Geek Review: OPPO Find N3

Every once in a while, a new, up-and-rising technology disrupts the norm, or in some cases, an updated version of an old thing The smartphone space, for instance, has seen the rise of camera advancements and foldables, coming to a full circle with flip phones – albeit in a different form than before. Following Samsung’s push into the niche market, several other brands have caught on and rolled out their own versions of a flip and folding device to varying success.

OPPO took a stab at folding phones and immediately made an impression with the first Find N. The momentum continued into the Find N2, which proved to be a crease-less wonder that shattered expectations. There was just one major downside – the Find N2 wasn’t available outside of China, limiting users to arguably less intuitive options on the market.

With the OPPO Find N3 (known as OnePlus Open in North America and some territories), the Chinese handset giant might just give its competitor a run for its money – and in more ways than one. While slightly heftier than before at 239 grams, this folding beauty is still more lightweight than its biggest contender, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 (253 grams). The device is also thinner, measuring 5.8mm when unfolded, compared to 7.4mm on the Find N2.

All of that trimmed fat is reflected in the design, which cuts a svelte, streamlined figure in both clamped and unfurled forms. There’s no gap where both ends meet, and the flat sides offer an easy grip, which is facilitated by a slip-free, textured surface. The blasted metal finish, meanwhile, lends a polished and elegant touch to the overall look, easily landing the Find N3 in the premium category.

In its folded state, the phone sits comfortably in the hand and feels surprisingly well-balanced – despite the seemingly top-heavy layout. OPPO’s latest plays host to a three-camera system housed within a protruding circular cutout, dubbed the Cosmos Ring, that prevents it from lying fully flat on a surface. The module’s shiny, kaleidoscopic sheen exudes sophistication, but its massive size can get in the way of one’s grip, allowing fingerprints to leave their mark behind.

In contrast, the tactile leather back allay concerns of smearing and unsightly oil prints. A reasonably thick metal frame divides it from the other display, and like its predecessor, the transition to a full-sized display is smooth with just the right amount of resistance. The upgraded third-generation Flexion Hinge now features the company’s self-developed aircraft-grade steel, which touts a sturdiness five times stronger than traditional stainless steel.

Indeed, everything about the Find N3 feels solid. There’s no flex across the board, and the phone retains its rigidity during the unfolding process. According to OPPO, durability shouldn’t be an issue, for it has been tested to one million folds in 50-degree and -20-degree temperatures. Switching between the two forms also triggers a neat animation on the main display, where a flower’s petals bloom or curl in according to the angle the phone is at.

More notably, the crease that usually runs down the middle continues to be unobtrusive here. In fact, the device is likely the closest to a crease-free experience one can get, and it’s made more impressive by an easy-to-ignore tactile bump when the tip of a finger comes into contact with the screen. It looks and feels like a tablet, albeit without a digital stylus, with a USB-C port sitting at the base, and the power button and volume rocker lining the right frame. The left carves out a slit for the Alert Slider, a new quick-switch, haptic-supported feature between silent (no vibration), vibrate (pulse), and ring (long vibration) modes.

As with all foldable devices, the Find N3 ships with two displays. The 6.3-inch AMOLED front screen boasts a 2,484 x 1,116 resolution, a 20:9 aspect ratio, and a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, alongside a 2,800-nits peak brightness that allows for easier viewing under direct sunlight. Scrolling, reading texts, and watching videos on social media platforms yielded a responsive, fluid experience, and it didn’t feel any different from using a traditional smartphone.

While well-balanced, the foldable isn’t ideal for prolonged use as the substantial heft can take its toll after a while, especially when rotated for horizontal viewing – and it’s more prominent for individuals with smaller hands. Additionally, the positioning and size of the rear camera module means users can only grip the phone in a specific way to avoid the protrusion, which takes some time to get accustomed to.

But the highlight is, of course, the larger 7.8-inch AMOLED inner display. An upgrade from 7.1 inches, it offers an atypical 2,240 x 2,268 resolution, as well as the same 2,800-nits peak brightness and 120Hz refresh rate. The generous real estate promises greater immersion when watching videos, movies, and other forms of content, delivering vibrant colours, sufficiently deep blacks, and sharp detail.

Gaming and multitasking, in particular, stand to benefit from the tablet-like experience. Powered by the flagship-standard Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU chipset and an Adreno 740 graphics processor, the Find N3 packs even more of a punch than its predecessor. It held out extremely well against the more intense rigours of Genshin Impact – despite some drops in frame rate – and Honkai: Star Rail at maximum settings, surpassing expectations with a relatively smooth performance even as the action picks up in-game.

The environments, too, are a sight to behold, and it doesn’t hurt that the bigger screen offers more field of vision, allowing users to take in everything from scenic views to potential hiding spots of their opponents. With PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty: Mobile, the foldable proved competent at handling the heat, finding an unexpected gem in its impressive thermal management capabilities.

There were, however, some niggling issues that persisted throughout the play sessions. For one, the pinhole camera at the top-left corner eats into the user interface, which depending on the app, can affect legibility. The squarish display isn’t optimised either, resulting in compressed on-screen elements that can cross into one another. Touch sensitivity is somehow less intuitive here, requiring several presses or strokes before they are registered. Handset makers should realise by now that the hardware and software should complement each other, and it’s clear that Oppo pushed ahead on hardware without consideration of how the software would look here.

Similarly, the Find N3 offers an edge in productivity, but with some room for fine-tuning. Like before, it offers split-screen functionality that makes navigating between two windows a seamless affair, and Boundless View now takes things up a notch. Full-screen multitasking allows users to switch between large documents, as well as dropping and dragging files from one app to another. It’s a nifty little feature that can be pulled up in a jiffy – simply tap the bar at the top of each app, select Expand View, and voila.

If two apps aren’t enough, maybe three will get the job done? The new three-app Boundless View squeezes three windows into a single view, with one appearing off-screen and always on standby to be swiped back in. It’s aneat trick in theory, but unfortunately isn’t as intuitive as it sounds, as the sweeping motion sometimes goes unregistered. The transition, while not exactly rough, could also be smoothed out a bit more.

As welcoming as these upgrades are, the Find N3 has inherited some of the incompatibility issues from its past. Not every app can work with split-screen view, limiting both consumer options and the full potential of its multi-tasking versatility.

Where the phone stumbles a little on that front, it shines elsewhere. The Hasselblad-branded cameras are the real stars of the show, packing a 48-megapixel (MP) wide, a 64MP telephoto, and a 48MP ultra-wide camera. Photography prowess blew way past expectations (nobody buys a foldable device for great imagery, after all) and proved extremely competent out on the field.

Under natural light, colours are accurate and natural, leaning more to true-to-life tones than saturated embellishment. Captured shots are crisp and retain a great deal of detail, mellowing out into a soft bokeh in Portrait Mode, which is a welcome departure from the aggressive depth-of-field on other devices.

The contrast is well-balanced and not too striking, but there are cases where the images appear a little washed out. Zoom works great here, and it’s impressive how much sharpness and quality is preserved even on 3x optical zoom. In indoor and low-light environments, the Find N3 still captures light fairly well, despite the less vibrant images.

All in all, there’s little to complain about the photo-taking experience, except for what seems to be an outlier incident involving an erroneous masking of a subject’s edges. It’s unclear whether this was a product of inconsistent performance or a genuine glitch, but considering the rare frequency, it’s likely to be the latter.

There are other camera features to play around with, too. FlexForm Capture makes a return, allowing users to preview a selfie on cover screen, capture tripod-steady shots in both landscape and portrait orientation, and more. As for selfies, there’s a choice between the cover screen’s 32MP camera, or the 20MP camera on the inner display.

Beyond photography, the Find N3 runs smoothly on ColourOS 13.2 and brings no issues – barring a persistent bugbear. OPPO’s devices are notorious for their bloated and recurring notifications, alerts, and reminders, and it’s no different here. Users can, of course, mitigate the issue by manually changing the settings, but it’s extra work that could have been resolved on the company’s end.

Rounding out the foldable experience is a 4,800mAh battery life, up from the Find N2’s 4,300mAh capacity, so expect it to last as long as traditional smartphones. Taking photos at maximum screen brightness brought the battery down from 80 percent to around 40 in five hours, while moderate use – surfing social media, listening to Spotify, reading emails, watching occasional videos, and chatting with apps running in the background – topped out at around 12 hours or so.

At S$2,399, the OPPO Find N3 poses a direct threat to its Samsung foldable counterpart. Apart from offering 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM (more than Samsung’s S$2,398 base model), it outclasses the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in most areas, from design to photography. It’s unfortunate that its predecessor couldn’t share its potential with the rest of the world, but this could very well be OPPO’s next best chance to harness its expertise, which is arguably the most refined on the market right now.