The First Foldable Smartphone of Oppo – Oppo Find N Full Review

Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Motorola, and even, uh, Royole have all released foldable smartphones so that OPPO may be late to the party. However, according to Pete Lau, the company’s chief product officer, this delay was not due to a lack of skill. OPPO has created six foldable prototypes over the previous four years. We even saw them during a media briefing with Lau, which featured clamshells, innie-folds, and outer-folds. But, in the end, the corporation chose to wait until the technology had evolved. Here is ‘The First Foldable Smartphone of Oppo – Oppo Find N Full Review’.

OPPO may also evaluate what other companies have done well and poorly with hindsight. As a result, the Find N, the company’s first folding phone, appears to combine the most delicate features of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Huawei’s Mate X2 into a well-balanced package. This is, in fact, my new favourite piece of folding hardware.

The Goldilocks foldable OPPO Find N Hardware

Until previously, foldable phones were either extremely small or extremely huge. Other foldable phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 or Motorola Razr, are regular phones that fold in half to become as small as a drink coaster in height and breadth. Larger foldable, like Samsung’s Fold series, Huawei’s Mate X series, and Xiaomi’s Mix Fold, are iPad Mini-sized tablets that convert into a modern-era flagship slab — meaning they’re still relatively large in this shape. Although Samsung and Xiaomi have narrowed the width of their foldable phones, they are still tall phones that tower over a standard iPhone.

The OPPO Find N foldable is the first to strike a balance between the two approaches. It’s much smaller than an iPhone 13 Pro, which isn’t particularly large by today’s slab standards. It’s also substantially smaller and lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 3. The outside secondary screen spans just 5.5 inches and has a more traditional 18:9 aspect ratio, making the Find N look and feel ultra-compact when folded thanks to small bezels and subtle curves at the corners.

Because the Find N’s screen has an 18:9 aspect ratio rather than the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s 24.5:9, it can display smartphone material in a more “regular” manner than the Z Fold 3’s cramped and elongated feeling. This is especially important while typing. Onscreen keyboards have always felt constricted on Samsung’s Fold phones’ outside screens and worse on the Xiaomi Mix Fold, resulting in more errors. I can peck away at my typical speeds on the Find N.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3, whose hinge corners are still slightly sharp (this problem was significantly worse on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 before it), has a more comfortable in-hand feel thanks to the curvature of both front and back glass, as well as a more rounded hinge area (this problem was even worse on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 before it).

As you can see in the image above, the Find N folds flat; however, the Galaxy Z Fold three folds at an angle and leaves a small gap. Because the Find N’s hinge features a small chamber into which the screen tucks, the fold is less severe than the Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Because of the liberal fold bend, the interior screen of the Find N doesn’t show much of a crease (and it has a double crease) (and it has a double crease because of the lenient fold bend). Looking at the screen from extreme angles under specific lighting, you can see the double-fold, although it’s significantly less evident than the crease on the Galaxy Z Fold 3.

The main screen on the Find N is a 7.1-inch, 1792 x 1920, 120Hz panel that looks and feels fantastic. It’s encased in ultra-thin glass, making it seem less plasticky than Xiaomi and Huawei’s foldable and more like Samsung’s — the screen is Samsung’s. And the animations are very fluid; however,, the change back to the 60Hz outside screen is startling.

The Find N has earned a lot of gushing praise from the tech press in the previous week for its hinge design, which has primarily eradicated the crease and gap. To that, I need to offer some context. Although this is a fantastic design, the Find N is not the first to provide it. We’ve seen it in Motorola’s Razr foldable and the Huawei Mate X2 in a more direct comparison. The Find N’s hinge resembles that of the Huawei Mate X2 in terms of appearance and feel.

However, OPPO improves on this hinge by including a Samsung-invented feature. The capacity for the hinge to stay open in the middle of a fold at any angle. This is known as “Flex Mode” by Samsung and “FlexForm Mode” by OPPO, but both work differently. Only Samsung and OPPO foldable can do this right now, and it’s a beneficial function that validates the existence of foldable. Because the Find N’s hinge can stay halfway folded, it uses as a tiny laptop, and the screen aspect ratio is broader than the Galaxy Z Fold 3, the keyboard is also less cramped. I can type slightly faster with many fingers than I can with just two thumbs in laptop mode. This form also allows users to shoot hands-free images or videos and watch media. For example, I didn’t need a tripod to capture this photo of myself in front of a graffiti wall.

Despite its small size, the OPPO Find N has a 4,500 mAh battery, slightly larger than the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s 4,400 mAh cell. The Find N’s battery life has been excellent, thanks to the 60Hz outer screen and OPPO’s Chinese ROM software’s aggressive energy management (more on this in the software section). I unplugged it at 9 a.m. for the first two days of use, used it aggressively all day, and had roughly 40% battery left by midnight. However, this is due to OPPO’s overzealous battery optimisation, which has unexpected consequences (more on this in the software section) (again, more on this in the software section). After disabling aggressive battery micromanagement, I still finished 15-hour days with 25% power left. Anyone should be able to use this phone all day. The supplied 30W fast charging brick or wireless charging can be used to recharge the device.

The Find N is as well equipped as many recent flagships, with 12GB of RAM and at least 256GB of storage (my unit had 512GB). I haven’t had any app start stutters or crashes in my week of intensive use.

Nitpicks about the hardware

The hardware has a few flaws: the Find N only has two speakers (compared to four on Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei’s large-screen foldable), and they’re both on the bottom of the device so that you won’t get immersive stereo sound. While the hinge feels solid and well-made, it lacks Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3’s official IP rating. When flagships with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 are released in a few weeks, the phone’s Snapdragon 888 SoC will be officially “last-gen.” Nonetheless, given the Find N’s modest price (7699 yuan, which equates to roughly $1,206), these can only be described as nitpicks.

Find N by OPPO: Cameras

There are five cameras on the OPPO Find N: two 32MP selfie cameras (one on each screen) and a triple-camera primary system with a 50MP, f/1.8, 1/1.58-inch sensor, a 16MP ultra-wide and a 12MP telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom. While the primary camera is the same as the one found in the Find X3, it is competent; the secondary and third lenses are inferior to those found in the Find X3, implying that a foldable phone is once again using a compromised camera system that is not the company’s best optics.

For the most part, the Find N camera can still take great pictures — and it holds its own against the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 — but as someone who has been spoiled by jaw-dropping, world-beating cameras like the Vivo X70 Pro Plus and Google Pixel 6 Pro, I can’t say the Find N camera wows me. Because the ultra-wide sensor on the Find N has been degraded, you can notice that ultra-wide photographs are softer and less detailed, especially at night, if you pixel peep. The OPPO Find X3, for example, has a fantastic ultra-wide camera that produced images that were virtually as sharp as the primary camera.

Compared to the iPhone 13 Pro’s image, the primary camera on the Find N blasts out the skies a little. The ultra-wide battle is closer, with the Find N’s photo being punchier and livelier; however, some contrast (shadows) may be desirable in a setting like this shooting against lighting.

The telephoto zoom lens on the OPPO Find N has a 2x optical zoom and a digital zoom of up to 20x. The shot is clear and sharp if we keep it to 2x.

However, when comparing the Find N to the Z Fold 3, the OPPO foldable’s digital zoom is still somewhat better (less noise) than the Galaxy S21 Ultra or Pixel 6 Pro’s 10x magnification.

The primary camera on the Find N performs admirably at night thanks to a mix of pixel-binning and a relatively large sensor. Both of the images shown have excellent colour and dynamic range.

The Find N’s camera system is excellent unless you’ve been spoilt with the absolute most excellent cameras (again, the Vivo X70 Pro Plus and Google Pixel 6 Pro), the Find N’s camera system is excellent (again, the Vivo X70 Pro Plus and Google Pixel 6 Pro).

OPPO Find N Software: Great gestures and customisations, but it could be better.

The Find N runs ColorOS 12 on top of Android 11, and the software works like any other recent OPPO phone when folded up, which I think is a good thing because ColorOS is quite close to OxygenOS, which most people would say is a smooth and usable Android overlay. ColorOS, like OxygenOS, is highly customisable in terms of both appearance and functionality. Not only can we change the UI colour scheme, icon shape and size, and animation speeds, but we can also use a variety of shortcut gestures, such as a quick launch sidebar that can be dragged into the home screen with swipe, or screen-off gestures, which allow us to trigger actions or launch apps by scribbling a shape onto a sleeping screen (without having to wake it up) (without needing to wake up the screen). I adore the screen-off gestures and wish that other phones will follow suit: I can, for example, draw a V to turn on the flashlight or scribble an arrow (“>”) to skip music tracks without having to wake up the screen. OPPO even allows us to personalise these gestures, so I can, for example, draw an M to access Google Maps.

Because the Find N is only available in China, it does not come preloaded with Google apps, although these may be downloaded quickly. The Google Play Store is open on OPPO’s app store, so all you have to do is download and install it.

ColorOS’ screen-off motions are fantastic, and I wish more phones would follow suit.

However, the energy optimisation is exceptionally severe, to the point where the phone breaks push notifications, which means you may not be notified when someone sends you a WhatsApp message since the Find N has put WhatsApp to sleep. I can fix this by going into settings and turning off energy optimisation for crucial apps like WhatsApp, Slack, and Gmail, but it’s a pain to have to do so. Nobody enjoys opening a chat app only to discover that there are 12 unread messages from hours ago. We’ll gladly give up some battery life to receive notifications on time.

So that’s ColorOS when it’s used as a slab phone. When the Find N is unfolded — in tablet mode — OPPO has made more tweaks to the UI. The most significant additions are rude gestures that aid multitasking. Swipe down the centre of any open app to activate the split-screen mode with two fingers. The animations add to the whimsical vibe of the action, which feels like slicing the screen in half. You can also squeeze an app with three or four fingers to shrink it into a floating window that can be enlarged.

Not every app works: Instagram, for example, refuses to float or split-screen. However, 90% of the apps I use operate well. Because the Find N’s interior screen has a broader landscape aspect ratio than the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s, it can display two apps side by side in a more native arrangement. On the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s split-screen, XDA’s homepage appears incredibly cramped, as shown in the image below.

The software on the Find N as a tablet, on the other hand, may use some work. Because the Android tablet scene is so depressing, app developers don’t bother optimising programs for Android tablets (at least not as much as they do for the iPad); hence one major issue is that some apps launch incorrectly. This is common on Android tablets in landscape mode, but the software in question was only designed to work in portrait mode. It’s a problem I’ve had with Xiaomi, Huawei, and Samsung tablets.

YouTube Studios and Uber, for example, must open sideways on the Find N because they refuse to fit into the landscape mode. However, Instagram, which is only available in portrait mode, will open upright on the Find N, but with significant pillar-boxing.

Pillar boxing detracts from the experience. This issue existed with Samsung’s earlier two foldable, but it’s mainly gone with the Galaxy Z Fold 3. This is primarily because the Galaxy Z Fold 3’s main screen is in portrait orientation even when unfolded. But it’s also because Samsung’s user interface has been fine-tuned to ensure that programs may be rotated in any position. Samsung’s Fold UI can also let any app stretch across the entire screen, which I prefer for a visually-intensive app like Instagram.

Many third-party programs, such as Spotify, Telegram, and Gmail, automatically display a two-pane layout to utilise Find N’s broader canvas.

Overall, the software experience on the Find N is solid, especially given this is OPPO’s first folding phone. It needs a little more polishing to adjust to the reality that some popular apps don’t work well with the landscape aspect ratio.

OPPO Find N: Final Thoughts

When comparing the OPPO Find N to competitors, the Find N comes out on top in most circumstances. The panels on the Find N are noticeably better than those on the Xiaomi Mix Fold, which feature bigger bezels, slower refresh rates, and a visible crease on the inner display. While the Mix Fold has subsequently been discounted, the Find N is a thousand yuan or roughly $200 cheaper if we go by the official retail pricing.

When comparing the OPPO Find N to its competitors, the Find N comes out on top in most cases.

The Huawei Mate X2’s form factor, screen, and crease all compete favourably with the OPPO Find N, and the Mate X2 remains the only foldable with a Periscope zoom lens to this day. However, because of its $2,700 price tag and lack of Google Mobile Services, this is a no-brainer. You’d have to be a complete jerk to choose $2,700 over $1,200 for a phone of this type.

Of course, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the gadget most people will compare the Find N to, and this one is closer. As I previously stated, I believe the Find N’s hardware is more attractive and comfortable to hold than the Galaxy Z Fold 3, but the latter has more sophisticated software. We also can’t overlook the Z Fold 3’s certified IP water-resistant grade, support for a pen, and Samsung DeX. The value of these extra capabilities depends on the individual — I’ve never had a phone break due to water damage, and the stylus experience on the fold is so poor that my review unit’s S-Pen Pro has been collecting dust in a drawer. So Samsung DeX is the one Fold 3 additional feature I “miss.” However, your results may vary.

I prefer the Find N’s form factor and aspect ratio based on my experience. And based on many of the comments I’ve received from colleagues in the tech media and readers, I believe my viewpoint is widely shared. But it’s the pricing that makes the Find N a winner in the end. Detractors of foldable have derided the pricing of foldable for the past two years. OPPO has released a foldable phone that costs no more than a top-tier flagship. I understand that this is China pricing and that if the Find N is sold outside of China, the price will very certainly increase. Even if it reaches $1,500, it will still be less expensive than a Samsung Ultra or Apple Max phone.

The foldable era has arrived.

The reason is that I believe 2022 will be the year foldable eventually gain public acceptance since if reputable reports are to be believed, the OPPO Find N is only the beginning. Honour, Vivo, and Xiaomi are expected to release foldable phones shortly. And, with OPPO’s $1,200 price tag, Honor and Xiaomi won’t be able to compete on price.

Tech breakthroughs occur when numerous brands compete and try to outdo each other. Samsung will be forced to bring their A-game as well. The foldable era has arrived.