Galaxy Z who? This newly launched foldable brings a 7,000mAh battery and external lens

Vivo has been teasing the X Fold 6 foldable phone for a few weeks now, and it’s looking like a pretty impressive rival to Samsung’s Fold line. Thankfully, the teasing is over, as vivo has just launched the new device.

The X Fold 6 has a more rounded design than the X Fold 5, but matches last year’s foldable by offering an IP58/59 rating. It’s not quite on par with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold (IP68) or HONOR Magic V6 (IP69), but it’s still better than the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s IP48 rating.

Unfurl the device, and you’ll find an 8.02-inch folding OLED screen (5,000 nits peak brightness, Samsung M14). There’s no word if vivo has adopted a zero-feel crease like the OPPO Find N6, but the company says the hinge is rated for 600,000 folds. Otherwise, you can expect a cover screen with improved nanocrystal glass protection.

Perhaps the best thing about the vivo X Fold 6 is the camera system. The manufacturer has aped Samsung and OPPO by switching to a 200MP main camera (1/1.4-inch, Isocell HPB, f/1.68), but you’ve still got a 50MP ultrawide shooter and a 50MP 3x telephoto camera (LYT-602, 1/1.95-inch). The tele sensor is actually larger than the Z Fold 7, Find N6, and Magic V6 sensors.

Furthermore, vivo’s foldable phone supports an external camera lens for the first time. The X Fold 6 specifically supports vivo’s second-generation 200mm telephoto extender, which attaches to the 50MP 3x camera. This peripheral lets you take native ~8.3x photos and videos, or lossless-resolution ~17x snaps. The foldable doesn’t support vivo’s monster 400mm telephoto extender, but this might be for the best given the add-on’s ridiculous weight and size.

Other notable camera-related features include 4K/60fps Dolby Vision video capture, multiple film styles, and an AI camera coach. Vivo will also offer the X300 Ultra’s color palette adjustments, but it’s unclear if you can share custom picture styles with others, as is the case with the Ultra handset.

What else to expect?

As for core specs, the X Fold 6 has a MediaTek Dimensity 9500 Super Edition chipset and a 7,000mAh silicon-carbon battery. This is among the largest batteries we’ve seen in a foldable phone to date. The HONOR Magic V6 is the only foldable with a larger battery (7,150mAh), but this is restricted to the 1TB model in China. The phone also sports wireless charging, although vivo didn’t note the speed at the time of writing.

Vivo claimed earlier this month that the customized Dimensity chip is optimized for large foldables and delivers improved multitasking and multi-window rendering. The company is indeed offering an improved version of its Origin Workbench multitasking feature. The feature was first seen on the X Fold 5 and allowed you to run five apps in separate windows, with one large and four smaller windows. However, the X Fold 6’s version offers several more split-view layouts, along with the ability to save these layouts for one-click opening. Furthermore, vivo says the phone now has a file manager with AI features like intelligent file renaming and file suggestions for meetings.

Vivo has confirmed that the X Fold 6 starts at 7,999 yuan (~$1,176) for the 12GB/256GB variant, all the way up to 10,999 yuan (~$1,617) for the 16GB/1TB model. The phone is available in Blue Hole, Salt Lake, Polar Night, and Black Gold color schemes. However, the Black Gold model is only available in a 16GB/1TB variant and will set you back 11,299 yuan (~$1,661).

There’s no word on the X Fold 6’s wider availability yet. We’ve asked vivo about a global release and will update our article when the company gets back to us.