Vivo X300 launch finally brings OriginOS to the rest of the world

Vivo’s flagship X300 and X300 Pro only launched in China two weeks ago, but they’re getting an international release faster than we’re used to from Vivo. Today, the company announced that both phones are going on sale outside China, including a handful of European countries, and bringing with them OriginOS — Vivo’s previously China-only Android-based operating system.

OriginOS debuted in China back in November 2020 and is now on version 6.0. For reasons best known to itself, until now Vivo has kept Origin in China, leaving international buyers to use its older (and despicably named) Funtouch OS. It has never been fun to touch, with a drab design, relatively basic features, and often extensive bloatware.

OriginOS is comparatively colorful and slick. This version has been updated with a more customizable lockscreen, including depth effects and basic widgets, along with a “Dynamic Glow” design that has more than a little Liquid Glass to it. Still, it’s a welcome upgrade.

I ran down the X300 and X300 Pro’s impressive specs in detail when they debuted in China, so I’ll keep it simple here. Both have big silicon-carbon batteries, though the 6,040mAh and 6,510mAh capacities lag a little behind recent releases from rivals Oppo and Xiaomi. The cameras are the bigger draw, especially the Pro’s 200-megapixel telephoto camera, and both models are compatible with the 2.35x Zeiss telephoto extender that launched with the X200 Ultra earlier this year. These are likely to be two of the best phones for photography on the market.

In Europe, the X300 series will be available in Austria, Spain, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Italy. The X300 starts from €1,049 (around $1,200), with the Pro available for €1,399 (around $1,600).

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge