The best compact smartphone for photography - Vivo X200 Pro Mini review

If you prefer compact smartphones, the X200 Pro Mini offers a more flagship feel than most other manufacturers. In terms of performance and battery life, you won't have to make any compromises with the small Vivo phone, and buyers of the Mini model also get the best of the best when it comes to displays. Not even the actual flagship X200 Pro achieved values of over 4,500 cd/m² in the practical APL18 test.

Even the X200 Pro Mini's camera system lacks any real points of criticism, although its periscope effects are somewhat weaker than those on its big brother due to the phone's slim and compact design. During everyday use, however, the Vivo phone still boasts excellent photo quality—its main camera with the large Sony sensor in particular has nothing to hide from any current high-end smartphone.

Unfortunately, the X200 Pro Mini isn't the perfect version of a compact flagship smartphone either, as the Vivo phone has been stripped of too many premium features (USB 3.2, ultrasonic sensor, ...) and its SoC being throttled is anything but optimal. How serious these deficits are during everyday use has to be weighed up individually. Having said that, the limitations our Chinese version faces (no Band 20, ...) should no longer be a problem when it's available globally.

In China, the Vivo X200 Pro Mini with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB flash storage is sold for 4,699 Yuan (approx. $650). Via our lender Trading Shenzhen, you can import the phone for $730.04. As Vivo has yet to announce a global launch, we can't give you any further information on the device's pricing.

In contrast to the X100 series, Vivo is launching a compact version of its current flagship phone, the X200 Pro, this year. The little Mini version uses flagship hardware including a Zeiss triple camera in a compact size so that fans of smaller smartphones will hardly have to make any compromises.

If you would like to call the X200 Pro Mini your own, then you'll currently have to import the small flagship from Vivo. However, there are currently indications of a global launch, although an exact date is still pending.

Those interested in the compact flagship cell phone can choose between four color variants, which all have a frosted glass back. This means that grease residue from fingers shouldn't be a problem during everyday use. The manufacturer hasn't revealed which protective glass is used on the front and back.

The bezels around the 6.31-inch AMOLED panel are kept nice and thin, which gives the Mini model a very efficient display-to-surface ratio of over 91%. Its build quality is also first-class and the built-in buttons sit firmly in its metal frame.

No sustainability information is available for the X200 Pro Mini—it seems Vivo still has some catching up to do in this respect. The materials used and their recycled content have not been communicated transparently at all. It is also almost impossible to check whether the user can repair the device themselves.

The phone's packaging is likely plastic-free and was printed with inks based on soybean oil. However, the Vivo smartphone itself uses plastic materials for transportation (foil, shell).

Within home Wi-Fi networks, the X200 Pro Mini offers the best of the best standard in the shape of current WiFi 7, but the top-of-the-range phone can't use the 6 GHz channel. This means that only the 2.4 and 5 GHz ranges were used to establish a connection in our test using our reference router. However, this doesn't necessarily have to be the case with a global version of the device. Using the Asus ROG Rapture GT AXE11000, the X200 Pro Mini nevertheless revealed high and relatively constant transfer rates—measuring over 1,800 MBit/s at peak data reception.

In addition to its fast Wi-Fi, the Vivo phone uses the 5G standard, but only supports 17 LTE bands. As the Chinese versions generally have reduced frequency coverage, this shortcoming will not come to bear in a global version of the phone. Our CN version also doesn't support access to band 20 in the 4G network. The version with satellite communication is also probably only available for the Chinese market.

Standard mode (right) vs, ZEISS mode (left)

The phone's 50 MPix lens has OIS and a Zeiss T* coating. The T* stands for "Transmission Layer" and is intended to increase the transmission of visible light. This not only improves color quality, but also reduces reflectivity. During everyday use, the X200 Pro Mini boasts very good HDR calculation, which means that its dynamic range and exposure are usually really good. However, if you don't prefer oversaturated colors, then you should change from the standard mode to the more neutral ZEISS mode. Its photo quality in low light is also impressive for this product class.

We analyzed the main camera's color depiction in comparison to the actual reference colors under controlled lighting conditions. The 50 MP lens revealed some brightening and oversaturation when depicting the ColorChecker Passport, particularly in the green and brown tones. Thankfully, however, the X200 Pro Mini only showed a few outliers in terms of color fidelity (>10).

The phone's scope of delivery includes a modular 90-watt fast-charging power supply, a protective cover, a data/charging cable (USB-A to USB-C), a SIM pin and a quick start guide. A screen protector is also installed on its screen, which Vivo says has been specially optimized for fingerprint recognition. Our loaner Trading Shenzhen has added an EU adapter for the charger and a USB OTG adapter to the scope of delivery of our Chinese version.

Our imported device comes with a 12-month warranty. In the event of a warranty claim, Trading Shenzhen offers the option of sending the smartphone to a German shipping address.

As is typical for OLEDs, PWM modulation is used to control the screen's brightness, which shows itself in the shape of a flickering display. According to Vivo, a form of eye protection is implemented in the X200 Pro Mini using a high PWM dimming frequency of 2,160 Hz. Our display measurement resulted in around 490 Hz.

If you want one of the best SoCs currently available in a smartphone, then the compact Vivo phone is the right choice for you. With its peak clock speed of 3.65 GHz, the Dimensity 9400 used in the X200 Pro Mini couldn't quite match the Geekbench values of a Snapdragon 8 Elite in the Xiaomi 15, but the Vivo phone still has plenty of power. The MediaTek chipset was particularly impressive in the AI benchmarks, relegating the competition to the back of the pack.

The Immortalis-G925 GPU unit installed in the Dimensity 9400 works with 12 cores inside the X200 Pro Mini. Compared to a Xiaomi 15 with the Adreno 830, the Vivo phone's scores in the GFXBench and 3DMark tests were slightly lower. However, the former showed that even very demanding games should run at almost 50fps on the Vivo phone in 4K resolution—or at least some of the time.

The X200 Pro Mini performed well when it came to its browser speed, and its benchmark results were good. Websites are loaded quickly during everyday use and can be scrolled through smoothly.

When it comes to storage speed, the phone's UFS 4.0 storage delivers outstanding performance. Its AndroBench values were very good, especially when writing and reading small data blocks.

The pronounced temperature increase of the Dimensity 9400 caused the X200 Pro Mini to significantly throttle the system during the Wild Life stress tests of 3DMark. We measured a reduction of around 40 to 50 percent. This means that the compact flagship performs slightly better than its big brother, but worse than a Xiaomi 15. During a one-hour load phase with the Burnout benchmark, we noted a peak temperature of almost 46 °C in the camera area.

The X200 Pro Mini's stereo speakers boast a pleasant sound and some light bass. However, its undulating presentation of mids and highs in the Pink Noise test was less than ideal. Nevertheless, for a compact smartphone, the Vivo phone's sound has a good depth.

If you want external sound output, you can use its wired USB port or wireless Bluetooth 5.4. The latter supports a decent number of codecs.

In contrast to a Galaxy S24 (5,700 mAh), the X200 Pro Mini has a much larger 5,700 mAh battery that can be charged via USB-C at up to 90 watts. The energy storage device (21.78 Wh, 3.82 V) can also be charged wirelessly at a maximum of 30 watts. During our test, we noted a charging time of around 40 minutes.

At 1.6 watts, the X200 Pro Mini's power consumption in idle mode isn't very efficient. There is certainly room for some optimization here, although you do have to take into account the Vivo phone's bright display.