The Oppo Find N2 and Find N2 Flip
(Picture: Oppo)Considering it’s the fourth largest smartphone manufacturer on the planet, Oppo hasn’t made too much of a splash in the UK.
But its size means the company has the resources and know-how to take on Samsung on the foldable turf that it has had largely to itself over the past few years. With the upcoming Oppo Find N2 and Find N2 Flip, the company intends to do exactly that.
Announced at the company’s annual Inno Day event, the two handsets don’t introduce new form factors but do seek to fix a couple of pain points in Samsung’s implementation.
The Find N2 Flip will rival the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, where a normal-looking handset folds in half like the flip phones of the 90s.
It’s coming to Europe in the first quarter of 2023, and appears to have the largest cover screen of a flip-style phone so far, making it more useful when closed. Oppo says that it can display up to six notifications and that it can be used as a viewfinder for the phone’s camera, meaning you can take photos without opening it up.
The handset’s cameras will apparently be “flagship-level” – important, given some foldables have been accused of providing lackluster photography despite their premium price – and an “almost invisible” crease where the phone folds.
It is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 Plus chipset, breaking from the Qualcomm chips that dominate the Android sector, and packs a 4,300mAh battery for “all-day life”. That’s significant, given the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4’s 3,700mAh cell has been criticised for its limited stamina.
The Oppo Find N2 is arguably more interesting, but unfortunately looks set to be a China exclusive, with no European release date listed. It’s a rival to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 – a handset that unfolds to reveal a larger tablet canvas inside.
Oppo’s version of the tablet/phone hybrid looks promising, with a 7.1-inch internal screen complementing the 5.54-inch closed version. Both boast 120Hz refresh rates, and it’s plenty powerful with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset and up to 16GB RAM ensuring things run smoothly.
Here too, the camera seems important to Oppo with a triple-lens array comprising a 50MP main camera, a 48MP ultrawide sensor and a 32MP telephoto lens.
While only the Oppo Find N2 Flip is confirmed for Europe at the time of writing, hopefully the company will release the larger model over here in time. Although the prices of Samsung’s Z-series phones have come down, a little competition in the space would be excellent news for foldable-curious consumers.
