What about folding screen phones? I believe that for this question, many people's answers will be positive. But if you continue to ask them if they will buy, I am afraid that there will be many negative answers. The reason is that the current folding screen models often compromise in some aspects of the product in order to accommodate such a large screen. Users pay the price of the top flagship, but they do not get the flagship all-round experience.
As the last major domestic mobile phone brand to launch the folding screen model of vivo, before the X Fold release played out the slogan of "open the folding screen 2.0 era", from the configuration point of view, vivo X Fold has indeed done enough comprehensive, before the folding screen mobile phone has been absent periscope telephoto lens, ultrasonic screen fingerprint, high-power wireless charging and other configurations have appeared. So what kind of user experience can the vivo X Fold bring while configuring the pull full? Can it open the 2.0 era of folding screens? Let's take a look.
01 Design: Uncompromising internal and external dual screens, hidden in a thin and light body
As the flagship model of vivo, the X Fold has a lot to talk about in the appearance, here I will talk to you in detail.
Screen: Flagship performance, inside and out
Recall that the folding screen mobile phone launched before, in the most important screen aspects are often lacking, either the external screen ratio like a remote control, or the inner screen does not support 120Hz high brush. On the vivo X Fold, this status quo of "only one choice" for internal and external screens has finally been broken.
Vivo X Fold adopts a combination of 6.53-inch external screen + 8.03-inch inner screen, whether it is the size of the external screen or the inner screen, it is in the first echelon of today's folding screen models. Among them, the external screen resolution is 2520 * 1080, using the normal ratio of 21:9, to ensure that users can also get a very close experience with ordinary mobile phones when using the external screen, even in the full keyboard input such a limit scene, you can also get a good use experience. At the same time, the micro-curved form brings a rounded and comfortable opening and closing feel, while providing more space for the lower hinge, further improving the efficiency of space use.
Unfold the fuselage, and what comes into view is this 8.03-inch large inner screen, which adopts a 4:3.55 screen ratio and a resolution of 2160*1916. Such a large screen size brings a viewing and operation experience comparable to that of tablets, and also makes it more comfortable to use in office scenarios, especially browsing/editing documents.
For folding screen mobile phones, only two screens are not enough, because it is often necessary to switch between the inner and outer screens, the difference in screen parameters will undoubtedly cause a split in the use experience. In order to solve this problem, the vivo X Fold's internal and external screens use the AMOLED screen of Samsung E5 material, which supports a high refresh rate of 120Hz. At the same time, in order to maintain the consistency of the color of the inner and outer screens, X Fold adopts a self-developed consistency calibration scheme, which not only achieves the consistency of the dual-screen display in the factory mode, but also supports the user to customize the color style, and the two screens still have nearly consistent colors and displays in the custom mode.
Most of the current mainstream flagship models use under-screen fingerprint recognition. The folding screen model is limited by the internal space of the fuselage, and mainly adopts the same side fingerprint recognition as the low-end model. In order to provide users with a better fingerprint recognition experience, vivo X Fold has achieved an innovative breakthrough in fingerprint recognition technology, becoming the world's first product equipped with a new generation of fingerprint technology on both internal and external screens - "3D ultrasonic dual screen fingerprint", with stronger anti-environmental interference ability, faster unlocking speed and higher security.
Hinge: The behind-the-scenes hero who makes mobile phones thin and light without creases
For folding screen mobile phones, the two points that are most concerned in the use process are undoubtedly the crease and the feel of opening and closing, and these two points are closely related to the hinge design. In my actual experience, the vivo X Fold's opening and closing force is moderate, the crease is relatively slight, and this excellent performance is naturally due to its aerospace-grade floating wing hinge and other peripheral designs.
Before discussing hinge design in detail, let's take a look at how creases are formed. In the process of opening and closing the folding screen, the reason why the crease is formed is that on the one hand, the lack of support structure in the center after the screen is unfolded, which causes it to be unable to offset the indentation inertia in the bent state; on the other hand, it is due to the upward force generated by the position of the door panel on both sides of the hinge and the screen when the screen is unfolded. The combined action of the two factors makes the center of the folding screen appear M-type crease.
In order to alleviate the crease, the aerospace-grade floating wing hinge adopted by vivo X Fold adds a one-piece zirconium alloy keel in the center of the hinge as the "skeleton" of the entire hinge, and at the same time adds an integrated zirconium alloy floating plate above the keel, imitating the biological characteristics of the bird wing and moving with the opening and closing of the mobile phone. When the screen is unfolded, the floating mid-plate rises to provide support for the crease part and the screen is flatter; when the screen is closed, the floating mid-plate falls, providing sufficient space for the screen bending, protecting the screen, and the mobile phone is more durable.
In addition to the special design of the hinge, the inner screen of the vivo X Fold adopts UTG super tough glass, which has a unique staggered structure, which can further improve the pressure resistance of the screen when folding under the premise of high light transmission performance, making the screen more durable. At the same time, UTG glass has a faster rebound speed, and the "drum bag" on the top of the door panel on both sides of the hinge disappears quickly.
Such a precise hinge structure, its ease of use is naturally of great concern to users. After all, usually for flagship machines, everyone of course hopes to use it for two more years. In order to extend the hinge life and improve the stability of the mechanical structure, vivo X Fold uses six aviation materials such as liquid metal zirconium alloy, F53 aviation high-strength steel, and hand-torn steel sheet in the 174 parts of the hinge. Better flatness, light weight, high strength, able to resist the external impact of many different scenes, and more resistant to bending than the general material.
The top material also earns it the 300,000 folding worry-free certification of Rheinland. After testing, after 300,000 folds, vivo X Fold can still control creases at an excellent level. Even calculated according to the high frequency of folding 80 times a day, it is still enough to use for more than ten years, which is definitely more than enough for the average consumer.
Details: Textured business style
Finally, let's talk about some of the design details on the X Fold. At the first sight of the vivo X Fold, you can feel its rich business atmosphere. This is inseparable from the X Fold's tough fuselage line. However, thanks to the micro-curved curvature of the border, the whole machine will not have a significant feel when getting started. Combined with the frosted touch of the metal sandblasting process, the overall feeling is very comfortable.
Thanks to the micro-curved design of the border, there is no obvious feel when holding
In the rear camera module part, vivo X Fold adopts a new celestial circle square order design. The circular image lens module is placed on the left, and the glass surface connection between the circular lens module and the square decorative parts is slightly curved, and the transition between the two components is natural and smooth, reducing the sense of separation, and also has a certain dustproof effect.
The design of the celestial circle square steps is very exquisite
The whole square decorative part adopts a continuous curved process, the 1.5mm thick glass is milled to 0.75mm, and the curved and extended glass surface is milled out in the corresponding position of the circular image mirror group, and the square decorative parts are formed in one piece after punching. The outer ring of the image mirror group has been added to the gold edge design, and the halo texture design is used around the image mirror group, which brings more design detail to the blank space on the right side of the square.
The back cover of the plain skin feels delicate in the hand
In terms of color matching, vivo X Fold has two colors, Qingshan blue and sycamore gray, both of which use a plain leather back cover. Among them, the sycamore gray color matching adopts a unique dual color block processing process, and the collision of shades of color matching is matched with the texture design of the imitation car line, which makes the appearance of the mobile phone more advanced, like the high-grade leather goods in the palm of the hand.
A qualified flagship product should make people feel its excellent sense of quality at the first glance. From the delicate touch of the back cover, to the smooth and powerful opening and closing, to the top look and feel of the double large screen inside and outside, vivo X Fold can make you feel that this is a well-polished product at all levels of the senses.
02 Experience: Snapdragon 8 + OriginOS Ocean, strong performance and excellent experience can be
At the pace of regular reviews, we should take a look at the performance of the X Fold. But for folding screen mobile phones, with strong performance can only be regarded as a good foundation, how to play the real strength of the large screen through system-level optimization is the real problem, then we will see how vivo X Fold performs through actual use.
Big screen + folding, more diverse gameplay
Thanks to the hoverable hinge, the vivo X Fold brings more fun gameplay on the big screen. When watching a video, you can hover your phone on the desktop, watch the movie on the upper half screen, and transform the lower half screen into a trackpad, which can be swiped/tapped to control the playback progress, volume, and brightness. When working out, you don't have to look for a mobile phone holder everywhere, just fold the mobile phone, you can hover steadily on the desktop, follow the coach in the mobile phone to start exercising.
For the inner screen of a folding screen mobile phone, the split screen function is essential. Swipe up on the vivo X Fold three fingers to start the split screen, display two different applications on the large screen at the same time, the operation does not interfere with each other, and you can also collect the commonly used split screen combinations to the desktop, and you can open it next time you tap. Small windows can also be called up on the split-screen interface to handle multitasking more efficiently on the large screen. Simply drag the small window to the edge/middle of the screen to switch split screens.
With the help of large screens and system optimizations, it has become easier to transfer files across applications. Simply paste or send by long-pressing and dragging pictures, videos, and other files in the window to another window. At the same time, vivo X Fold supports using tablet mode to log in to WeChat, and after choosing to log in at the same time, you can log in to WeChat on another mobile phone and vivo X Fold at the same time, bringing a more convenient experience for multi-mobile phone users.
In the investment boom at the beginning of the year, I believe that many friends have purchased stocks, funds and other investment products. On traditional bar phones, due to the small screen, it is often difficult to view the market. The vivo X Fold benefits from the large inner screen, which can not only easily view the individual stock market, but also supports multiple stocks to compare at the same time, and the stock trend is more intuitive.
One-stop office solution to create a mobile workstation
In order to further enhance the productivity attributes of the vivo X Fold, vivo also provides it with three office applications - amber scanning, atomic notes, and quantum kits.
Need to scan a paper document, but don't have a scanner around you? Amber Scan App can help, which is a free, ad-free professional scanning software independently developed by vivo, with OCR text recognition technology as the core, and pre-installed by default. When you go to work or travel on business and do not carry your documents with you, you can check, transmit and sort out the materials you need for daily life at any time.
Amber Scan App
In the past two years, cross-platform interconnection has become one of the focuses of user attention, and vivo, as a mainstream mobile phone brand in China, has naturally taken action. Its quantum suite realizes the interconnection and synchronization of mobile phones with Windows or Mac computers by searching/scanning codes/data cables. Solve the pain point of information sharing between mobile phone and PC. It is worth noting that the quantum suite is the first Android mobile phone interconnection suite to realize cross-device interconnection with the Mac, and Mac users who have long been overlooked can now enjoy the easy experience of cross-platform interconnection.
Quantum suite
In study/work, whether it is a sudden flash in the mind or an important content in daily meetings, we need to be able to record it immediately, and the memo that comes with the phone is the tool we use most often. Different from the memo app of ordinary mobile phones, Atomic Notes brings the functions of professional office software to lightweight apps, bringing a comprehensive improvement to the user experience. It uses fingertip interaction, so you can use long press, drag, slide and other operations on the machine to complete mobile editing.
Atomic notes
Atomic Notes also has a rich built-in effect package, allowing you to drag and drop font styles, interpolation symbols, dividing lines, templates and a series of complex operations that you would otherwise need to use a computer to achieve, allowing you to make excellent works in a few simple steps.
From the optimization of many details for large screens and hoverable hinges, to the system App that helps improve work efficiency, it can be seen that vivo does have its own unique insights on how to use this large screen, and this can undoubtedly allow users to get a more comfortable experience.
03 Performance: Snapdragon 8 custom chip, more secure in addition to strong performance
In terms of hardware, the vivo X Fold is equipped with the performance triangular combination of snapdragon 8+ ultra-ococcling version UFS3.1+ enhanced version of LPDDR5, which stands on the same starting line as many flagship inline mobile phones released in 2022. The performance of Snapdragon 8 is believed to be very clear to everyone, but will the design of the folding screen have an impact on the release of performance? In order to get the answer, we first asked the review editor's "good friend" Ann Tutu and 3D Mark to test the phone's running score.
It can be seen that AnTutu scored 1023792 points and 3D Mark scored 9853 points, which has reached the middle and upper level of the Snapdragon 8 model and performed very well.
Of course, the running score test is certainly not exactly consistent with the user's real use scenario. In order to test the performance limits of the vivo X Fold, I chose the most heavily loaded game scenarios in most users' daily use. Here I chose the mainstream Peace Elite game to test. "Peace Elite" is set to HDR HD + extreme frame rate, in such a picture quality setting, open the performance mode, vivo X Fold average frame rate of 59.4fps, the actual experience of the game performance is more smooth.
In order for snapdragon 8 to fully release its performance, a better heat dissipation design is naturally also necessary. Vivo X Fold adopts a three-dimensional heat dissipation system composed of VC vapor plate, PGS graphite heat conductive sheet, nano thermal conductive gel and other high heat dissipation efficiency materials, which carries out heat dissipation treatment at various key heating positions and the whole machine, bringing excellent heat dissipation effect to the whole machine.
Through actual measurements, it can be seen that after running the game for half an hour, the maximum temperature of the vivo X Fold's fuselage is only 40.7 degrees Celsius. The back of the fuselage can be felt only slightly warm throughout the game, and it will not affect the operation in the game battle. As a flagship phone, this performance is very good.
For business people who use folding screen mobile phones, the security of private information is crucial. At best, it affects the safety of personal property, and at worst, it is important to disclose trade secrets, so it is important to choose a mobile phone that is safe enough.
For the privacy and security of users, vivo X Fold deeply customizes the Snapdragon 8 processor, adopts a full-featured security architecture design on the hardware side, and is the first deep mining and adaptation of the Snapdragon 8's SPU on the software side to achieve full-featured design. SPU is a secure processing unit built into Qualcomm Snapdragon's 8 Gen1 SPU custom flagship chip series, with independent hardware processor and independent OS. The SPU can be used to enhance the security of existing services and further improve the security of existing services.
Combined with the hardware capabilities of the SPU security processing unit, vivo X Fold starts from the bottom layer of the software and builds a thousand mirrors security architecture to comprehensively improve the security and privacy protection capabilities. It is spread throughout every operation of the device, from the chip, core, framework and application level, covering the operation security of the mobile phone in an all-round way.
At the kernel layer and framework layer, the Thousand Mirrors architecture always ensures the correct operation of the system, regulates and records the application behavior, and uses independent data isolation sandbox to ensure that user information is not leaked. In the application layer, vivo X Fold has built three major capabilities of trusted environment interaction, privacy anti-tracking, and privacy leakage prevention, and dozens of privacy functions, including atomic privacy systems, fuzzy geographical location, etc. are integrated into these three capabilities, so that users can feel, know, and control.
At the system level, the atomic privacy system equipped with OriginOS Ocean can bring users better interaction perception and usage experience. Relying on the capabilities of Origin OS, vivo X Fold provides users with a set of system-level privacy encryption solutions - atomic privacy system, which can realize local storage, private browsing, data isolation, background protection and other functions.
Atomic privacy system
In addition to the atomic privacy system, vivo X Fold also has many privacy features built-in. Here I have selected a few interesting features to briefly introduce.
In daily life, more and more accounts of various types make managing passwords a big problem. It is inevitable that your own memory will make mistakes, and you will record them for fear of being leaked. Based on the SPU custom-developed password vault function, the user password is encrypted in the SPU using a hardware-protected key. It can cover online shopping, office, entertainment and other applications, and all passwords that enable the password autofill function can be guarded by SPU-level passwords. It frees yourself from the pain of remembering passwords and also keeps you safe.
Today's domestic Android mobile phones, after opening the browser, the home page is often full of news and advertisements by default. Vivo X Fold's minimalist browser is one of the few system-built minimalist browsers at present, compared with other competitors, the system browser designed with minimalist purity and security privacy protection as the two main core features provides a more simplified and reassuring search experience.
The Minimal Browser home page is very simple
In an unfamiliar environment like a hotel room, we often worry about invasions of privacy such as sneak peeks. The vivo X Fold can use Wi-Fi signals to detect suspicious cameras. When the user has all doubts about the environmental safety of public places such as hotel rooms, the vivo X Fold can be used to retrieve the camera in the environment to protect the user's privacy and security in an all-round way.
Webcam detection function
For business people, it is not enough to have strong performance, and vivo has accurately perceived the privacy and security concerns of this group with its deep insight into the needs of users. Through cooperation with Qualcomm, vivo X Fold starts from the bottom of the system, providing information security for the whole process, which has a strong appeal for business people.
04 Image: Flagship image, first presented on a folding screen
Since the configuration is fully pulled, the main image configuration of the flagship machine is naturally not bad. Vivo X Fold is equipped with a full-scene image combination of 50MP OIS main camera + 48MP ultra-wide-angle lens + 12MP 2x portrait lens + 8MP 5x periscope telephoto lens, of which the periscope telephoto lens is the first time to appear on folding screen mobile phones. Coupled with the ZEISS imaging technology necessary for vivo flagship, the image performance of vivo X Fold is very worth looking forward to. As for how this combination performs, let's take a look at it through the sample.
First of all, the environment with plenty of light during the day, X Fold's 50 million pixel main camera performance is still very good, the picture resolution is excellent, the picture color is real and natural, the imaging style is plain, which is very suitable for friends who want to pursue real pictures.
On the ultra-wide-angle lens, the color adjustment maintains the same style as the main camera, and after turning on ZEISS natural color, the color of the photo is relatively more realistic and natural. When facing some relatively large scenery environments and tall buildings, the X Fold's ultra-wide-angle lens can directly produce spectacular samples, which is very practical.
In the telephoto sample, thanks to its 5x periscope telephoto lens, even if the X Fold sample reaches 5X zoom, it can still ensure good resolution, the depiction of the exterior details of the building is very good, and the architectural details in the dark area under the eaves can still be accurately presented.
In terms of night scenes, the X Fold can take a good overall picture even in low-light environments. The overall picture does not blindly pull the brightness, but takes care of the overall look and feel of the picture, the details of highlights and shadows have been preserved, the number of noise has been well controlled, it looks relatively pure, and the advantages of other folding screen mobile phones are obvious.
In addition to the excellent image performance, thanks to the X Fold's folding screen form, the process of taking pictures can also become more interesting. Holding up your phone to pose, so that you feel tired of taking a selfie? Fold your phone 90 degrees to enter hover selfie mode, and with the gesture shutter function, easily take a good-looking selfie. Another advantage of this feature is that you can freely hold the camera angle and show your best-looking self. Hovering selfies lets you be the brightest star in the room when you take a group photo with friends.
The vivo X Fold is also equipped with a rear-facing selfie function, so that self-timers are no longer patented by the front camera. Users can take selfies using a rear camera with higher imaging quality. The outer screen of the mobile phone becomes a viewfinder, which can display the content in the photo screen, and can see the current status at any time, and no longer need to take a picture and run over to see it.
Ask your boyfriend to help take pictures and worry that he's not technically good? Click to open the small window preview function, he sees you, you can also see on the outer screen, no longer have to worry about shooting strange expressions.
Small window preview function
Overall, the imaging quality of the X Fold can fully meet the user's daily photography needs, the sample color during the day is bright and pleasing, the night is pure and natural, and the overall imaging effect is very good. OriginOS Ocean is also fully optimized for the folding screen form, making the photo process also full of fun.
05 Endurance and fast charging: The endurance performance is decent, and the full-scene fast charging can return to blood at any time
Compared with the "shabby" of the previous folding screen mobile phone on the fast charge, the charging configuration of the vivo X Fold can be described as luxurious, and the combination of 66W wired fast charging + 50W wireless fast charging + 10W wireless reverse charging can meet the charging needs of users in all scenarios. In order to actually experience the fast charging performance of the X Fold, I tested it.
Before the test, the author first completely drained it and connected it to the 80W charger that came with it for testing. According to our measured data, in the current room temperature environment, 75% of the power can be charged in 30 minutes.
It is worth mentioning that the vivo X Fold is equipped with a 1.5m data cable and dual Type-C gallium nitride charger as standard, which not only makes daily use easier for business people who often need to travel, but also meets the charging needs of multiple electronic devices, reduces luggage burden, and makes travel scenarios more relaxed.
In terms of battery life, the vivo X Fold is equipped with a 4600mAh battery, which is at the mainstream level of the current flagship model. We tested the phone using ZOL's folding screen mobile phone 5-hour heavy battery life model, when testing, the mobile phone system volume and screen brightness are set to 50%, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are turned on, and the smart refresh rate is turned on. The test includes 30 minutes of 30fps 1080P video recording, 45 minutes of 1080P video playback of Station B, 50 minutes of Douyin video playback, 60 minutes of high-frame mode "Glory of the King", 45 minutes of Weibo brushing information streaming, 30 minutes of Taobao homepage browsing, and 50 minutes of QQ voice chat.
Judging from the results, the vivo X Fold has 43% of the power left after 5 hours of testing, which is completely acceptable considering the impact of the large inner screen on power consumption. Especially in the video playback part, when using the inner screen to watch, the power consumption is only 6% in 45 minutes. Combined with the full-scene fast charging configuration of vivo X Fold, I believe that battery life anxiety will not become a problem that bothers you.
06 Write at the end
Overall, vivo X Fold does have a sufficiently all-round experience, whether it is the internal and external double large screen that can provide a consistent and excellent experience, or the strong performance brought by the Snapdragon 8 flagship processor, or the full-focal length imaging system supported by ZEISS, which is not available in the current folding screen mobile phone market. The privacy and security optimization, tough and atmospheric design, and one-stop office solution composed of a variety of pre-installed Apps starting from the bottom of the system have a lot of attraction for the business people it mainly targets.
For the category of folding screen mobile phones, after several years of development, it is time to come out of the label of "expensive toys" and become a product that can truly bring users a flagship experience. Only in this way can folding screen mobile phones go to the public and become mainstream. With its all-round experience without shortcomings, vivo X Fold is undoubtedly a strong promoter of this vision.