(Disclosure: OPPO lent a unit for this hands-on story.)

I’ve only had a short time with OPPO’s new foldable, the Find N, but the design feels like a winner. First seeing it in photos, I thought it seemed a little on the chunky side. Compared to the most popular foldable model right now, the Samsung Galaxy Fold 3, the Find N has a wider, shorter profile. I thought it didn’t look as sleek. But on hand, the adjustment in dimensions might have practical benefits, and it actually might be easier to use.

With the tall profile of the Galaxy Fold, it’s an adjustment to use it in folded, phone mode because the screen is narrower than the usual smartphone. Article text and app icons, for example, may look smaller than usual to fit the narrow dimensions. The Fold was more fun to use in its tablet mode, with a phone mode that feels a little cramped at times. 

Now the Find N has a wider profile, and feels more like a standard smartphone, albeit a small one: the front semi-curved screen is 5.49 inches, reminiscent of screen sizes from an older time. It’s essentially a mini-smartphone in the context of today’s large-screen phones. But the aspect ratio (18:9) is, of course, more familiar. It’s easier to read on this phone in phone mode compared to the Fold because it’s less cramped. 

Here’s how it looks when holding it:

What you don’t get here though is the 120Hz front display found on the Fold. The Find N’s front screen is a fixed 60Hz. Inside though, the main screen does have a 120Hz refresh rate, matching the one found in the Fold. 

Open up the Find N, and you essentially have a mini-tablet: a 7.1-inch Samsung-made foldable AMOLED display. It’s bright and beautiful just like the one found in the Fold. Unfolded, the Fold has a taller profile, while the Find has more of a wide, landscape orientation. This might make it more viable in “laptop mode,” with one end flat, and the other screen serving as a laptop-like display for when you want to watch a video without having to prop up the phone against something. The two individual screens of the Fold are a little narrow, so when you’re using it in laptop mode, a YouTube video, for instance, may look small. 

I wasn’t exactly able to test how the Find N displays videos on the YouTube app, as the unit I received appears to be one meant for the Chinese market, and didn’t have Google Play Store. But theoretically, because the two inner screens of the phone are in a more traditional phone aspect ratio, they retain the screen real estate to display a video more naturally. 

The build of the phone feels amazing – a solid aluminum frame and a glass back. It looks and feels solid and expensive in the hand. 

Essentially, what you get with the Find N is a more compact Galaxy Fold. Sometimes the Fold can feel a little unwieldy in the pocket because it’s so tall. The Find N feels more like a regular phone in the pocket, just a little chunkier. 

Here are comparison photos of the Find N (left) and the Fold 3 (right):

The Find N also has a triple rear camera setup similar to the Fold (wide + ultrawide + tele) and a single front camera on the front screen, and another selfie camera on the inner screen. The Fold 3 does have an under display camera that looks almost invisible. The Find N has a notch for its inner front camera on the upper left portion on the inner screen.

They also share the same Snapdragon processor, a Snapdragon 888 5G chip. 

Another thing of note: the Fold 3 does have water protection (IPX8) while the Find N hasn’t advertised any such ability. 

No official prices have been released for the Find N in the Philippines or whether the phone would make it in the country. Online reports point to a starting price tag of around 7,700 yuan in China or about P60,000. The Fold 3 retails for P87,990 in the Philippines. – Rappler.com