Vivo X Fold 3 Pro Review: A Foldable That Makes a Statement, But Not Without Quirks
Samsung has long dominated the Indian foldable smartphone market, consistently offering smaller updates to its existing lineup. But Vivo, a relative newcomer to the foldable game, has boldly stepped into the fray with the X Fold 3 Pro – a phone that aims to capture the attention of discerning premium smartphone buyers. After spending several weeks with the device, it’s clear that Vivo hasn’t entirely reinvented the wheel with the X Fold 3 Pro, but it does take things to an impressive level, offering a compelling package of features and value compared to rivals. However, despite its strengths, the X Fold 3 Pro isn’t without its flaws. Read on to discover the highs and lows of Vivo’s latest flagship foldable.
The Vivo X Fold 3 Pro is available in India in just one configuration, offering 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage, with a hefty price tag of Rs. 1,59,999. This might seem like a steep price for any Android smartphone, let alone a foldable. However, considering Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 starts at Rs. 1,54,999 (512GB) and goes up to Rs. 1,84,999 (for the 1TB variant), and Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra, a non-foldable, is priced at Rs. 1,29,999, the X Fold 3 Pro suddenly appears like a more reasonable value proposition given its feature set. There’s definitely a lot to unpack here.
Vivo X Fold 3 Pro Review: Design – Thin Is In
- Dimensions (closed): 159.96 x 72.55 x 11.2mm
- Dimensions (open): 159.96 x 142.4 x 5.2mm
- Weight: 236 grams
- Colors: Celestial Black
With any foldable device, design, durability, and after-sales service are paramount. While I can’t comment on the latter two without long-term use, I can highlight Vivo’s distinct approach to reaching the top of the foldable game.
Vivo’s claim of being the thinnest foldable available in India holds true. While 11.2mm isn’t as slim as a typical bar-shaped premium flagship (around 8.5mm), it feels remarkably close when held. When unfolded, the device measures only 5.2mm, showcasing an astounding thinness not only for a foldable but even for a standard smartphone or tablet.
I’ve shown this foldable to friends and family, and it consistently impressed them. Many initially assumed it was a regular smartphone until I opened it, revealing the larger display within.
Adding further to its appeal, Vivo claims the foldable is IPX8 rated (similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5), giving buyers peace of mind about water resistance. While I tested the device by cautiously spraying water on it, I would advise against doing so, as the warranty doesn’t cover this, just like most premium smartphones on the market.
Vivo X Fold 3 Pro Review: Displays – Smarter by Design
- Cover Display: 6.53-inch, 2,748 x 1,172 pixels, full-HD+, 120Hz
- Main Display: 8.03-inch, 2,480 x 2,200 pixels, 2K+, 120Hz
- Cover Display Type: AMOLED (LTPO), Armour Glass
- Main Display Type: AMOLED (LTPO), UTG
At a massive 8.03 inches, the X Fold 3 Pro’s main folding display is currently the largest available on a foldable. It surpasses even bar-shaped flagships like Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra (6.8 inches) and Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max (6.7 inches), opening up compelling use cases. Despite their substantial size, both displays offer natural, vibrant colors and deliver exceptional brightness even under direct sunlight. There’s also no visible crease, even though the two halves fold flat against each other.
The main display’s slightly rectangular 4:3.55 aspect ratio, compared to the square aspect ratio of the OnePlus Open (1.0758:1), provides a more comfortable viewing experience for content consumption.
Vivo’s "flex mode," which places controls like cursor and brightness on the bottom half of the display in a laptop-like configuration, allows for a surprisingly large, full-fledged top half display. And when fully opened, the device effortlessly handles video content in any format or aspect ratio.
The cover display, also notably large at 6.53 inches with a 21.1:9 aspect ratio, makes it possible to pair a Bluetooth keyboard and use the phone as a compact Android tablet for light productivity. I found this larger screen to be extremely useful for attending briefings and meetings when a laptop wasn’t available. The proprietary Armour cover glass features a 3D curved edge on the right side, making swiping gestures feel incredibly natural and intuitive.
Following in the footsteps of Google’s Pixel Fold (which unfortunately never launched in India), Vivo has incorporated some clever features that take full advantage of the phone’s unique hinge and spacious displays.
When taking photos, users can position the camera half of the phone on a surface and use the other half as a tripod for capturing group photos from a distance, or even capturing better low-light landscapes.
A fold-to-split gesture activates by quickly unfolding the phone after closing it halfway. This splits the current fullscreen app into a dual-split format on the left side of the display and opens the app drawer for selecting a second app – incredibly convenient!
My personal favorite feature is the Desk Calendar AOD mode. Placing the X Fold 3 Pro on a table in tent mode leverages the cover display’s 1Hz refresh rate (LTPO) to turn the large screen into a practical table clock. While visually appealing and useful, the Desk Calendar AOD automatically switches off after a maximum of two hours.
The Vivo X Fold 3 Pro’s intelligence shines through in various ways. When watching a video, the phone detects the device’s state and orientation, whether it’s in hover mode, tented mode, folded, or wide open. It then intelligently projects the video on the appropriate screen or half, offering a seamless and intuitive user experience.
This seamless flipping and flexing is made possible by the phone’s innovative hinge. Vivo claims it’s significantly lighter than competing hinges and invested heavily in reducing the foldable’s weight to a remarkable 236 grams. This makes it 3 grams lighter than the titanium-laden Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and remarkable considering it houses a massive 5,700mAh battery, the largest we’ve seen on a foldable to date.
Unlike most foldables, the X Fold 3 Pro boasts two fingerprint readers embedded into their respective displays. While the one on the cover display proved incredibly reliable, I found the one on the main display to be less reliable, requiring a firm press to unlock the device with the screen open.
Vivo X Fold 3 Pro Review: Software – Needs a Bit of Polish
- Software: Funtouch OS 14
- Version: Android 14
- Latest Security Patch: 01 June, 2024
Unlike the OnePlus Open, the brand’s first book-style foldable, Vivo had ample time to refine its software experience given this is a third-generation device.
The foldable runs Vivo’s Funtouch OS, based on Android 14. Vivo commits to three years of software updates and four years of security updates for this foldable, which isn’t bad. However, given Samsung and Google’s commitment to up to seven years of software support, it falls short of expectations, especially as Vivo targets Samsung’s loyal customer base in India.
In some areas, Vivo’s software seems to lack the necessary polish.
Given the X Fold 3 Pro’s rectangular main display, it’s natural to reorient the screen from vertical (when opened) to landscape for viewing movies or running apps in tablet mode, adding a split-screen view and other functionalities for certain apps.
However, when reorienting the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro, not all apps stretch edge-to-edge, resulting in an annoying black bar nearly a centimeter wide running vertically on the left side of the display. This essentially wastes precious screen space. While some apps (like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Meta Messenger) stretched to fit the display, this didn’t include even Google’s own services like Messages (SMS), Calendar, Drive, and even Netflix. Netflix wouldn’t play videos in fullscreen without pinching to zoom, which inevitably cropped the frame.
A recent bug-squashing update introduced a "Display at the top of the screen" feature in Settings to address the selfie camera cutout, but it doesn’t seem to solve the issue entirely. Problematic apps still display a white filler bar on the left instead of the empty black void.
Having informed Vivo about this problem, the brand has assured me (through calls from its software team) that they are working on a fix. It’s concerning that this issue wasn’t detected during the initial testing phase.
While the phone comes preloaded with a plethora of Vivo apps (most of which can’t be uninstalled), some are genuinely useful, packing a much-needed AI punch that the brand’s flagships have lacked for some time. The functionality is still fairly basic. The native Notes app can create summaries from pasted text, while the recorder app, in addition to transcribing audio, can now create summaries of recordings.
For those who frequently record phone calls, Vivo’s dialer app allows for discreet recording without notifications or beeps before, after, or even during recording.
Vivo X Fold 3 Pro Review: Performance – Keepin’ It Cool
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
- RAM: LPDDR5X – 16GB
- Storage: UFS 4.0 – 512GB
With its potent processor and slim body, the phone does heat up during camera use under direct sunlight, but it wasn’t alarming and didn’t trigger any warnings even when shooting 4K video samples consecutively.
The device delivered impressive benchmark scores, surpassing the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and slightly exceeding the OnePlus Open.
| Benchmark | X Fold 3 Pro (Cover/Main) | OnePlus Open (Cover/Main) |
|---|---|---|
| AnTuTu v10 | 2,051,650 / 2,063,526 | 1,305,500 / 1,26,4480 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 14,489 / 14,251 | 10,276 / 10,521 |
| Geekbench 6 Single | 2,143 / 2,167 | 1,426 / 1,056 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 6,562 / 6,800 | 4,096 / 4,114 |
| GFXB T-rex | 120 / 120 | 60 / 60 |
| GFXB Manhattan 3.1 | 120 / 105 | 60 / 60 |
| GFXB Car Chase ** | 102 / 67 | 60 / 46 |
| 3DM Slingshot Extreme OpenGL** | Maxed Out / Maxed Out | Maxed Out / Maxed Out |
| 3DM Slingshot | Maxed Out / Maxed Out | Maxed Out / Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life | Maxed Out / Maxed Out | Maxed Out / Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life Unlimited | 17,985 / 18,721 | 13,731 / 13,731 |
Demanding 3D games like Genshin Impact ran flawlessly without any hiccups or unreasonable heating at the highest settings. Both displays remained perfectly responsive when playing Call of Duty: Mobile at Max and Ultra frame rates. The phone effortlessly multitasked while running a game alongside a YouTube video or even another game in split-screen mode.
This exceptional performance is attributed to Vivo’s intelligent integration of a large vapor cooling system into the device, despite its slender profile. The processor being strategically placed in the top half of the phone (when held in landscape mode) helps prevent warmth from reaching my hands during gaming sessions on the main display.
Vivo X Fold 3 Pro Review: Cameras – Could Be Better
- Main Camera: 50MP (OIS), f/1.68 aperture, AF
- Ultra-wide-angle Camera: 50MP, f/2.0 aperture, AF
- Telephoto Camera: 64MP (OIS), 3x optical zoom, f/2.57 aperture, AF
- Selfie Cameras: 32MP, FF (cover display) – 32MP, FF (main display)
The primary camera shines with professional-grade photographs in various lighting conditions. Autofocus locks on quickly in all situations, making it easy to capture sharp images of my children and pets in Portrait mode. Shooting city streets in low light delivers beautiful colors without saturation, while detail and sharpness meet expectations for a smartphone at this price point.
The telephoto camera also impressed with crisp portraits of subjects and objects in daylight and excellent color reproduction in low light. However, unlike the primary camera, the telephoto struggled slightly with moving objects, resulting in slightly soft images of subjects captured indoors under artificial light.
The Vivo X Fold 3 Pro’s telephoto camera can also be used for capturing close-ups or macro photos, delivering exceptional detail thanks to its high-resolution sensor. Zoom performance is quite impressive, switching to hybrid after 3x zoom, allowing for perfectly usable photos up to 10x, beyond which detail degrades and some purple fringing becomes apparent.
The ultra-wide camera isn’t quite as impressive as the other two, but it gets the job done in daylight. There’s noticeable barrel distortion, and the colors don’t match the results from the other two cameras. In dimly lit street settings, image quality suffers, with aggressive noise reduction distorting details. Additionally, colors appear slightly dull.
Both selfie cameras produce average results with textures lacking the detail of most flagships at or below this price point. However, taking advantage of the phone’s foldable design, it’s possible to use the primary camera as a selfie camera, delivering exceptional results with sharp details, vivid sharpness, and excellent edge detection. Low-light selfies captured using the primary camera were equally impressive.
The phone captures excellent 4K video at 30 or 60fps with impressive detail and dynamic range in both daylight and low light conditions. The videos offer a stable bitrate and are effectively stabilized. The T* coating effectively reduces lens flare when shooting video in low light. 8K 30fps footage surpassed the rest in quality, delivering impressive results even in dimly lit environments. However, it’s a bit shaky, and at 200MB for a 20-second clip, it’s not practical for everyday shooting.
Vivo X Fold 3 Pro Review: Battery – Bigger Is Better
- Battery Capacity: 5,700mAh (dual-cell)
- Wired Charging: 100W
- Wireless Charging: 50W
- Charger: 120W (included in the box)
Battery life is shockingly good for a foldable and remarkably impressive for a regular premium phone. Even with heavy usage, including AOD, the phone comfortably lasted more than a day, with mixed use of both displays. Casual usage easily extends the battery life beyond 1.5 days.
In our video loop battery test, the phone lasted an impressive 19 hours and 56 minutes on the cover display and equally remarkable 16 hours and 4 minutes on the main display. Even when the battery depleted, the included charger refilled this massive battery from zero to full in just 43 minutes, achieving an 82 percent charge in only 30 minutes.
Vivo X Fold 3 Pro Verdict
Samsung has consistently brought every foldable launched globally to the Indian market year after year. The brand enjoys a loyal following, making it challenging to persuade Samsung users to switch, let alone to a Vivo-branded device.
However, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro offers compelling unique features like bigger (higher-resolution) displays, unparalleled raw performance, additional functionalities (with a touch of AI), and superior overall camera performance, making it a standout. Vivo appears to have done enough to catch the attention of discerning smartphone buyers, especially when considering the device is manufactured in India.
Surprisingly, Vivo doesn’t offer any paid care programs to extend the foldable’s warranty, as Samsung and OnePlus do. This means you’ll have to be extra careful (or pay for damages yourself) if the display or hinge gets damaged beyond the warranty period, which can be a hefty expense.
If software experience is your top priority, the OnePlus Open is a better choice, especially at a lower price, but it lacks several features that the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro offers. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 remains the go-to foldable for many, especially with its S-Pen stylus support. However, the increasing competition in the foldable market this year with devices like the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro makes it hard to ignore the significant hardware and feature upgrades being offered.
