Samsung currently dominates the global foldable market, but Chinese companies have been trying their hand at making alternatives to the Korean giant’s offerings. The Vivo X Fold is the latest entry in this relatively new category and, unsurprisingly, it looks a lot like the Galaxy Z Fold3.
After weeks of teasers and leaks, Vivo’s first foldable phone is now official. The Vivo X Fold is the latest device to break away from the standard smartphone design we’ve seen for well over a decade. Instead of a rigid sandwich of plastic, metal, and glass that can only get so big before it no longer fits in a pocket, the X Fold gives users a foldable display protected by a layer of “ultra-thin glass” designed and manufactured by Schott.
That material is the same one Samsung is using for its Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold3, but Vivo is making bigger claims about durability when it comes to its foldable phone. Specifically, the company says the X Fold’s interior 8.03-inch 120Hz LTPO OLED display can take at least 300,000 folds before developing a defect, which is quite a bit higher than Samsung’s promised endurance of 200,000 folds.
Vivo X Fold’s hinge shown in action
Vivo says the hinge allows the screen to be rotated between 60 and 120 degrees, for use in tent mode or as a tiny laptop, which can come in handy for video calls and taking timed photos. Otherwise, you can use the new phone folded flat for more screen real estate or, on occasions when you can make do with the smaller outside screen, completely closed.
Internal specs are in line with what you’d expect from a flagship — Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen1 Mobile Platform paired with 12 gigabytes of RAM and up to 512 gigabytes of storage. Both the interior and the outer display support 120 Hz, and all of this is powered by a 4,600 mAh battery with support for fast charging at up to 66 watts with a cable and up to 50 watts on a wireless charger.
The massive camera module on the back includes a 50-megapixel main shooter, a 48-megapixel ultra-wide lens, a 12-megapixel 2x telephoto lens, and an 8-megapixel 5x periscope camera. Vivo has chosen to integrate a punch-hole 16-megapixel selfie shooter on both the interior and outer screens, so phone camera buffs will have little to complain about.
Other notable features include two in-display fingerprint sensors, with one under each side of the interior screen. The Vivo X Fold also supports reverse wireless charging at up to 10 watts, and the company took a page straight out of Apple’s book with an alert/mute slider.
Unfortunately, this is a China-exclusive product and Vivo says there are no plans to take it to the global market — at least for now. The Vivio X Fold will start at 8,999 yuan ($1,413) for the base model with 12 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage, while a variant with double the storage will cost 9,999 yuan ($1,570).
