Specialist glass maker Schott claimed a smartphone first after Vivo’s latest foldable smartphone was certified as capable of withstanding more than half a million folds by a leading international test house.

TUV Rheinland certified Vivo’s X Flip, a device the vendor unveiled last week which features Schott’s UTG flexible glass. The manufacturer stated the display is thinner than a human hair but is chemically strengthened.

The strengthening process delivers a glass which “can achieve an extremely small bending radius” with the potential to “bend hundreds of thousands of times”, Schott stated.

Schott also provided the external glass for Vivo’s X Flip and its Fold 2 model, which both launched in China last week.

The Xensation glass is Schott’s “most drop-resistant” cover material constructed from lithium-alumino-borosilicate (LABS), offering high levels of scratch resistance.

Scott’s external glass also covers the Carl Zeiss camera lenses featured in both devices.

Vivo’s X Flip runs a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 mobile platform and the X Fold 2 a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

The smaller device offers a screen refresh rate of 120Hz, adaptive refresh features and a high-frequency pulse width modulation dimming at 1920Hz to ease eye-strain.

Vivo’s X Fold 2 is 2mm thinner and around 33 grams lighter than its predecessor, and offers an 8.03-inch main display with 120Hz refresh rate.