Oppo Find N review

Alternatives

The Find N is available only in China, and it's likely to stay this way for now, if not forever. Luckily for China residents that is, all other foldables are also available there. They can be imported in other markets, sure, but they will most probably arrive without Google services, and it will be a hassle to add them.

Fold3 and Find N

Anyway, the Find N has struck gold with its different size. It is the smallest of the bunch, and yet it can offer the same experience. The Find N has a 7-inch internal and a 5.49-inch external display - both with user-friendly aspect ratios. What's even better is that it gets to keep a large battery, and that's why it tops them with the best battery life.

Fold3 and Find N

The Galaxy Fold3 is the first competitor we can think of. Its biggest win over the Find N is the water protection - it has an IPX8 rating, something thought to be impossible for a foldable until recently. Its cover screen is smoother with a 120Hz refresh rate, but its super tall aspect makes it barely usable. You should get the Fold3 for its water protection if you that is a must feature, but if not, there is a good chance that the size, the gapless design, and the better camera quality and battery life of the Find N will win you on its side.

There is also the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold. It is yet another tall foldable, taller than the Fold3. Which makes its 6.52-inch 27:9 90Hz cover screen smoother but nearly impossible to use as a daily driver. Then comes the 8.01-inch flexible OLED that may seem attractive with the Dolby Vision support and no perforations, but then you learn its refresh rate is 60Hz. The Mix Fold has four speakers and will provide an outstanding listening experience, a compliment to the Dolby Vision screen. But it's huge, it's heavy, there is no ingress protection, and its flexible screen is not smooth. We can't see many people opting for the Mix Fold instead of the Samsung or Oppo's offers.

The Huawei Mate X2 is worth considering, too. Sure, it has no Google services, but none of them have them in China anyway. The Mate has two 90Hz OLED screens, an 8-inch flexible and a 6.45-inch cover with a properly usable aspect ratio. There is no internal selfie camera, and we do applaud this decision. It is powerful thanks to the Kirin 9000 5G chip, but its camera department is a showstopper - in addition to the 50MP OIS primary and the 16MP ultrawide with AF, it has a 12MP OIS 3x telephoto and an 8MP OIS 10x telephoto - all sprinkled with some Leica magic. The Mate is a strong contender for China, and we suggest exploring it before deciding on a foldable phone.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G • Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold • Huawei Mate X2

Of course, if you are looking for an actual foldable smartphone instead of a foldable tablet, Samsung and Motorola have you covered.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 has a foldable 6.7-inch 1080p AMOLED with a 120Hz refresh rate. It runs on the most recent Snapdragon 888 chip; there are stereo speakers, and a (sortof) flagship camera duo on the back. There is only one downside to the Flip3 - its battery life is mediocre, and even worse - the charging is sluggish. But for everything else, the Flip3 is a winner - size, screen, speed, speakers, camera skills. It's worth checking out if you are after this type of flexible device.

And then there is the iconic Motorola RAZR 5G, with a 6.2-inch foldable OLED with a 60Hz refresh rate. The RAZR's highlight features are the resemblance to the original RAZR flip phone and the relatively large external screen. Otherwise, it runs on a mid-range Snapdragon 765 chip, there is a single camera, and the battery capacity is just 2,800mAh. But it's probably the smallest modern foldable smartphone, and we believe there is a niche for it.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G • Motorola Razr 5G

Our verdict

We have found our next favorite foldable - it's the Find N. Indeed, the Find N made it quite easy to write this - it has an attractive design, an outstanding foldable screen, the cover one is perfectly usable, too, and we are happy with the performance, the camera skills, and the battery life.

Not having a crease on the foldable screen was nice, too, while the transition of the content between the two screens with matching colors and brightness literally wowed us. And believe us, this rarely happens these days.

The Find N is not an ideal device - there is no official ingress protection, the grip is almost non-existent, we are not fans of the punch-holes, and most importantly - the extremely limited availability.

Still, for those of you wondering - the Find N does support Google services, meaning if you've fallen in love with that one, an import from Asia might be an adventure worthy of the hassle. One thing we can say for sure is that the Find N, even if a first-generation foldable from Oppo, gets plenty of things right, and it gets our warm recommendation.

Pros

• Compact foldable smartphone, gapless design, beautiful.
• Great 7.1-inch 120Hz foldable AMOLED.
• The cover OLED is a proper substitute, perfectly usable.
• A current Snapdragon 888 5G chip with plenty of RAM and storage.
• Excellent all-round camera experience, great photo and video quality.
• We liked the ColorOS 12 with its clean approach and new gestures.
• Adequate battery life, fast to charge.

Cons

• Limited regional availability.
• Slippery and a bit tough to unfold.
• No official IP rating.
• The speakers are awkwardly positioned, so-so quality.
• We are not fans of the punch-holes.