High quality foldable phone that’s a usable alternative to a tablet

Foldable phones are becoming an increasingly common sight on the market. Where once there was the Samsung Fold, now we have the Fold, the Flip, the Surface Duo, the Razr, the P50 Pocket and now, the Oppo Find N 5G. The devices, although not without their drawbacks, have gone from being an oddity to a usable alternative to a larger phone or tablet.

That’s down to the evolution of the technology. The hinges are sturdier, the screens are higher quality and the whole experience is more refined than before, with apps that take advantage of the larger screen space in new, more creative ways.

The Find N is coming at a good time. Foldable phones are no longer an outlier, and with the improved technology, they can hold their own with the standard smartphone in terms of looks and specs.

Before you get too excited, it's worth noting the biggest drawback about the Find N is that it isn't readily available in the Irish market. Oppo's foldable phone is currently only available in China, and there are no plans as yet to release it elsewhere.

Hopefully that changes soon, because when it comes to foldable phones, the Oppo Find N is a worthy contender.

Design-wise, it’s what you would expect: when folded, it has a screen on the front – 5.49 inches, if you are interested – that makes it look like a more compact standard smartphone, and the rear has the triple camera, LED flash and a textured surface that hides the worst fingerprints. It’s easy to hold in one hand too, if a little thicker than you might be used to. It’s durable, with an aluminium frame, and Gorilla Glass Victus on the front and back, although I wouldn’t recommend testing it too much, just in case.

Open it up and the device is somewhere between a smartphone and a tablet. That hinge feels sturdy, with Oppo testing the screen for up to 200,000 folds, and there is little visible gap around the hinge when the screen is folded or open.

The inner screen opens up to 7.1 inches, making it the ideal option for everything from a quick bit of work and the odd email to photo editing and streaming video. The screen itself is responsive and easy to work with; minimal frustration is the order of the day here.

Decent contrast

It’s an AMOLED display, which means decent contrast and colour quality, and brightness tops out at 1000 nits at its peak, with 500 nits in typical use or 800 in high-brightness mode. That means it will work well in strong sunlight when needed, and you’ll be able to pick out the action even in darker scenes when you are mid-Netflix binge. The shape of the screen means you will get some black banding on the top and bottom of video, but it’s not as annoying as you might think.

That big screen also works well for photography. The star of the show is the 50 megapixel camera on the rear of the device, part of the triple lens, AI-powered camera that also includes a 13 megapixel telephoto lens and a 16 megapixel wide angle camera. The main lens delivers excellent quality photos, even in poorer light; the ultrawide lens less so, with noticeable grain and a slight softness to the images.

When opened out, a selfie camera on the large screen offers 32 megapixel resolution, with all sorts of options to retouch your photos, ranging from light skin smoothing to slimming your face to alien proportions (not advised, it’s a little creepy). And the front screen also has its own selfie camera, again coming in at 32 megapixels.

Where the Find N really shines is in productivity. Apps such as Gmail fall nicely into place on the wider screen, with the keyboard falling below the fold automatically when you rotate the device.

The Good: Oppo's first attempt at a folding phone lands well. The inner screen is high quality and responsive, with the 120Hz refresh rate making things feel very smooth. You barely notice the fold on the screen, even in full-screen streaming video binges.

Its hinges are sturdy too, so you can prop it open at various angles and use it to tap out some emails, edit some photos or update your social media. While it won’t replace your tablet full time, it certainly made it less likely you would need to rely on it for on the go entertainment or the odd bit of work.

The not so good: The outer screen tops out at 60Hz on the refresh rate, which means it isn't as smooth when scrolling. That might not be a deal breaker for most people, as the 60hz screen is perfectly fine, but if you have been used to the faster refresh rates, you'll notice the difference.

Like many foldable phones, the Find N is a bit thicker than you are used to with the single-screen smartphone.

And of course its lack of official availability in Ireland will make it more difficult to get hold of.

The rest: The Find N is powered by the Snapdragon 885, comes with Android 11 pre-installed, and supports 5G. It comes in two versions: 256GB with 8GB RAM, and 512GB with 12GB RAM.

The verdict: A great first effort from Oppo in the folding phone category; hopefully it makes its way over here before long.

[ oppo.com ]