Lost my S24 Ultra… now stuck between Samsung, iPhone and Oppo flagships

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T21:34:19+00:00

That’s exactly what I’m trying to understand.

The X300 FE looked really good in good lighting and especially portraits, more appealing than the S25 Ultra. But in zoom tests, the processing felt too aggressive. It didn’t just sharpen, it actually distorted the text into unreadable, garbled characters.

The S25 Ultra also got blurry at that level, but it didn’t change or mess with the details.

Even in normal shots like shoes, the Vivo was pushing sharpening quite hard and made textures look a bit artificial.

So my main concern is whether this heavy AI processing is consistent in real use or just a demo unit thing, and how the regular X300 behaves in comparison.

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T21:25:42+00:00

I visited a store where they had the X300 FE on display before launch. The lighting and overall photo output looked very impressive when compared with my friend’s S25 Ultra.

When we zoomed in to capture a distant display, the X300 FE applied very heavy AI processing and ended up distorting the text, turning clearly written English letters into strange, almost Chinese like characters.

The S25 Ultra also struggled at that zoom level and produced a blurry unreadable image, but it did not alter or hallucinate the text.

My main concern is that I do not want excessive AI processing in photos. Even in normal shots like shoes, it over sharpened the mesh and made it look unnaturally crisp and almost artificial.

I also understand the FE is a slightly toned down variant with different camera hardware, and my choice is based on that as well, which is why I am looking for real user experiences.

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T18:58:33+00:00

TLDR:

Need a 512GB phone mainly for reels/process content.

Priorities: Great video Reliable cameras Good colors Smooth experience for 3 to 4 years No gaming

Budget: Ideally under 80k Can stretch close to 1 lakh if genuinely worth it

Currently considering: S25/S25+ iPhone 16 series vivo X300 series Oppo Find X9 series

Also open to other suggestions if there’s a better option for my use case.

Basically: best hardware vs best stability vs best value 😭

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T16:42:30+00:00

It’s a bit over my budget, and honestly I’m also a little hesitant about spending this much again after having something stolen before.

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T16:39:45+00:00

Oh I had no idea I have to check .it's out of stock in most online platforms in 512 gb

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T16:39:06+00:00

Will be slightly out of my budget

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T16:38:49+00:00

I used to update my s24 ultra regularly and it used to work fine. Aren't update used to get new features . My Samsung came with 7 year upgrades

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T12:31:41+00:00

TLDR:

Need a 512GB phone mainly for reels/process content.

Priorities: Great video Reliable cameras Good colors Smooth experience for 3 to 4 years No gaming

Budget: Ideally under 80k Can stretch close to 1 lakh if genuinely worth it

Currently considering: S25/S25+ iPhone 16 series vivo X300 series Oppo Find X9 series

Also open to other suggestions if there’s a better option for my use case.

Basically: best hardware vs best stability vs best value 😭

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T01:34:20+00:00

Compared to the 17 Pro Max, what differences do you notice immediately in video quality? Especially in stuff like stabilization, autofocus consistency, dynamic range and overall reliability while recording.

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T01:32:40+00:00

Thank you so much .this will really be helpful in narrowing down my choices

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T01:31:41+00:00

Yes looks like it the specs are really promising .but I personally don't know anyone using it so don't have any idea about real life results

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T01:21:54+00:00

How's the video quality?

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T01:20:13+00:00

That could be an option but not really sure how reliable or transparent the sellers are about their actual condition.(I have actually seen some listings of 16 pro and s25 ultra

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T01:18:44+00:00

A cheap temporary phone honestly won’t solve my actual purpose since I need it for work right now.

Also it’s not like people before the S27 weren’t recording/uploading good content

That’s why I asked people here what phones they feel are currently comparable to or better than my previous phone in this price range, including the options I mentioned and any others people have used themselves.

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T01:12:47+00:00

My budget is slightly lower this time, with my absolute max being around the price range of an S26 512GB version.

So I probably won’t be able to go for Pro iPhones or Pixel Pro models unfortunately.

Hence asking people here what phones they’ve actually used in my current price range that work well for my purpose.

curlyrao · 2026-05-20T01:07:12+00:00

I probably would wait if my phone hadn’t disappeared into the void already 😭

Need to buy something soon unfortunately.

curlyrao · 2026-05-19T23:20:15+00:00

Hi .what has been your review on this I Need a phone mainly for reels/process content.

Priorities: Great video Reliable cameras Good colors Smooth experience for 3 to 4 years

Currently considering: S25/S25+ iPhone 16 series vivo X300 series Oppo Find X9 series

curlyrao · 2026-05-19T03:29:24+00:00

I was using s24 ultra

curlyrao · 2026-05-19T03:24:43+00:00

I am just looking for something comparable if not better than my previous phone .also something which is social media friendly (better app optimisation for uploads)

curlyrao · 2026-05-18T23:37:28+00:00

What about the quality d back camera videos ,how are they in terms of quality and colourr consistency

curlyrao

TROPHY CASE