More phone cameras should come with telephoto lenses

Upgrading your phone with a camera grip attachment is one thing. But doll-sized telephoto lenses that you mount on top of the rear camera? C’mon.

I wrote the Vivo X300 off as a gimmick, a funny concept designed to generate attention rather than actual sales. But then I spent a weekend carrying the phone and its elaborate kit of goofy little lenses around — and I had way too much fun.

The Vivo X300 Ultra is an update to one of the very best phone cameras out there. It’s only available in China at the moment, with a global launch that will almost certainly exclude the US. Its rear cameras are no joke: a 200-megapixel main, 200-megapixel 3.7x telephoto, and a 50-megapixel ultrawide. Vivo sells a pro camera grip separately to add a physical shutter button. And if you want to really go for it there are those two telephoto extender lenses, each of which mounts to a special plate putting it in front of the telephoto camera. This year’s edition features a more compact version of last year’s 2.35x adapter, adding up to a 200mm equivalent, as well as a new 400mm option.

If you’re going to carry a phone like the X300 Ultra, you might as well go all in. I stopped short of using the dedicated bag that Vivo sent alongside my review unit — partially because it smells weird, but also because I needed something bigger for a full day out at the spring fair. But I attached the special camera kit case to the phone, along with the pro camera grip, the telephoto lens adapter plate, and a crossbody strap ripped straight out of Apple’s fall 2025 catalog. I stepped out of the family SUV with 150mg of non-drowsy Allegra coursing through my veins, camera slung across my chest and a suitably ergonomic backpack on my shoulders. Peak parent mode.

I took a few shots around the midway without the attachment lenses, but once we headed for the kiddie roller coaster, I knew it was time. I popped the 200mm extender on and didn’t take it off for at least another three hours. Did I look like a weirdo? Yeah. But I was having too much fun to care.

It took a minute to wrap my head around using a 200mm lens on a smartphone camera. I remembered that I had to care about shutter speed. But once I got the hang of it I couldn’t believe what I was getting away with. Depth! Layers! An optical telephoto lens lets you play with composition in a way that never quite translates with digital zoom. I was taking shots I’d never even attempt with another phone camera, and it was mostly working out.

I figured I’d put the extender lens on the phone, take a few photos, and then remove it until I needed it again, but that’s enough of a hassle that I just left it alone. Anyway, once I started realizing all of the potential for telephoto photos, that’s all I wanted to shoot.

It did mean that the lens kept banging against the carnival ride seats every time I bent over to buckle my kid into a sparkling rocket ship or whatever, but this didn’t seem to do any damage to the camera equipment. Guess I have that sturdy Zeiss construction to thank.

A kid on a roller coaster coming straight toward the camera was still tricky for the autofocus system, and I missed plenty of shots. But that would be a challenging scenario for a camera of any size, and once I shifted to a more forgiving composition it started to click. And it took me a minute to realize that half-pressing the camera grip’s shutter button was only locking focus and exposure, not acquiring focus — because it is a smartphone, the camera is just doing that all the time on its own. But once I got comfortable mashing the shutter button all the way and trusting that auto-focus was working, I started really having some fun. This was also around the time that the demolition derby started.

On our way to our seats we passed a sign prohibiting professional photo and video capture, including cameras with “removable lenses.” I had the X300 Ultra over my shoulder with its 200mm extender attached, but nobody batted an eye. I’m not usually one to use manual exposure controls on a phone, but I definitely needed them as the cars started crashing and the early evening light faded.

I switched from the 200mm to the 400mm, and back again when the light became too dim. From my spot about halfway up the stands, 200mm wasn’t quite long enough and 400mm was a little too close. There’s the option to use digital zoom on top of the teleconverter’s optical magnification, but I opted to stick with native focal lengths as a matter of principle.

I managed to get some shots I really like with each of the extenders — plenty of detail on the cars that we couldn’t see from the stands, the focus on the drivers’ faces as they chased down another car. Side note: Cars crashing into each other rules. I kept shooting until the light was too dim and detail really started to suffer. The antihistamines had worn off and the preschoolers were restless, so we called it a night.

Whenever I get my hands on a telephoto lens I remember how much fun it is. Having that experience while using a smartphone was totally unexpected. There’s nothing stopping me from renting a telephoto lens for my Sony a7c to bring to the fair, and I probably would have gotten more of those roller coaster photos in focus.

But it would likely have caught security’s attention at the demo derby, and definitely would have put more of a strain on my aching back and shoulders with the added weight. The 200mm lens attachment is small and light enough I would barely notice its presence in my purse, and I could definitely see taking it along on another family outing.

I’m frankly surprised at how fast I went from dismissing the whole extender lens concept as a silly idea to wanting the big phone brands that sell in the US to adopt something similar, like, yesterday. Where is Samsung on this? Why can’t I buy a funny little lens for the Galaxy S26 Ultra? Consider me an extender lens convert.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge