Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Vivo has brought a Horizon Lock video mode to the X300 Ultra as part of a software update.
- The feature was previously available on older vivo phones before it went missing in action for a few generations.
- The update also comes a couple of months after Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra launched with the same mode.
Samsung brought a fancy Horizon Lock video stabilization mode to the Galaxy S26 Ultra earlier this year, but it wasn’t the first manufacturer with this feature. The first vivo phone with this feature debuted in 2021, although the company ditched it after a couple of generations. Motorola also embraced the feature in the early 2020s. Now, vivo has quietly revived this option on its latest flagship phone.
Vivo recently released an update for the X300 Ultra that brings several features and tweaks. The most notable addition might be the Horizon Lock stabilization mode for videos.
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This video capture mode, which uses the ultrawide camera, keeps the video super-steady even when the phone is being jostled or undergoes major changes in orientation. Check out our sample below.
The one downside to vivo’s implementation is that it tops out at 1080p/60fps. By contrast, Samsung’s phone supports 4K resolution in this mode. Furthermore, vivo restricts you to the default Vivid color profile.
Either way, we’re glad to see this feature arriving on (and returning to) more Android phones. Vivo debuted the feature on the X70 Pro Plus, and we were very impressed with the rock-steady stabilization, even when the phone was rotated 360 degrees. Motorola also offered this feature on its Edge series in 2023, prior to Samsung adopting it earlier this year.
This isn’t the only notable feature available in the X300 Ultra’s update. For one, vivo now lets you record Log video to an external hard drive. This follows in the footsteps of Apple and Samsung phones. Furthermore, the company added a Dolly Zoom effect to live photos in Portrait mode, as well as a Natural color profile in lieu of the Authentic option.
Perhaps the most contentious addition is a new telephoto enhancement feature, which appears as a viewfinder toggle during long-range zoom scenarios. This toggle enables cloud-based telephoto enhancements. By contrast, the pre-existing Super Telephoto Enhancement toggle uses on-device AI. So it remains to be seen what kind of cloud-based adjustments are made to photos and whether vivo is using generative AI for these tweaks.
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