The vivo X Fold3 and X Fold3 Pro were announced this week and each has its own claim to fame – the vanilla model is the lightest book-style foldable yet, while the Pro is the first foldable with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
We went into more details on the differences between the two in the announcement news, here we will just give you the gist. The Pro model has the 8 Gen 3 chipset, a 50MP main with a larger sensor and a 64MP 70mm periscope, plus a large 5,700mAh battery with 100W wired and 50W wireless charging. It is rated IPX8 for submersion in water.
The vanilla model uses the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, has a smaller 50MP sensor in the main cam (1/1.49” vs. 1/1.3”) and a more modest tele camera (50MP, 2x zoom). The battery has 5,500mAh capacity and 80W wired-only charging. The phone is rated IPX4.
There are a few other details like the dual ultrasonic fingerprint readers on the Pro (vs. a single side-mounted reader on the vanilla), but that’s about it. Crucially, the displays are the same – 8.03” 120Hz 10-bit LTPO OLED inside and 6.53” 120Hz OLED outside (21:9).
The vanilla vivo X Fold3 is impressively light at 219g. Putting aside flip foldables (which are much smaller), only the Honor V Purse is lighter (by 5g) and that one is an outward foldable (so no second display to weigh it down), plus it has a much smaller 4,500mAh battery.
Speaking of batteries, the vivo X Fold3 Pro is a beast – at 5,700mAh capacity, it has more in the tank than most bar phones, never mind foldables. For comparison, the X Fold2 had a 4,800mAh battery, the Galaxy Z Fold5 a 4,400mAh battery, the closest is the Huawei Mate X5 at 5,060mAh. Both X Fold3 models are miles ahead of the competition, even the lighter vanilla model (the Pro weighs 236g).
Of course, you get what you pay for. The vanilla vivo X Fold3 starts at CNY 7,000 ($970/€895/₹80,800) for a 12GB/256GB model. The Pro starts some 43% higher at CNY 10,000 ($1,385/€1,275/₹117,000) for a 16GB/512GB model.
There is no official confirmation either way, but there is some hope that at least the Pro model will launch internationally. In terms of competition, even in China there isn’t much – yet. Here are a few options, though note that they all use the older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and some of these will be replaced sooner rather than later (e.g. the Z Fold6 is a couple of months away).
The Galaxy Z Fold5 (12/512GB) costs CNY 13,000 and weighs 253g with a 4,400mAh battery. The Honor Magic V2 (16/256GB) is CNY 9,000, weighs 231g and has a 5,000mAh battery. The Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 (12/256GB) is also CNY 9,000. The OnePlus Open is not sold in China, but weighs 239g with a 4,805mAh battery.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 • Honor Magic V2 • Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 • OnePlus Open
So, any takers? Let’s vote for the vanilla vivo X Fold3 first:
And now the vivo X Fold3 Pro: