Tech
Vivo says its first foldable phone has a less obnoxious crease
Vivo released its X Fold smartphone in China with an 8-inch 120Hz OLED that has a sneaky solution to hiding the crease.
The growing foldable smartphone market has some new competition. Vivo just launched its X Fold smartphone that the company reportedly claims doesn’t have a crease on its foldable display, according to Android Authority.
It’s not exactly a surprise that Vivo is joining other Chinese phone makers in offering a foldable smartphone. There were a number of leaks that showed off the general design and the specs, but we also saw hands-on images and video days prior to Vivo’s launch.
Now that the Vivo X Fold is official, we can see that Vivo is trying to go after those who like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3’s design, but didn’t want to stare at an obvious crease in the middle of the display. According to Engadget China, the X Fold’s design has a small panel that’s part of the hinge and will lift up to fill the crease when you open the foldable display. Unlike the Galaxy phone, the Vivo X Fold will have in-display fingerprint sensors on both screens, instead of having one double as a power button.
Sizable screen — X Fold’s exterior smartphone screen is a 6.53-inch FHD+ 120Hz OLED panel. Open up the X Fold and you get an 8.03-inch 120Hz LTPO OLED display made of Schott’s ultrathin glass, which is also seen in Samsung’s foldables. The X Fold’s display can be used when rotated anywhere between 60 to 120 degrees, making it more convenient for video calls or watching videos since it can be propped up easily.
Everyone will be probably be drawn to the reportedly “crease-less” display, but the X Fold still has competitive specs. Vivo put Snapdragon’s 8 Gen 1 chip, 12GB of RAM and a 4,600mAh battery into its foldable, adding that you can charge the X Fold at 50W wirelessly or 66W using a cable.
The X Fold also has a four-camera design with a 50-megapixel main camera, 48-megapixel ultrawide camera, 12-megapixel zoom camera and a 8-megapixel 5x periscope camera. There are two additional in-display punch hole cameras in the smartphone and folding displays, both of which are 16 megapixels.
Foldables pressure — The X Fold’s flagship specs and supposed “crease-free” display are going to come at a high cost, though. The X Fold with 256GB of storage will cost $1,400 and the 512GB version costs around $1,570. It’s unlikely that we’ll see a U.S. version of the X Fold, but we could see a global version eventually.
Now that Vivo has joined the foldables market, it seems like this smartphone style is only growing, especially in China. Even before Vivo, Oppo Find N and the Honor Magic V already offered a foldable competitor to Samsung. But with more and more companies getting into foldables, it seems like U.S. smartphone makers like Google and Apple can only sit on the sidelines for so long.
