vivo X Fold3 Pro review

Android 14 with an international Funtouch on top

The X Fold3 Pro runs Android 14 with a proprietary layer of vivo software on top - Origin OS for the Chinese version, and Funtouch OS for handsets meant for other markets, as is our review unit. The brand has promised to deliver three years of Android OS upgrades and four years of security patches for the X Fold3 Pro.

Funtouch on the cover display looks and feels just like it does on a non-bendy vivo. We did a more detailed overview of that when we had the X100 Pro in the office and you can head over there if you want to learn more. Here's just a quick taste.

Funtouch OS on the vivo X Fold3 Pro

The internal screen gives you a much larger canvas for activities and it provides a reasonably intuitive and full-featured multi-window implementation, though it's not quite as polished as it is in One UI on the Galaxy Z Fold6 - this one requires a bit more getting used to.

Funtouch on the large screen

There's a handful of features to make use of the bendy display, grouped together in the Foldable devices submenu in settings. Flex mode splits the screen into two halves - one actionable, the other for viewing - for apps that can benefit from it. Smart screen shift will switch the active display to the cover when the phone detects a certain change in orientation - disable it, if you feel the phone is acting out when you want to take overhead photos.

There's also a simple 'turn off/keep on' selector for what the phone is supposed to do when you close the foldable display - there's no per app setting like some other Android overlays have.

Foldable features

An intriguing desktop clock functionality with multiple possible interfaces is also on the menu.

Benchmarks

The vivo X Fold3 Pro uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, like the China-only X100 Ultra we last saw from vivo. Conversely, the other high-end X from the company that we've reviewed, the X100 Pro has a Dimensity 9300 inside, as does the X100 non-Pro.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is a known quantity, of course, found in the bulk of top-tier Androids in 2024. It's the AB variety, and not the 'special' AC version of the Qualcomm chip that has slightly higher frequencies for this or that bit. Then again, it's not like the Z Fold6 stands out with extreme performance with its 'for Galaxy' chip (essentially the AC version).

The X Fold3 Pro has three memory configurations in China - a 12GB/256GB base spec, the 16GB/512GB 'middle option', and the 16GB/1TB top version. Outside of China, it's apparently only the middle option that will be available and that's what we had for review. The storage speed was consistent with the UFS 4.0 standard.

The X Fold3 Pro performed admirably in benchmarks, roughly on par with the X100 Ultra. The vivo foldable matches the Z Fold6 in CPU performance, is way ahead in the compound Antutu benchmark and is better than the Galaxy in the easier 3DMark disciplines, though it trails a little in the ray tracing Solar Bay test.

We've discontinued GFXBench graphics benchmarking as the app is often banned/blacklisted on the phones we receive for review. The graphics performance ranking in 3D Mark is just as meaningful, so we suggest you refer to that one instead.

Under prolonged load, the X Fold3 Pro returned very interesting results. The GPU numbers in 3DMark Wild Life were sort of similar to those on the OnePlus Open or the Galaxy Z Fold6 with all handsets dropping to roughly the same minimum levels.

In the CPU Throttling test, on the other hand, the vivo shone brighter, recording average values for the 1-hour duration of the test that were as high as the Galaxy or the Open's scores at the very start of their tests. It wasn't the most stable of performances, with a bit of a hair comb effect of highs and dips, but the dips weren't too deep. Overall, it's one of the more impressive long-term CPU load results - on a foldable or otherwise.

CPU Throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test