Vivo is testing its next flagship foldable with a 200MP camera and Qualcomm’s next Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, which would squarely take on the Z Fold 8 on imaging and performance, says the source. If the prototype’s specs are to be believed, this is also the first book-style foldable whose promise revolves around ultra-high-resolution photography.
What the Vivo X Fold 6 leak reveals about camera and chip
A well-known Weibo tipster, Smart Pikachu, has confirmed Vivo’s X Fold 6 prototype will combine a 200MP rear sensor with Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 and a side-mounted fingerprint reader. For reference, the current X Fold is powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and plays host to a triplet of 50MP cameras, maintaining a balance between high-end but costly specs (it doesn’t use Qualcomm’s “Elite” bin of the top chip).
Shifting to 200MP hints at a bigger lunge for camera supremacy. A side-mounted fingerprint sensor also suggests a focus on reduced chassis width and practical reliability for both displays, which is typical in large foldables where an in-panel ultrasonic reader could inflate thickness or disrupt layering.
How 200MP could change foldable photography as we know it
High-megapixel sensors aren’t just marketing. A 200MP chip like Samsung’s ISOCELL HP3 has microscopic 0.56µm pixels, and binning them 16-in-1 allows the sensor to output 12.5MP photos with a much larger effective pixel size, resulting in better low light while maintaining detail. They also allow in-sensor crop for cleaner “lossless-style” zoom at short distances before the optical lenses come into play.
Vivo already has form here. Its X100 Ultra introduces a 200MP periscope telephoto that serves up strikingly sharp 10x and long-range zoom that is surprisingly usable, dense with resolution, backed by next-level stabilization and multi-frame processing. Mirroring that playbook in a foldable would be quite a differentiator, particularly if the 200MP unit ends up as a periscope, not the wide shooter.
That’s because cameras on a folding phone tend to be far worse than those on a slab flagship, due to there being less space around the hinge (as well as the battery and heat spreaders). If Vivo can cram in a large, stabilized 200MP stack without sacrificing the phone’s appearance and balance, it’ll be at the forefront of the category.
Performance and design trade-offs for Vivo X Fold 6
Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is said to come with generational improvements in CPU performance, GPU performance and efficiency, AI acceleration, and ISP capabilities. That last part is important: a beefier image signal processor plus on-device AI assists with things like multi-frame fusion, denoising, and semantic segmentation—important ingredients when it comes to pulling clean detail out of a 200-megapixel stream.
Thermals remain the wild card. Foldables afford more area for vapor chambers and graphite, but those thermal solutions need to pull heat off two displays and a beefy SoC from an unusually svelte chassis. The real tell is that Vivo has chosen not to use the most expensive chip bins, which should be read as a careful performance-per-watt strategy for sustained speed over bursty benchmarks.
The side-mounted fingerprint scanner also speaks to practical design. According to industry analysts at DSCC, the thickness budgets on inner panels mean there is little space in which to fit complex under-display modules, so side capacitive readers are a very dependable and fast alternative for large foldable devices.
How it could compare with Galaxy Z Fold 8
Samsung’s Fold line has generally taken a balanced approach to its cameras—a 50MP main, average telephoto, and competent computational photography—rather than sensor size or megapixels.
A 200MP module on the X Fold 6 might tip that narrative a bit more toward zoom reach and micro-detail, two areas where high-resolution sensors and smart binning tend to shine.
Samsung retains some critical advantages: market-leading foldable optimization in One UI, deep app ecosystem support, and a solid multimedia approach. But Vivo’s ZEISS partnership, color science, and an established periscope strategy provide it with a practical route to camera leadership should hardware rumors come good. In other words, bring on the Fold 8 (if there is one) because a camera-toting X Fold 6 would do more than require it to catch up on productivity.
Market outlook for premium foldables and camera races
Both Counterpoint Research and IDC note that foldables are beginning to gain ground as prices even out and designs slim down. The camera lead is a significant headline feature that tempts buyers to move up from premium slabs to large-screen foldables.
Should Vivo stick to its regular beat, the X Fold 6 could land directly in that space between refreshes when rivals are gearing up for battle. With a 200MP camera and the latest silicon in town, it wouldn’t sit next to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 as an alternative but as the phone that photographers who like long-range zoom, texture detail, and photographic flexibility for taking snaps on a big screen would buy.
