Vivo X Fold5 review: a foldable that focuses on form and function

• By Ashish Kumar
Published On: 17 July 2025 | 12:32 IST Last Updated On: 12 August 2025 | 16:49 IST

Unlike OnePlus, Vivo seems committed to the foldable segment, launching the X Fold5 in India as the successor to last year’s X Fold3 Pro (review). Tha brand has taken a measured approach with the X Fold5 by retaining the same core hardware, namely the chipset, camera system, and displays, as its predecessor, while refining the design, boosting durability, improving battery life, and enhancing overall usability. On top of that, the company has also slashed the pricing of its latest foldable.

But how does it perform in real-world usage, and can it truly stand as a viable alternative to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7? Let’s find out in this Vivo X Fold5 review.

Verdict

The Vivo X Fold5 may not be the most powerful foldable or the absolute best in every category, but for its price, it offers a well-rounded package that balances premium design, productivity-oriented features, and capable hardware. It stands out in areas like multitasking, battery life, and display quality, while additions like the Origin Workbench and practical AI tools further elevate its appeal.

More durable & slimmer design

The Vivo X Fold5 retains a design reminiscent of its predecessor, the X Fold3 Pro, but with notable refinements in weight and thickness for improved ergonomics. The handset weighs just 217 grams and measures 9.2mm in thickness, making it lighter and thinner than some of the new-age ultra-premium smartphones. Moreover, when unfolded, the device is only 4.3mm thick, slimmer than the ring on my finger. The slim form factor also comes with enhanced durability. In fact, the X Fold5 is rated to withstand 6,00,000 folds and unfolds, a 25 percent increase over its predecessor. While I couldn’t verify this claim during my usage, I handled the device just like a regular smartphone, even tossing it around casually, and it didn’t show the slightest sign of weakness.

I accidentally sat on the device a few times while it was in my back pocket, and the handset didn’t creak or crack. This could be attributed to its strong hinge and the 2nd-gen Armour glass protection, kept in its place by gap-filling glue technology, ensuring that no splashes of water can pass through. This has resulted in the device achieving an IP58 and IP59 rating, which is the highest water and dust resistance ingress rating for a foldable smartphone in India.

Vivo is also providing a case with the device for extra protection. The case covers the hinge and has a textured leather finish on the back for a premium look. That said, I wish the smartphone edges weren’t this smooth and glossy. This makes it slightly challenging to grip and quickly unfold the device to use the main display. A matte finish would have been better at providing slightly better protection and keeping those fingerprints and smudges at bay.

On the back panel, the Vivo X Fold5 features a circular camera module. The module is large in size and protrudes from the surface quite a bit, which is justifiable given its camera setup. That said, the design may not be to everyone’s liking, and it could irk a few users with their forefinger rubbing against the bezels while holding the device. Be that as it may, I appreciate the module. It prevents the device from wobbling when laid flat and offers a natural grip point, with the module resting comfortably against the forefinger.

The right spine of the smartphone houses a sleek yet reliable fingerprint scanner integrated into the power button, which unlocks the device almost instantly. Just below it sits the volume rocker. On the upper edge, there’s a customisable ‘Shortcut button’ that can be configured to perform various actions, from silencing the phone and launching the camera, to opening notes, starting a recording, activating AI captions, and more.

On the bottom edge, the Vivo X Fold5 features a USB Type-C port, speaker grille, and a SIM-ejector tray, while there is another speaker on the top edge.

Identical displays

The Vivo X Fold5 features dual displays: an 8.03-inch main and a 6.53-inch cover screen. Both are of the AMOLED variety with thin, even bezels all around and support for up to 120Hz refresh rate. Since these are LTPO panels, the refresh rate is dynamic, dropping all the way to 1Hz to save battery. Furthermore, the displays are HDR10+ compliant and fine-tuned by Dolby Vision, resulting in an impressive visual experience with deep blacks and near-accurate colours. Speaking of which, the colours are customisable.

The displays can reach up to 4,500 nits of peak brightness, making them legible even in extremely bright environments. The viewing angles also remain excellent, and the smartphone’s superior display resolutions ensure a crisp picture quality. The cover display features a resolution of 2,748 x 1,172 pixels, while the main foldable screen offers 2,480 x 2,200 pixels.

Both displays house punch-hole cutouts for the selfie cameras, a standard choice that doesn’t detract from usability. Instead, the real concern lies in the handset’s unconventional aspect ratio: 21:9 for the cover screen and 4:3.55 for the inner display. Although common on book-style foldables, the aspect ratios made certain apps, including the popular ones such as Instagram, out of place with awkward layouts and scaling issues. Even Google’s YouTube app had trouble streaming the content without the black bars on full screen or zoomed in, which would crop out the content.

That said, this is largely an optimisation issue on the part of app developers. Vivo has done its bit by offering a capable and vibrant display that makes all types of content a joy to watch. Additionally, the crease on the main display is barely noticeable, and the seamless continuity feature allows users to effortlessly transition between the cover and main displays, whether within the system UI or supported apps, enhancing the overall user experience.

Zeiss-backed cameras

For photography, the Vivo X Fold5 features a triple rear camera setup, with a 50MP Sony IMX921 OIS primary sensor, a 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1 ultra-wide lens, and a 50MP Sony IMX882 OIS telephoto unit that can go up to 3x zoom optically and 100x digitally. The cameras have been developed in collaboration with ZEISS for enhanced details and colour accuracy. While the images showcase strong detailing, they often lean towards vivid, oversaturated tones in default settings, boosting colours to make scenes more eye-catching than realistic.

Fortunately, users can opt for different filters within the camera app. The Zeiss filter provides near-accurate colours but tends to slightly brighten the overall exposure, occasionally reducing contrast in the process. Nevertheless, the results are quite promising for a foldable, which is generally not known for its cameras.

To give you a better context of the X Fold5 cameras, we compared their results with those of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 and here is how they performed:

Daylight

In well-lit conditions, the Vivo X Fold5 outshines the Galaxy Z Fold7 in detail and sharpness. However, it falls short in colour accuracy and dynamic range, often crushing shadows and losing subtle gradations in darker areas.

Vivo X Fold5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7

Ultrawide

Both devices produce similar results through their ultra-wide lenses. That said, the Vivo X Fold5 renders more realistic tones than its primary sensor and does a better job of preserving shadows. The handset also handles edge distortion slightly better, likely due to a narrower field of view. The Galaxy Z Fold7, in contrast, offers a wider frame, maintains colour consistency, and captures more intricate details across the image.

Vivo X Fold5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7

Portrait

The Vivo X Fold5 has an edge thanks to its ability to shoot portraits at different focal lengths, particularly at the 50mm (2.2x zoom) mark, where it excels in detail. However, skin tones are often inaccurate, with a noticeable reddish tint and unnatural brightness. The Galaxy Z Fold7 delivers more realistic skin tones, better colour balance, and cleaner edge detection, avoiding the occasional artificial blurring seen with Vivo. Both devices offer a natural-looking bokeh effect.

Vivo X Fold5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7

Selfie

Both smartphones are equipped with dual selfie cameras, one on the cover screen and another on the main display, with similar resolution and output. However, the Galaxy Z Fold7 edges ahead with better exposure control, less blown-out highlights, and more natural skin tones. Facial detailing remains consistent across both devices.

Vivo X Fold5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7

Low light

In challenging lighting, the Vivo X Fold5 performs well by controlling lens flare, reducing noise, and offering a scene that’s visually closer to reality. That said, the Galaxy Z Fold7 produces images that are cleaner, with better detail retention and colour fidelity, ultimately offering a more refined night mode performance.

Vivo X Fold5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7

Overall, the Vivo X Fold5 shines in daylight with excellent detail and sharpness, though it struggles with shadow handling and colour accuracy. The handset also offers a variety of modes, including Super Macro to capture crisp close-up images and Ultra Document mode to capture scanned images of documents, among other things.

Furthermore, the Vivo X Fold5 supports up to 8K video resolution at 30 frames per second (fps). In my opinion, the handset did well at 4K resolution at 60fps from its main camera, with stable shots and good colour accuracy.

Dated, yet capable performance

At the core of the Vivo X Fold5 lies the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, the same chipset that powered the X Fold3 Pro. While still capable and efficient, it may disappoint specs-focused users, especially given that it has since been succeeded by the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset seen in newer flagships. As a result, you will find that the smartphone can’t match competitors in raw performance on global benchmarking apps such as AnTuTu and Geekbench. The handset throttles a bit too, with its peak performance dropping to 30 percent in our Burnout CPU throttle test. This dip occurred despite the large Vapour Chamber and graphite cooling system, both designed to dissipate heat during intense activities.

That said, the Vivo X Fold5 doesn’t need top-tier processing power to excel at what it’s designed for. The handset is for business users who value multitasking, document handling, and media consumption on the go. With its expansive 8.03-inch inner display, the device offers a tablet-like experience in a foldable form factor, making tasks like reviewing spreadsheets, managing emails, and editing documents feel seamless and immersive.

I’ve personally used the device to manage my work-related Google Sheets, emails, and reading long-form articles, and at no point did I experience lag, stutter, or slowdowns.

I also admire the smartphone’s multitasking capabilities, which could be attributed to its 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. That’s the only configuration the Vivo X Fold5 comes with. While this is generous and should suffice for most users, Vivo could have offered a 1TB variant as well, especially considering its target audience of professionals who frequently work with large spreadsheets, documents, and media files. That said, the device does utilise high-performance LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage, ensuring faster app loading times, smoother multitasking, and quicker file transfers.

While the device isn’t designed for gaming, it can still run graphically demanding titles such as BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Real Racing 3. We played all three games for 30 minutes each at moderate graphic settings, and the device delivered respectable frame rates. The X Fold5 also stands out for its effective thermal management, with temperatures rising by an average of just 3.6 degrees Celsius. For casual gamers, this foldable proves to be a solid and reliable option.

Foldable-focused features

As for the software, the Vivo X Fold5 runs FunTouch OS 15 based on Android 15 right out of the box. While this may not be the absolute latest version of Android in the broader smartphone landscape, it is the most current iteration available from Vivo. Interestingly, it’s the same software seen across Vivo’s flagship, mid-range, and even affordable devices this year.

That said, Vivo has introduced features tailored for the foldable form factor. Among the notable features is the new Origin Workbench, which takes full advantage of the large inner display. This unique multitasking tool allows users to run up to five active windows simultaneously on the main screen, offering a desktop-like experience on the go. The app you’re actively working in is at the forefront, while the other four are neatly tucked into a tabbed layout along the left edge, allowing for quick switching and efficient multitasking. Users have the option to lock the windows in place so that it doesn’t disappear when you open an additional app.

Personally, I have found the Origin Workbench feature far more useful than traditional split-screen or picture-in-picture modes, which are typically limited to two apps. However, the Origin Workbench isn’t customisable, and oddly enough, it isn’t enabled by default. To use it, you must first manually activate the feature via the Settings menu. Once enabled, accessing the mode requires a swipe gesture from the bottom right corner of any app. While functional, the process feels unintuitive, especially for a feature that could become central to the foldable’s productivity appeal. Hopefully, Vivo will introduce a more streamlined and user-friendly way to launch Origin Workbench in future updates.

The tent mode and fold-to-split modes that were in the previous iteration are also present on the new X Fold5. Additionally, the smartphone features several AI-backed tools, but these are not as comprehensive as Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite on the Z Fold7.

That said, the X Fold5 can still handle a variety of smart tasks. Its AI features include removing reflections, objects, and blurriness from photos, recomposing images, and even generating real-time captions for calls and videos. The AI caption feature requires a Vivo account and an active internet connection, but once set up, it works seamlessly. In my usage, it delivered accurate, real-time transcriptions, which can be particularly useful for accessibility or documenting conversations on the fly. The phone can also transcribe calls in real-time with AI Call Assistant and change/ modify documents with the Vivo DocMaster. That said, the DocMaster wasn’t available on my device at the time of writing this review.

Similarly, the AI-powered photo editing tools also require an active internet connection to function. While the results aren’t always perfectly accurate, they generally get the job done, effectively removing unwanted elements or enhancing images with minimal effort. Vivo has also introduced AI Visual, which can apply four seasonal filters to portraits. A fun and creative way to transform portraits. This feature is yet to make its way to the smartphone. That said, users get access to Google’s Gemini AI assistant, which can generate text, create images, summarise content, translate languages, and even manage app settings.

On the software support front, Vivo has promised four major Android updates and five years of security patches for the X Fold5. This falls short of setting a new benchmark, especially when compared to Samsung and Google, both of which now offer up to seven years of software support on their premium devices. Be that as it may, the X Fold5 will remain relevant till 2031 and continue receiving fixes for everyday bugs, like the occasional app misalignment I noticed when switching between the main and cover displays, or the notification panel turning transparent and making text hard to read.

Biggest foldable battery

The Vivo X Fold5 features a 6,000mAh battery – the biggest ever in a foldable. The OEM is using a silicone-carbon battery with a dual-layer anode design to prevent battery degradation during charge cycles. Users can expect up to a day and a half of battery endurance using the smartphone in both foldable and unfolded forms for multitasking, browsing, streaming, social media scrolling, and more. Slightly extensive usage, such as gaming for hours, might see you charging the device sooner than that, but it is still impressive for a foldable with a display north of 8 inches.

During our lab test, the handset consumed 28 percent of battery life on aggregate after playing BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Real Racing 3 for 30 minutes each. While streaming a YouTube video for 30 minutes, the handset’s battery dropped by 4 percent, which is on par with regular smartphones. That said, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 seems to be slightly better optimised. While we couldn’t get the PCMark battery app running on the Samsung smartphone, it drained an aggregate of 25 percent battery for the aforementioned tests, which is roughly 6 percent better than the X Fold5.

That said, the smartphone’s charging speeds are impressive. With its 80W FlashCharge, for which the charger is provided in the box, the X Fold5 is capable of juicing up from 20 to 100 percent in 38 minutes. There is also 40W FlashCharge wireless charging on the device for added convenience.

Final verdict

The Vivo X Fold5 is priced in India at Rs 1,49,999, which undercuts the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 by roughly Rs 30,000. That said, the Samsung foldable offers the latest chipset, long software support, a more colour-accurate camera system, and a rich suite of AI features to enhance usability.

However, the areas where Vivo X Fold5 manages to stand tall are its durable design with IP58 and IP59 ratings. While it may not be the absolute lightest in its category, its slim profile and thoughtful ergonomics make it comfortable to hold and easy to carry. The display quality is terrific, despite the odd aspect ratios, and the performance is more than sufficient for its productivity-focused use case. Adding to its appeal is the massive 6,000mAh battery, which charges rapidly and ensures reliable all-day usage.

Speaking of usage, Vivo has made software more enriching with the new Origin Workstation, which provides a desktop-like experience and productivity-based AI tools. The AI also covers the cameras, which are surprisingly good for a foldable. Vivo’s colour processing might not keep things natural, but it certainly excels with detailing and a variety of modes and filters.

As long as Vivo delivers on its promised software support and continues to roll out timely updates that introduce new features and address optimisation issues, the X Fold5 remains a compelling long-term buy.

Editor’s rating: 8.2 / 10

Reasons to buy:

• One of the thinnest and lightest foldables with excellent durability (IP58/IP59 rating).
• Origin Workbench enables up to five active windows for a desktop-like experience.
• Detailed shots with versatile zoom and ZEISS filters.
• 6,000mAh cell provides impressive endurance for a foldable.

Reasons not to buy:

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 lacks the raw performance that the new Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC brings to the table.
• Falls short of Samsung’s and Google’s 7-year software updates promise.