Vivo X Fold Smartphone Review: The folding phone is flexible with screen and camera

Foldable smartphones are a great thing: They are quite handy when folded, but the screen can expand to almost tablet-sized when unfolded.

The Vivo X Fold is actually more expansive than its big competitor from Samsung, the Galaxy Z Fold3, when open but is somewhat smaller when compared to the screen of the Microsoft Surface Duo 2, although Microsoft cannot offer a completely continuous display. You also have to be prepared to carry more weight than a conventional smartphone — the Vivo X Fold is particularly heavy at 311 g.

The back of Vivo's foldable is covered in vegan leather, i.e. artificial leather, which looks to be of very high-quality and even gives the impression of a seam in the decorative stripe that runs vertically over the casing with a slight offset to the left. Blue and black are available as colors, wherein these refer to the back and the frame.

The frame is made of aluminum, and the protective Xensation Alpha glass is supplied by the German manufacturer Schott. It is supposed to be better than other protective glasses in terms of scratch resistance and drop resistance. A flexible plastic glass from Schott is also used on the inside as well as for the protective glass of the cameras on the back.

The Vivo X Fold is currently only available as a Chinese import. Although it can be purchased in China for the equivalent of €1,300, the import prices at our partner TradingShenzhen are significantly higher at just under €1,600.

In return, you get a superbly equipped high-end phone with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of mass storage — a 512 GB version is also available internationally. Small gimmicks like the physical alert slider on the casing and an infrared sensor that can also be used to control TVs are nice features.

Fortunately, even as a Chinese import, the Vivo X Fold supports all necessary 4G bands for Central Europe and should also be able to access the 4G network in almost every country worldwide. 5G is also supported with numerous bands. During our test, we randomly checked the device's reception and compared it with other high-end phones, and found that the phone has full 4G reception even indoors.

Wi-Fi 6E is not supported, so the Vivo X Fold cannot transmit data in the 6 GHz band. Even so, it achieves good, stable transmission rates. The phone only shows a small drop during our test with the reference router Asus ROG AXE11000.

Origin OS Ocean is the name of the UI that the manufacturer installs. It is based on Android 12 but is strongly adapted to the Chinese market. Nevertheless, languages such as English or German can also be selected and even Google Services can be enabled via an option in the account menu, so you can use the Google Play Store and other Google apps relatively easily. Even Google Pay is possible, as well as all important streaming services in their entirety thanks to the Widevine certification

However, it should be noted that the system is not optimized for the Western market out-of-the-box. There are numerous Chinese apps preinstalled, though most of them can be uninstalled quite easily. Even with the language selection adjusted, you do get Chinese notifications every now and then where you have to make a selection. If you are someone who does not speak Mandarin, you do not know what the system wants from you.

Since both displays support 120 Hz, the operation runs very smoothly and also very precisely. The crease in the center of the folding display is slightly noticeable and also inhibits the finger from gliding a bit, but the inner touchscreen can be operated very well in general.

Vivo has installed two under-display fingerprint sensors — one in the outer display and the other on the right side of the screen. You only have to register the fingerprint on one of the two sensors and can then use it on both. They work very accurately and quickly even when the screen is turned off. 2D facial recognition can also be used and works without problems, but it is not quite as secure.

Measurement series with fixed zoom level and different brightness settings

With its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 the Vivo X Fold uses a fairly up-to-date high-end chip and achieves very good numbers in our benchmarks. The system can still be used smoothly even with several apps open. The graphics performance is on a high level and also enables gaming on the foldable smartphone.

The smartphone does not heat up so much under load that it becomes uncomfortable, which is a good thing considering the high waste heat of the SoC.

The stereo speakers, which are installed in the top and bottom of the phone's frame, do a good job and also allow bass to be felt. The sound could be a bit more powerful and voluminous, but the speakers are overall sufficient for occasional music enjoyment. The audio output to external devices is either done via the USB-C port or via Bluetooth. All of the important aptX codecs are supported.

The battery can be charged at a maximum of 66 W via cable; a full charge takes just under 40 minutes. The phone can be charged wirelessly at 50 W, and those who want to can also supply other devices with power with up to 10 W of reverse wireless charging. 

In terms of battery life, you have to make some concessions due to the double display and the large surface. However, the Vivo X Fold manages 11:38 hours on its 4,600 mAh battery in our Wi-Fi test with the brightness set at 150 cd/m². The phone should thus survive a typical workday.

The Vivo X Fold is currently only available as a Chinese import. At our rental provider tradingshenzhen.com you pay €1,597 at the time of testing, but you get comprehensive services like warranty processing and help videos.