Oppo Find N2 Flip review

Design, build quality, handling

The Find N2 Flip doesn't steer far from the established form factor for the 'small' branch of foldables - the Galaxy Z Flip4, the Motorola Razr 2022, and the Huawei P50 Pocket. The basics are the same - when unfolded, the handset is the size of a large conventional smartphone, only to shrink to less than a pack of cigarettes when in 'storage' mode.

It's in this state that one of the most obvious advantages of the Find N2 Flip over the Galaxy Z Flip4 becomes evident - there's no visible gap between the two halves. To be fair, the Oppo isn't unique in this respect - essentially every foldable but the Galaxy folds flat, while only Samsung's designs have a wedge shape when collapsed.

Gapless Find (left) next to wedge-shaped Galaxy

While shape and size are roughly the same between models in the compact foldable segment, each has its own interpretation of design and looks, and also functionality - most of these closely related to the outer screen implementation.

The Oppo has the biggest cover display of the current crop of small-size foldables, and that carries the potential for the most utility (though, as we'll talk in the software section, that's not necessarily realized). It also means a large black window on the back of the device which may not be to everyone's taste.

To some extent, the Galaxy's screen blends with the panel more cohesively. Then again, it's easier to design around a display that small, while Oppo's much larger panel is harder to go under the radar.

The display on the Galaxy Z Flip4 (right) disappears when off

Another inevitable outcome of the display's size is that it tends to always end up under your finger, resulting in smudges. That's the fate of the glass panel in general, but the pale purple doesn't advertise the dirt nearly as much as the black display.

We have the Moonlit Purple colorway of the Find N2 Flip, and that's not too dissimilar to our Bora Purple Galaxy Z Flip4 unit. For international markets, the Oppo also comes in Astral Black. The purple option is glossy, while the black variant has a frosted antiglare finish, and both are black. China also gets a gold colorway (we don't have their fancy name for that), which has a diamond-like pattern underneath what also appears to be a glossy back.

With the phone closed, you get to look at the hinge's cover. Every maker tends to put their name here, and Oppo has done it too, but they've spiced things up with a gentle wave pattern - we'd say that's prettier than generic glossy aluminum.

The hinge, which Oppo calls New Generation Flexion Hinge, is a version of the Find N2's mechanism, adapted for the smaller phone. It's been rated for 216,000 actuations and can support the phone at any angle between 45 and 110 degrees enabling interesting use cases in the camera like a tripod mode or waist-level shooting, or... 'camcorder' mode.

Unfolding the Find N2 Flip single-handedly is doable, but not too elegant. An outward flick of the wrist helps, of course, but that feels like way too risky of a method for operating a phone that costs as much as this one. Closing it with one hand is trivial, naturally.

Those semi-unfolded states are cool and all, but you'll likely be using the handset unflipped most of the time, and that's where the Find N2 Flip's main advantage over the competition is - the thing is as close to creaseless as we've gotten. You can barely feel it, and it takes some deliberate pressing and a reviewer's mindset to register - in casual swiping, it's as good as non-existent.

You could see that there is, in fact, a fine crease if you turn off the display and angle the phone to reflect light at you. But from a practical perspective, we'd say it's negligible.

Admittedly, the Razr 2022's display unfolds nearly fully flat too, but we'd still give the Oppo the victory. In contrast, the Galaxy Z Flip4's narrower but deeper crease is much more tangible, the P50 Pocket's just barely less so.

Creases from different angles: Oppo (top) vs. Samsung • Oppo (left) vs. Samsung

In unflipped mode, the Oppo is about as large as any full-size bar smartphone. It's a few millimeters wider than the Galaxy, and that does make it feel a touch bulkier, but that's more a testament to the Z Flip4's compactness than a critique of the Find. In fact, the Find is the second most compact of the four, with the Pocket being as wide, but taller, and the Razr being as tall, but wider than the N2 Flip.

There is apparently no second way to place the physical controls on a small foldable, and the Find N2 Flip has the power button and the volume rocker on the right, in the top half.

The power button has a capacitive fingerprint reader inside - again, as with all the others of this kind. It worked flawlessly with this reviewer's right thumb, and it was only slightly less reliable with the left index finger. Oddly, it was a bit more temperamental with the phone closed.

The placement of the other bits along the aluminum frame is fairly standard too. The USB-C port is on the bottom, with a speaker on one side and a mic on the other. The SIM card tray is also nearby, and it can take two nano SIMs (no microSD, naturally).

Up top, there's a mic pinhole and what appears to be a speaker port.

Bottom bits on the bottom, mic pinhole and speaker port up top