Andy Walker / Android Authority
One of the first things I would pack for road trips was my trusty Nikon DSLR. I’ve captured some truly memorable moments with the kit lens and 70-300mm zoom lens, but I always lamented just how much space the latter required.
You can imagine my excitement when pioneering Chinese firms started rolling out telephoto extenders that work with their camera phones. The concept certainly seemed ridiculous, but now that I’ve used one for several months, it’s by far the most exciting Android phone trend of the future.
What is your opinion on the telephoto extender lens trend? 37 votes I love it. It's novel, exciting, and adds value to the camera experience. 41 % I like it, but I don't think it'll be around for long. 14 % I'm not sure. I'd need to use such a system first. 22 % I dislike it. I don't think it adds much to the phone camera experience. 11 % I hate it. Companies should be improving other aspects of camera hardware. 11 % I have a more complicated opinion (explain in the comments). 3 %
Telephoto extenders aren’t new, but they’re more polished than ever before
Paul Jones / Android Authority
For the uninitiated, a telephoto extender (also referred to as zoom lenses, telephoto converters, or teleconverters) is effectively an attachable lens that extends a camera phone’s effective zoom range. This allows a phone to reach further than it theoretically could with its standard built-in camera kit. The device I’ve been using for a few months now — the vivo X200 Ultra — mounts its extenal lens to its 200MP periscope camera to give an effective 200mm of zoom. That’s native zoom — no digital trickery is involved, at least not initially.
Telephoto extenders enhance the zoom range of smartphone cameras, allowing them to reach even further.
The concept isn’t exactly new — one of my favorite Samsung products was the 2014 Galaxy K Zoom. Unlike modern devices that support external telephoto extenders, it had a retractable lens, which gave it considerable bulk and an utterly silly profile. While I loved the brashness of the concept, it’s fair to say that camera hardware wasn’t quite up to snuff back then.
More than a decade later, with phones now regularly packing capable sensors, vivo launched the X200 Ultra. The 2025 phone was one of the first commercial devices with a purpose-built teleconverter, and it kicked off a lens rush. The OPPO Find X9 Pro followed late last year with its own farther-reaching attachable lens, while vivo followed up with the X300 Pro. There’s even a rumor that Apple is considering such an accessory for the iPhone 18 series. There’s no doubt that telephoto extenders are hot right now, but they’re more than just hype — they’re practical, feasible, and hugely rewarding for photography.
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