Mobile Technology

Oppo steps into Samsung territory with first foldable smartphone

Oppo steps into Samsung territory with first foldable smartphone
The Find N foldable flagship has been launched to the Chinese market only for the moment
The Find N foldable flagship has been launched to the Chinese market only for the moment
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The Find N foldable flagship has been launched to the Chinese market only for the moment
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The Find N foldable flagship has been launched to the Chinese market only for the moment
The Find N folding smartphone is the result of four years of research and development
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The Find N folding smartphone is the result of four years of research and development
When folded out, the main AMOLED display comes in at 7.1 diagonal inches at an aspect ratio of 8.4:9. When folded, a 5.49-inch sub screen can be used like a smartphone
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When folded out, the main AMOLED display comes in at 7.1 diagonal inches at an aspect ratio of 8.4:9. When folded, a 5.49-inch sub screen can be used like a smartphone
The Find N will be available to Chinese buyers from December 23, 2021, in white, purple or black
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The Find N will be available to Chinese buyers from December 23, 2021, in white, purple or black
Oppo has widened the angle of the fold in the display for a minimal crease, while also offering a peak brightness of up to 1,000 nits and support for the DCI-P3 color gamut
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Oppo has widened the angle of the fold in the display for a minimal crease, while also offering a peak brightness of up to 1,000 nits and support for the DCI-P3 color gamut
The Find N comes with five cameras - three on the back, and two selfiecams (one on the sub screen, and the other on the main display inside)
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The Find N comes with five cameras - three on the back, and two selfiecams (one on the sub screen, and the other on the main display inside)
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China's Oppo has followed yesterday's launch of the Air Glass smart monocle with a Galaxy Fold challenger. The Find N is a little more compact than Samsung's flagship, and boasts Snapdragon 888 performance, five cameras and all-day battery life.

Revealed on the second day of Oppo's annual Inno Day convention, and reported to be the result of four years of R&D – including six generations of prototyping – the company's first foldable flagship smartphone seems to tick all the right boxes.

When folded out, the Find N features a 7.1-inch AMOLED display across a multi-angle free hover hinge, with an 8.4:9 aspect, 120-Hz refresh rate and 1,792 x 1,920 resolution (370 ppi). Oppo says that it includes a 0.03-mm layer of Flexion ultra-thin glass that's been fold-tested over 200,000 times by TUV Rheinland, with the hinge designed to offer "a minimal crease that is up to 80 percent less noticeable compare with other devices."

Some new gesture support has been cooked in too, where users can slide two fingers down the middle of the display to activate split screen mode, for example, or pinch with four finger to create a floating window. Other specs of note include a peak brightness of up to 1,000 nits, support for 100 percent of the sRGB color space and up to 110 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut.

When folded to smartphone mode, users are faced with a relatively small but usable 5.49-inch, 1,972 x 988 (402 ppi), 60-Hz AMOLED sub screen topped with sixth generation Corning Gorilla Glass.

The Find N folding smartphone is the result of four years of research and development
The Find N folding smartphone is the result of four years of research and development

The handset is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 mobile platform with a 2.84-GHz octacore processor and Adreno 600 GPU supported by up to 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of UFS 3.1 storage. There are two battery modules for a total capacity of 4,500-mAh and the promise of all-day operation, and support for 33-W fast charging for a full charge in as little as 70 minutes, as well as Qi-compatible 15-W wireless charging.

Moving around to the rear, you'll find a 50-MP F1.8 main camera based on Sony's IMX766 image sensor, along with a 16-MP F2.2 wide-angle and a 13-MP F2.4 telephoto with 2x optical zoom. Users can shoot 4K movies using the rear camera array at up to 60 frames per second, though there is a 240-fps 1080p slow motion mode or a 480-fps 720p mode too.

The Flexion hinge also means that the Find N can serve as its own tripod of sorts, standing in laptop-like clamshell mode so that the main camera can capture stunning timelapse footage using one of the three included templates.

The device comes with two more cameras in the shape of 32-MP selfiecams – one on the outside and the other inside – though neither is hidden under a screen. Users can expect decent quality video chats however, thanks to 1080p resolution at 30 fps, and if you want to bump up the quality even further, you could always fold out the Find N so that the main camera and sub screen can join forces for selfie mode.

Rounding out the key specs, the new Oppo flagship is 15.9 mm (0.6 in) thick and weighs in at around 275 g (9.7 oz), rocks dual speakers with support for Dolby Atmos immersive sound, comes with 5G, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 with aptX HD and LDAC codec support for high-resolution streaming, and runs Oppo's Android-based ColorOS 12 platform.

For the moment, the Find N folding smartphone goes on sale in China only from December 23, starting at RMB 7,699 (about US$1,200), but will hopefully enjoy global release in the near future. The video below has more.

OPPO Find N | OPPO INNO DAY 2021

Product page: Find N

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1 comment
1 comment
TomLeeM
I think that is neat. As competition increases for 'folding screen phones', I am hoping the price comes down.