Oppo Find N fixes major Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 foldable phone issue

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Well, another big Chinese tech company has thrown its hat into the foldable phone ring. The Oppo Find N is the first flexible phone from the popular brand, which was launched at the company’s annual Inno Day where it showcases the latest developments.

This new OPPO phone is a book-shaped folder, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, with a large screen when the device is opened, and a small external screen when the phone is closed.

But after three generations of Samsung’s foldable foldable, it’s clear that Oppo drew inspiration from the old Fold family — in particular, it fixed what was so annoying about using a Samsung device.

We took the Oppo Find N for a spin, and immediately enjoyed using it more than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 — mainly because it fixed a major issue with this device.

Unfortunately, this phone will only go on sale in China, but we hope the Find N2 will be released globally in the future.

What is Oppo Find N?

We tested the Oppo Find N to the best of our ability, but in full disclosure we were unable to use it as our main smartphone because the Chinese software does not include the Google Play Store. We’ve been able to side-install most of our major apps across the web, but since we don’t have Google Drive, we can’t use WhatsApp (as messages have to be backed up from the cloud).

This excludes all other Google apps as well, including Maps, something we wish we had thought of before getting lost in an unfamiliar city in central England.

(Image credit: Future)

The external display is, for lack of a better word, nice – just 5.49 inches across and quite compact, which might appeal to people who don’t like giant phones. We found it good to quickly check messages or browse social media.

Despite the small frame, the phone isn’t exactly sleek when carried this way. The body flexes on itself, so it is very thick. You can open it up to see the larger 7.1-inch screen and then it’s thicker than your average phone – but also about as big as a small tablet.

We found this larger screen to be more useful for typing, as the keyboard was extended over a larger area, and if we’d been using the phone for a longer period of time, it was nice to see this large screen.

However, one of the problems comes from the fact that we downloaded a lot of our apps from the internet using APK files. This means that the apps are not optimized for screen size or the foldable nature, so most of the apps we used weren’t perfect.

For example, when we tried to watch a movie or TV with Disney Plus on the folded screen, rotating the screen did not change the orientation of the video. In addition, the image does not extend to the edges of the screen. The viewable area has never been larger than it would be on an external screen or on any other smartphone.

Likewise, while the Oppo Find N is meant to have gestures that let you easily switch between a split screen view or window in window, most of the apps we tried this on weren’t compatible.

We can imagine that this system is working as intended in China, and whatever popular streaming apps are, it will probably look great on Find N. However, until a version of the phone is released with different software, it is difficult for us to fully test the normal mobile uses.

(Image credit: Future)

Let’s quickly go through some other specifications of the phone. There’s a 4,500mAh battery, and we found the device lasted more than a day between charges – we’d imagine using the smaller screen since our primary screen saves some power. However, 33W wired charging isn’t exactly fast, nor does 15W wireless charging or 10W reverse wireless power, but the latter two are at least great pluses.

The chipset is the Snapdragon 888, the most powerful Android chipset of 2021, paired with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. This makes it very fast, and we played some games on the big screen which felt pretty fluid. We were particularly impressed with how the phone didn’t lag or stutter when we switched screens, and you can jump to the same app on the second screen.

In terms of cameras, there’s a 50MP main, 50MP ultra-wide, and 13MP rear camera – if you know Oppo, you know their phones are great for photography, and Find N is no exception.

For selfies, you have the same 32MP front camera in a punch-hole in the external and internal screens, but oddly enough, we found that pictures taken on the camera built into the main screen looked much better than those taken on the smaller screen.

Galaxy Z Fold learning points

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold series has always felt a little weird to use, for one major reason. You don’t notice it when using the smaller external screen, but the problem rears its ugly head when using the larger home screen.

As you can see, Samsung hasn’t actually fixed the screen wrinkle issue. When using the phone there is a very noticeable bump in the middle of the screen where it is folded.

(Image credit: Future)

Depending on what you’re doing, this can be a minor annoyance or a real problem, and it’s one of the main reasons we recommend avoiding Samsung’s first generation foldable devices.

So what about the Oppo Find N? Well, this is the “main foldable phone issue” we mentioned in the introduction.

There’s no screen wrinkle on the Oppo foldable phone – you can slide your finger across the screen without knowing where it’s joined together. It’s an amazingly smooth experience for people who’ve used the Galaxy Fold, and it makes scrolling through menus or playing games a lot more fun.

Admittedly, screen wrinkle won’t be a huge concern for people who haven’t used a foldable phone before, but it does affect your everyday experience with a phone.

The first few generations of foldable phones were (understandably) riddled with issues unique to this new design, such as hinge durability issues and a lack of dedicated software, as well as that wrinkle issue.

However, after these flexible cell phones have been around for a while, it’s time for companies to find ways to solve these problems – Oppo apparently did with Find N, and now Samsung must follow suit.

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