vivo X500 Pro Max Review: 4.7/5, Editors' Choice and a €1,499 Price Tag
GSMArena has finished its full review of the vivo X500 Pro Max, awarding the flagship 4.7 out of 5 and an Editors' Choice badge while flagging its launch price, EU battery capacity and charging speed as the main weak points.
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The vivo X500 Pro Max has completed its run through GSMArena's review lab, and the verdict is unusually warm: a 4.7 out of 5 score plus the site's Editors' Choice award. Reviewers described the phone as one of the most well-rounded flagships tested this year, with battery endurance and cameras carrying most of the praise.
What changed this generation
vivo has repositioned its lineup. The regular Pro model is now the compact option, while the Pro Max takes over the large-screen role once held by the X300 Ultra. The result is a 6.85-inch LTPO AMOLED panel with a 1440 x 3168 resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate, paired with MediaTek's Dimensity 9600 Pro built on a 2nm process. Software is OriginOS 7 on top of Android 17, with vivo promising five major OS upgrades.
Build quality is rated highly: an aluminum frame, glass or glass-fiber back, and IP68/IP69 protection. The phone measures 163.3 x 76.8 x 8.1 mm and weighs 225 grams.
Battery: the headline win
The global version ships with a 7,800mAh cell, up from 6,510mAh on the X300 Pro. European buyers get 6,750mAh — still an upgrade, but roughly 13.5% smaller than the international model, a difference the review lists among the phone's drawbacks. In GSMArena's Active Use test, the global unit lasted 24 hours and 6 minutes, beating both the X300 Pro and the X300 Ultra.
Charging is where the tone shifts. The X500 Pro Max supports 90W wired and 40W wireless, but a 1% to 100% run took exactly one hour — slower than rivals such as the Pixel 11 Pro XL at the early checkpoints. The review calls it decent rather than impressive, and notes that earlier vivo generations charged faster.
Cameras and video
The camera hardware carries over much of the X300 Pro's formula: a 50MP main sensor with LOFIC technology and OIS, a 200MP periscope telephoto with 3.5x optical zoom, and a 50MP ultrawide. A 50MP autofocus selfie camera sits up front. GSMArena rated stills as excellent across all three rear modules and singled out video stabilization as being in a league of its own, with 4K recording available at up to 240fps and 8K at 30fps. An optional photography kit adds teleconverters and cases for people who want more reach.
Price is the sticking point
The base 12GB/256GB model launches at €1,499 / $1,500, with every storage step adding €300. That is roughly €100 above last year's X300 Pro and places the phone alongside established ultra-premium rivals. GSMArena's verdict is blunt about it: the price is arguably the biggest drawback, even though the hardware justifies much of the cost.
Where it falls short
- Launch pricing is high, especially in some regions.
- 90W charging is slower than expected for the class.
- The European model gets a smaller 6,750mAh battery.
- Stereo speaker quality is described as unimpressive.
Bottom line
For buyers who can accept the price, the X500 Pro Max delivers a bright 144Hz LTPO display, class-leading endurance and a camera system that handles both photos and video at a very high level. GSMArena's closing assessment is that there is very little to criticize once the price is set aside — a rare position for a flagship in this segment.
Full specifications, including memory variants, connectivity and regional differences, are available on our vivo X500 Pro Max specification page.
