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These two new Vivo foldables put the Galaxy Z Fold 5 to shame with huge batteries and wasp waists

Published: Mar 26, 2024, 9:30 AM

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These two new Vivo foldables put the Galaxy Z Fold 5 to shame with huge batteries and wasp waists

If you like to follow the evolution of the smartphone market as a whole and the pecking order of vendors in the industry's various segments and categories, you probably know that Samsung rules the global foldable chart with relative ease. But you may have also noticed that the company's lead over its Chinese rivals has narrowed in recent quarters, with one analysis firm expecting to crown a new king as far as Q1 2024 sales are concerned.

In addition to Huawei, brands like Honor, Oppo, and Vivo are insatiably eating away at Samsung's market share too, and just in case you were wondering why that's happening in more and more parts of the world, another possible answer has surfaced earlier today.

Make that two answers, as well as two new reasons to consider a Galaxy Z Fold 5 alternative from Vivo... in China.

The X Fold 3 Pro is mind-blowingly powerful and relatively lightweight

You know how the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 are expected to arrive in July with state-of-the-art Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 power? Well, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro is already here, matching (or even surpassing) the overall performance of the Galaxy S24 Ultra while also packing four more gigs of RAM than the Z Fold 5 and up to a colossal 1TB of internal storage space.

Unfortunately, by "here" we only mean China, where the super-premium book-style Vivo foldable is priced at the rough equivalent of $1,385 in an "entry-level" 512GB storage/16GB memory configuration while costing 10,999 yuan ($1,523) for a variant equipped with the same RAM count and twice the local digital hoarding room.

Those price points could well be increased if the X Fold 3 Pro ever expands to European territories, which will feel perfectly justified when you hear about the phone's other cutting-edge specs and features. We're talking first and foremost a primary 8.03-inch display and a 6.53-inch cover screen, both of which look absolutely massive compared with what the Galaxy Z Fold 5 offers.

The 5,700mAh battery is equally impressive, making the Z Fold 5's 4,400mAh cell capacity sound trivial in comparison, and get this, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro somehow tips the scales at just 236 grams. That's, you guessed it, lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 5 (and the OnePlus Open, and the Google Pixel Fold), which is simply an astounding engineering feat when you consider all the other advantages Vivo's newest ultra-high-end foldable holds over its rivals.

Oh, and did we mention that the X Fold 3 Pro is also incredibly thin, measuring 5.2mm when unfolded and 11.2mm at its thickest folded point? And how great is that triple rear-facing camera system combining two 50MP sensors and a 64MP shooter while leveraging Zeiss technology as well?

The two huge aforementioned screens naturally also come with top-of-the-line AMOLED tech (likely sourced from Samsung itself) and 120Hz refresh rate capabilities, and last but not least, the hefty 5,700mAh battery supports blazing fast 100W wired and 50W wireless charging to put the cherry on top of an awe-inspiring spec sheet.

The X Fold 3 is slightly less powerful but somehow even thinner

Yes, there is such a thing as a thinner-than-5.2mm foldable. Meet the "regular" Vivo X Fold 3, which measures 4.65mm (!!!) in depth when unfolded and 10.2mm when folded while weighing a measly 219 grams.

As if that wasn't already impressive enough, this non-Pro foldable packs a Pro-grade 5,500mAh battery of its own while downgrading the charging support to "only" 80W and incredibly keeping those 8.03 and 6.53-inch 120Hz AMOLED displays totally unchanged.

Powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor as the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and OnePlus Open, the Vivo X Fold 3 is certainly no pushover by any definition of the word. Because its memory and storage start at 12 and 256GB respectively, this device is pretty affordable too, costing 6,999 yuan ($970) and up.

With three different 50MP Zeiss-optimized cameras also in tow, we can definitely see this bad boy appeal to a wider audience than its pricier brother, with both models unquestionably bidding for the title of best foldable money can buy in 2024. Let's just hope their availability will be seriously expanded in the not-too-distant future.

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.