Samsung has been resting on years of delivering smaller updates for its clients in India. So, a brand new participant (within the foldable market) like Vivo actually must reinvent the wheel to get a premium smartphone purchaser’s consideration. After utilizing the cellphone for a number of weeks, I can conclude that Vivo has not precisely reinvented the wheel with its X Fold 3 Professional. However it does take issues to the following stage, providing loads of worth and options in comparison with the competitors. As feature-packed as it might appear, it is not excellent. Learn on to seek out out why.

The Vivo X Fold 3 Pro is obtainable in only one RAM and storage choice with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of inner storage that’s priced at a staggering Rs. 1,59,999 in India. It might look like a really excessive value to pay for an Android smartphone, not to mention a foldable one. However browse round, and you’ll discover that Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 begins from Rs. 1,54,999 (512GB) and goes all the best way as much as Rs. 1,84,999 (for the 1TB variant). Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Extremely can also be priced at Rs. 1,29,999, and it is not foldable. All of the sudden, the Vivo X Fold 3 Professional looks like a fairly whole lot, given what it presents. And there certain is a lot!

Vivo X Fold 3 Professional Evaluate Design: Skinny 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

As with each foldable system, design, sturdiness, and repair play a serious function. Whereas I can’t touch upon the final two (until I exploit it long-term), I can let you know in regards to the barely completely different strategy that Vivo has taken to get to the very high of its sport.

The Vivo X Fold 3 Professional is simply 5.2mm thick when open

Vivo’s declare about being the thinnest foldable on provide in India is real. At 11.2mm, it is not as slim as a bar-shaped premium flagship (often round 8.5mm), however it feels shut sufficient once you maintain it. Unfolded, it measures simply 5.2mm, which is impressively skinny not only for a foldable however even for a daily smartphone or pill.

Having proven this foldable to family and friends, it was straightforward to wow them as a result of many assumed it was a daily smartphone till I pried it open from the facet, revealing the bigger show inside.

And if that wasn’t sufficient, Vivo additionally claims that foldable is IPX8 rated (identical to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5), which ought to give consumers peace of thoughts when utilizing it within the rain. Whereas I did bravely spray water on the foldable, I’ll advise towards doing in order the guarantee doesn’t cowl this, identical to every other premium smartphone out there.

Vivo X Fold 3 Professional Evaluate Shows: Smarter by design

• Cowl show – 6.53-inch, 2,748 × 1,172 pixels, full-HD+, 120Hz
• Major show – 8.03-inch, 2,480 × 2,200 pixels, 2K+, 120Hz
• Cowl show kind – AMOLED (LTPO), Armour Glass
• Major show kind – AMOLED (LTPO), UTG

At 8.03 inches, the principle folding show is the biggest on a foldable to this point. It is taller and wider than any bar-shaped flagship as nicely, together with Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Extremely (6.8-inch) and Apple’s iPhone 15 Professional Max (6.7-inch). It makes for some attention-grabbing use instances for this smartphone. The foldable’s shows, regardless of their bigger than normal measurement, provide good pure colors and get loads of vibrant outside, even below direct daylight. There is not any seen crease, though each halves fold flat towards each other.

I may comfortably eat content material on the principle show because of its barely rectangular 4:3.55 facet ratio, which is loads higher than the sq. one the OnePlus Open (1.0758:1) presents.

Even when folded in Vivo’s “flex mode”, which lays the controls (cursor, brightness, and so on.) on the underside half of the show (like a laptop computer), the highest half of the show was as massive, broad and huge as a daily premium flagship. When totally opened, it was enjoyable to look at the video, irrespective of which format or facet ratio content material was shot in.

The Vivo X Fold 3 Professional’s primary show at 8.03 inches is the most important one round

And at 6.53 inches, even the quilt show, with its 21.1:9 facet ratio, is likely one of the largest ones out there on a foldable. It is extremely a lot doable to pair a Bluetooth keyboard with the cellphone and use it as a small Android pill for gentle productiveness. I additionally discovered the massive show very helpful whereas attending briefing calls and conferences when a pc was not out there. The proprietary Armour cowl glass additionally has a 3D curved edge on the appropriate facet, making swiping gestures very inviting and pure.

Like Google’s Pixel Fold (which by no means got here to India), Vivo has added some nifty options that make the most of the cellphone’s hinge and enormous shows.

When capturing images, you’ll be able to hover the digicam half of the cellphone and use the opposite half as a tripod for snapping group images from a distance and even for capturing higher low-light landscapes.

A fold-to-split gesture prompts once you shut the fold midway after which (rapidly) open it once more. This locations the present fullscreen app to the left in a dual-spit format and opens up the app drawer so that you can choose the second app. Fairly handy!

The Desk Calendar AOD mode needs to be my favorite. Place the X Fold 3 Professional on a desk in tent mode, and the quilt show’s 1Hz refresh fee (LTPO) turns the massive display screen right into a desk clock. Whereas it certain appears cool and sensible, the Desk Calendar AOD mechanically switches off after a most period of two hours.

The Vivo X Fold 3 Professional’s Desk Calendar AOD characteristic makes glorious use of the hinge

The Vivo X Fold 3 Professional can also be very good. When viewing a video, the cellphone will detect its state and orientation relying on whether or not it is in hover mode, tented mode, folded or huge open. Well mission the video on the proper display screen (or half) dealing with you. It is one thing that simply works flawlessly and feels very pure.

All of this flipping and flexing is feasible due to the brand new hinge. Vivo claims it’s a lot lighter than the competitors and went to several lengths to get this foldable’s weight right down to 236 grams. This makes it 3 grams lighter than the titanium-laden Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely. And it manages to remain this gentle and slim regardless of having an enormous 5,700mAh battery backup, which is once more the biggest we have now seen on a foldable to this point.

In contrast to most foldables, the X Fold 3 Professional has two fingerprint readers, that are embedded into their respective shows. Whereas I discovered the one on the quilt show to be very dependable, I struggled with the one on the principle show, which wants a tough press to reliably unlock the system with the display screen open.

Vivo X Fold 3 Professional Software program: Wants a little bit of polish

In contrast to the OnePlus Open, the model’s first book-style foldable, Vivo absolutely had sufficient time to refine its software program expertise, on condition that it is a third-generation system.

The foldable runs Vivo’s Funtouch OS, based mostly on Android 14. When it comes to commitments, Vivo presents three years of software program updates and 4 years of safety updates for this foldable. This is not dangerous, however given how Samsung and Google have raised the bar by providing as much as 7 years of software program help, it does fall a bit wanting expectations, particularly on condition that Vivo is seeking to woo Samsung’s long-standing clients in India.

Vivo’s software program one way or the other appears to lack the required polish in some areas.

Provided that the X Fold 3 Professional has an oblong primary show, it is pure that many people would reorient the display screen from vertical (when opened) to panorama to look at films or just run apps in pill mode, including a cut up display screen view and extra for sure apps.

With 4 apps on show at a time, the Vivo X Fold 3 Professional can simply be used as a lightweight workplace productiveness system

When reorienting the Vivo X Fold 3 Professional, not all apps stretch from edge to edge, leaving a black bar on the left facet of the show, which is almost a centimetre huge, operating from high to backside, which is a waste of display screen area. With the apps that I used when testing this system, a number of apps (WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger by Meta) stretched to suit the show, however these didn’t even embrace Google’s companies like Messages (SMS), Calendar, Drive, and so on. Even Netflix didn’t play movies in full display screen until pinched to zoom, which might find yourself cropping the body.

Vivo did introduce a characteristic in Settings referred to as ‘Show on the high of the display screen’ in a current bug-squishing replace to deal with the selfie digicam’s cutout, however it doesn’t appear to resolve the issue, with problematic apps displaying a filler white bar on the left as an alternative of the empty black void.

I’ve knowledgeable Vivo about the identical and the model has assured (with calls from its software program group) that they are going to discover a solution to repair the above problem. However it’s a bit regarding that no one from Vivo seen this from the get-go.

Among the many quite a few native Vivo apps, the V-Appstore consistently exhibits annoying notifications now and again. Uninstall a third-party app from the Play Retailer, and the V-Appstore will seize the chance to push out a notification and remind you to obtain different associated apps from its retailer as an alternative. Fortunately, Android let me flip these off.

There’s an annoying black bar seen on the left that eats into the in any other case huge viewing space when utilizing many third-party apps (proven right here is Netflix)

Whereas the cellphone does include a ton of Vivo apps (most of which can’t be uninstalled), a few of it’s helpful as a result of it packs the much-needed AI punch that the model’s flagships have lacked for some time. The performance remains to be fairly primary. The native Notes app can create summaries from pasted textual content, whereas the recorder app, aside from transcribing textual content from a recording, may also create a abstract of the audio recording.

For many who steadily document cellphone calls, Vivo makes use of its dialer app and so can document calls in a fairly stealthy method, and not using a notification or perhaps a beep earlier than, after and even throughout a recording.

Vivo X Fold 3 Professional Efficiency: Keepin’ it cool

• Processor – Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• RAM – LPDDR5X – 16GB
• Storage – UFS 4.0 – 512GB

With a strong processor and a slim physique, the cellphone does heat up when utilizing the digicam below direct daylight, however it’s not as regarding and didn’t throw up any warnings even when capturing 4K video samples again to again.

The system managed spectacular benchmark scores which might be far greater than the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and a bit greater than the OnePlus Open.

Demanding 3D video games like Genshin Influence run completely advantageous with none hiccups or irregular heating at maxed-out settings. Each shows are completely responsive when enjoying Name of Obligation: Cellular at Max and Extremely body charges. The cellphone can simply multi-task while you’re enjoying a sport with a YouTube video and even one other sport operating on a cut up display screen.

There is a helpful but discreet alert slider on the left half of the Vivo X Fold 3 Professional for switching ringer profiles

Certainly, that is all right down to the massive vapour cooling system that Vivo has neatly packaged into this system regardless of its skinny profile. Add to this the truth that the processor resides within the high half of the cellphone (when held in panorama mode), holding the nice and cozy areas away from my arms when gaming on the principle show.

Vivo X Fold 3 Professional Cameras: May very well be higher

• Major digicam – 50MP (OIS), f/1.68 aperture, AF
• Extremely-wide-angle digicam – 50MP, f/2.0 aperture, AF
• Telephoto digicam – 64MP (OIS), 3x optical zoom, f/2.57 aperture, AF
• Selfie cameras – 32MP, FF (cowl show) – 32MP, FF (primary show)

The first digicam handles images like a professional in all forms of lighting circumstances. Autofocus is fast to lock focus in all forms of circumstances, so I may click on images of my child and pets simply in Portrait mode with out worrying about blurry outcomes. Taking pictures metropolis streets in low gentle, the colors come out superbly with out getting saturated whereas particulars and sharpness are what one would anticipate from a smartphone at this value level.

The Vivo X Fold 3 Professional has three rear cameras

The telephoto digicam additionally didn’t fail to impress with tack-sharp portraits of topics or objects in daylight and spectacular outcomes with glorious color replica in low gentle as nicely. Nevertheless, in contrast to the first, the telephoto did battle a bit with shifting objects, leading to barely delicate photographs of topics when captured indoors below synthetic gentle.

Vivo X Fold 3 Professional Daylight Digicam Samples. High to backside – Extremely-wide, major, 3x telephoto (Faucet photographs to broaden)

The Vivo X Fold 3 Professional’s telephoto digicam may also be used for capturing close-ups or macro images, and these come out rather well and pack in loads of element because of the high-resolution sensor. Zoom was additionally fairly helpful regardless of switching to hybrid after 3X, because the images are completely usable as much as 10X zoom, past which there’s a noticeable drop intimately and a few purple fringing as nicely.

The ultra-wide digicam will not be as spectacular as the opposite two, however it will get the job carried out in daylight. There’s noticeable barrel distortion, and the colors do not match the outcomes from the opposite two cameras. In dim street-lit settings, the picture high quality takes a drop, with aggressive noise elimination messing up the small print. Furthermore, colors additionally seem a bit uninteresting.

Vivo X Fold 3 Professional digicam samples. High – close-up, backside – Tremendous macro (faucet photographs to broaden)

Each selfie cameras produce common outcomes with textures that are not as detailed as most flagships at and beneath this value level. Nevertheless, since that is foldable, it was doable to make use of the first digicam as a selfie digicam, and the outcomes from this digicam have been top-notch, with glorious element, sharpness, and edge-detection. Low-light selfies from the first digicam additionally got here out equally spectacular.

Vivo X Fold 3 Professional Low gentle digicam samples. High to backside – Major digicam, telephoto digicam, Selfie from Major digicam (faucet photographs to broaden)

The cellphone captures good 4K video at 30 or 60fps with good element and dynamic vary in daylight and low gentle. The movies provide a gentle bit fee as nicely and are well-stabilised. The T* coating certain helps minimize down on lens flare when capturing video in low gentle. 8K 30fps footage turned out to be the most effective of the lot and even managed glorious high quality in dim lighting. Sadly, it’s kind of too shaky, and at 200MB for 20 seconds of footage, it is not possible to shoot at this decision on a regular basis.

Vivo X Fold 3 Professional Battery: Greater is best

• Battery Capability – 5,700mAh (dual-cell)
• Wired Charging – 100W
• Wi-fi Charging – 50W
• Charger – 120W (within the field)

Battery life is shockingly good for a foldable and fairly spectacular for a daily premium cellphone as nicely. The cellphone simply managed greater than a day with heavy utilization, even with the AOD on, which included combined use of each shows. With informal use, you will get previous 1.5 days of use.

The Vivo X Fold 3 Professional’s hinge makes it slimmer and lighter than the competitors

In our video loop battery check, the cellphone managed to run for 19 hours and 56 minutes on the quilt show and an equally spectacular 16 hours and 4 minutes on the principle show. And even after I ran out of cost, the included charger juices up this foldable’s huge battery (from zero to totally charged) in simply 43 minutes, managing an 82 p.c cost in simply half-hour.

Vivo X Fold 3 Professional Verdict

Samsung has been delivering each single foldable that has been launched globally in India 12 months after 12 months. The model absolutely has its following, so it is going to be actually onerous to persuade a Samsung smartphone proprietor to modify to a different model, not to mention a Vivo-branded system.

Nevertheless, there’s sufficient worth with larger (high-resolution) shows, loads of uncooked efficiency, extra options (with a sprinkle of AI), and higher total digicam efficiency out there on the Vivo, making the X Fold 3 Professional stand out. Vivo appears to have carried out sufficient to get any brand-loyal smartphone purchaser’s consideration. Simply so you realize, this cellphone can also be manufactured in India. Oddly, Vivo doesn’t provide any paid care program to increase the guarantee of the foldable, as Samsung and OnePlus do. This implies you’ll have to actually deal with the system (or pay for damages your self in full) in case your show or hinge will get broken past the guarantee interval, which might get expensive.

If you’re very choosy in regards to the software program expertise, then the OnePlus Open (Review) is certainly a more sensible choice at a lower cost, however it lacks a number of options that the Vivo X Fold 3 Professional presents. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 (Review) will nonetheless be the go-to foldable for a lot of consumers because it additionally supplies S-pen stylus help, however it has now come to a degree that it is onerous to disregard the large {hardware} and have upgrades which might be being supplied by the rising competitors this 12 months.