Vivo, one of China's biggest phone makers, has narrowed the camera gap with Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra to a 'surprisingly close' result in a US editorial side by side, though availability, software, and US carrier support still favor Samsung.
For years, the answer to "which Android phone takes the best pictures" has been the same: whichever Samsung Galaxy S Ultra is current. That hierarchy is starting to look less settled, and the challenger is not Apple. It is Vivo, one of China's biggest phone makers, whose X300 Ultra flagship went toe-to-toe with Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra in a recent ZDNET side-by-side and came away with what the publication called a "surprisingly close" result (ZDNET hands-on comparison).
The ZDNET review is one editor's verdict on a single set of sample images, not an independent benchmark. But the framing still matters. Western editorial outlets rarely call a Chinese flagship camera peer to Samsung's top Ultra. The fact that a major US-facing tech publication did, on what it presents as real-world shooting, suggests the global Ultra camera race is no longer a one-brand contest.
The article's "close" framing points at specific trade-offs rather than a clean winner. ZDNET's coverage points to scene-by-scene variation across focal lengths and lighting, with Vivo's hardware-heavy approach and Samsung's color and processing pipeline each pulling ahead in different conditions. For a buyer, the practical takeaway is that the differences now live in zoom behavior, low-light handling, and color science, not in a single brand owning the top of the table.
Honest caveats apply, though. The review is one reviewer's verdict on pre-release or near-release hardware, not a measured benchmark from a lab like DXOMARK. The Vivo X300 Ultra's rollout has been China-led, which raises real questions for US buyers about band support, carrier certification, and long-term software updates. And a close camera result is not a sweep: Samsung still wins on software polish, ecosystem fit, and the depth of its US retail and carrier footprint.
For a US shopper choosing a premium Android today, the practical read is straightforward. If you want the broadest carrier compatibility, a polished software experience, and long OS support, the Galaxy S26 Ultra remains a defensible default. If you can buy the X300 Ultra in your market and care more about sensor and zoom hardware than ecosystem fit, the gap that once justified the Samsung default has narrowed enough to be worth testing in person.
The wider signal is structural. Chinese flagship makers, with Vivo among the most aggressive, have spent recent product cycles pulling even with Samsung on camera hardware inside their home market. The interesting question now is not whether a Chinese challenger can match the S26 Ultra, since the latest US-facing reviews suggest it already can in a head-to-head. The question is how Samsung responds, with the Galaxy S27 Ultra and beyond, when the camera lead it once owned is no longer assumed.