Vivo X50 Pro is the first smartphone with a gimbal camera system

Phone cameras have come far in a few decades, but manufacturers still manage to improve them in innovative ways. 

China’s Vivo, known for its photography-oriented phones, launched new flagship smartphones on Monday: The X50, X50 Pro, and X50 Pro+. 

The latter two come with a feature we haven’t seen on a phone before. It’s called the Gimbal Camera System, and it’s a tiny gimbal module (modeled after actual gimbals, Vivo says) that moves the camera in the opposite direction of shaking motions, providing clearer handheld shots. Vivo says the system widens the rotation angle, as well as the anti-shake area, compared to other stabilization methods. That means it should be able to compensate for some very jerky movements. The results, the company claims, should be “super clear images.”

The X50 Pro and X50 Pro+ both have a quad camera setup on the back, with a periscope lens that allows up to 60x optical/digital zoom mix. Only the X50 Pro+, however, has Samsung’s 50-megapixel 1/1.3-inch ISOCELL GN1 sensor as its primary camera, notable for Dual Pixel/Tetracell tech, which should help produce very clear photos in low-light scenarios. On the front, there’s a single selfie camera in a punch-hole cutout.

In terms of software features, all the X50 phones have Super Night Mode, Astro Mode, Super Wide-Angle, and Super Macro functions (yes, that’s a lot of “supers”), which are fairly self-explanatory and on par what’s offered on other recent flagship phones. 

Vivo hasn’t released full specs for these phones. But we do know X50 Pro+ comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor with 5G, and up to a 120Hz refresh rate. 

Also notable is the 7.49mm thickness of the X50, which makes it the slimmest 5G phone ever (according to Vivo). 

Price and release date for these devices haven’t been announced yet. While Vivo has historically produced phones with nice specs at lower prices, the top-of-the-line X50 Pro+ likely won’t be cheap, given its features.