Why the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro Trumps the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

Since entering the foldable phone market, Samsung has been the undisputed king in the segment. On the back of some stellar devices, and forward-looking technologies, the company has managed to exert its dominance in this segment which arguably represents the best that the smartphones have to offer.

However, over the past few months, its dominance in the foldable phone segment has been tested by the likes of the OnePlus Open and Vivo X Fold 3 Pro, with the latter giving Samsung’s latest Galaxy Z Fold 6 a proper run for its money in all aspects that make a foldable.

Today, we put these two side by side, to figure out which is the better foldable, and more importantly, a better smartphone.

All About the Design and Usability

While Samsung has put considerable effort into reducing the weight and thickness of the Z Fold 6, it’s interesting to note that this flagship foldable still loses to the X Fold 3 Pro in this crucial department. Interestingly, this is despite the Z Fold 6 now being trimmed down to 239 grams and 12.1mm when closed — from 17.1mm on the Fold 5.

In comparison, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro weighs in at 236 grams and is only 11.2mm when closed. All this despite sporting a bigger panel on the front. But more on that later. When opened, the X Fold 3 Pro also does a better job of managing the dreaded crease. Much of this is because of a new hinge mechanism that’s made using carbon fiber and weighs only 14.98 grams — a big factor in keeping the weight of the phone down.

While it’s considerably lighter than a metal hinge — Vivo claims about 72% — the carbon fiber hinge is also promised to be extremely durable as it’s able to withstand 100-fold and unfold operations a day for 12 years without showing any signs of trouble.

Compared to their predecessors, these numbers also translate to enhanced ease of use for both phones in real life. However, it is the X Fold 3 Pro that truly stands out as a more ergonomic and more usable smartphone because of its design.

On the other hand, the X Fold 3 Pro feels more stable and its rounded edges help it feel more ergonomic. Design choices such as including an under-display fingerprint scanner on both the front and the main panel also give it an edge in terms of usability over the Z Fold 6 which houses a mechanical fingerprint scanner on the side.

Its round camera island at the back again feels nicer to touch as opposed to the sharper and detached lenses at the back of the Fold 6. Button placements and tactile feedback on both phones are excellent. But, the X Fold 3 Pro does win an extra point here for the addition of an alert slider.

However, at this point, it would be unfair to not mention that despite all of this the Z Fold 6 looks slightly more premium. But hey, that’s just my opinion, with a lot of my colleagues and friends insisting the X Fold 3 Pro is the more premium and better looking of the two phones.

Tale of Four Displays

Despite Samsung being a market leader in the display department, it’s interesting to see that the X Fold 3 Pro manages to get one over the Galaxy Z Fold 6 in this segment. This is simply because the X Fold 3 Pro’s outer display runs circles around the panel found on its competitor.

Flaunting a 6.53-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a more conventional 21:9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of about 457 PPI, the X Fold 3 Pro offers a lot to like. This is despite Samsung also increasing the size of the front panel to 6.3 inches and also upping the pixel density of the front screen to 410 PPI.

However, the usability of this panel remains limited because of its rather odd aspect ratio that makes most applications not run properly on this screen. The Vivo X Fold 3’s front panel further impresses with its ability to hit peak brightness levels of 4500 nits — albeit for just 1% of the window. In comparison, the front panel on the Z Fold can do a good 2600 nits.

In real-world usage, the high brightness rating of the X Fold 3 front display coupled with its 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color container ensures that you get brighter, more vibrant images on the screen. And with its more usable screen size and aspect ratio, this screen ultimately proved to be good enough for me to watch HDR content and play games on it — something I don’t think I can say for the Z Fold 6’s front panel.

The foldable panels on both devices offer similar experiences and usability. However, because the X Fold 3 Pro’s inner display sports a bigger 8.03-inch panel compared to the Z Fold 6’s 7.6-inch panel, one can argue that the former wins the battle of the big foldable panels.

Another point of consideration is that it offers better contrast and brightness levels than the display on the Z Fold 6. Plus, the fact that the foldable from Vivo also supports Dolby Vision as well as HDR10+, we come to the point where the X Fold 3 Pro establishes its dominance over the Z Fold 6 in the display department.

Performance and AI

In terms of hardware under the hood, both the phones are powered by the snappy Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. This ensures similar levels of performance on both for all day-to-day tasks. So no matter if you plan to watch videos, play games, or just browse the Internet on your new foldable, both the X Fold 3 Pro from Vivo and Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 should offer you similar levels of performance.

Where the difference does emerge is in the extras that Samsung offers on the Z Fold 6 because of the deep integration of Galaxy AI within the device’s UI. Thanks to this, you get access to refined features like live translations, transcriptions, and photos to sketch on the Z Fold 6.

Extras like Samsung Wallet also add to the whole charm of using the Galaxy Z Fold 6. And if you’re an artist or even a student who can benefit from the S-Pen and Z Fold 6 combination, then there’s really little that the X Fold 3 Pro can do to sway your mind.

Who Wins the Battery Race?

However, if you’re not persuaded by the charm of Galaxy AI or the S-Pen, then there’s a lot that the X Fold 3 Pro can offer more than just its big displays and more usable form factor. Arguably the most important of them is its overall performance in the battery department.

From its battery life to charging speeds, it exposes the flaws that Samsung has failed to address with its Z Fold line-up of flagship phones. For example, despite being a lighter phone than the Samsung device, the X Fold 3 Pro manages to pack a much bigger 5,700mAh battery pack.

Yes, that’s over a 30% advantage over the 4,400mAh pack on the Z Fold 6. With this smaller pack, Samsung has managed to offer decent battery life which does last you a day on moderate use. However, it surprisingly does not offer the kind of standby times that the X Fold 3 Pro offers, ultimately leading to the X Fold 3 Pro lasting significantly longer than the Samsung phone.

In my time with the device, I observed the Z Fold 6’s battery draining faster than the X Fold 3 Pro, which is obviously down to the Vivo foldable housing a bigger battery, but also possibly because the FunTouch OS-based device is managing battery better than the OneUI based foldable.

To make matters worse, Samsung’s Z Fold 6 does an even worse job at charging. Compared to the 90W support for the X Fold 3 Pro backed by its in-the-box 120W charger, the Z Fold 6 offers only 25W “fast charging” using a compatible charger that you’d have to buy separately.

While I can do with buying a fast charger on my own, in 2024, I don’t like the idea of it being bottlenecked by an Android phone that’s only charging at 25W. But ultimately, that’s what the Galaxy Z Fold 6 makes you do. It makes you wait longer to charge a phone that ultimately has a smaller battery, and also drains faster. Overall, a lose-lose for the buyer.

Clicking Photos in Style

Surprisingly, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro also enjoys a slight upper hand over the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 in the camera department. Much of it is down to the fact that the X Fold 3 Pro just uses better hardware to click pictures and videos.

In terms of hardware, the device features a 50 MP “Ultra-Sensing” OmniVision OV50H primary sensor with an f/1.68 aperture and OIS support. Sat next to it is a 64 MP OV64B periscope lens with an f/2.57 aperture and 3x optical zoom. Completing the setup is a 50 MP Samsung JN1 ultrawide lens.

In comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 features a 50 MP Samsung GN3 primary sensor with OIS and an f/1.8 aperture. The ultrawide lens is an upgraded 12 MP Sony IMX258 sensor while we also get a 10 MP Samsung S5K3K1 3x lens with OIS, an f/2.4 aperture.

Much like the years gone by, the Samsung device relies heavily on computational photography to enhance the quality of the images taken using its lenses. While it still does a decent job, the results pale in comparison to what the X Fold 3 Pro offers.

For pictures clicked using primary lenses and ultra-wide lenses, the Vivo foldable spits out better images, especially in low-light scenarios. From the dynamic range to the details captured the results are overall better.

X Fold 3 Pro’s ultrawide lens too captures more detailed and vibrant pictures. But this has more to do with much better hardware and equally good software working together in tandem. Zoomed-in shots using the periscope lens of the Vivo device offer similar performance as the Z Fold’s 3x optical zoom lens in the daytime, but low light imaging here again is better on the Vivo device.

Overall, It’s safe to say, that I had a much more enjoyable time using the X Fold 3 Pro for clicking photos and would wholeheartedly recommend this phone if clicking shots is an important part of your smartphone buying decision. The Z Fold 6 on the other hand also performs decently well in the camera department, but I’d not recommend it to a buyer looking to shoot a lot of photos, especially in low light.

The Best Foldable of 2024?

Well, I don’t think there’s much left to say to answer this question. While the Z Fold 6 is an excellent phone in isolation and improves on its predecessor — the Z Fold 5, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro goes on to prove just how swiftly the landscape of the foldable phone segment has changed over the past year or so.

While you won’t feel wronged buying the Z Fold 6 as it’s a pretty good phone, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro just runs rings around the Samsung device in crucial departments, establishing itself as the clear winner in this race and the device you should be spending the big bucks on!

Unless of course, you’re tied into Samsung’s ecosystem of products (like me) or already sold on its other product offerings like the Knox-backed Samsung Wallet (me again), Galaxy AI, and the whole lot of fun and functionality that the separately available S Pen Fold Edition brings.

If that’s the case, any argument in favor of the X Fold 3 Pro is purely academic and of very little consequence to making a buying decision as that’s probably already made. But I’m not sure if it still counts as much of a win for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Samsung over Vivo’s excellent foldable.