The Vivo X Fold is a Galaxy Z Fold 3 rival with a huge catch

Chinese electronics manufacturer Vivo has launched its first foldable phone, the X Fold, which offers flagship specs and promises to best the rival Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 in a crucial way.

The Vivo X Fold looks familar to other mainstream foldables currently on the market, pairing an inside 8.03-inch folding display for tablet functionality, with a 6.53-inch exterior screen for more traditional phone-style use. Its hinge allows it to be used at between 60 and 120 degrees for things like video calling and other laptop-esque functionality, with both displays offering a 120Hz refresh rate.

As per Android Authority’s report, while Samsung claims current-gen Galaxy Fold devices claim they’ll last for up to 200,000 folds, the Vivo X Fold ups the ante and says its screen can take as many as 300,000 folds – equivalent to opening and closing 80 times a day for 10 years, as the blog points out.

Vivo also promises a crease-free design, but we’ll have to inspect this in the flesh before passing judgement, as we’ve yet to see this kind of boast truly delivered on.

Elsewhere, it’s a familar 2022 flagship Android phone package. There’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor backed by 12GB of RAM, either 256GB or 512GB of on-board storage, wireless charging at 50W (or 66W wired), and a 4,600mAh battery.

There’s a quad-camera system equipped on the rear, compromised of a a 50-megapixel primary camera, 48-megapixel ultrawide lens, 12-megapixel 2x telephoto lens, and an 8-megapixel 5x periscope. For selfie fiends, both the inner and outer screens offer 16-megapixel cams as well, done in the hole-punch style that Apple is rumoured to be switching to with the iPhone 14 later this year.

The catch? It’s a big one. The Vivo X Fold is currently only confirmed for the company’s native China, though as the firm is parented by a conglomerate that also includes Oppo, those in the West wanting something similar can check out our Oppo Find N review to see how that foldable fares in a long-term test.

Got access to the Chinese consumer electronics market? Then can buy the Vivo X from ¥8,999, which is about £1,085 or $1,410 in the US.

• Related: Best foldable phones

James Laird Contributing Editor

About

James has been covering gadgets and other cool tech stuff for more than 10 years, most recently as the Sports and TV Streaming Editor at TechRadar. Before that, he was News and Features Editor at Trusted Reviews, where he developed a love of big phones and even bigger headlines. In his spare time, he can usually be found behaving badly on a golf course or watching the New England Patriots.