vivo X Fold announced: A feature-filled foldable with an alert slider

We’ve known about vivo’s first foldable, dubbed the X Fold, for a while now thanks to leaks and vivo’s own teases. The day is finally here though, as the company has just launched the foldable in China, alongside the vivo Pad tablet and vivo X Note smartphone.

The new foldable takes the Galaxy Z Fold 3 route by featuring a smartphone screen on the outside and a tablet-sized folding display on the inside. The former screen is a 6.53-inch FHD+ 120Hz OLED panel (2,520 x 1,080, E5, 21:9, HDR10+), while the foldable display is an 8.03-inch 120Hz LTPO OLED panel (2,160 x 1,916, E5, HDR10+, 4:3.55).

Thankfully, vivo is providing ultra-thin glass on the folding screen for a measure of protection. Furthermore, the company claims that this screen is certified for up to 300,000 folds — equivalent to folding and unfolding the device 80 times a day for 10 years.

More reading: The best foldable phones you can buy right now

Much like the Galaxy Z Fold series, vivo says the phone’s inside screen can be rotated between 60 degrees and 120 degrees like a laptop (enabling use-cases such as video calling and using the camera without a tripod or watching videos without propping the phone up against something). The company is also claiming that the inside screen has a crease-free design, although we’ll need to spend time with a review unit to figure out if that’s indeed the case.

The X Fold stands out due to the use of two ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensors, with one for each screen. This is a notable departure from all other large foldables on the market, as they offer a side fingerprint scanner embedded in the power button.

Otherwise, the vivo foldable is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 flagship SoC, a 4,600mAh battery, 66W wired charging (taking the phone to 100% in 37 minutes), and 50W wireless top-ups.

Vivo’s first foldable also brings a pretty familiar rear camera setup to last year’s X70 Pro Plus, featuring a 50MP main shooter (Samsung GN5), 48MP ultrawide lens (114-degree field-of-view), a 12MP 2x telephoto lens (IMX663), and an 8MP 5x periscope camera. We also get punch-hole cutouts on both screens, hosting a 16MP camera on the smartphone display and a 16MP shooter on the folding panel.

The vivo X Fold also comes with an alert/mute slider (seen in the image above), the China-only OriginOS Android skin, and 10W reverse wireless charging.

What else did vivo announce?

The BBK-affiliated brand also had two more major products to unveil on the day, as it revealed the vivo X Note and vivo Pad.

Starting with the phone, the vivo X Note goes all-in on a large screen, featuring a 7-inch LTPO OLED display (3,080 x 1,440, 21:10, 120Hz). A big screen usually means a big battery, and you’ve got a 5,000mAh battery here. The phone is also equipped with 80W wired charging, promising a 100% charge in 32 minutes. Otherwise, 50W wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging is also available on the device.

As for the camera experience, you’re getting a quad rear camera system here that’s almost identical to the vivo X Fold. However, the sole change here is the switch from the 50MP GN5 main camera to the slightly larger GN1 camera sensor.

Other notable vivo X Note features include a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, IP68 rating, an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint sensor with a large scanning area, a mute slider, cross-device support with PCs, OriginOS, and 8.37mm thickness.

Moving to the tablet, the vivo Pad offers a Snapdragon 870 chipset, 8,040mAh battery with 44W charging, and an 11-inch 120Hz 2,560 x 1,600 display. Camera duties are handled by an unspecified dual rear camera system. Interestingly enough, the vivo Pad is also equipped with a front-facing 3D ToF camera for secure face unlock.

Vivo’s tablet also supports an optional stylus (offering up to 4,096 levels of pressure) and an optional keyboard case.

vivo X Fold price and availability

The vivo X Fold is available in China with a faux leather back, starting at 8,999 yuan (~$1,413) for the 12GB/256GB model. There’s also a 9,999 yuan (~$1,570) variant, packing 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Meanwhile, the vivo X Note starts at 5,999 yuan (~$942) for the base 8GB/256GB model, while the vivo Pad starts at 2,499 yuan (~$392) for the entry-level 8GB/128GB option.

vivo previously told us last month that there were no plans at the moment for the foldable to receive a global launch. We hope this changes as Samsung could do with the competition on a global level.