Oppo’s annual Inno Day tech event was the gift that kept on giving last December, when the company’s debut foldable – the Oppo Find N – arrived on day two of the show.
After months of rumours, the company showed off its first-ever folding phone, which surprised in a few areas by deviating from the framework set out by rivals like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series.
When does the Oppo Find N launch?
Oppo launched the Find N in the second half of December 2021, following last year’s annual Inno Day event, which is often used to showcase the company’s burgeoning technologies and, sometimes, tease forthcoming products.
For overseas fans curious about the Find N’s potential arrival in markets beyond Oppo’s native China, at launch, it seemed that the foldable would remain a regional exclusive. However, fast-forward to April 2022 and a report from Pricebaba suggests that the Find N might make its way to international markets, but rebranded as a OnePlus foldable.
As per the report, OnePlus co-founder Pete Lau was apparently “directly involved in the development of Find N” giving greater credibility to the idea of the phone’s hardware being only lightly modified and rebadged in order to appeal to fans of the brand – a strategy that OnePlus has previously employed with various other Oppo phones.
It should be noted that the Find N is different to the rollable Oppo X 2021, which is an official concept phone. That device featured a revolutionary scrolling display, powered by motors that expand the display surface into place.
How much does the Oppo Find N cost?
At launch, the Find N shattered expectations by undercutting even its most aggressively-priced rival, Xiaomi’s Mi Mix Fold, which launched in China back in April 2021, for just CNY¥9,999.
Here’s the Oppo Find N’s Chinese launch pricing from December 2021:
- 8GB RAM/256GB = ¥7,699 (approximately £910/€1,070/US$1,210/INR₹92,030/AUD$1,670)
- 12GB RAM/512GB = ¥8,999 (approximately £1,065/€1,255/US$1,415/INR₹107,595/AUD$1,985)
For reference, here’s how much the other most prominent foldables on the market cost at launch:
- Motorola Razr 5G – £1,399/US$1,399
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 – £949/$999
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 – £1,599/$1,799
- Huawei Mate X2 – £2,000/$2,800 (approx)
- Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold – £1,100/$1,500 (approx)
As you’d expect, all of these cutting-edge devices cost a lot. Foldables are still such new technology that the price of entry will remain high for a while yet; so expect to pay towards (if not over) the £1,000/$1,000 mark, should the Find N make its way to shores beyond China’s own. For those locally, however, this looks to be a real steal.
What features does the Oppo Find N have?
While the Find N adopts the familiar book-style vertical folding form factor, used by the likes of the Huawei Mate X2, Mi Mix Fold and Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3, it sports an unorthodox aspect ratio for the style; resulting in a more conventional smartphone silhouette when closed.
The main 7.1in display’s 8.4:9 aspect ratio is supposedly better suited to gaming and enjoying media than the narrower, taller forms found on some of its competitors. Oppo’s also optimised its software to allow for split-screen multitasking using a two-finger swipe-down gesture on the dynamic 120Hz LTPO display (meaning it can scale its refresh rate right down to 1Hz, to conserve power).
Oppo calls the hinge it’s built for the Find N the ‘Flexion Hinge’ and – similarly to the Z Fold series – it’s rated for some 200,000 folds/unfolds. The display is designed to naturally bunch and tuck up inside the Find N when closed (similarly to Motorola’s Razr 5G), resulting in a gap between the two edges of the closed display that’s apparently 80% less prominent – according to TUV Rheinland (an independent testing and quality assurance body) – “compared to other devices”; while the crease when the Find N is open and flat is meant to be less noticeable too.
The Flexion Hinge can also be positioned at any point within a range of 50 to 120 degrees in what Oppo has called ‘FlexForm Mode’. In this mode, you can use the partially folded Find N to both see the camera’s viewfinder and review shots you’ve just taken, simultaneously, set up a 4K HD time-lapse – tripod-free, type notes more conveniently and take video calls hands-free.
Here’s the Oppo Find N’s full spec sheet:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC
- 8GB or 12GB LPDDR5 RAM
- 256GB or 512GB UFS 3.1 storage (non-expandable)
- 5.49in 18:9 (1972×988) 60Hz outer display
- Gorilla Glass Victus
- 240Hz touch sampling rate
- Up to 800nits brightness (1000nits = peak)
- 402ppi pixel density
- 7.1in 8.4:9 WUSXGA (1792×1920) dynamic LTPO 1Hz to 120Hz AMOLED ‘Serene Display’
- 0.03mm ‘Flexion’ Schott UTG (ultra-thin glass)
- Up to 180Hz touch-sampling rate
- Up to 800nits brightness (1000nits = peak)
- 370ppi pixel density
- Rear cameras:
- 50Mp Sony IMX766 f/1.8 84° main sensor w/ OIS
- 16Mp f/2.2 123° ultrawide sensor
- 13Mp f/2.4 45° telephoto sensor
- 32Mp f/2.4 81° front-facing hole-punch camera (both internal and external display)
- Android 11 w/ ColorOS 12
- Ceramic camera plate
- Gorilla Glass Victus back panel
- Side-mounted fingerprint sensor/power key
- Face unlock
- Stereo speakers w/ Dolby Atmos
- X-axis linear motor
- Bluetooth 5.2
- 5G
- NFC
- USB-C
- 4500mAh battery
- 33W SuperVOOC wired charging (55% in 30 minutes, 100% in 70 minutes)
- 15W AirVOOC wireless charging (Qi also supported)
- 10W reverse wireless charging
- 275 grams
- 132.6mm x 73mm x 15.9mm (closed)
- Colours: Starry Night (black), Cloud (white), Floating Light (iridescent purple)
Despite its foldable form factor, the Find N’s Gorilla Glass Victus body adopts an aesthetic reminiscent of the company’s 2021 Find X3 Pro flagship, demonstrating Oppo’s “fluid curve design language,” while the phone’s rear triple camera module is protected by a ceramic plate.
Check out episode 95 of our weekly podcast Fast Charge, where we discussed the initial official reveal of the Oppo Find N:
One other thing we have seen from Oppo recently is how it will approach foldable technology going forward, with the company showing off another foldable concept phone at the fourth China International Industrial Design Expo, in December 2020.
The device shown below uses three foldable screens, attached by hinges, that allow the user to unfurl the display to the height they prefer. There’s also a stylus contained within one of the segments to facilitate note-taking and other pen-based tasks.
The above concept phone is obviously still far from a reality, but it could be a sign of things to come from future iterations of the Find N.