Oppo Find N – a folding phone that has kept tech enthusiasts curious for the last few weeks has finally become official in China. Interestingly, the launch announcement was made by Pete Lau, OnePlus co-founder, and OPPO’s chief product officer Pete Lau. During the launch presentation, Lau shared several insights about the journey to the first OPPO Foldable phone. He spoke about how OPPO started working on a foldable tech back in 2018 and after three years and six generations, they finally had the Find N ready for commercial launch.
OPPO has announced that the Find N will only be available in China. Luckily, OPPO has loaned a Find N to us to experience its latest innovation.
Now that I have the phone in my hand and I have already spent some time with it. I would like to share my thoughts. Let’s get started:
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| Specs | Unboxing | Design | Hinge & Build Quality | Display | Software & Hardware | Camera | First Impressions |
OPPO Find N Specs
Body: 132.6×140.2×8.0mm, 275g; Gorilla Glass Victus outer panels, aluminum frame, plastic cover over the foldable screen.
Inner Display: 7.1″ Foldable AMOLED, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1000 nits (peak), 1792x1920px resolution, 8.4:9 aspect ratio, 370ppi
Outer display: 5.49″ AMOLED, 60Hz, 988 x 1972 pixels, 402ppi, 18:9 ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus.
Chipset: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5 nm): Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 680 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 680 & 4×1.80 GHz Kryo 680); Adreno 660.
Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
Software: Android 11, ColorOS 12.
Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, omnidirectional PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 16 MP, f/2.2, 14mm, 1/3.09″, 1.0µm; Telephoto: 13 MP, f/2.4, 52mm, 1/3.4″, 1.0µm, PDAF.
Front camera: Inner: 32 MP, f/2.4, 1/2.8″, 0.8µm; Outer: 32 MP, f/2.4, 1/2.8″m 0.8µm.
Battery: 4,500mAh; Fast charging 33W, Fast wireless charging 15W, Reverse wireless charging 10W.
Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); NFC; Stereo speakers.
OPPO FIND N Unboxing
The Oppo Find N comes in a premium-looking black box where the base lifts up as you take off the lid. The sizeable package includes only a 33W power adapter, a USB cable, and some paperwork. OPPO hasn’t bundled any case cover in the box.
OPPO Find N Design
Let’s discuss the design first. In my opinion, OPPO has done impressive work here. The Find N enchants even at a partial glance. While it appears similar to Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, the Fold N has a more manageable form factor that is more practical and comfortable to use in day-to-day life. That’s mostly because the cover display sticks to the conventional 18:9 form factor that we are all quite used to.
In terms of size, it is as tall as iPhone 13 mini which makes it more manageable than the Samsung’s Z Fold series. I just love the way I can use it with a single hand when folded.
OPPO loaned me Find N in black color and a frosted glass finish, and a triple camera module that bulges out ever so slightly. The camera housing has a shiny glass plate that gels well with the matte finish.
The metal frame around the screen and the meticulously designed hinge not only look stylish but also add that ever-elusive premium-ness to the phone.
At the bottom edge, each fold houses a speaker together delivering stereo sound. There’s also a SIM tray and a Type C port sitting at the bottom edge. On the right edge, you will find a volume rocker on the top fold while a fingerprint sensor-embedded power button on the lower fold.
OPPO Find N: Hinge & Build Quality
Let’s now talk about the star of the show – the hinge of the Find N. That’s right, OPPO has managed to develop a hinge that works smoothly without leaving any air gap. The brand demoed how it’s difficult to even slide an A4 paper sheet between the two halves.
It’s the hinge that makes the Find N stand apart from the competition. Engraved with “DESIGNED FOR FIND” the hinge ensures there is a minimal crease. This is done by avoiding a hard fold and resorting to what OPPO calls a soft “waterdrop” fold.
The end result is that there is no hard crease and the undulations of the folded region are a lot less intrusive when using the screen. Of course, OPPO isn’t the first brand to experiment with this sort of folding technique, but the execution on the Find N is still pretty impressive.
The OPPO’s Flexion Hinge is testimony to efforts put in by the OPPO team as they have claimed to put together using 136 components with extreme precision to ensure the two halves shut without leaving a gap or a crease.
What about the durability of the hinge? Well, Oppo claims to have sent the FOLD N to renowned hardware certification site TÜV which rated it to last for at least 200,000 folds. That means, if you folD open & close the Find N about 100 times daily for five years, its hinge should be able to take the beating.
While that’s all great, the Find N doesn’t come with any official IP rating against water and dust protection. OPPO says it should be able to withstand splashes.
OPPO Find N: Display
The OPPO foldable phone has a bigger 5.49-inch front screen with an 18:9 aspect ratio which to us felt better than Galaxy Fold 3’s unconventional approach.
The external display of the Find N is an AMOLED panel with a 60Hz refresh rate and 988×1972 pixels screen resolution and 402PPI pixel density. It has a curved Corning Gorilla Glass Victus as a cover glass on top. I am quite fond of Find N’s front panel as it is good enough for most of my everyday requirements.
On the inside, there is a fantastic 7.1-inch AMOLED screen from Samsung with an aspect ratio of 8.4:9. It’s an LTPO panel which means it can adjust the refresh rate from 1Hz to all the way up to 120Hz. It has a touch sampling rate of up to 1,000Hz. Both outside and inside screens can deliver peak brightness of up to 1,000 nits.
With 7.1-inch real estate, there is enough screen space available for running two apps side by side or when using the floating window. From exploring the web to consuming content, I found OPPO Find N’s display to be right at par with the best in the business. As discussed in the last section, the crease is as minimal as it gets.
OPPO Find N: Hardware and Software
I haven’t really had the time to explore the Find N’s software completely but I find some of the features neatly done. One such feature is Dual Window or split-screen mode where a simple swipe down from the top with two fingers splits the screen into two to use two apps side by side. It has a few other tricks like ‘four-finger pinch’ to put all apps into a floating window, but these only work with selected apps.
The Find N is not short on specs in comparison to a flagship smartphone of 2021, but should fall short of upcoming 2022 flagships, most of which will employ Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or MediaTek Dimensity 9000. The OPPO foldable phone houses the Snapdragon 888 under the hood paired with 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB UFS 3.1 storage – which should be enough power for most mortals.
Oppo has done fabulously well in packing a 4500mAh battery inside a smaller chassis. This results in longer battery life than the Z Fold 3. It supports 33W SuperVOOC charging or 15W wireless charging. There’s also 10W reverse wireless charging and standard Qi support.
Oppo Find N Cameras
The Oppo Find N boasts of five cameras – three rear cameras, one on the external display and one on the inner display. OPPO has packed a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor with PDAF, f/1.8 aperture, and OIS. The rear setup also includes a 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with an f/2.2 aperture and a 13-megapixel telephoto sensor. There is a 32-megapixel selfie camera (Sony IMX615 sensor) on the outside and inside screens.
For its foldable phone, OPPO has redesigned its camera app almost from the scratch. It offers plenty of settings and features for rear cameras, including Nightscape, Expert, Panorama, Portrait, Time-lapse, Slo-motion, Breeno Scan, Text scanner, Dual-view Video, and Movie.
I am yet to take the OPPO Find N cameras for a spin so I reserve my opinion for a later date.
OPPO Find N First Impressions
OPPO deserves a pat on the back for Find N. I think Oppo has a winner here! It basically addresses almost all the concerns that we have with the Samsung Galaxy Z fold 3. It is compact and it virtually transforms into a tablet when unfolded. Be it design or display, this feels like a very refined product that we thoroughly enjoyed using.
My only concern with the Find N is its availability. OPPO is keeping its best piece of tech only within China. OPPO has made a calculated business decision but a tech enthusiast in me would have wanted the Find N to see a wider global release – which will presumably happen for the next-generation model.
