vivo X Fold5 Review – Elegantly Sleek Flagship Foldable Tested

There has been a slew of foldables released of late in Malaysia  with multiple brands throwing their hats into the ring with their own take on what a book-style flagship foldable ought to be. We got our hands on the vivo’s latest flagship foldable design and took it for a whirl – here’s our vivo X Fold5 review where we suss out if it’s worth your money.

vivo X Fold5 Review – Design and Specifications

Currently,  the vivo X Fold5 is their inaugural foldable phone for the Malaysia market though earlier examples like the vivo X Fold3 were issued in other regions.

For their inaugural flagship foldable for Malaysia, vivo has opted for a clean, minimalist look with a white, pearlescent finish on the backplate that looks classy and feels sensuous to the touch with a combination of cold glass and metal. Dominating the backplate is a prominent, raised camera housing with a triple ZEISS-tuned camera array with the ZEISS logo tastefully emblazoned in the middle.

The base of our vivo X Fold5 review sample has a single USB-C port for charging duties along with a nano SIM card tray and a grille for a speaker.

The right side hosts a power button, a volume rocker as well as a custom button that lets you swap between Ring and Vibration mode as access to the flash by double pressing it. Button placement is ergonomically sound and is easily accessible with both the index and third fingers though the custom button is somewhat hard to reach one-handed.

 

Of note is that the vivo X Fold5 is surprisingly spacious in terms of both its displays with the front 6.53-inch LTPO AMOLED display large enough to match most conventional candy bar shaped phones while the main 8.03-inch folding LTPO AMOLED display is big enough to comfortably handle multiple open apps and looks ideal for heavy multitasking. 

This is where vivo’s new Origin Workbench feature comes into play that lets you swap between multiple simultaneous apps on a rotating carousel that you can access at will . Both the front and main displays each also have a single 20MP camera for selfies and video calls.

The backplate hosts a triple camera array in a rounded housing which is evenly spaced, allowing for stability when placed screen-side up though it doesn’t aesthetically break new ground.

On closer inspection, our vivo X Fold5 review sample in white measures in at just 4.55mm thin when unfolded and 9.7mm when folded down while weighing just 226g. It isn’t the lightest nor is it the slimmest when compared to other flagship foldables like the Honor Magic V5 and Galaxy Z Fold7 but it has it where it counts with slightly larger displays and a larger battery. 

At present, the vivo X Fold5 packs the largest front and main displays out of the current contenders currently in the local market, inching out the Galaxy Z Fold7 by a smidgen at 0.03 inches for the front and main display, it also currently packs the largest battery in a foldable phone at 6,000mAh that also has 80W wired charging and 40 wireless charging too.

Interestingly, the gray version of the X Fold5 is slightly thinner and lighter than the white version at 4.3mm thin when unfolded and weighing in at 217g. This is on account of the fact that the gray variant uses glass fibre for its chassis as opposed to the glass used in our white coloured test unit though the differences are merely aesthetic and are infinitesimal when held.

vivo has also gone to great pains to enhance the X Fold5’s durability and uses what they refer to as a 2nd Gen Armor Architecture that integrates aerospace-grade steel into the frame. 

The design also uses a carbon fiber support hinge rated for over 500,000 full open and closing motions by TUV Rheinland. The unique engineering of the hinge also helps to minimise the crease on the main display. Another particularly unique feature of the hinge is that it is able to remain in position at almost any angle, allowing you to use it halfway folded up for viewing content hands-free.

The front display has also been improved with what vivo refers to as 2nd-Gen Armor Glass which has 30% stronger puncture resistance than previous generation designs while the main folding display itself is protected ultra thin glass and an impact resistant film for greater durability.

That’s not all, the vivo X Fold 5 has an IPX8, IPX9  and IP5X rating for dust and water resistance. This means that it’s able to shrug off minor dust ingress, resist immersion  in 3 meters of static freshwater for up to 30 minutes and survive modest incoming jets of water, which is impressive for a foldable device.

Combined, this makes their flagship foldable one of the durable foldable designs you can currently acquire in the market.

Overall build quality is excellent and the vivo X Fold5 looks and feels exceptionally premium indeed. The finish feels suitably luxurious with fair resistance to fingerprints while the hinge mechanism itself feels sturdy while being able to stay in position even when folded halfway up.

vivo has also generously added in an array of extra accessories that include a protective phone case, a charger and a USB-C cable on top of the usual warranty paperwork and a SIM eject pin.

vivo X Fold5 Review – Performance and Benchmarks

In terms of hardware, the vivo X Fold5 is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor that first saw service in early 2024 with many competing flagship phones. This is paired with fast 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and a generous 512GB UFS 4.1 storage.

The 16GB of physical RAM can also be further augmented by 16GB of virtual RAM assigned off the onboard storage. You can’t reduce the amount but you can disable the option if you need additional storage space. Currently, the phone runs Android 15 with their own FunTouch OS 15 and offers access to Gemini Live and a host of AI features.

While the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is a bit long in the tooth, it’s a proven, powerful flagship-grade chipset that still has plenty of bite to it and is more than capable of tackling current generation apps.

Where our vivo X Fold5 review sample has a decisive edge is ability for sustained performance with a large vapour chamber that measures 17,307mm² also uses improved pyrolitic graphite that offers 58% better cooling dissipation. With better cooling, the phone is capable of peak performance for longer durations without throttling or slowing down. 

Here’s how our vivo X Fold5 review unit stacks up on paper: 

Price	RM6,999
Display	6.53-inch LTPO AMOLED, 2,748 x 1,172 pixels, 105% NTSC, 4,500 nits peak brightness 120Hz refresh rate [cover screen] / 8.03-inch LPTO AMOLED, 2,480 x 2,200 pixels, 4,500 nits peak brightness, 105% NTSC [main screen]
Processor	Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
OS	Android 15 w/ FunTouch OS 15
Memory	16GB LPDDR5X RAM /512GB UFS 4.1 storage
Cameras	50MP f/2.55 ZEISS Telephoto Camera w 3/x optical zoom + 50MP f/1.57 min camera + 50MP f/2.05 ultra wide angle camera [rear] /  20MP f/2.4 {cover display], 20MP f/2.4 [main display]
Battery	6,000mAh Li-Ion w/ 80W Flashcharge, 40W wireless charging
Size/Weight	159.68 x 142.29 x 4.55mm [unfolded] , 159.68 x 72.6 x 9.7mm [folded] /226g

At present, there is only one configuration of the vivo x Fold5 for the Malaysia market. When subjected to synthetic benchmarks with 16GB of virtual RAM enabled, our vivo X Fold5 review unit scored the following:

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	1,150
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	1,002
3D Mark Solar Bay	5,786
3D Mark Solar Bay Unlimited	5,157
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme	4,524
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	4,460
Geekbench 6 Single Core	2,159
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	6,259
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	14,582
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	16,439
Geekbench AI CPU (quanticised)	3,573
Geekbench AI GPU (quanticised)	1,571
PCMark Work 3.0 Performance	14,889
PCMark3.0  Battery Life	21 hours 38 mins

In terms of overall performance, our vivo X Fold5 review unit acquitted itself in a respectable fashion with benchmarks similar to other phones packing Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processors though it is outpaced by those featuring the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.

This fortunately isn’t apparent in day to day usage and it will comfortably handle day to day tasks up to and including heavy gaming, productivity and content creation.

On that note, the vivo X Fold5 also features their novel Origin Workbench feature that offers a rotating carousel of active apps in a vertical sidebar, allowing you to swap between up to five active apps at will.

 

In terms of overall endurance, our vivo X Fold5 review sample with its 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery did not disappoint, yielding an impressive 21 hours and 38 minutes in PCMark’s benchmark and slightly over a day and a half of regular use with data on and a combination of social media usage, texting, emails and YouTube.

While FunTouch OS 15 is otherwise smooth and easy to get about, it is still festooned by a ton of unwanted bloatware which does need some time to remove but it’s not a deal breaker.

Both the front and main folding LTPO AMOLED display are excellent, with good clarity under daylight and great colour rendition, making them ideal for gaming and movie watching duties alike. The ability for the main folding display to be folding halfway up also makes it viable for use in video calls and also as an ersatz tripod for filming videos.

vivo X Fold5 Review – Cameras

On the imaging front, our vivo X Fold5 review sample is impressively appointed, leveraging its close association with ZEISS to pack imaging hardware that lets it go toe to toe with the competition with its own unique take on imaging. 

The primary rear camera setup consists of a triple 50MP array which consists of a 50MP ZEISS telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and OIS, a 50MP main camera also with OIS and a 50MP ultra wide angle camera which covers the gamut of photography scenarios. 

For stills, the rear camera array is able to offer up to lossless 3X optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom as well as the impressive ability to capture 8K@30fps and a more conventional 4K@60fps video with up to 5X zoom. Both the front and main display 20MP cameras are functionally identical and capable of up to 1080p@30fps video.

Of note is that the vivo X Fold5 also has the full suite of flagship-grade ZEISS modes including their ZEISS Multifocal Portrait mode including 85mm and 100mm portrait modes which enables users to capture beautiful portraiture with minimal effort. Unfortunately, this mode only works on the rear cameras though the vivo X Fold does have a HD selfie mode that solves this problem, allowing you to use the front display as a viewfinder.

Overall performance in daylight is excellent with good dynamic range and detail though the ultrawide camera does produce slightly more vibrant shots than the primary and telephoto cameras. Low light shots are decent as well with a good amount of detail and colours out to 3x zoom. Videos are solid as well and footage is smooth, judder-free and offers good detail and colour rendition.

The selfie cameras on both the front and main display offer good skin tones and detail. However, the ability to use the main triple camera for selfies makes the front and main cameras more of a redundant back-up and you’ll likely be handling most of your shots, video calls and selfies included with the main camera.

As flagship foldables go, the vivo X Fold5’s cameras prove to be solid performers and will cover the gamut of shoot scenarios though their flagship phone, the vivo X200 Pro has a more powerful imaging setup.

Should you buy the vivo X Fold5?

As it stands, the vivo X Fold5 is a well built, premium flagship foldable with excellent battery life, delightfully vibrant and crisp cover and main displays as well as a solid rear ZEISS camera setup.

While the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset isn’t the latest chipset, the phone is every bit a flagship foldable and still capable of tackling everything asked of it in a smooth fashion.

If cash is no object and you’re looking for a premium flagship foldable option beyond the usual contenders, this is worth a look.

vivo X Fold5 review sample courtesy of vivo Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.vivo.com/my/products/x-fold5