.4, GPS + GLONASS and NFC support. It doesn’t have eSIM support which the X200 and X200 Pro has.
It also has USB OTG support, and it has USB 2.0 port. The dialer has auto call recording. I did not face any call drops and the earpiece volume is good. vivo also said that the phone has 360° Omnidirectional antenna for enhanced signal.
The vivo X200 FE’s body SAR is 0.989W/Kg and head SAR is at 0.987/Kg, which is way under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance and Benchmarks
It is one of the few phones to be powered by MediaTek Dimensity 9300+, which is an overclocked version of the Dimensity 9300. This uses third-generation TSMC’s 4nm process tech, and the Arm Cortex-X4 core now operates at up to 3.4 GHz compared to 3.25GHz in the 9300 while retaining 3 x performance core clocked ARM Cortex-X4 cores at a slower 2.85GHz and 4 x Cortex-A720 cores clocked at 2.0GHz.
This also gets 10% performance boost in APU, and the 12-core Arm Immortalis-G720 GPU has a 2nd generation hardware ray tracing engine for fast ray tracing experiences at a smooth 60 FPS, along with console-grade global illumination effects.
The phone has 28,940 mm² total cooling area which includes 3830 mm² large vapor chamber, and 9 built-in temperature sensors, and high-performance conductive graphite for layered, high-efficiency cooling, says the company. We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games. HDR graphics and Extreme frame rate works in BGMI.
In 3D Mark wild life stress test, it scored 52.3%, and the temperature shot up from 36 to 48 degrees. The score is decent, but it heats up more on intensive usage, such as gaming. That said, check out some synthetic benchmark scores below.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the phone packs a 6500mAh (typical) Silicon-Carbon battery, which is 700mAh bigger than the X200. The 3rd-Gen Silicon Anode and Semi-Solid Battery Technology, ensures enduring performance even in extreme cold down to -20°C. Plus, said the company. It can easily last for a day with heavy use, thanks to the optimization.
I got about 6 hours of screen on time with close to 2 days of use, mostly on Wi-Fi, and occasional 5G use with Smart refresh rate. This is similar or even better compared to the X200 Pro that I had used.
Since the phone has support for 90W fast charging, it can charge up to 50% in about 30 minutes and up to 100% in about an hour. You will have to enable fast charging option if you want to reduce the charging time, but the phone gets a bit hot. The phone doesn’t have wireless charging support.
Conclusion
The vivo X200 FE is a solid compact phone, and a good addition to the X200 series. Even with a compact design, the phone has a good LTPO panel, capable cameras, has a good build quality and comes with both IP68 and IP69 ratings. The ultra-wide could have been better, and there is no macro option with main or telephoto cameras, which could have been a good addition.
Pricing and availability
The vivo X200 FE is priced at Rs. 54,999 for the 12GB + 256GB model and the 16GB + 512GB model costs Rs. 59,999. It will be available from vivo India eStore, Amazon.in, Flipkart and offline stores from July 23rd, and pre-orders have already started.
Alternatives
The OnePlus 13s is a direct competitor that offers a better performance, better sofware experience and eSIM support for those who need it. If you spend more, the Xiaomi 15 is also a good option.
Pros
- 120Hz LTPO AMOLED display is good
- Compact, light-weight body, IP68 + IP69 ratings
- Smooth performance
- Good cameras
- Excellent battery life with fast charging
Cons
- Average ultra-wide camera, No dedicated macro option
- A lot of pre-loaded apps