Vivo X Fold 3 Review: The Stairway To Premium
Vivo brings this confidence to the market with a phone that I believe is going to be the class of the field for the foldable category in technical terms
If the X series of camera-focused smartphones made everyone stand up and recognise Vivo's chops as a flagship camera phone brand, its latest gambit is sure to prop up its aspiration of becoming numero uno in the Indian smartphone market, after garnering that accolade briefly in 2023 and then returning to number 2 behind the might of Samsung last quarter. Of course, I am talking about the new Vivo X Fold 3 which marks the Chinese brand's grand foray into the ultra-premium segment and foldable phone space that so far has been dominated by Samsung.
While this is Vivo's first foldable for the Indian market, it has been making foldable phones in China in the last couple of years with masterful adeptness. Vivo brings this confidence to the market with a phone that I believe is going to be the class of the field for the foldable category in technical terms.
Although I don't believe this will be the best-selling foldable considering Samsung's enormous pull as a brand and its marketing capability, this will be the best foldable purely from a hardware perspective.
Vivo exhibits marvellous engineering capability with the X Fold 3. This is the slimmest foldable phone in India at 11.2 mm thick when folded and a slender 5.2 mm thickness when unfolded. This means that even when folded, it doesn't feel chunky and feels more like a normal phone from a couple of years ago. It also weighs just 236 grams, which means it is lighter than an iPhone 14 Pro Max, the flagship iPhone from just a year ago. While doing so, it's almost as thick. It is by far the thinnest and lightest foldable phone in the country. What's incredible is that Vivo manages this while having external and internal screens that are larger than foldables offered by brands like Samsung and OnePlus. The external screen is 6.53 inches, and the internal one is 8.03 inches. There is liberal use of carbon fibre in the keel of the hinge, and then there is also massive use of stainless steel, which ensures it is strong and light.
It is so strong that Vivo encourages users to keep folding and unfolding the screen as a half-cocked fold enables multi-window multitasking amongst apps, an ingenious hack which makes running multiple apps simultaneously simpler. But this wouldn't happen had Vivo not had confidence in the rigidity of the hinge. Vivo claims that one can execute 100 folds a day for 12 years, which is unreal.
The screens are gorgeous — they are big, bright, and pin-sharp. These are the brightest screens on a foldable and amongst the brightest screens we have seen on a smartphone, period. 4,500 nits of brightness means that I was even able to sit in the searing Delhi sun last week to jot some notes down while I was preparing to file this review. I could watch the first episode of Star Wars Acolyte on this big screen which provides a compelling tablet-like canvas for getting all sorts of work done. And unlike the Samsung Fold, one doesn't notice the ungainly crease. Vivo has managed to mask the crease even better than the OnePlus Open. Vivo has also managed to incorporate an in-display fingerprint scanner on both the screens, a first for the internal screen which works reliably.
It is married with stereo speakers which sound decent enough, making it an excellent multimedia companion. On the cover glass, Vivo has created a new polymer which it calls armour that will scratch less. On the internal screen, Vivo has added a new high-tensile film which further protects the phone. The back panel, which provides a rubber-like feel, is also made out of this armour polymer which combines glass and UPE fibre elements. It has a very ergonomic feel. And mind you, this is a very sturdy phone considering it also gets IPX8 water resistance.
Adding to the ergonomics of this phone is the external screen which is not only massive by foldable standards but also can be used like a normal phone thanks to its wide aspect ratio. Sure, it doesn't feel as balanced as the OnePlus Open, but it's certainly leagues ahead of the Galaxy Fold 5 with a screen-to-body ratio that is upwards of 90%. Mind you, inside all of this, Vivo uses a 5,700mAh battery which is more than 1,000mAh larger than one on any other foldable. It also supports up to 100W of fast charging and 50W of wireless charging, the fastest on a foldable, and also crams the most sophisticated camera setup one has seen on a foldable that will blow away the latest iPhone and Galaxy S24 models in image quality.
The Vivo X Fold 3 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 coupled with 16GB DDR5X RAM and is armed with 512GB UFS 4.1 storage. Simply put, this is the most advanced computing hardware one can get on a 2024 smartphone. Vivo has also partnered with Google for its Gemini Nano AI models that run on Vivo apps like notes and the voice recorder for summarisation of documents and transcription of notes. It is a limited implementation, but this phone does the basic stuff most people want with GenAI.
In day-to-day performance, this phone flies. It is the class of the field. Multitasking is a breeze, and one can have multiple apps running simultaneously, not just in the background but also with multiple windows running at the same time. Gaming is world-class on this phone, especially when one is running graphically rich games like Call Of Duty Mobile with console-like graphics and limited frame rate drops.
Security has also been addressed with a dedicated chip which handles security, making it more secure than the OnePlus Open and on par with the Samsung Knox suite which is part of Samsung's fabled foldables.
Battery life is exceptionally good for a foldable. I managed to run this phone for upwards of 20 hours regularly on a single charge, which equates to around a day and a half of usage. And when one ran out of juice, I was able to recharge it within 45 minutes. And wirelessly, one can buy the 50W Vivo charger; otherwise, too, it supports the Qi2 standard which will charge slowly.
Call and network quality on this phone was excellent — I used the phone in Delhi NCR for a week on a Jio SIM. It is a dual SIM phone which is another nicety to have.
Software-wise, this phone is based on FunTouch OS 14 based on Android 14. It will get updated to Android 15, but on the update path, Vivo is behind Samsung. That being said, I like the customisations to the operating system to enable multitasking; it is impressive, but it is not as elaborate as what OnePlus has done with the Open or even the Samsung Galaxy Fold for that matter. Actually, a lot of the customisations have been done to the camera shooting experience.
Vivo has established itself as a leader in mobile imaging. Its rear triple camera array is the most audacious one seen on a foldable. It combines a stacked transistor Omnivision 50-megapixel primary which has an f/1.68 aperture with an optically stabilised lens, coupled with a 64-megapixel telephoto 3x lens that was seen on the Vivo X100 and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera. This is the best camera seen on a foldable — for both videos and photos. In fact, it is a better camera than Xiaomi's highly fancied 14 and even the latest iPhones or Samsung's flagship Galaxy S line.
It takes cinematic photos that remind you of a DSLR camera, especially when portraits are taken. Of course, Vivo's partnership with Carl Zeiss kicks in, and the added advantage of its V3 image processing chip comes to bear. One gets the advantage of Zeiss lens simulations, and then there are filters like the vintage one which makes shots feel like they were composed from a rustic vintage rangefinder camera.
It can take really superb 4k video which holds up to what Samsung has been providing on Android. The ultra-wide camera takes captivating landscape shots that will make your Instagram feed come alive. Then there are also twin 32-megapixel selfie cameras placed on both the screens which are decent enough.
But I never really bothered with then because I could use the cover screen to use the main camera for selfies which looked brilliant. One can also prop the phone in an unfolded manner, using the phone like a handy cam from yesteryear with controls on the bottom end of the screen and viewfinder on the upper screen. This also came in handy for timelapse shots as the phone can sit on its own still without a tripod thanks to its form factor.
In a way, this is a better camera than even the Vivo X100 Pro due to the dynamism of its form factor.
Vivo has a winner on its hands. There is no doubt from a hardware perspective this is the best foldable in the country and, arguably, it is perhaps the best one in the world. It counters every weakness and compromise a foldable brings to the fore: the weight, the thickness, the screen size and quality, the cameras, the security, and the overall sturdiness of the package. Even on the aftersales bit, Vivo will be providing extensive support at its lavish service centres which are wholly owned and operated. Everything has been addressed. Of course, the Vivo brand still has a ways to go, but if you are willing to give it a shot, you will be pleasantly surprised. Will it elevate Vivo to grander heights? Only time will tell.
