I got my hands on the foldable phone that fixes the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s biggest issues

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is finally here, and it looks like Samsung actually tried to deliver a competitive foldable phone. The device offers a super-slim and light design, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and a 200MP main camera.

It’s not the only book-style foldable phone to launch in July, though, as the vivo X Fold 5 has now launched in (some) global markets. And my brief time with the phone shows that this is a compelling Z Fold 7 alternative offering a few features Samsung skimped on, save for one major caveat.

Unbox the X Fold 5 and you’ll find an extremely thin and light foldable phone that really doesn’t feel much different than a conventional smartphone. It’s not quite as slim and light as the Samsung foldable, coming in at 9.2mm and 217 grams (versus 8.9mm and 215 grams), but it’s a negligible difference. Plus, the tapered edges make it seem thinner than it really is.

However, one area where vivo has Samsung beat is durability. The X Fold 5 ships with IP5X, IPX8, and IPX9 ratings, which means it can withstand dust, water immersion, and high-pressure jets of hot water. Even the Galaxy Z Fold 7 only offers an IP48 rating, which means it can withstand water but not dust.

vivo’s foldable phone offers an 8.03-inch folding OLED screen (2,480 x 2,200, ultra-thin glass) with 4,500 nits of peak brightness. Peak brightness is basically a marketing gimmick, but I had no issues with viewing the display under the sun. However, I did find that the screen was a fingerprint magnet, while the crease is still noticeable. The cover display has a 21:9 aspect ratio, as seen on previous vivo foldables. This is still a little narrow for my liking, and I did fat-finger the keyboard at times.

Check the rear cover and you’ll find an Oreo cookie camera housing. I’d rather take this over the Z Fold 7’s camera bumps, which cause Samsung’s phone to rock back and forth when you tap the folded screen on a flat surface.

The X Fold 5 has a 6,000mAh battery, which is much larger than the Fold 7’s 4,400mAh battery and larger than other foldable phone batteries. I haven’t spent enough time with the phone to definitively ascertain endurance, but this should significantly outpace the Z Fold 7, particularly when using the folding screen. I achieved almost eight hours of screen-on time and still had 33% juice remaining when primarily using the cover screen. The phone has 80W wired charging and 40W wireless charging, and it took just 58 minutes for me to go from zero to 100% via the included charger. Not bad for a 6,000mAh battery.

vivo has settled on using last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset instead of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip seen in the Z Fold 7. That means the Samsung phone should handily beat it in benchmarks and in some demanding apps. However, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is still a powerful chip that should easily support advanced games several years from now. I haven’t experienced any general performance issues, while titles like GRID Legends and War Thunder Mobile also ran smoothly.

The X Fold 5 is also equipped with a pretty versatile rear camera system, consisting of a 50MP main camera (IMX921, 1/1.56-inch), a 50MP ultrawide camera, and a 50MP 3X periscope camera (IMX882). The main camera took good-quality shots in most conditions. The default image processing still leans a little too heavily on sharpening, but at least you can turn this down with a slider. Meanwhile, the ultrawide shooter is easily the weakest rear shooter, owing to color fringing and image softness.

That high-resolution 3x sensor means you can generally capture good-quality 6x shots thanks to cropping. You can also get good-looking 10x shots in ideal scenarios, but I sometimes noticed blown highlights. I don’t have faith that the Z Fold 7 will be able to match vivo in this regard, though. A 20MP selfie camera is available on each display. These cameras generally get the job done, but you should expect heavy noise reduction and reduced detail in mixed lighting.

The global version of the X Fold 5 swaps out the China-only Origin OS software for Fun Touch OS 15 (Android 15). Thankfully, one of the coolest features seen in the Chinese phone is coming to global models, namely the Origin Workbench feature.

Origin Workbench is a new take on app multitasking, which is accessible by swiping inward from the bottom-right corner. This reduces your app to a slightly smaller app window, and gives you space for up to four more active apps in much smaller windows on the left. A simple tap on these small app windows will let you quickly swap apps.

I’m not a big fan of multitasking on smartphones, but I liked this approach. Perhaps the only downside is that the main window can feel slightly cramped with some content. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t mind if Samsung brought a similar feature to its foldables.

vivo’s Chinese foldable also offers Apple Watch support with an update, AirPods support, and more. However, the company hasn’t made these same promises for the global software. Otherwise, vivo still lags behind Samsung’s foldable software in several ways. Perhaps my biggest bugbear is that per-screen customization (e.g. wallpapers, home screen layouts) is severely lacking. I’m also waiting for vivo to confirm the phone’s update policy, but I doubt the company will copy Samsung and offer seven years of OS and security patches.

vivo says the X Fold 5 will only be available in Asian markets like India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan. That’s a real disappointment as it means the Pixel 9 Pro Fold ($1799 at Amazon) and HONOR Magic V3 (£1699.99 at Honor) are among your only viable Galaxy Z Fold alternatives in Europe. Meanwhile, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is your only Fold 7 alternative in the US. This can be particularly annoying if you want a foldable phone with long battery life, dust resistance, and good camera zoom.

Indian users can expect to pay Rs 149,999 (~$1,745) for the sole 16GB/512GB vivo X Fold 5. By contrast, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is notably more expensive at ~$2,036 for the base 12GB/256GB model. That’s a decent chunk of change you’re saving on a foldable.

Nevertheless, if the X Fold 5 is available in your country, you should definitely consider it. It addresses some key Galaxy Z Fold 7 weaknesses while being notably cheaper (for a foldable). Not in a supported market? Then you should get the Z Fold 7 or wait for the HONOR Magic V5.