Vivo's new 400mm teleconverter lens shows rivals Oppo and Apple how it's done

(Image credit: Tim Coleman) Vivo announced a new G2 Ultra 4.7x teleconverter lens alongside its flagship X500 series of phonesThe lens comes in the X500 Pro Max photographer's kit, or it can be purchased separately. It's compatible with all three X500 phonesThe phones and accessories are China-only for now, with a wider rollout TBDMy first time was… OK, but my second was a revelation. Behave, I'm talking about taking photos with a smartphone and teleconverter, of course, and Vivo has shown Oppo, Honor, and everyone else, in fact — including Apple — how it’s done.Available separately (in China only) or in the Vivo X500 Pro Max photographer’s kit (much like the previous X300 Ultra-compatible model), there are now two teleconverter lenses that extend the phone’s reach: a 2.3x and a new ‘G2 Ultra’ 4.7x.Like the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and its teleconverter lens, they are designed to be paired with the phone’s telephoto camera, but in this case, it’s a 3.5x lens with an 85mm effective focal length. Add the ‘G2 Ultra’ 4.7x teleconverter — which is a proper bit of gear with Zeiss optics — and you therefore have a 400mm lens, no digital zoom required.What particularly impressed me on the Vivo X500 Pro Max is how its teleconverter is implemented within the phone's camera app. You check the teleconverter option in the camera menu, after which an icon always appears on the screen.If you want to use the teleconverter, tap the teleconverter icon, follow the prompt to select which teleconverter is attached, and the phone corrects the image for use with the phone (the teleconverter uses mirrors, so the image would otherwise be upside down). Image 1 of 3 (Image credit: Tim Coleman) The Oppo phone, on the other hand, requires a dedicated teleconverter mode to optimize the image. This mode is severely simple and restricted, and therefore you cannot use it with the phone’s best camera features. The same can be said for new Honor Magic 9 Pro Max and the latest iPhone 18 devices paired with third-party options such as PGY Tech and its associated app (as demonstrated by @byteddyk).Meanwhile, the Vivo X500 Pro Max doesn’t require a dedicated mode — it can be used with any of the other modes, with no real restriction in place, making the teleconverter inherently more useful.Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Image 1 of 7 The main camera, 24mm focal length (Image credit: Tim Coleman) A teleconverter with no limitWorking with any shooting mode and the 3.5x telephoto camera means that users can access the phone’s maximum 200MP resolution. You can select the Pro mode with RAW file format and full control over exposure, too.Or how about SnapShot — a mode designed for action photography that automatically uses a high shutter speed, which you likely want to use at such a magnified 400mm focal length for wildlife and sports photos.Oppo’s teleconverter mode can do none of those things, and it’s real case use is fairly limited, as I discovered when attempting to photograph a pro Champions League soccer match from my distant seat in the stadium. Image 1 of 6 The Oppo phone without teleconverter — it has a 3.5x telephoto camera, plus a 10x (digital zoom) setting that gets decent results (Image credit: Tim Coleman) The cherry on the X500 Pro Max and teleconverter cake is that the lens is supported by decent image stabilization, though you're not getting the 7EV in-body image stabilization like with the phone's main camera.The lens comes with a collar and tripod mount, making it easy to attach to a tripod. It's best to use one, but I found that I could still shoot sharp images, smooth video, and track subjects handheld at 400mm.It's also possible to extend the 400mm reach digitally, with 800mm, 1200mm, 1600mm, and 3200mm options, but I find that using the digital zoom with a Vivo phone makes for artificial-looking photos (when pixel peeping, at least. A better option is to up the resolution from the standard 12MP to 50MP or 200MP and then crop in. Check the gallery below to see how much you can crop in from a 200MP file. Image 1 of 5 The G2 Ultra teleconverter, 400mm (Image credit: Tim Coleman) I still have the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and its teleconverter, but I couldn’t ever get past the limitations of using it. The Vivo, on the other hand, will be the setup I reach for next time I want to grab super-telephoto shots with a phone.For now, sadly, the Vivo X500 series and accessories are only available in China, with a wider rollout TBD, though these flagship Vivo devices have not sold directly in the US or UK before.Still, the G2 Ultra 4.7x teleconverter is a real showcase of what smartphone cameras can be capable of — hopefully, one day, they will be more widely available. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too. Tim joined the TechRadar team as Cameras Editor in 2023 and has enjoyed more than 15 years as a tech journalist specializing in camera gear. He's previously worked at Amateur Photographer, for a photo accessory manufacturer and as a freelance photographer and video producer, with clients including Studio 44 and Canon. He also started a media team in Nairobi, Kenya, where he lived for a few years volunteering for a faith-based organisation. Tim is married, father of three children, and loves being active, primarily running since hanging up his football boots.