Oppo Find N2 review

Competition

For us living outside of China, the Oppo Find N2 will forever remain elusive - unless, that is, one is willing to go through the hoops of gray-importing one and then living with a firmware that is not meant for 'international' customers. But there are international foldables, so to speak.

The Galaxy Z Fold4 is the obvious top option and you can have one pretty much anywhere in the world. It's the clunkiest of form factors, however, and has the most tangible crease in its display, though it does counter with an IPX8 rating for water-resistance - no competing foldable offers that. Then there's OneUI, which possibly makes the best use of the tablet state with tons of features and versatility that the Find can't quite match. The Oppo does fit into smaller pockets though, has a much more usable cover screen, and the landscape tablet implementation just feels more organic. The Find is also the better looking device - the Galaxy's wedge shape when folded will never cease to be an eyesore.

Galaxy Z Fold4 (left) next to the Find N2

The Huawei Mate Xs 2 is also available outside of China and it too has a unique spin on the phone-turns-tablet design - being an outie it only has the single flexible display on the outside. It poses durability concerns, though, with what is essentially an always exposed plastic display. And despite its international status, the Huawei foldable is missing Google services, which you can get on the otherwise Chinese Find N2. Conversely, though, from a Chinese perspective that's not an issue.

Moving on then to the Mix Fold 2, another large foldable that's not leaving its home market. It's one of the sexiest designs in the business, and perhaps you can forgive its lack of stability in intermediate semi-unfolded states. The Oppo is perhaps a slightly better cameraphone, though you could say the Mix has the upper hand in multitasking. Again, though, only of these can be called compact.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 • Huawei Mate Xs 2 • Xiaomi Mix Fold 2

That said, if pocketability is key, perhaps you could reassess your form factor choices and opt for one of the clamshell-descendant designs. Oppo makes one of those too now, and the Find N2 Flip will even see a global release (sometime, maybe). There's always the IPX8-rated Galaxy Z Flip4, and the Motorola Razr 2022 is strong on nostalgia vibes. The Huawei P50 Pocket isn't half bad either, with one of the more curious camera setups - on a foldable or otherwise.

Oppo Find N2 Flip • Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 • Motorola Razr 2022 • Huawei P50 Pocket

Verdict

We're not quite in a position to recommend a Find N2 or advise against one, seeing how market specifics don't really present us with a choice. What we can say is that the second generation Oppo foldable maintains all that set the original one apart and made it a unique offering and build on that, resulting in an overall superior product.

The displays retain the size and proportions of the Find N - possibly the best package for the most people, only now they get a brightness boost and extra smoothness on the cover. The phone's gotten appreciably lighter, has better cameras and performance and the speedy charging couldn't hurt.

A couple of tough decisions had to be made to reach the lightness goals and the wireless charging fell victim, which is a bummer. The relocation of the volume rocker gives us pause as does the speaker arrangement, but that's mostly nitpicking.

Ultimately, the one dealbreaking issue for us is not an issue with the phone itself - it's the fact that we can't really have one, not officially, and not with the software we're used to using. Let's keep our fingers crossed then that the Find N3 will finally make it out of China.

Pros

• Most compact foldable of its kind, lightest too.
• Thoroughly great displays, unusual aspect ratios better than the alternatives.
• Fastest charging large foldable.
• ColorOS 13 improves on multitasking, is very feature-rich to begin with.
• Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is still plenty powerful.
• Excellent all-round camera experience, great photo quality.

Cons

• China-only release, once again.
• No official IP rating (though it's admittedly only the Galaxies that have that).
• No wireless charging.
• Speaker placement could have been better, same story with the relocated volume rocker.
• Somewhat iffy video recording.