Oppo Find N2 Flip Hands-on: Shaking Up the Foldable Smartphone Market
The Oppo Find N2 Flip wants to buck the trend in the foldable smartphone market. I was able to test Oppo's clamshell foldable and I give you my first impressions on this Find N2 Flip and its very large cover screen.
The Oppo Find N2 Flip in a nutshell
The Oppo Find N2 is available in Europe since February 15, 2023. It comes in a single memory configuration of 8/256 GB sold for 1099.90 euros (approximately $1,170), and as with most Chinese brands, the Find N2 is not expected to be sold in the US.
Like the Oppo Find N2 tested by my colleague Matt, the Oppo Find N2 Flip debuts the new teardrop hinge technology. The latter is supposed to make the crease in the middle of the smartphone's screen more discreet.
- Check out our selection of the best foldable smartphones in 2023.
The Oppo Find N2 Flip also comes with a very large cover screen, so its foldable and clamshell form factor is much more relevant.
Design
The Oppo Find N2 Flip is the foldable clamshell smartphone that has the largest external screen in the market with a diagonal of 3.26 inches. It also relies heavily on its teardrop hinge.
Pros
- Very nice colors with a classy matte coating.
- Compact form factor when folded.
- The cover screen is much more useful since it is larger.
Cons
- No IP rating for water resistance.
This cover screen occupies two-thirds of the total area of the flip. It has gained a lot in height compared to the previous model. The information displayed on it is therefore logically much more readable.
You can also use it as a viewfinder for your photos, to quickly respond to messages, and send voice notes without having to open the smartphone.
And Oppo offers several widgets for applications whose interface has been adapted to this screen such as the timer, weather, or calendar.
The frame of the Oppo Find N2 Flip is made of aluminum but the back is made of plastic and the smartphone has no IP certification for water and dust resistance.
The Oppo Find N2 Flip comes in two colors: black and purple. I found the coating particularly beautiful. It's matte with a bit of a grainy feel and it's very pleasant to the touch.
Oppo's foldable is also quite light and compact with a weight of 6.73 oz (191 g) and dimensions of 3.36 x 2.96 x 0.63 in (85.5 x 75.2 x 16 mm) folded and 6.54 x 2.96 x 0.29 in (166.2 x 75.2 x 7.5 mm) unfolded.
Screen
The Oppo Find N2 Flip has two displays. The cover screen is a 3.26-inch AMOLED panel with a resolution of 382 x 720 pixels with a max brightness of 900 nits (peak) and protected by Gorilla Glass 5. The inner screen is also an AMOLED LTPO panel of 6.8 inches with a resolution of 1080 x 2520 pixels, a refresh rate of 120 Hz, and a maximum brightness of 1600 nits (peak).
Pros
- The very bright inner screen (1600 nits).
- The 120 Hz on the inner screen.
- The very large cover screen (3.26 inches).
- The fold in the middle of the screen is quite discreet.
Cons
- -
We already talked about the cover screen above. But the main screen is indeed that 6.8-inch AMOLED inner display. The maximum brightness of 1600 nits in peak looks huge. And even in typical conditions, the Oppo Find N2 Flip is capable of reaching 1200 nits, according to the manufacturer. These are very good scores on paper.
Browsing the smartphone is very smooth thanks to the 120 Hz variable refresh rate via LTPO technology. The fold in the middle of the screen is also very discreet. A tour de force enabled by the new hinge technology in the shape of a water drop.
Basically, imagine that the fold of the screen forms a drop of water once the smartphone is folded. This makes the fold narrower and especially shallower than in previous generations.
Interface/OS
The Oppo Find N2 Flip runs on ColorOS 13, Oppo's Android 13-based overlay, and will receive four Android updates and five years of security updates.
I don't have anything special to tell you about ColorOS 13 since we already have a full test of Oppo's interface. I just noted that Oppo has added a menu dedicated to foldable features in this version.
This menu allows, among other things, to customize the cover screen by changing the wallpaper, adding widgets, and selecting automatic responses to messages.
Performance
The Oppo Find N2 Flip features the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ SoC with its Mali-G710 GPU and is backed by 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage.
It's probably a good thing that the Oppo Find N2 Flip doesn't feature a Snapdragon chip considering the overheating issues of the previous generation.
I'll let you know how the Mediatek Dimensity 9000+ performs once I've got some benchmarks and games running.
Photo quality
The Oppo Find N2 Flip packs a dual camera module with a 50 MP main lens and an 8 MP ultra-wide angle lens. The selfie camera has a resolution of 32 MP.
The main lens of the Oppo Find N2 Flip sits on top of a Sony IMX890 sensor and has an f/1.8 aperture. And this lens serves both for your classic photos, and also for your selfies, thanks to the cover screen that serves as a viewfinder.
The ultra-wide angle lens has a somewhat low 8 MP resolution that left me a bit indifferent. Even if the colorimetry was nevertheless quite consistent with the rendering of the main lens.
There is no telephoto lens, but at the same time, I don't see where Oppo could have found the space to store an additional camera lens on the Find N2 Flip exterior.
The 32 MP selfie camera on the inner display probably won't do you much good. In most cases, you will use the main camera with the cover screen to get better image quality. Perhaps for video calls, the large inner screen is better for displaying more information.
Autonomy
The Oppo Find N2 Flip comes with a battery capacity of 4300 mAh. It can be wired recharged at 44W and offers reverse wireless charging.
Nothing to say about the battery or the autonomy since I could not do my tests and run my benchmarks. The battery size seems fine to me given the compact form factor of the smartphone.
The 44W of wired charging should allow you to go from 0 to 50% in 23 minutes according to the manufacturer. There is no wireless charging but reverse wireless charging is available. I find this choice rather odd, but hey.
Technical data
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Conclusion: My first impressions
The Oppo Find N2 Flip is a very interesting foldable smartphone. In fact, the use of a big cover screen could change a lot of things for this product category.
Foldable clamshell smartphones are usually the "poor man's" foldable smartphones. The spec sheets are a bit more limited and they are a bit cheaper than the classic passport-style foldable phones.
But with that large screen justifying having a flip, the Oppo Find N2 Flip seems more functional without sacrificing its compact form factor. My colleague Florian Philon was already hinting that the Find N2 Flip could shake things up in the foldable smartphone market.
