Smartphone brand Oppo recently joined a growing list of brands to introduce its own foldable range of phones.
After four years of research and development, and, yes, numerous prototypes, Oppo has successfully launched its foldable flagship smartphone, the OPPO Find N. Sporting a new foldaway form factor and offering a refreshed user experience, TheHomeGround Asia was fortunate to have the opportunity to test this device and compare it to existing foldables in the market.
The Oppo Find N is only 15.9mm thick and weighs about 275g — similar to the weight of the Galaxy fold 3. Smaller and more compact than existing foldable phones, the Find N closes like a book, making it easy to hold.
The back and cover screen of the phone is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus and has aluminium side rails and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that was very responsive. The phone sports a curved camera bump at the back that houses the main shooter, the ultra-wide and the zoom lens.
General use
The Oppo Find N is straightforward and quick to navigate, making it easy to use. It comes with a 4500 mAh battery, that, when fully charged, lasts over six days if it is used moderately. The incorporated LTPO screen technology also helps conserve battery life quite significantly. Charging times are pretty fast too when using the 33-Watt fast charger. The phone also comes with a 15-Watt wireless charging and 10-Watt reverse wireless charging feature.
It runs on ColorOS 12 and provides easy navigation and the use of gestures. However, there was a lot of Oppo bloatware when the phone first started. As it is a China-exclusive phone, it lacks Google Apps which requires it to be sideloaded on. The app continuity is excellent on this phone and can easily pick up from an earlier activity when switching between the inner and outer screens.
Apps that are optimised for dual screens phones perform to expectations. Most Google Apps such as Chrome and docs are able to maximise the use of both screens. There is also the option of opening additional apps as floating windows but these are often too small for comfortable use.
Apps that are not optimised, however, are not able to make full use of the enlarged screen landscape. For instance, Instagram and playing games like Apex Legends often have translucent bars on the top and the sides of the display. Oppo tries to compensate for this by enlarging the app across the screen but it feels gimmicky.
With video apps like YouTube and Netflix, the squarish aspect ratio of the Oppo Find N display results in a lot of black bars when viewing videos shot in the regular 16 by 9 format. There are even bigger black bars and less content when viewing movies and other cinematic content shot in the 21 by 9 aspect ratio but overall, the viewing experience is still a lot better than normal phones as the screen is so much bigger.
Display and performance
The Oppo Find N flaunts an outer 5.5-inch 1972 by 1988 60 Hertz AMOLED display and it comes with a 32-megapixel hole-punch selfie camera in the centre of the display. The screen is excellent for you to get what you need done quickly or when you’re in a situation where opening the phone isn’t feasible. The inner screen is a 7.1-inch 1920 by 1729 120 Hertz LTPO “serene display”, as Oppo calls it.
This display is supported with LTPO technology and its refresh rate can modulate all the way from 120 down to around 0 Hertz to help conserve battery life. The screen also has an ultra-thin glass under the display — similar to that found under the Z fold and the Z flip — to help make it more durable. There is also a similar 32-megapixel selfie camera in the top left of the screen.
The display screen comes pre-applied with a plastic protector, so it is not easily damaged. What struck me most is the fact that the crease on the Oppo Find N is not as visible compared to other folding phones.
The crease could not be felt but is visible off-axis. But if you were to look at the display front on, it appears invisible to the human eye. The screen protector that Oppo has used here also feels nice to the touch and I find that it picks up fewer fingerprints and oil than the typical pre-applied plastic screen protectors found on other phones. I am also impressed with the phone hinge, which is extremely smooth and can hold itself at various different angles.
Oppo Find N’s sturdy and well-designed hinge enables the phone to close completely and doesn’t leave any gaps when compared to the Z flip and Z fold where there is a slight gap near the end of the hinge. This can let some dust and debris through that might scratch the screen.
The phone comes with a Snapdragon 888 processor, and the base phone model comes with 256GB of storage and eight gigabytes of ram. There is also a 512GB of storage and 12GB of ram version available. The phone never really feels slow and is snappy all the time but there is the occasional Bluetooth drop when using Bluetooth earphones.
And if you are using the phone for gaming, its performance will not leave you wanting. The right side of the phone does get excessively hot and is quite uncomfortable to hold. After one game of Apex Legends, which typically lasts 25 minutes, the battery drains about 15 per cent.
Camera
The camera on this phone is decent but not excellent. Its colours are well balanced but in some of my shots, the edge detection sometimes blows out the subject. Apart from the three rear cameras (50MP wide-angle, 11MP ultrawide and a 13MP telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom), the phone also has two front-facing 32MP cameras on its cover display and inside panel respectively.
The Oppo Find N is a great foldable phone compared to current industry models. The LTPO battery saving technology and large inner screen makes multitasking a breeze. Despite the phone being made for China only and many Google applications hamstrung, I am still happy with the functionalities that I could install. I hope Oppo considers an international version for this phone as I am confident it will do really well.
Lastly, do I need to return this test set?
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