Vivo announces the release of the company’s first foldable phone

With its Galaxy Z Flip and Fold phones, Samsung presently dominates the foldable market and has been instrumental in propelling the category ahead. With foldables’ growing popularity and the form factor on the cusp of becoming mainstream, it’s no surprise that Huawei, Honor, Motorola, Xiaomi, and Oppo (shown above) have all experimented with them. Vivo has teased the announcement of its first foldable device for early next week, indicating that another Chinese company is eager to test the waters.

The business posted the image on Weibo (via XDA) and it shows the foldable — though it’s difficult to tell the form factor from this stylized picture. Thanks to some leaked hands-on photographs released on Weibo earlier this month (via GSMArena), users get a much cleaner look at the phone, which shows off a Fold-like architecture and suggests the phone could launch as the Vivo X Fold. The foldable 8-inch display will reportedly include an ultra-thin glass layer on top and a 120Hz refresh rate, according to rumours.

Given that Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus are all owned by the same parent company, BBK Electronics, the X Fold is likely to borrow some design cues from the Oppo Find N.

Vivo is also likely to debut its first tablet, the Vivo Pad, at the March 28 event, in addition to the foldable. Unlike Oppo and Xiaomi, the company is based mostly in China and Asia. Despite the company’s reputation for sleek design and superb camera performance, the X Fold seems unlikely to make its way outside of Asia, given its track record.

The Vivo X Fold is expected to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, which is present in the latest flagship phones from Samsung and OnePlus, such as the Galaxy S22 series and the OnePlus 10 Pro. When the phone is opened, the interior display is expected to be 8.03 inches with a QHD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 120Hz. The Vivo X Fold was reportedly speculated to include a 4,600mAh battery and compatibility for 80W fast wired and 50W wireless charging speeds.