X Fold: Vivo’s first foldable phone has a huge camera bump and runs on Snapdragon 8 gen 1

Vivo has finally entered the foldable smartphone race with the introduction of the Vivo X Fold. Similar to other foldable contenders like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, Huawei Mate X2, Honor Magic V, Mi Mix Fold and the Oppo Find N, the Vivo X Fold gets a cover display and it opens up to a larger screen on the inside.

On the cover, the device features a 6.53″ 21:9 AMOLED display which pushes a 2520×1080 pixels resolution. For a big-screen experience, the internal screen uses a flexible 8.03″ AMOLED panel with a resolution of 2160×1916 pixels in a 4:3.55 aspect ratio, and it supports HDR10+. According to Vivo, the X Fold is the world’s first device to feature a 120Hz refresh rate for both internal and external displays.

The internal screen boasts LTPO adaptive refresh rate which can go to as low as 1Hz, which Vivo says can provide up to 32.4% reduction in power consumption. In addition, Vivo X Fold is also claimed to be the world’s first device to have a 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on both internal and external displays. For better screen durability while having great visibility, the device uses Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG) which is similar to Samsung’s new foldable devices.

Similar to the Oppo Find N, the X Fold can close completely flat without any noticeable “thigh gap”. Apparently, the hinge also gets TUV Rheinland certification and it can survive with over 300,000 folds.

Under the hood, it gets a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip which is similar to the Honor Magic V. It gets 12GB of quad-channel LPDDR5 RAM and a choice of either 256GB or 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. If you need more RAM, you can extend up to 4GB extra using the Virtual RAM Extender feature.

In the camera department, the Vivo X Fold has a pretty versatile camera system with Zeiss optics. The rear gets a quad-camera setup housed in a large circular camera bump and it consists of a 50MP f/1.75 main camera with a 1/1.57″ sensor, a 48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera, an 8MP f/3.4 periscope telephoto camera that does 5x optical and 60x superzoom, and a 12MP f/1.98 portrait lens. Both main and telephoto cameras come with optical image stabilisation.

For selfies, it gets a 16MP shooter that sits in a tiny punch-hole. Similar to most foldable devices, you can use the main camera for selfies while using the cover display as a viewfinder.

Powering the device is a 4,600mAh battery, which is bigger than the Oppo Find N’s 4,500mAh battery but smaller than Honor Magic V’s 4,750mAh capacity. It supports 66W flash charging via USB-C and a blazing fast 50W wireless charging.

As you would expect for a 2022 flagship, it supports 5G in both SA and NSA modes, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 and NFC. Another nice addition is a physical mute slider on the sides of the device. Out of the box, it runs on Android 12 with OriginOS Ocean skin on top.

Vivo X Fold Pricing and availability

At the moment, the Vivo X Fold is only offered in China and here’s the official pricing:

• Vivo X Fold 12GB RAM + 256GB storage – CNY 8,999 (about RM5,979)
• Vivo X Fold 12GB RAM + 512GB storage – CNY 9,999 (about RM6,643)

The device is offered in Blue and Grey. So far there’s no word of its availability outside of China.