Vivo X200 FE Long-Term Review: A Pocket Rocket With Outstanding Cameras

While some reviewers used the phone for just a week and called it “2025’s best compact phone,” I decided to wait a few months before giving it my complete verdict. It’s not a slam dunk as the best compact smartphone of 2025, since the OnePlus 13s and Xiaomi 15 are on the market.

With that said, the Vivo X200 FE does have a strong hardware suite, and, combined with regular software updates, makes this an enticing purchase, even as a slew of other smartphones are about to be launched.

Who Is This Smartphone For?

I’m not going to be doing my traditional smartphone review format for the Vivo X200 FE. I know this is supposed to be a long-term review, but instead, I’ll tell you exactly who should buy this smartphone.

The X200 FE (as I’ll refer to it henceforth) is a compact smartphone that veers toward the flagship territory. The X200 FE features a vibrant 6.31-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s got a 90 percent screen-to-body ratio, and has a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. The Shield Glass is a good alternative to Corning’s Gorilla Glass and is pretty sturdy.

It has IP68 and IP69 ratings, which mean it is dust- and water-resistant. The smartphone comes with the Mediatek Dimensity 9300+ processor under the hood, along with a 6500mAh battery. It’s got Funtouch OS 15 (based on Android 15) and comes with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage as standard. It uses the older UFS 3.1 storage module instead of the much-improved UFS 4.0 (which other mid-range smartphones use).

The X200 FE knows its target audience. Its main competitor, the Xiaomi 15, is constantly out of stock. Despite going with a smaller-sized panel, you won’t be missing out on much. Unless you’re a hardcore gamer or exclusively use your mobile phone to binge-watch content, then you’ll get by just fine with this 6.31-inch display. It’s bright enough to use outside and can even handle some demanding games.

The Dimensity 9300+ processor may not be the same as the Dimensity 9400 in the rest of the X200 range, but it’s still a very capable chip.

We know the smartphone, just like the rest of the X200 series, will perform daily tasks with aplomb. Yes, the X200 FE isn’t the fastest smartphone in this range (say hello to OnePlus), and that’s okay. The extra 10-15 percent of performance boost isn’t being missed except by that tiny number of people who are hardcore gamers.

The Cameras Are The Star Of The Show

Let’s take a step back and forget all of that for a moment because the star of the show is none other than that camera island on the back. One reviewer called it a “pocket paparazzi,” and that should tell you more than you need. With the X200 FE, you’re getting a 50MP main lens, a 50MP telephoto lens (3x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom) and an 8MP wide-angle lens. What I like most about Vivo smartphones (the flagship X series and the mid-range V series) over the years is the fact that it is effortless to take great-looking photos. These are quintessential pint-and-shoot smartphones. Just pull out your smartphone (in this case, the X200 FE), open the camera and start snapping away. 9 out of 10 of the photos will be vivid, bright, crisp, and instantly likeable.

The main and telephoto lenses are absolutely fantastic. What surprised me the most was that the colour science and quality are consistent across both of these lenses. In fact, the ZEISS Multifocal Portrait mode stood out most to me. You get a range of focal lengths— 23mm, 50mm, 85mm, and more—for shooting outstanding portraits. The photos are far from the “washed out” days of the old. There’s no more aggressive image processing, and HDR management is good. Lights and shadows are nicely balanced.

In fact, it’s the selfie camera that has gotten a significant boost this time around. It features autofocus, so those wide-angle shots of your group won’t be blurry anymore. It’s also got a stabilisation booster for video shooting.

There’s also the Aura Light, borrowed from the V-series of smartphones. It’s got a bi-colour ring next to the camera. That ring can either act as a flash or an adjustable continuous fill light. It adjusts to match the ambient light temperature and gives your photos a slight boost.

The only downside to the camera setup is the wide-angle lens. The photos are a bit soft and mostly unusable when the night light falls. The wide-angle lens is the Achilles heel of the X200 FE, but I don’t think most would find it a dealbreaker.

Circling Back

Yes, let’s circle back to my original question. Who is the X200 FE for? With several smartphones - Vivo X300 Series, Oppo Find X9 Series, OnePlus 15 and more - coming out in the next few months, it’s evident that the X200 FE will fall behind in the pecking order. Fret not, because I think that this smartphone has held up better than most over the past few months.

The smartphone that can challenge the X200 FE the most is the Oppo Find X9. If the latter is priced aggressively, then Vivo will have to offer discounts to stay in the game.

I didn’t even touch on the X200 FE's battery life. Most compact (or ultra-thin) smartphones suffer from poor battery life and don’t last as long as flagships. That changes with the X200 FE (and the OnePlus 13s). Yes, Vivo has fitted a 6,500 mAh battery into the compact X200 FE

smartphone. That’s an impressive feat. With that massive battery, the smartphone will easily last you two days before you have to plug it in and charge it. For the most part, I got a day and a half out of the battery. By 5 PM on Day 2, I was down to the last 10 percent or so. Still, that’s plenty for most people.

If you do need to charge it, the bundled 90W charger will get you to 100% in just 60 minutes.

With a fantastic display (albeit not a binge-worthy one because of its small screen real estate), an old but still capable chip, absolutely fantastic main and telephoto lenses, and an extremely pocketable smartphone, the X200 FE from Vivo is a winner in my books. If my mom hadn’t bought the Samsung Galaxy S25 a few months ago, then I would have definitely recommended this one to her. It’s targeted at those people who want something light, pocketable, but still capable from day-to-day.

Yes, the OnePlus 13s is there, but it isn’t as power-packed as the X200 FE. There is the Xiaomi 15, but I’m not even going to talk about it, as it's been out of stock for months. Then, there are the upcoming smartphones that I mentioned above, but only time will tell as to how aggressively they are going to be priced.

If you’re about to buy a smartphone, and are looking for something compact with excellent cameras, then look no further than the X200 FE.