Watch: Meet OPPO Find N - Foldable refined (Almost no crease)

After showing the OPPO X 2021 Rollable concept smartphone recently, Chinese tech giant OPPO today introduced its very first foldable smartphone—the Find N.

No crease!

As you will notice, unlike competing mainstream brands, OPPO didn't join the race to launch the first foldable smartphone in 2018.

They also have a prototype in 2019, but they didn't turn it into an actual product.

Likely, the reason behind that is the company feels that this tech is not yet mature.

They could be right as both outward and inward folding smartphones have pros and cons. Outward folding phones have a near creaseless design, but it isn't as protected as inward folding phones.

Meanwhile, all inward folding phones today have an awkward and annoying-looking crease.

When folded, they are often too tall making the overall phone experience a bit weird.

According to OPPO, the Find N represents a fresh and new approach to the next-generation forms of foldable smartphones and might have solved a lot of those issues.

Watch: Meet OPPO Find N - Foldable refined (Almost no crease)

First, let's unbox the device.

The box

The box arrived in a simple rectangular form factor with a subtle embossed print of the OPPO Find N branding.

Everything inside the box

When you open the box, you will be greeted by the device immediately.

Next, you will find a small box containing the 33W power brick followed by another paper container with the paper docs and the SIM ejector tool.

Underneath, it has the VOOC capable USB-A to USB-C data/charging cable.

Upon closer look at the phone, we noticed that it has a screen protector on the cover screen as well.

What's missing in the package is freebie earphones with a mic.

Build Quality/Design

Matte glass texture

Checking the body of the phone, there is no denying that this is a premium device.

OPPO claims that it took them four years and six generations of experimenting with a range of form factors, hinge designs, and screen materials before they were able to come up with the Find N.

When folded, the back cover of the device is made out of a half 3D curved glass with Gorilla Glass Victus protection, the highest grade protection today.

The camera island has a metallic-like material as well.

Like a compact smartphone with a tall and wide enough screen

When flipped, you will find the 2.5D curved cover screen with Gorilla Glass Victus protection as well.

When opened, it has a large LTPO AMOLED screen with a layer of Flexion ultra-thin glass that is just 0.03 mm.

OPPO claims that this is a 12-layer Serene Display that is slimmer than the 0.6 mm for regular smartphone glass which allows it to easily bend while still providing good durability.

This feels as durable if not more durable than the flexible display of Samsung.

OPPO claims that this can be folded over 200,000 (around 5.5 years) times verified by TÜV Rheinland!

The frame is likely metal. The hinge also feels like high-quality metal.

OPPO is calling it the Flexion Hinge with 136 components with a precision of 0.1mm for a gapless design when folded.

Gapless design, SIM card tray

The benefit of having a gapless design is it'll make the device thinner when folded and it provides better protection on the display from scratches.

This is a device made out of sturdy materials.

The SIM tray part also has a rubber stopper suggesting that it is resistant to accidental water splashes.

I would have just liked it even better if it has an IP rating.

Design-wise, we are impressed. This is compact and neat.

It is available in Purple, Black, and White.

The unit that we have is the Black variant with a glittery glass and film lamination for a shimmering effect on the base layer.

When folded, it is like a compact smartphone with a 5.49-inch screen that you can easily use even with a one-hand operation.

As expected, it has slim bezels and a top-center notch to house the selfie camera.

It is a bit thick at 15.9 mm, but it is still slimmer than a lot of foldable phones today.

As mentioned, it has a 3D curved design that is comfortable to hold. It is not that slippery and prone to fingerprint smudges as well.

The crease of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G looks so bad besides the OPPO Find N

When opened, you will be greeted with a larger 7.1-inch display for your multimedia consumption and multitasking with a landscape aspect ratio.

Almost no CREASE!

The very impressive thing about this display is it has fewer creases compared to most inward folding smartphones of 2021.

OPPO and TÜV Rheinland are claiming that it has 80 percent less noticeable crease versus other devices and we agree.

Again, near bezel-less, almost no crease

Combined with its use of a high-quality LTPO AMOLED panel, 1 to 120Hz refresh rate, FHD+ resolution, and slim bezels with a top-left punch-hole for the selfie camera, the viewing experience is pretty immersive.

When you play an HD video on streaming platforms like YouTube or iQIYI, the black borders on the top and bottom are lesser than other foldable smartphones with a taller rectangular form factor.

The main screen is more like two smartphone displays with a wider aspect ratio instead of two tall panels.

For me, that makes the Find N easier to hold on tablet mode and easier to navigate when you use the split-screen. Clever.

It also has this so-called FlexForm Mode which can make the device stand on its own when placed on a flat surface similar to a laptop.

This could be great when you use the selfie cam of the smartphone as a mirror, take hands-free selfies, video calls, and more.

Using the rear cameras, this mode could be useful when you shoot time-lapses or when you use the Expert mode to take long exposure shots.

OPPO said this could be useful too if you want to watch videos.

It is just not working on all of the apps I personally use though.

Maybe a future update will make this feature compatible with more apps.

But overall, we are pleased with the functionalities presented by its unique design.

Sleek back design showing the camera layout

The other highlight of this smartphone is the cameras.

At the back, it uses a massive 1/1.56-inch 50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX766 sensor with Omni-Directional PDAF and OIS.

It is paired with a 16MP f/2.2 Sony IMX481 14mm ultra-wide-angle and a 13MP f/2.2 Samsung S5K3M5 f/2.4 52mm telephoto sensor.

The camera island also includes a dual-tone LED flash.

For selfies, you will find a 32MP f/2.4 shooter on both the cover screen and on tablet mode.

The camera UI is intuitive and feature-rich. Most of the features we like from other premium OPPO smartphones are here as well.

First Camera Samples

Daylight 1x

Daylight ultra-wide

Daylight 2x tele

Indoor 2x tele

Indoor Portrait mode

Low light 1x

Night mode 1x

Ultra-wide Night mode

Well-lit indoor selfie

Low light Night mode selfie

For the camera samples, it takes high-quality images in most lighting conditions.

Daylight images are superb whether you use the primary cam, ultra-wide-cam, or zoom cameras.

Even in a slightly against the light condition, the HDR effect will properly kick.

The colors are punchy, but not oversaturated as well.

For close-ups, the 50MP primary cam can produce a natural background blur.

When you use the tele camera, it blurs the background even more.

The weakness is it doesn't have super zoom or super macro. They are nice to have features, but let's be honest, most will not use them often.

For indoors, the quality is consistent from the primary cam, ultra-wide, to 2x telephoto.

If the lighting is good, you can even take close-up shots with impressive bokeh.

For the portrait mode, edge detection could be a bit better, but this is still decent.

In the dark, even if you don't use the Night mode, the results are alright with minimal grain.

Surprisingly, the output from the ultra-wide-cam is not bad even if it has a smaller sensor size.

When you use the Night mode, it'll get shots with a bit more saturation, but the exposure from the light sources will be better. Overall shots will be crisper as well.

For videos, it records up to 4K at the back and 1080p for selfies.

The SuperSteady mode with a bit of a crop only works at 1080p though.

OPPO Find N Specs

Display: 7.1-inch flat AMOLED screen w/ 1-120Hz refresh rate, FHD+ 1920 x 1792 resolution at 370 ppi, 5.49-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass Victus protected AMOLED screen w/ FHD+ 1972 x 988 resolution at 402 ppi

CPU: 2.84GHz 5nm Snapdragon 888 octa-core processor

GPU: Adreno 660

RAM: 8GB/12GB LPDDR5

ROM: 256GB/512GB UFS 3.1

Rear Camera: 50MP f/1.8 Sony IMX766 w/ All-Pixel Omni-Directional PDAF, OIS + 16MP f/2.2 Sony IMX481 14mm ultra-wide-angle + 13MP f/2.2 Samsung S5K3M5 f/2.4 52mm telephoto + dual-tone LED flash

Selfie Camera: 2x 32MP f/2.4 Sony IMX615

Battery: 4,500mAh w/ 33W SuperVOOC + 15W AirVOOC 

OS: Android 11 w/ ColorOS 12

Connectivity: WiFi 6 2x2 MIMO, 5G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.2 (SBC, AAC, aptX HD, LDAC), OTG, NFC, GPS (L1 + L5), GLONASS, Galileo (E1 + E5a), BeiDou (B1l + B1c + B2a), QZSS (L1 + L5), dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic, pressure

Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos, USB-C, Colors: Purple, White, Black

Dimensions: 140.2 x 132.6 x 8.0 mm (unfolded), 132.6 x 73 x 15.9 mm (folded)

Weight: 275 g

Price: TBC

As of the moment

Almost no crease!

Unfortunately, our time with the device is too short for us to be able to come up with a full review.

The software is also the Chinese version so there's no Google PlayStore out of the box and some apps are not working. 

BUT, we enjoyed a lot of the things that we briefly experienced with it.

Not awkward tall when folded

In particular, we like its landscape form factor when unfolded and the compact yet large and wide enough screen when folded.

Of course, the near no crease and no-gap design are very impressive.

Nearly everything about it screams high-end as well. The processor is super-fast even for gaming, it has a high-refresh-rate on tablet mode, the battery is fairly large at 4,500mAh, the cameras are mostly great, and the fingerprint reader is accurate.

It is premium and innovative through and through!

They could have made the charging speed faster, but the 33W it is using is faster than the 25W of competing foldables. It even has a 15W wireless charging that works.

Of course, like all smartphones, the Find N has a few shortcomings.

1. As mentioned, I loved the screen size, but it would have been better if a higher refresh rate on the cover screen as well.

2. There is no water and dust resistance rating.

3. This is not OPPO's fault entirely, but SD888 heats up on demanding tasks.

4. It would have been more comfortable to hold if the weight is a bit less.

Most of them are just nitpicks though. This is still the most refined foldable smartphone that we have ever tested yet. 

OPPO just revealed its SRP in China. The 8GB/256GB version is priced at CNY 7,699 (around PHP 60.7K before taxes and duties) and the 12GB/512GB edition retails for CNY 8,999 (around PHP 70.9K before taxes and duties).

Those are very attractive prices for a foldable smartphone that looks as innovative as this.

There is no info if it will launch in other parts of the world including the Philippines.

Rest is assured that we will update this feature once we have those details.