Vivo X Fold 5 Review: A foldable beast with killer battery and no drama

The Vivo X Fold 5 is all about polish over flash. With the biggest battery ever in a foldable, a stunning dual-display setup that rivals tablets, and cameras that finally feel flagship-worthy, Vivo is skipping gimmicks and tackling real issues like poor battery life, clunky multitasking, and half-baked software.

It’s easily Vivo’s most refined foldable to date, and on paper, it’s gunning straight for the Galaxy Z Fold 7. But is a smarter design and that massive 6,000mAh battery enough to crown it the foldable king of 2025?

Vivo X Fold 5 review: Design

Pick up the Vivo X Fold 5, and your first thought might be, “Wait, this is a foldable?” That’s how far the category has evolved. At 9.2mm folded and 4.3mm when open, this thing is impressively slim and slides into your pocket without that usual foldable fuss. And at just 217 grams, it’s actually lighter than some regular glass slab phones. Vivo’s focus here isn’t on beating Samsung’s Z Fold 7 in a specs war; it’s about solving real-world complaints, starting with battery life.

Samsung’s foldable is technically a hair thinner and lighter at 8.8mm and 215 grams, but Vivo has packed a whopping 6,000mAh carbon-silicon battery inside the X Fold 5. That’s 37% more juice than what Samsung offers, and somehow, it still doesn’t feel like a brick in hand.

Vivo’s approach to design is all about restraint, and honestly, that works. The frosted glass back keeps smudges away, the large camera ring ties the phone’s look to the flagship X200 Pro, and the new carbon fibre hinge is buttery smooth. It holds steady anywhere between 45 and 150 degrees, so flex mode actually feels useful.

On the durability front, Vivo steps up its game. The X Fold 5 gets an IP58, IP59, and IP5X rating, meaning better water and dust resistance than Samsung’s IP48-rated Fold 7. The outer screen is protected by second-gen Armor Glass, with just enough grip area to hold it without finger gymnastics.

There are a couple of quirks though. Vivo has ditched the ultrasonic fingerprint scanners from previous models in favour of a side-mounted one. It works, but feels like a bit of a downgrade in 2025. There’s also a programmable side key, which is similar to the OnePlus Alert Slider, but the placement feels off, and it’s easy to forget it exists.

The grey colourway I tested keeps things low-key, while the green and white options dial up the flair. But overall, Vivo’s foldable doesn’t rely on flash; it’s quietly confident. No wild gimmicks, just thoughtful upgrades that make you forget you’re using a foldable at all.

Vivo X Fold 5 Review: Displays

If you want to know what premium foldable displays should feel like in 2025, the Vivo X Fold 5 is a blueprint. Flip it open and you’re looking at a gorgeous 8.03-inch LTPO AMOLED panel that’s basically a mini tablet in your pocket. It’s crisp, colours are punchy, and it stays totally readable outdoors—even in harsh sunlight. Vivo claims a peak brightness of 4,500 nits for HDR content, and honestly, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision videos look incredible. The 2200 x 2480 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate make everything feel fluid, and the LTPO tech helps it adapt frame rates depending on what you’re doing. The crease is still visible. This is a foldable after all, but Samsung does hide it a bit better on the Fold 7.

The outer screen holds its own too. It’s a 6.53-inch AMOLED that feels roomy enough for regular one-handed use. You won’t be squinting at weirdly scaled text, and it’s got the same 120Hz refresh rate, 4,500 nits peak brightness, and a sharp 2748 x 1172 resolution. For most quick tasks, I found myself defaulting to this screen. It nails the balance between compact and practical.

Vivo’s added some nice extras, like 5,280Hz PWM dimming for eye comfort and loud, detailed stereo speakers. Out of the box, colours are well-calibrated, but Funtouch OS gives you all the tools to tweak things your way, from display tuning to always-on screen customisation. Honestly, it’s hard to find anything missing here.

Vivo X Fold 5 Review: Performance & Battery Life

At ₹1,50,000, it’s fair to expect the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite inside, but Vivo has stuck with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for the X Fold 5, the same chip it used in last year’s model. I’m not mad about it though. In real-world use, it still flies. Apps launch instantly, multitasking is seamless, and even maxed-out gaming runs buttery smooth. It does throttle a little earlier than slab phones with the same chip, but heat management stays solid overall.

Benchmarks back that up. The X Fold 5 pulled 1,909,849 on AnTuTu, just 2.3% shy of the Z Fold 7’s 1,955,526 with the newer Snapdragon 8 Elite. It’s paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of fast UFS 4.1 storage, which means plenty of headroom for performance-heavy tasks. Plus, the haptics from Vivo’s strong vibration motor feel clean and precise.

The real magic, though, is in battery life. That massive 6,000mAh carbon-silicon battery makes it the longest-lasting foldable I’ve tested. Even with heavy multitasking, I consistently hit over 7 hours of screen-on time and never needed a midday top-up. Charging is no slouch either and is rater at 80W wired gets you to full in under an hour, and 40W wireless is fast enough to ditch the cable most days. Bonus points to Vivo for actually including the charger in the box.

So no, the chip isn’t the absolute latest, but with performance this good and battery life this reliable, it barely matters.

Vivo X Fold 5 Review: Software & AI

The Vivo X Fold 5 ships with Funtouch OS 15 on top of Android 15, which already feels a bit behind the times. Samsung’s new foldables are launching with Android 16, and it’s hard not to wish Vivo had matched that. Software support also trails the competition, four years of Android updates and five years of security patches sound decent, but when Samsung’s offering seven years now, Vivo’s promise doesn’t quite impress.

Still, the software experience isn’t bad. Funtouch OS has matured significantly, with fewer bugs and plenty of customisation options. But if you’re coming from a Pixel or a Galaxy, you’ll notice the animations aren’t quite as slick and the interface lacks that top-tier polish. Where Vivo shines, though, is in tailoring features for the foldable form factor.

The star of the show is Origin Workbench, a multitasking tool that feels a lot like Apple’s Stage Manager on iPadOS. You can run five apps at once: one primary window and four smaller floating ones on the side. It’s intuitive, snappy, and easily one of the best multitasking setups on any foldable right now. I found myself using it constantly, juggling emails, chats, and notes without breaking my flow.

Vivo’s AI features aren’t groundbreaking, but they’re handy. A standout is AirExtract: just point your camera at printed text, like a menu, receipt, ir flyer, and it instantly pulls it into an editable digital format. It’s fast, accurate, and surprisingly useful.

So while the Vivo X Fold 5’s software doesn’t quite match Samsung’s polish or Google’s elegance, it finally feels cohesive and genuinely built for a foldable workflow. If Vivo can tighten up updates and polish, they’re on the right track.

Vivo X Fold 5 Review: Camera Performance

Vivo’s camera game on the X Fold 5 is seriously stacked. On the back, you get a trio of 50MP shooters: the Sony IMX921 as the main sensor, a JN1 for ultra-wide, and the IMX882 with 3x optical zoom for telephoto. Both the main and telephoto lenses feature OIS, and there are two 20MP selfie cameras, one on the cover screen, and one under the main display. As expected, Vivo’s long-standing partnership with Zeiss brings that signature natural colour science and portrait performance that stands out, especially in the premium foldable space.

The camera app borrows heavily from the X200 Pro, including all the Zeiss filters and pro-level tools. A personal favourite of mine is the ‘Classic Negative’ mode. Inspired by Fujifilm’s film stock, it gives your shots a moody, cinematic vibe that feels unique for a phone camera.

Low-light shots hold up surprisingly well. Noise is under control, details remain sharp, and the night mode doesn’t go overboard with artificial brightening. Portraits are a major strength, with clean edge detection and natural background blur. You can go all the way up to 100mm focal length, but the sweet spot for flattering results is around 50mm to 85mm. One gripe, though: Vivo’s portrait mode still tends to go overboard with face brightening and skin-smoothing, which can smudge fine facial details, especially indoors.

The 50MP telephoto cam handles 3x optical zoom and up to 100x digital. Results are solid up to 20x, but beyond that, detail starts to fall off. There’s also a surprisingly good tele-macro mode, at around 6x zoom gives crisp, close-up shots that mimic a DSLR look.

Even the ultra-wide sensor delivers. It’s got punchy colours, good dynamic range, and very little distortion around the edges, which is often a weak spot for foldables.

On the front, the 20MP selfie cam on the outer display is more than capable—sharp photos, solid exposure, and a wide enough angle for group shots. Portrait mode works well here too. The under-display 20MP selfie cam is a different story. It’s soft, washed out, and best reserved for video calls. For any actual selfies, just flip the phone around and use the rear cameras with the cover display as a viewfinder, you’ll thank yourself later.

Vivo X Fold 5 Review: Verdict

The Vivo X Fold 5 is Vivo’s most refined foldable yet, finally getting the essentials right. With a huge 6,000mAh battery, premium design, ultra-bright dual displays, and a capable triple 50MP camera setup, it feels like a proper flagship. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 keeps things fast, and Origin Workbench makes multitasking genuinely useful on the big screen.

That said, at ₹1,49,999, it’s a pricey package, and Vivo’s shorter software support and average under-display selfie cam keep it from total perfection. But if battery life is your top priority and you’re ready to splurge, this is the most complete foldable Vivo has ever delivered.