On April 21, at the vivo product launch event, the vivo X200 Ultra, known as ” minicamera”, made its stunning debut, unlocking new possibilities for mobile photography!
The vivo X200 Ultra is equipped with three Zeiss fixed-focus Master Prime lenses, with the spotlight on the 85mm Zeiss APO super telephoto lens, which innovatively adopts the industry’s first power prism. Developed using vivo’s self-innovated architecture in collaboration with AAC Technologies, utilizing WLG technology for integration, it breaks through the limitations of traditional prism technology, significantly enhancing optical performance and establishing a new benchmark for telephoto capabilities in smartphones.
Breaking Through Traditional Technology ，Seamless Integration with Exclusive WLG Technology
The core component of the periscope telephoto lens consists of a prism or mirror, which deflects incoming light by 90 degrees, permitting the lens elements to be positioned horizontally, so as to enable the effective integration of a telephoto lens within a limited space. This design enables a more powerful optical telephoto system while maintaining the same device thickness, far surpassing the physical constraints of portrait telephoto lenses.
(Image source: vivo official)
In contrast to traditional flat prisms or glued structures of lenses and prisms, the integrated power prism integrates the aspheric surface, the prism, and the spherical surface. The WLG-molded aspheric surface converges light, enabling a larger aperture and enhancing low-light photography for the periscope telephoto lens. Additionally, this design reduces light dispersion and reduces size in the phone thickness direction, further breaking structural limitations. After reflection by the prism, light passes through the spherical system, compensating for optical path length and significantly improving MTF performance in scenarios like “nodding,” “tilting,” and “panning,” while further enhancing OIS (optical image stabilization) performance.
After several years of development, AAC Technologies and vivo have introduced the industry’s first “three-in-one” power prism, leveraging WLG technology for integration. This provides higher precision, better performance, and enhanced stability, enabling a slimmer design, further providing users with a more ultimate imaging experience.
Pushing Optical Limits ——Higher Precision, Better Performance, and Enhanced Stability
Higher Process Precision
The power prism features a highly complex structure, integrating convex and concave lenses on both the incidence and exit planes of the prism, which poses significant manufacturing challenges. However, the WLG technology allows for three-in-one integrated processing and molding without adhesives, simplifying the production process while meeting the high precision demands of advanced telephoto lenses. Array-based production methods and structural freedom make it better suited for mass production requirements.
Superior Optical Performance
By optimizing and iterating the optical path design and lens coating process, a large aperture of f/2.27, which matches a 1/1.4” sensor, has been achieved, increasing light intake by 38% compared to the previous generation. Additionally, further enhancements in optical design have improved OIS performance by 41%, greatly strengthening OIS capabilities.
Reduced Module Size
Notably, the production advantages of the WLG for integration design and the three-in-one integrated design enable a more compact module space, facilitating slimmer smartphone designs.
Real-World Photography Testing：Stunning Clarity, Near or Far—Capturing “Natural Beauty” in Any Scenario
As featured in the launch event, the super telephoto lens employs a power prism + 1G2P + 4P floating three-group periscope group design, with an aperture of f/2.27 achieving a 38% increase in light intake compared to its predecessor, supporting telephoto macro photography, with upgraded focusing components.
With the backing of the WLG power prism and comprehensive upgrades in coatings, lens groups, and stabilization, the 85mm Zeiss APO super telephoto lens not only boosts aperture while managing its size but also improves clarity, stabilization, making handheld shooting in low-light environments.
(Image source: vivo official)
In terms of detail performance, the super telephoto lens offers more natural detail reproduction and richer and truer colors compared to the previous generation of vivo X100 Ultra.
(Image source: vivo official)
In low-light environments, macro shots of butterfly wings reveal enhanced clarity and image quality due to the increased light intake, making every delicate scale distinctly visible.
Additionally, the large aperture in telephoto mode enables background blur, emphasizing portraits and specific subjects, and capturing “natural beauty” in low-light environments.
The significantly upgraded stabilization system (with a 41% improvement) significantly increases the success rate of handheld shots at 30x zoom, especially in dynamic settings like concerts, stably capturing fast-moving subjects.
With the support of the power prism, the super telephoto lens truly offers users a shooting experience of “beauty at any distance and clarity in all lighting conditions”. The vivo X200 Ultra is redefining smartphone professional imaging systems.
In addition to imaging innovations, the new vivo X200 series also incorporates AAC Technologies’ customized cooling solution.
This VC (vapor chamber) optimizes internal capillary structures and innovatively utilizes nano-fluid technology to create a more efficient “liquid phase change – heat absorption – heat conduction – heat dissipation – reflow” network inside the chamber. Compared to traditional VCs, this VC significantly enhances cooling efficiency, ensuring sustained and stable output of mobile phone performance, allowing users to enjoy smooth, stable, and cool-to-the-touch experiences during prolonged high-frame-rate gaming, long video shoots, and live streaming activities.
[Further Reading]:
AAC Technologies’ proprietary WLG technology offers obvious advantages over other glass forming technologies in terms of optical performance, optical precision, lens structure, lens thickness, and extreme performance.
In terms of equipment development, the ultra-precision molding and pressing equipment developed by AAC Technologies is important technical equipment for mass production for the production of ultra-precision aspheric optical lenses and complex free-form optical lenses, as well as the development of next-generation high-quality imaging and precision sensing optical systems.
In terms of material advantages, WLG technology is capable of handling a variety of glass materials, achieving complete coverage in molded glass materials. This lays a good foundation for optical designs with outstanding resolution. Glass lenses exhibit minimal shape variation under the same temperature changes, and their refractive index stability is approximately 25 times greater than that of conventional plastic lenses, resulting in less focal shift due to thermal changes.
In terms of lens manufacturing, WLG technology can achieve the highest inter-surface eccentricity with precision within 1µm, while the highest quality single-aperture surface PV can reach an accuracy of within 200nm. Compared to traditional glass aspheric molding technologies, WLG demonstrates strong mass production capabilities, particularly excelling in lens precision and performance, meeting the stringent requirements of higher imaging systems regarding glass lens thickness ratios, eccentric surface dimensions, and others.
WLG technology serves as a platform technology capable of producing a variety of products, including aspheric lenses, freeform lenses, aspheric prisms, array lenses, and collimating lenses. With ongoing upgrades and iterations of AAC Technologies’ WLG technology, we will see more innovative product forms and broader application scenarios emerge, bringing changes to the optical industry and its applications.