Smartphones > Vivo X Fold > Audio Test Results
Vivo X Fold
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Vivo X Fold Audio test

OTHER AVAILABLE TESTS FOR THIS DEVICE

We put the Vivo X Fold through our rigorous DXOMARK Audio test suite to measure its performance both at recording sound using its built-in microphones, and at playing audio back through its speakers.

In this review, we will break down how it fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases.

Overview


Key audio specifications include:

  • Two speakers (Top side, bottom side)
  • No jack audio output

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.

Vivo X Fold
Vivo X Fold
132
audio
128
playback
134

158

126

149

143

162

107

162

86

157

140
recording
127

147

129

146

159

Best

143

170

131

145

134

166

Playback

Pros

  • Good wideness, but could be better considering the device’s large dimensions when unfolded
  • Pleasant low-end extension
  • Very good attack rendition and pretty good punch

Cons

  • Inconsistent tonal balance
  • Strong compression and pumping, along with bass distortion at maximum volume
  • Not intelligible enough at softer volumes

Recording

Pros

  • Excellent and immersive spatial performance, extremely impressive stereo wideness and perfect localizability
  • Good tonal balance with natural restitution of voices

Cons

  • SNR could be better in all apps used for testing
  • Quite sensitive to microphone occlusions

With a DXOMARK Audio score of 132, the Vivo X Fold performed well overall in our tests. While it proved to be an outstanding device for recording  —thanks to the sheer wideness of its stereo recordings — playback results were just above average, leaving the testers wanting more, considering the X Fold’s dimensions and price point.

In audio playback, our experts were satisfied with a deep low-end rendition complimenting an experience that was as equally pleasant in music listening as it was in movie-watching or gaming. However, the tonal balance was inconsistent depending on content and volume, and while the stereo wideness was perfectly good, one could have hoped for even better.

The X Fold truly shone in recording, and while it was best with the main camera, results were good with the front camera and memo app as well. Audio recordings were exceptionally immersive, thanks to an outstanding stereo wideness both in landscape and portrait orientations when unfolded, and offered a very pleasant and natural sound signature. The Vivo also comes with an audio zoom feature that is useful in certain situations. However, our experts found that it could benefit from some adjustments.

Test summary

About DXOMARK Audio tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone audio reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluation under controlled lab conditions.
(For more details about our Playback protocol, click here; for more details about our Recording protocol, click here.)

The following section gathers key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyses performed in DXOMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations under the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.

Playback

128

Vivo X Fold

163

Black Shark 5 Pro
How Audio Playback score is composed

DXOMARK engineers test playback through the smartphone speakers, whose performance is evaluated in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.

The Vivo X Fold’s playback performance was overall fairly average. Timbre was nice and benefited from a very pleasant low-end, but tonal balance could have been more homogeneous, with the upper bass/low midrange region being quite lackluster compared to low-end extension and upper midrange clarity. Midrange was decent, and so was treble, despite a noticeable lack of high-end extension.

Dynamics performance was fairly good, with sharp and accurate attack most of the time, very decent bass precision and a pretty powerful punch.

Wideness of the sound scene created by the internal speakers was very good, but given the device’s large dimensions in its unfolded state, our experts had expected even better results, especially in portrait orientation. Individual sound sources could be located quite precisely and the Vivo offered good depth rendition as well as a realistic distance perception.

Listening at the lowest volume step might be difficult as the minimum volume proved to be a bit too soft, however the maximum volume was loud enough. There were some unwanted audio artifacts at this volume though, including pretty strong bass distortion, compression and pumping. It’s also worth keeping in mind that both speakers can easily be accidently covered when gaming, so hand positioning is crucial.

Listen to the tested smartphone’s playback performance in this comparison with some of its competitors:

Vivo X Fold
Xiaomi MIX Fold 2
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4
Recordings of the smartphones playing some of our music tracks at 60 LAeq in an anechoic environment by 2 microphones in A-B configuration, at 30 cm
Here is how the Vivo X Fold performs in playback use cases compared to its competitors:
Playback use-cases scores

Timbre

134

Vivo X Fold

158

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Timbre score represents how well a phone reproduces sound across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, tonal balance, and volume dependency. It is the most important attribute for playback.

Music playback frequency response
A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency emitted by the smartphone when playing a pure-sine wave in an anechoic environment.

Dynamics

126

Vivo X Fold

149

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a bass note is reproduced or the impact sound from drums.


Spatial

143

Vivo X Fold

162

Black Shark 5 Pro

The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness.


Volume

107

Vivo X Fold

162

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Volume score represents the overall loudness of a smartphone and how smoothly volume increases and decreases based on user input.

Here are a few sound pressure levels (SPL) measured when playing our sample recordings of hip-hop and classical music at maximum volume:
Hip-Hop Classical
Vivo X Fold 74.5 dBA 72.7 dBA
Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 72.2 dBA 67.9 dBA
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 71.1 dBA 67.3 dBA
The following graph shows the gradual changes in volume going from minimum to maximum. We expect these changes to be consistent across the range, so that all volume steps correspond to users’ expectations:
Music volume consistency
This line graph shows the relative loudness of playback relative to the user selected volume step, measured at different volume steps with a correlated pink noise in an anechoic box recorded in axis at 0.20 meter.

Artifacts

86

Vivo X Fold

157

Asus ROG Phone 5

The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the sound is affected by various types of distortion. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortion can occur because of sound processing in the device and because of the quality of the speakers.

Playback Total Harmonic Distortion (Maximum Volume)
This graph shows the Total Harmonic Distortion and Noise over the hearable frequency range.
It represents the distortion and noise of the device playing our test signal (0 dB Fs, Sweep Sine in an anechoic box at 40 cm) at the device's maximum volume.

Recording

140

Vivo X Fold

157

Black Shark 5 Pro
How Audio Recording score is composed

DXOMARK engineers test recording by evaluating the recorded files on reference audio equipment. Those recordings are done in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.

In recording, the X Fold delivered excellent results, notably making good use of its large body when unfolded. Tonal balance was very pleasant, with a transparent rendition of vocal content. Main camera recordings featured very natural treble and a well rendered midrange. Selfie videos came with good brightness and therefore clarity in voices. Signal-to-noise ratio could have been better, especially in urban environments with a lot of background noise, but the clear and precise envelope allowed for clear comprehension of voices anyways.

Spatial performance was excellent, with outstanding wideness both in landscape and portrait orientation resulting in very immersive recordings. Voices were perfectly localizable in the audio scene, with an accurate sense of depth. Recording volume was loud enough and artifacts were well under control at high sound pressure levels. However, when covering the microphones with their hands, our testers noticed muffled sounding recordings and loud finger noise. In addition, stereo balance could shift to one side. Background rendition was good, thanks to pleasant and natural tonal balance. More bass could have emphasized immersion, though.

Here is how the Vivo X Fold performs in recording use cases compared to its competitors:

Recording use-cases scores

Timbre

127

Vivo X Fold

147

Honor Magic3 Pro+

The Timbre score represents how well a phone captures sounds across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, and tonal balance. It is the most important attribute for recording.

Life video frequency response
A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency captured by the smartphone when recording a pure-sine wave in an anechoic environment.

Dynamics

129

Vivo X Fold

146

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a voice's plosives (the p's, t's and k's, for example) are reproduced. The score also considers the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), for example how loud the main voice is compared to the background noise.


Spatial

159

Vivo X Fold

Best

The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness on the recorded audio files.

Recording directivity
Directivity graph of the smartphone when recording test signals using the camera app, with the main camera. It represents the acoustic energy (in dB) over the angle of incidence of the sound source. (Normalized to the angle 0°, in front of the device.)

Volume

143

Vivo X Fold

170

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Volume score represents how loud audio is normalized on the recorded files and the how the device handles loud environments, such as electronic concerts, when recording.

Here are the sound levels recorded in the audio and video files, measured in LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale); as a reference, we expect loudness levels to be above -24 LUFS for recorded content:
Meeting Life Video Selfie Video Memo
Vivo X Fold -25.1 LUFS -17.9 LUFS -20 LUFS -20.2 LUFS
Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 -25.3 LUFS -22.8 LUFS -19.7 LUFS -20.8 LUFS
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 -25.8 LUFS -21.6 LUFS -22.7 LUFS -21 LUFS

Artifacts

131

Vivo X Fold

145

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the recorded sounds are affected by various types of distortions. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortions can occur because of sound processing in the device and the quality of the microphones, as well as user handling, such as how the phone is held.

In this audio comparison, you can listen to the way this smartphone handles wind noise relative to its competitors:

Recordings of a voice sample with light background noise, facing a turbulent wind of 5 m/s

Background

134

Vivo X Fold

166

Black Shark 5 Pro

Background evaluates how natural the various sounds around a voice blend into the video recording file. For example, when recording a speech at an event, the background should not interfere with the main voice, yet it should provide some context of the surroundings.

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