A small fold
Oppo’s crease-free Find N foldable makes the Galaxy Z Fold 3 look unpolished
Oppo’s foldable fits better in the hand and is designed to be a more durable and reliable take on a foldable flagship phone.
Just like the teases suggested, Oppo is also launching its first foldable phone at its Oppo Inno Day tech event. The Oppo Find N 5G features a design that’s reminiscent of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3 but in a smaller overall form factor with improved durability, according to the company.
Spec-packed — The Find N 5G has a 5.49-inch 120Hz AMOLED display on the outside that’s paired with a 32-megapixel selfie camera. Inside, the Find N has a 7.1-inch foldable AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and another 32-megapixel camera for selfies and video calls. The Find N also features a 4,500 mAh battery and current-gen Snapdragon 888 chip (not the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip) putting the foldable right in line with this year’s flagships like the Galaxy S21 Ultra and OnePlus 9 Pro.
Smaller foldable — In comparison to Samsung’s Z Fold 3, the Oppo Find N is little more than half an inch smaller in both the dimensions of its external display (5.49 versus 6.2 inches) and its internal folding one (7.1 versus 7.6 inches). As we noted when Oppo first teased the foldable, the smaller dimensions will make the Find N easier to hold and use in one hand, at the cost of some interior screen real estate for more tablet-appropriate tasks.
Crease-free? — Other than the smaller size, the other refinements Oppo is focused on are durability and reliability. The Find N has an internal folding display that’s supposed to offer a smaller, less noticeable display crease, no gap between either side of the display when folded, and a solidly constructed “Flexion” hinge which features multiple stopping points for using the Find N in a variety of positions. It’s not quite the hinge on a Microsoft Surface Duo 2, but it should offer a bit more flexibility.
Foldable software — Oppo’s hypothetical use-cases vary, but the company plans to have the Find N’s user interface adapt into various “FlexForm modes” to best take advantage of the phone’s folding screen. One example Oppo offered was folding the display of the Find N almost all the way closed to angle the back cameras (a 50-megapixel main camera, 16-megapixel ultra-wide, and 13-megapixel telephoto) for a night sky timelapse. Knowing the Find N’s screen is mostly out of reach, the Find N’s FlexForm mode shifts the camera controls so they’re still visible and touchable, even with the phone mostly folded.
The Find N runs ColorOS 12 (Oppo’s version of Android 12), but Oppo says it isn’t leveraging any of the new APIs introduced Android 12L for its various UI tricks, at least for now.
Price and release? — The Oppo Find N 5G will only be released in China on December 23rd, 2021 but Oppo has not ruled out releasing future foldables in other markets. Pricing wasn’t announced.
