OPPOs Folding Find N feels cooler than Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and iPhone 13 Pro - review
Visitors: 700
Hello, dear! I hasten to share with you the emotions of the first commercial folding smartphone OPPO called Find N. You can't call it a full-fledged review, since I studied the smartphone from all sides in the Russian Moscow office of OPPO for only an hour and a half, but the sensations remained vivid. I share them.
In this review of Find N, I want to focus specifically on my emotions from a folding smartphone from OPPO, and not on listing its technical parameters. The main technical characteristics of Find N are briefly and succinctly outlined here. The full technical data of Find N are given closer to the end of this topic (scroll down). Of course, the numbers in this review will be in large numbers – there is no way without them, but I will try to immerse you in the numbers at a minimum, since the filling of the smartphone is top-end, which is obvious. But my impressions here will be presented to the maximum.
After four years of development and six generations of prototypes, OPPO has a new flagship - the OPPO Find N folding smartphone, which looks stylish, unusual and innovative. One package is worth something, I opened the box with my hand trembling with excitement and was not able to do it the first time.
Design and packaging Find N
I extract Find N from a chic box and ... wow — this is the case when reality exceeded my expectations. Stylish, foldable, yet compact when folded, fast and incredibly functional. I'll tell you about everything in order, let's go!
I got a white Find N with metal rims and a glass case surface with a 3D curved design on both outer edges. It looks expensive-rich and the build quality of the smartphone is at the highest level. Stylish streamlined curves of the case, it is tactile and pleasant to hold in your hand. The glass back surface of the Find N (and the glass layer is very thin) and the ceramic camera unit on it resemble the OPPO Find X3 smartphone in design. The back panel of the Find N is protected by durable glass. Everything is well put together and looks harmonious. Aesthetics are on top.
If we talk about the colors of Find N, then in addition to the luxurious white that I got, there are also black and purple.
When folded, Find N turns into a familiar smartphone, and quite compact with a diagonal of 5.5 inches (5.49, to be precise) and an aspect ratio of 18/9. The upper working side of the Find N at the same time behaves like an ordinary smartphone, only in the hand it feels unusually thick when folded, but for me personally it is not bulky at all due to the light weight of 275 grams for such a size. When opened, Find N switches to the internal display — an "open book" with a diagonal of 7.1 inches with an aspect ratio of 8.4/9. In the expanded state, Find N is visually perceived almost as a square, look at the photo below for yourself. The internal display rotates horizontally towards you and it is very convenient!
The internal display is made using LTPO technology — it is low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (low-temperature polycrystalline silicon) with an adaptive frequency from 1 to 120 hertz. It all depends on the content that is on the screen. If there is text on the display, then it makes no sense to update it with a frequency of 120 Hertz, but if dynamic games, then it's another matter.
The compactness of the folding Find N and its size in comparison with other flagships and competitors immediately catches the eye (yeah, I'm talking about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3). I unfold Find N and fold it again, I repeat it again and again ... and again in the hope of seeing with my eyes the place of the fold on the fully expanded screen, similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, but the fold line is absolutely not visible! It's like a single solid screen without the slightest hint of a fold. There are no creases, there is no "book" line in the middle, there are no folds. Amazing! However, I can't say that the same thing will happen in a week or a month of using OPPO Find N. I will be able to tell you about this after a longer testing of the novelty. The OPPO company itself does not claim that the folds should not be visible at all. OPPO says so:
The unique design of the hinge in the form of a drop of water solves many problems of folding devices by increasing the angle of folding of the display and providing a buffer when folding the screen, which makes the crease minimal and 80% less noticeable compared to other devices.
During testing, thoughts flew through my head: how convenient it should be to watch videos on an expanded Find N, read texts and certainly drive games on such a square-horizontal expanded display. And so it turned out.
The next thing I noticed when opening and folding the smartphone is the smoothness and speed of the flexion hinges. The Find N smartphone has been tested for 200 thousand openings and closings of the display at temperatures up to -20 degrees, which corresponds to about 5 years of use with about 110 openings and closings per day. I think that this will be enough for most, given the average time of changing smartphones. If you dig deeper into the direction of the hinge mechanism, I can say that the Flexion Hinge flexion consists of 136 components, fitted together with an accuracy of 0.01 mm and the hinge mechanism works as smoothly as a human joint. Find N can be fixed in the expanded state at angles from 50 to 120 degrees and this is called FlexForm mode, and I was especially pleased with it.
I tried to bend the Find N at an angle convenient for me and put it on the table, turning it into a mini-laptop. At the same time, it is easy to type texts with two hands and watch videos on it. There should be many different custom keyboards for it, but I didn't get around to checking this. In such a bent and lying on the table state, the smartphone can even be used as a tripod when recording video (supports 4K 60 frames per second) or for taking photos.
Then I bent Find N again at a different angle, convenient specifically for me, and took it in my hands. I noticed that OPPO adapted the main applications such as Camera, Music and Notes to work the screen in a bent form.
In the photo below, an employee of the Russian OPPO, Ulyana, holds a bent Find N with an open Camera application in her hands. By the way, special thanks to her for her help in photographing Find N.
Cameras - photos and videos from Find N
The rear camera unit at Find N consists of three photo models:
- The main 50-megapixel camera (Sony IMX 766 sensor) with a matrix size of 1/1.56 inches and an aperture of f/1.8. The camera consists of 6 lenses.
- An ultra-wide-angle 16-megapixel camera (Sony IMX 481 matrix) with an aperture of f/2.2.
- A 13-megapixel 5-lens telephoto lens (Samsung S5K3M5 module) with an aperture of f/2.4.
There are also a couple of front-facing cameras:
- A 32-megapixel front-facing selfie camera on the internal screen (when Find N is opened) (Sony IMX 615 sensor) with an aperture of f/2.4.
- A 32-megapixel front-facing selfie camera on an external screen (Sony IMX 615 sensor) with an aperture of f/2.4.
The main camera has a variety of shooting modes: photo, video, night mode, Professional mode, panoramic mode, Portrait mode, Time lapse, Slow motion, Brino assistant/intelligent assistant, text scanning, video viewing in dual mode, cinema, simple.
Both front-facing cameras have modes: photo, video, panoramic mode, portrait mode, night mode, Time lapse, beatification, video viewing in dual mode, wired.
It is better to see once if the conversation is about photos and videos, so below are examples of photos taken with Find N.
Selfie photos on Find N can also be taken using hand gestures, without resorting to buttons.
You can also see examples of portrait and other photos from Find N in this topic.
There are no complaints about the quality of the main camera, everything is very good. But they didn't put autofocus on the ultra-wide-angle camera, so get ready for “blurring” in the frames.
I noticed that it was more convenient for me to take photos with Find N with the screen unfolded, holding the open Find N with both hands. This improves the quality of photos because the shaking when shooting “with both hands" is less strong and as a result, the probability of even small blurring on ordinary everyday photos decreases.
The convenience of using Find N with one hand
Yes, no problem. When folded, it is plump (140.2 mm), but due to the diagonal of only 5.5 inches when folded, it is very compact and the weight of 275 grams makes it easy to manage.
The speed of Find N
The heart of the smartphone is a high-performance Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, so Find N will cope with any tasks. I did not have the opportunity to conduct real performance tests, although the capabilities of the Snapdragon 888 processor have been known to everyone for a long time and do not cause complaints.
The speed and at the same time the smooth operation of the Find N display is amazing. The internal AMOLED display accelerates to 120 Hz depending on the tasks. The speed of the external display with a frequency of 60 Hz also does not cause complaints. The sampling rate of touch displays reaches up to 1000 Hertz! You can see the smooth scrolling on the Find N display in one of these videos.
Body Colors Find N
There are 3 housing color options in total:
- white, reminiscent of white ceramic glaze with glossy glass and exquisite texture;
- black, which combines shiny frosted glass and new film lamination technologies for a shimmering effect;
- purple, somewhat reminiscent of a bottle of expensive perfume.
Find N prices and release date in Russia
In China, Find N is on sale from December 23, 2021 at these prices:
- Find N 8 GB/256 GB — 7699 yuan ($1,210).
- Find N 12 GB/512 GB — 8999 yuan ($1,414).
Find N filling — processor, memory, charging, battery, fingerprint sensor, etc
Nevertheless, I decided to leave here detailed technical specifications for a full understanding of the entire Find N filling.
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Mobile Platform.
- The internal Serene Display consists of 12 layers: AMOLED with a diagonal of 7.1 inches with a frequency of 1 Hertz - 120 Hertz and a resolution of 1792 x 1920 with a pixel density of 370 per inch. Brightness 500 nits, 1000 nits maximum brightness and up to 10 240 maximum auto-brightness. Covered with Flexible UTG protective glass (0.03 mm thick).
- The external Serene Display consists of 12 layers: AMOLED with a diagonal of 5.49 inches, with a frequency of 60 Hertz, a pixel density of 402 per inch, a resolution of 1972 x 988, a brightness of 500 nits, 1000 nits maximum brightness and up to 10,240 maximum auto-brightness. Covered with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protective glass.
- RAM: LPDDR5 for 8 GB or 12 GB.
- Permanent memory: UFS3.1 for 256 GB or 512 GB.
- Battery: 4500 mAh.
- Sampling rate of touch displays: up to 1000 Hz.
- Fingerprint scanner: on the side panel.
- Face recognition technology.
- Wired charging at 33 Watts SUPERVOOC.
- Wireless charging for 15 Watts AIRVOOC/Qi.
- Reversible charging at 10 watts.
- Main camera (rear): Sony IMX766 50 MP matrix 1/1.56 inch matrix size, support for All Pixel Omni-directional PDAF technology with 100% pixel focusing and multidirectional focusing, aperture f/1.8; equivalent focal length 24 mm; 6 lenses; OIS.
- Video on the main camera: up to 4K 60 frames per second, 1080P video resolution 240 frames per second.
- Ultra-wide-angle camera (rear) Sony IMX481 16 MP matrix, f/2.2 aperture; Equivalent Focal Length 14 mm; 5-element lens.
- Telephoto Lens (rear) Samsung S5K3M5 13 MP, aperture f/2.4; Equivalent Focal Length 52 mm; 5 lenses.
- Front camera (internal screen): Sony IMX615 32 MP aperture f/2.4.
- Front Camera (external screen): Sony IMX615 32 MP aperture f/2.4
- 5G support: naturally.
- NFC: Yes.
- Two nano-SIM size SIM cards.
- Bluetooth 5.2
- Audio codecs: SBC, AAC, aptX, LDAC.
- Operating system: ColorOS 12 based on Android 11.
- USB Interface: Type-C.
- Wireless Internet Access: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), 802.11a/b/g/n/; WLAN 2.4G/WLAN 5.1G/WLAN 5.8G;Supports WLAN screen; Wi-Fi access point; Simultaneous dual-band (Wi-Fi 2.4GHz 2×2 + Wi-Fi 5 GHz 2×2); Supports Wi-Fi 5 Gigahertz 160 Megahertz; supports 2×2 MIMO;
- The effect of spatial reproduction of MU-MIMO sound.
- Navigation: Built-in GPS, A-GPS, BeiDou Satellite Navigation System, Glonass, GALILEO, QZSS.
- Sensors: Geomagnetic sensor, Light sensor, color temperature sensor, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Hall sensor, Gyroscope, Pedometer.
- Dimensions unfolded (on the battery side): 132.6 by 140.2 by 7.8 mm
- Dimensions unfolded (from the side of the screen): 132.6 by 140.2 by 8 mm
- Folded dimensions: 132.6 by 73 by 15.9 mm
- Weight: 275 grams.
The Find N package includes: the smartphone itself, a USB cable, a charging unit, a tool for removing the SIM card, an exclusive service card, a warranty card, a safety manual and instructions for getting started.
I would like to note that the 12-layer Serene Display technology is OPPO's own development.
Final conclusions
Find N turned out to be fashionable, modern, stylish, innovative and convenient. Not many people will have one, since few can afford it. So far, this is the only folding smartphone in the world with an almost imperceptible fold in the middle of the unfolded screen. Find N is the most compact in the folded state of all folding smartphones and therefore it is much more convenient in one hand than, for example, with a folding smartphone Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3.
We have compiled for you a list of unscrupulous brokers, , with reviews on which you can find on our website.
Comments 0