It seems like vivo isn’t giving up on its foldable dreams after all.

Announced a little bit early this year, vivo has surprisingly launched two new foldables in one go with the X Fold3 series in China — and actually the first smartphone maker to reveal two new book-style foldables in a single product launch.

Mighty light

While not the slimmest foldable out there (as the crown still goes to the HONOR Magic V2), vivo still managed to make the X Fold3 less chunky compared to its predecessor. It’s now just 10.2mm thin when folded (X Fold2 was 12.7mm). Meanwhile, the X Fold3 Pro is 1mm thicker at 11.2mm.

Graphics by Vincenz Lee | GadgetMatch

Even so, it managed to shed a lot of weight from 279 grams down to a shocking 219 grams! It even surpassed HONOR Magic V2’s record of 231 grams. The X Fold3 Pro is just several grams shy, weighing at 236 grams.

X-tremely durable

Thanks to the new carbon fiber hinge mechanism and Armor Feather Architecture, it not only promises ultra lightness but also utmost durability.

Graphics by Vincenz Lee | GadgetMatch

The new X Fold3 series both earned certifications from TÜV Rheinland — tested to last up to 500,000 times of folding and unfolding — as well as the SGS Gold Standard with a five-star Certification 2 in Fall Resistance and Certification 3 in Glass Fall Resistance.

Its folding display features the UTG Super Tough Glass that promises less visible crease. Special crystals were also implanted onto the display to make it appealing. An impact resistant film was also applied to effectively protect its fragile inner screen.

Flipping the X Fold3 series reveal its armor back cover made from heat-pressed UPE fiber composite with a glass-like texture but a stronger impact resistance than glass itself.

If you’re worried about occasional water splashing, sudden pour of rain droplets, or accidental coffee spills, only the vivo X Fold3 Pro has an IPX8 rating to save you from such fuss.

X-tra mileage

It’s very much expected that smartphone slash tablet hybrids should rock top-of-the-line hardware no matter what it takes — and vivo hasn’t slept on this year’s release either.

The vivo X Fold3 Pro packs the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset coupled with a lone 16GB RAM in either a 512GB or 1TB of storage. On the other hand, its non-Pro variant has X Fold2’s Snapdragon 8 Gen2 instead — but that doesn’t mean it’s a total slouch since the chipset can still perform well even in 2024.

Moreover, you get either options for its onboard memory: 12GB or 16GB. Plus, a smaller 256GB storage (together with the already mentioned 512GB and 1TB). Don’t fret, there’s no significant disparity in performance as both models feature LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage standard.

In terms of battery, the vivo X Fold3 Pro has the upper hand at 5700mAh while the vanilla variant has a slightly smaller 5500mAh. That’s still a big upgrade considering the X Fold2 only has a 4800mAh battery in it.

Charging is also quite different: The X Fold3 Pro supports up to 100W wired FlashCharge (downgraded from last year’s 120W) while 50W wireless FlashCharge stays the same. On the contrary, the base X Fold3 charges up to only 80W wired FlashCharge and lacks support for wireless charging.

ImprovementX

When it comes to screen sizes, nothing has changed: 6.53-inch exterior and 8.03 inches when unfolded. But the display tech has been further improved.

From the X Fold2’s LTPO4 AMOLED, the new X Fold3 models are equipped with E7 LTPO 8T AMOLED displays inside and out — 412ppi and 457ppi pixel density respectively. Peak brightness reaches up to 4500 nits.

Graphics by Vincenz Lee | GadgetMatch

Furthemore, both displays have 1.07 Billion Colors and DCI-P3 wide color gamut, plus extensive support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision content.

Now let’s talk about the very familiar yet confusing triple camera setup of both models.

X Fold3 vs X Fold3 Pro — Graphics by Vincenz Lee | GadgetMatch

If you’ll look closely, the X Fold3 Pro is the only one that has an evident periscope telephoto lens found at the upper left part beside the ZEISS logo.

Concurrently, the ZEISS logo on the X Fold3 was switched to the bottom right corner, easily differentiating the two models when put or held side-by-side. This also means lenses on both foldables are coated with the signature ZEISS T* coating.

Still confused? Here are the specific camera hardware differences for you to judge.

With the included chipset, the foldables support up to 8K video recording using its rear camera setup.

Software-wise, it runs on OriginOS 4 based on Android 14 with several OS features like Unfair Scheduling 2.0 for better multitasking management and algorithm, as well as Memory Fusion 4.0 that extends memory up to 32GB.

There’s also the AON Privacy Protection and Private Call features for one’s security and peace of mind.

Pricing and Availability

The vivo X Fold3 and its Pro sibling are available in two color choices: Light Feather White and Thin-Winged Black.

Graphics by Vincenz Lee | GadgetMatch

Here are the duo’s respective pricing per configuration:

vivo X Fold3

• 12+256GB = CNY 6999 (US$ 970 / EUR 895 / GBP 768 / SG$ 1305 / PhP 54,570 / INR 80,949)
• 16+256GB = CNY 7499 (US$ 1040 / EUR 960 / GBP 823 / SG$ 1399 / PhP 58,469 / INR 86,732)
• 16+512GB = CNY 7999 (US$ 1109 / EUR 1024 / GBP 877 / SG$ 1492 / PhP 62,367 / INR 92,515)
• 16+1TB = CNY 8999 (US$ 1248 / EUR 1152 / GBP 987 / SG$ 1678 / PhP 70,164 / INR 104,080)

vivo X Fold3 Pro

• 16+512GB = CNY 9999 (US$ 1387 / EUR 1280 / GBP 1097 / SG$ 1865 / PhP 77,960 / INR 115,646)
• 16+1TB = CNY 10,999 (US$ 1525 / EUR 1408 / GBP 1206 / SG$ 2051 / PhP 85,758 / INR 127,212)

The vivo X Fold3 series is currently available for pre-orders in China. And much like previous vivo X Fold-ables, there is no global market availability mentioned.