Oppo Find N review

Design, build quality, handling

With the Find N Oppo has managed to resolve two of the issues we had with the other foldable smartphones - the size and the crease unpleasantries. We will continue to call this one a smartphone, though the Find, Fold, Mix and Mate are, in fact, foldable tablets, while the Flip and Razr are the actual foldable phones.

And back to the new Find N - we have the White model. It has two glossy Gorilla Glass Victus panels and a ceramic camera island on the outside. Its foldable screen is made of ultra-thin glass and is covered by a plastic film and then surrounded by a noticeable plastic frame with a matte finish.

The Find's exterior frame and hinge are aluminum, with a glossy finish to match the Victus panels and instant eye-catchers. And speaking about the frame, you can immediately spot the gap-free folded state - something that Samsung couldn't or wouldn't achieve three generations into their Fold lineup.

The Find N uses Oppo's proprietary Flexion hinge with a waterdrop-shaped internal design, which allows the screen to move further into the hinge - thus getting the needed radius to fold with no visible gaps on outside of the device.

Fold3 and Find N

Probably because of the hinge's new design, there is also no visible or feelable crease when working with a completely unfolded screen, another major improvement from other flexible phones.

Maybe there is a downside to this hinge innovation - the Find N is not water-resistant. It has no official IP rating, though an Oppo rep confirmed for us the handset has been secured against the usual dangers like sweat, high humidity, and even light drizzle. This means the Find N should be fine in urban environments and not as vulnerable when it's raining. But you do need to keep it in mind when walking around pools and fountains.

Now, let's take a closer look at that cool Oppo Find N.

The exterior of the Find N is exactly what you'd expect. The front is home to the 5.49-inch AMOLED, which has negligible bezels. It is protected with a flat Gorilla Glass Victus sheet.

The OLED panel has a perforation for the front 32MP camera. But if you take a lot of selfies during your day, we guess you will be using the rear triple-camera for selfies as when the Find N is opened, this cover screen can act as a rear-facing viewfinder. Cool!

The last thing of interest at the front is the tiny earpiece grille above the cover screen.

The backside has a slightly curved Gorilla Glass Victus, pretty distraction-free even if the triple camera is around. Our white model is glossy, as well as the Purple one. The Black version is supposed to come with a sandblasted-like shimmering glass, but we are not sure if it will provide more or even less grip.

The triple camera is separated on a rectangle ceramic piece. It is jutting out 1mm or so, so it's not as gigantic as on other smartphones.

The Find N has three snappers on its back - the 50MP primary camera, the 13MP tele imager, and a 16MP ultra wide-angle shooter. There is a dual-LED dual-tone flash next to those and a microphone to help voice capturing when taking videos.

The inner screen is the real showstopper on the Oppo Find N, and rightfully so. It's a 7.1-inch Samsung-made foldable LTPO AMOLED with HDR10+ and dynamic 120Hz refresh rate support. It is almost a square with an 8.4:9 aspect ratio. This panel also has a perforation around the top left part, where the occupant is another 32MP selfie camera.

The foldable screen is covered by the thinnest UTG (ultra-thin glass) on the market so far - just a 0.03mm for super-easy bending. There is also a plastic film on top of that, which should not be removed as this will most probably ruin the screen.

The whole display is surrounded by a plastic frame with a matte finish, just like on the Fold.

But unlike the Fold, as we've established, there are no gaps when the screen is folded. What's more impressive, though, is that there is no visible crease when working with the unfolded screen. You cannot feel it either, unless you are applying stronger than usual pressure - then, yes, you can feel it. We've got used to the wrinkles on the Fold and the Flip, and it was a really nice surprise not to have such a thing on the Find N.

Apps switch seamlessly between the two screens, even those working in a split-screen or a floating window. Oppo has also calibrated both displays for matching brightness and color capabilities, so you will lose nothing when switching screens. Well, almost nothing - the inner display supports up to 120Hz refresh, while the outer one is fixed at 60Hz, meaning the smoothness will decline.

The Oppo Find N has an aluminum frame all-around. It's a glossy silver one on the White model, and it's a huge smudge magnet, though when clean, it does look marvelous.

When the Find N is folded, it can stand on its bottom or hinge side, for the obscure purposes you can think of. Of course, it supports Flex Mode, so you can use it in half-opened state - it can act as a tripod this way, or a super mini laptop with a keyboard on the bottom part.

Back to the frame, it has only one thing of interest at the top - another microphone for stereo audio capturing in videos and noise canceling in calls.

The primary microphone is at the bottom, together with the USB-C port, the dual-SIM tray, and the two speakers.

The speakers' position is awkward, indeed. When folded, they are next to each other, and the stereo sound effect is easily lost. When opened, the sound is still coming from one direction, which isn't the best way to enjoy stereo sound. It is what it is.

The volume rocker and the power/lock key are next to each other on the frame when the phone is folded. This could be a bit of an issue when trying to touch the fingerprint scanner that's mounted on the power key's surface. But it's so easy to take screenshots by pressing the two keys simultaneously with a single finger, so there is a silver lining.

Opening the Find N, something you are supposed to do numerous times per day, is not ideal. Thanks to the gap-less design, opening the Find is harder than on other foldables. And because the phone is slippery, it gets even tougher.

One way to pop the Find open is to hold it carefully and try to pry it open with your fingertips (and/or nails). Another way is to use the volume key and the power button as thumb rests, and this is probably the easier way. We were hoping for a better opening solution, but the foldable Find is not there yet.

The grip is far from great, too. The white model is slippery and has a massive fingerprint magnet when folded. We are not sure if the sandblasted model will improve that - our experience with matte panels is usually worse than with the glossy ones, as far as grip is concerned.

Long story short, the Oppo Find N is a memorable foldable smartphone, especially for a first try. It comes in an attractive size, with a gap-free design and no crease where the screen folds, and it's quite beautiful and comfortable to work with. The opening and the grip are not that great, and Oppo could have thought these through better. We can only hope the official Find N case provides a solution to these issues.