vivo X Fold5 Hands-On: 5 Things We Loved About This New Ultraslim Foldable Flagship That’s Coming to Malaysia

Foldables have quickly become the go-to form factor for power users, blending the best features of a smartphone and a tablet into one sleek device. While foldable smartphones have evolved over the years, challenges like durability, battery life, and performance still remain. 

That’s why vivo’s announcement of the X Fold5 coming to Malaysia – paired with an exclusive hands-on preview – immediately caught our attention. Here are five things we discovered (and genuinely loved) about vivo’s latest flagship foldable.

vivo X Fold5 Hands-On – Elegance and Strength Meets Premium Design

At first blush, the vivo X Fold5 looks and feels exceptionally premium, blending understated refinement in a chic design that looks distinctive and classy in equal measure.

vivo has clearly invested serious engineering and design effort into delivering a foldable that’s not only sleek, but also undeniably luxurious in hand with a feel and tactility akin to a luxury timepiece that plays well in any setting, whether you’re placing it beside a laptop in a boardroom or unfolding it at a café.

Up front, the vivo X Fold5 features a large 6.53-inch LTPO AMOLED display coated in tough second generation Armor glass while featuring 1,172 x 2,748 pixels resolution, a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, a peak 5,500 nits peak brightness and a comfortable 21:9 aspect ratio, like a refined conventional smartphone rather than a folded compromise.

Flipping the vivo X Fold5 open and the transformation is dramatic –  revealing one of the largest displays available in a foldable phone, with the almost creaseless LTPO AMOLED folding panel spanning 8.03-inches diagonal while featuring crisp 2,200 x 2,480 pixels resolution, a smooth 120hz refresh rate, full DCI-P3 colour gamut and 4,500 nits peak brightness for clear visibility under direct sunlight. The slim dimensions and large display also lend the main panel an impressive 90.9% screen-to-body ratio, making for easier multitasking duties. 

When held, the device feels evenly balanced and surprisingly light for a foldable that feels light enough for daily carry and slim enough that it won’t look unsightly when tucked into a pocket or handbag. 

While exact specifications weren’t available during our preview, the vivo X Fold5 was light enough that they were confidently suspending it in midair from a fishing line as emphasis as to how lightweight the phone truly is.

What you feel instead is engineered precision: from the softly curved corners that cradle your palm to the machined metal frame edges that make it easier to grip.Every aspect of its design has been factored in and the power button and volume rocker are placed just within easy reach. 

That’s not all, vivo demonstrated that the vivo X Fold5 also enjoyed an IP5X, IPX8 and IPX9 rating too, allowing it to continue operating unfazed in a fish tank even as angelfish serenely swam by it. These durability ratings also mean that it can also resist incoming high pressure jets of water, making it one of the most durable flagship foldables we’ve seen.

In Malaysia, the vivo X Fold5 is available in two distinct colourways – Titanium Gray and Feather White. Each finish tells a different story: Feather White exudes calm confidence with a creamy, almost pearlescent sheen, while Titanium Gray opts for bold sophistication with a layered optical texture. The latter uses nano-sputtering techniques to enhance light flow, resulting in a glass-like shimmer that catches the light just enough without being ostentatious.

vivo X Fold5 – Serious Productivity And Multitasking with Origin Workbench

Where many foldables emphasise heavily on specifications and design, the vivo X Fold5 goes one step further, implementing genuinely useful software that unlocks the full potential of its displays to allow for effortless multitasking capabilities. At the heart of this productivity-first approach is Origin Workbench – vivo’s unique multitasking environment built into FunTouch OS 15, and currently exclusive to its flagship foldables.

Unlike the clunky app-switching experience typical of many Android devices, Origin Workbench transforms the X Fold5’s expansive 8.03-inch AMOLED display into a desktop-like command center. Users can run up to five apps simultaneously: one in a main active window and four more arranged in a vertical taskbar on the side, complete with flat, real-time window previews. This means you’re not just flipping between icons — you’re managing a live dashboard of your digital workspace.

The system also supports priority-based task management, allowing essential apps to float to the top while background distractions stay tucked away. Whether you’re juggling web browsers, YouTube, Google Docs, or even a game, Origin Workbench maintains fluid performance. In our hands-on, it handled these scenarios with ease — even rendering a game in a live preview window without noticeable lag.

Backing this multitasking engine  is a dedicated Shortcut Button placed just above the volume rocker. With a single press, the Shortcut Button can enable users to toggle sound profiles, launch the flashlight or camera, open the Notes app or recorder, or activate AI-powered tools like AI Captions or DocMaster. It’s fully customisable, giving power users quick access to whatever matters most.

Combined, Origin Workbench and the Shortcut Button elevate the vivo X Fold5 from a stylish foldable into a true productivity companion. It’s the kind of smart, focused software integration that foldables have needed for years and we’re eager to find out what it’s capable of in a full review.

vivo X Fold5 – Google Gemini, AI Captions and more

On top of premium design and multitasking-optimised features, the vivo X Fold5 features Google Gemini AI Assistant as well as Gemini Live to interact and gain insightful answers to queries and subjects onscreen with natural-sounding conversations. That’s not all, users can also ask Gemini to find and share information across apps and even generate custom images too with a simple prompt.

Beyond Google Gemini, the vivo X Fold5 also integrates a host of AI-powered features that include AI caption to translate conversations and spoken content into readable text, Smart Call Assistant that offers live transcription and translation of voice calls and, especially for power users – vivo DocMaster that can open and convert a wide range of document formats including Word, PDF, PowerPoint and much more with AI writing tools for efficient on-device editing. There’s even a Smart Summary that displays call transcripts onscreen in real time and which generates summaries after the call ends so you can stay on top of things at all times.

Rounding things out are Snap Text, which scans and digitises real-world text instantly, and AI Screen Translation, which overlays translations on any webpage or app without leaving the task into the language of your choice.

Taken together, these features make the vivo X Fold5 feel less like a phone and more of an intelligent, always-on AI assistant that helps you work smarter and stay one step ahead throughout your day.

vivo X Fold5 –  Dual-Display Preview Mode

Belying its svelte form factor, the vivo X Fold5 can use its main camera array for selfies in a special Dual-Display Preview mode.

By unfolding the phone, users can use both the inner screen and the front cover display as  viewfinders to frame photos while taking selfies with the main rear camera for beautiful shots every time without the guesswork. Subjects can see how to pose in a shot or take selfies too which makes having to give cues like ‘stand closer’ or ‘move to the left’ a thing of the past.

For those who love taking selfies, this mode is a real game-changer and a novel application of the foldable form factor of the vivo X Fold5.

vivo X Fold5 – Tough and Reliable for Everyday Use

One of the biggest worries for foldable phone users is how reliable and sturdy the hinges are as it can affect long-term durability and usage of the main folding display.

In that regard, the vivo X Fold5 aims to redefine industry limits with an innovative new hinge design that uses a carbon fiber and a rotating-sliding hinge mechanism that allows for over 600,000 reliable foldings and which also reduces visible creases and enhances long-term reliability too. That’s not all, the front display is protected by 2nd Gen Armor Glass that offers 30% better puncture resistance from its predecessor and which has resistance to scratches and drops.

Stay tuned for updates to the imminent launch of the vivo X Fold5. In the meantime, you can stay tuned to vivo’s official page at https://www.vivo.com/my