Oppo Find N2 Flip review

Standard camera system on the back, AF-ing selfie cam inside

The Find N2 Flip's rear camera configuration is in line with the competition's offierings - you get a wide primary module and an ultrawide. There's no room for a telephoto on the small foldables, whether it's physically, or in the BoM, and neither the Galaxy Flip has one, nor does the Razr 2022.

The main camera on the back of the Find is based on the Sony IMX 890 sensor - it has a 1/1.56" optical format and a 50MP nominal resolution (Quad Bayer, so 12.5MP resulting images. It's the the same imager that the Find N2 non-Flip uses, but its stabilized lens didn't make it, and the Flip's OIS-less optics have have a 23mm focal length and an f/1.8 aperture.

The ultrawide is a notably more modest unit featuring an 8MP Sony IMX 355 sensor and a 16mm-equivalent f/2.2 aperture lens. No autofocus on this one.

What does set the Oppo apart is its selfie camera's autofocusing capability - none of the others has that and it's got potential in certain use cases (which, from our grumpy-old-men's perspectives, we can only theorize about, of course). This one uses the Sony IMX 709 sensor (32MP, 1/2.74") paired with a 21mm equivalent lens with an f/2.4 aperture.

A huge chunk of the appeal of a foldable with a cover screen, particularly a large one like the Find N2 Flip's, is being able to capture photos yourself, of yourself, on the rear camera, with precise framing thanks to the ability to have a live preview.

We'll talk a bit more about the peculiarities of Oppo's implementation further down the page, but let's quickly go over the UI here, which you can summon without opening the phone. It's not a very feature-rich interface - you get three modes (Photo, Portrait, and Video). There's a Retouch (beautification) toggle available across all three modes and a self timer selector (Off, 3s, 10s) for the Photo and Portrait modes. There's no zoom selector, but you can pinch to zoom in, you just can't pinch to zoom out to the ultrawide camera.

Cover screen camera UI

On the main camera app, you get traces of the ongoing Oppo-Hasselblad collaboration - formerly yellow, the accent color turned orange when the companies shook hands. Other than that, the app is not much different than what you'll find on any Oppo or Realme (or OnePlus, for that matter). The Pro Mode has an 'H' in its icon, so there's also that.

Main screen camera UI

When it comes to the foldable aspects of the app's operation, things are similar, yet different to what we observed on the Find N2 - each form factor has its specifics. A tiny, almost invisible shortcut in the upper left corner of the full-blown UI enables the outer screen preview. At this point it's just a live view feed for your subject to look at themselves, while you're still getting the full UI and controls on the large screen.

Alternatively, while you're on the main screen, you can switch to the selfie camera, and then tap the same tiny shortcut in the top left corner. That will turn off the main screen UI and switch to cover screen UI, the same one you get with the folded Flip.

There are a few other use cases where the foldability comes in handy. While you're in the camera app on the main screen, if you fold it half way, the viewfinder will move to the top half while the controls will remain on the bottom. The more useful split is the other way around, we'd think, with the viewfinder and the shutter release on the bottom, enabling discreet waist-level shooting. Then there's the camcorder mode.

Daylight photo quality

In daylight, the Find N2 Flip captures great photos. You get pleasing but not over the top colors and mostly accurate white balance, with a barely noticeable tendency for leaning greenish. Dynamic range is excellent and there's also plenty of contrast in these images. Detail is very good, while noise is minimal - just a very fine grain in the skies if you specifically go looking for it.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x)

Direct comparisons against the Galaxy Z Flip4 show a minor advantage in detail for the Samsung and it's a bit more naturally rendered. Overall, it's an exercise of splitting hairs.

Daylight comparison, main camera (1x): Find N2 Flip • Galaxy Z Flip4

The Galaxy has no 50MP mode, but then the Oppo's 50MP mode isn't any good. These photos are upscaled from the 12.5MP versions and offer no extra detail - just bigger detail and larger file sizes.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 50MP

The Oppo does take usable photos at 2x zoom from the main camera though. While you will be seeing some heavy sharpening and more prominent noise, these images are very shareable and look good at fit to screen magnifications.

Daylight samples, main camera (2x zoom)

More or less the same applies to the Galaxy, even if it doesn't have a readily available 2x button in its viewfinder. However, the Oppo shots are noticeably sharper - we'd give the Find a victory for zooming capability, modest as it may be.

Daylight comparison, main camera (2x zoom): Find N2 Flip • Galaxy Z Flip4

At the ultrawide end, the Oppo's unremarkable hardware produces results that can be summed up in the same way. Photos are on the soft side and there's more than the usual amount of noise. Dynamic range is good though, and colors are mostly accurate.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera

The Galaxy is an overall better performer here. It gets you cleaner shots with more detail. It's coverage is wider too, which is what you want from your ultrawide camera, we reckon.

Daylight comparison, ultrawide camera (0.6x): Find N2 Flip • Galaxy Z Flip4

Low-light photo quality

As usual with recent Oppos, in low light the Find N2 Flip applies auto Night mode processing in Photo mode by default. As a result, you'll be getting largely identical photos in either mode, particularly with the main camera at 1x.

These are very likeable photos too. They're well exposed with wide dynamic range, good shadow development and well contained highlights. Colors are nicely saturated and there are no issues with white balance. On a pixel level, detail is good with only the heavy sharpening in greenery rubbing us slightly the wrong way.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x)

Here are the same scenes shot in Night mode.

Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Night mode

The head-to-head with the Galaxy reveals a slightly less enthusiastic color rendition from the Samsung. The Z Flip4 is also not as good when it comes to dynamic range and is harsher in the tonal extremes.

Low-light comparison, main camera (1x): Find N2 Flip • Galaxy Z Flip4

Low-light comparison, main camera (1x), Night mode: Find N2 Flip • Galaxy Z Flip4

At 2x zoom, the Find N2 Flip won't be engaging that auto Night mode, so here we're actually seeing differences between photos taken in the two modes. In Photo mode, we're getting more blown out highlights and deeper shadows, as expected. Detail does look a little more natural in well lit areas, but there's a some visible noise in the shadows.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x zoom)

Night mode dials up the sharpening a couple of notches, but also improves the rendition of shadows and highlights significantly.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (2x), Night mode

We'd also say the Find wins against the Galaxy when zooming in, particularly Night mode vs. Night mode.

Low-light comparison, main camera (2x zoom): Find N2 Flip • Galaxy Z Flip4

Low-light comparison, main camera (2x zoom), Night mode: Find N2 Flip • Galaxy Z Flip4

The Find's ultrawide is no fan of the dark. It does try to contain the highlights but doesn't always succeed, while shadows often end up underexposed and too soft. Colors do maintain saturation, so at leas there's that. Again, we observed no meaningful difference between Photo mode and Night mode here.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x)

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x), Night mode

The Galaxy's utlrawide may not be a spectacular performer in isolation, but it does generally fare better than the Find's, capturing finer detail and doing a better job of developing the shadows.

Low-light comparison, ultrawide camera (0.6x): Find N2 Flip • Galaxy Z Flip4

Low-light comparison, ultrawide camera (0.6x), Night mode: Find N2 Flip • Galaxy Z Flip4

Once you're done with the real world samples, head over to our Photo compare tool to see how the Oppo Find N2 Flip stacks up against the competition.

Oppo Find N2 Flip against the Galaxy Z Flip4 and the Motorola Razr 2022 in our Photo compare tool

Portrait mode

Portrait mode on the FindN2 Flip produces excellent results. Subject detection is great, the default blur level looks very natural, HDR is fully operational. There's also the benefit that your subject can see themselves on the cover screen, of course. One thing we're not fully on board with is the colors, which can have some of that green shift.

Portrait mode samples (1x)

Selfies

Selfies an be a rather expansive subject on foldables, with the outer screens enabling the use of rear cameras for taking pictures of yourself. That does apply to the Find N2 Flip as well, but Oppo has also decided it's a good idea to offer three different zoom levels for the internal camera, including a 2x zoom. We reckon that has something to do with the handset's ability to just rest on a surface, semi-folded, and capture photos or video presumably from afar. That goes together nicely with the autofocusing and face tracking capabilities, ensuring that you'll get good selfies even from a distance.

Like this, but imagine we had actually set it to 2x zoom.

On the other hand, there's no resolution setting, so selfies from the inner camera come out at the nominal 32MP, regardless of zoom level. The native field of view of the camera is achieved at the 0.8x setting in the viewfinder and that's indeed wider than most - Oppo says 21mm equivalent and that looks about right.

In balanced lighting the images have an impressive level of detail - maybe not quite 32MP worth of it, but a lot. At anything other than base ISO or when HDR has to work hard, they're softer and show signs of heavier processing, but they're still pretty solid, plus it's never a good idea to stare at a 32MP selfie shot at 1:1. White balance can have a tendency to shift things towards green, which doesn't affect the otherwise nice skintones, but surroundings can look slightly off. Dynamic range is excellent.

Selfie samples, inner selfie camera, 0.8x zoom

At 1x, which is effectively zoomed in a little, things barely change.

Selfie samples, inner selfie camera, 1x zoom

Pixel-level results at the 2x zoom level are noticeably worse, though these do still scale down to 8MP very nicely. And we'll be the first to admit that shooting at arms' length is entirely not how you're supposed to do the 2x zoom.

Selfie samples, inner selfie camera, 2x zoom

Which brings us to the outer cameras on the Find N2 Flip and their use for selfies. You can do it in one of two main ways - with the phone closed and with the phone open. The second option then has two sub-options - with the camera UI displayed on the outer screen only, or with the camera UI on the main screen and the cover screen just for framing.

The only way to shoot selfies with the ultrawide rear camera is if you keep the UI on the internal screen and only frame on the cover screen. If you get the UI on the cover screen, you could pinch to zoom in digitally on the main cam, but not zoom out to the ultrawide. That's not a huge loss, given that the inner selfie camera is plenty wide itself, plus it's generally of higher quality, so you'd be better off using that one instead.

However, the properly odd bit is that in the two scenarios when the UI is on the cover screen, you'd be getting different images from the ones you'd get when the UI is on the main screen. Admittedly, the cover screen UI doesn't allow for all that much along the lines of settings, but we did switch off the beautification toggle.

Mind you, we don't mean the fact that the outer UI images are treated as 'selfies' and are flipped, as per the available toggle in settings which we didn't think to change - that's on us. No, we're talking about overall differences in exposure, color reproduction, and detail rendition. The ones captured with the UI on the cover screen are brighter, have finer detail, and more lifelike skin tones. That has some possible deep ramifications about the results when just shooting people using the main screen UI - apparently, there's better processing to be had than what they're getting.

Selfie samples, rear camera: Ultrawide • Main (inner screen UI) • Main (cover screen UI)

Video recording

The Find N2 Flip records video up to 4K30 with the main camera. If you want 60fps clips, you'll need to settle for 1080p resolution. The ultrawide, meanwhile, maxes out at 1080p30.

One of the weird bits on the Find N2 Flip is that you can't record 4K video with the rear cameras while having the cover screen live view enabled - not when the phone is closed and not when the phone is open. We don't know where that limitation stems from, but it's a really unfortunate one.

By default the phone uses the h.264 codec, but you can switch that to the more efficient h.265. 4K30 clips from the main camera got a bit rate between 50 and 56Mbps in our experience, while 1080p30 got 25Mbps. Audio is recorded in stereo at 256kbps.

Main camera footage is nothing special, but doesn't exhibit major flaws. The amount of detail is respectable, but its rendition is rather overprocessed. Dynamic range is reasonably good too. Color reproduction is somewhat muted compared to stills - it's not anemic, but paired with the way things tend to look at this time of the year, it's making our balcony scene a bit lifeless.

4K30 at the 2x zoom level maintains the same global properties, but does not stand up well to pixel-level examination.

The ultrawide's footage is similarly not going to turn any heads - we're getting decent 1080p clips with average detail, good contrast, and okay dynamic range.

Stabilization, on the other hand, is praiseworthy. The phone competently removes walking shake, pans smoothly and stays planted if you're pointing in one direction - both with the main and the ultrawide camera.

The Find N2 Flip's main camera is actually a very capable low-light video recording tool. It captures a wide dynamic range, manages light halos respectably and develops shadows well. Detail is also quite good, given the circumstances.

The utlrawide doesn't deserve any of that high praise, its footage being pretty soft and noisy.

Here's a glimpse of how the Oppo Find N2 Flip compares to rivals in our Video compare tool. Head over there for the complete picture.

Oppo Find N2 Flip against the Galaxy Z Flip4 and the Motorola Razr 2022 in our Video compare tool