Following a string of rumors, Chinese smartphone maker Oppo today shared images and videos of its first foldable smartphone — the Oppo Find N. The company confirmed that it would showcase the device on December 15, coinciding with the second day of its Inno Day 2021 event. Oppo’s first foldable smartphone is likely to be announced alongside a slew of interesting products that include a smartphone with a retractable rear camera and new AR Glasses.
Alongside social media posts, Oppo Chief Product Officer Pete Lau shared a blog post detailing the amount of work that has gone into the development of the company’s first flagship foldable phone. According to Lau, the final production version of the Oppo Find N is the result of more than four years of intense research. Oppo engineers developed six generations of prototypes before they were satisfied with the results, he adds.
Here comes our very first foldable smartphone – the OPPO Find N! Learn more about how everything begins with OPPO CPO @PeteLau #OPPOINNODAY2021 #OPPOFindN 👇
— OPPO (@oppo) December 9, 2021
Lau also makes several bold claims about the Oppo Find N — one of them being the absence of the display crease that foldable smartphones are infamous for. Oppo engineers had to work on an entirely new hinge and display designs to make sure the phone meets the company’s durability standards, he claims. It remains to be seen how different Oppo’s hinge mechanism really is compared to the current crop of foldable smartphones.
Even though the Oppo Find N seems to be inspired by the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 at first glance, there are quite a few differences. For example, it is likely to be much smaller in size. In addition, the resolution and aspect ratio of the cover display are closer to traditional Android smartphones of today — quite unlike the unusually long 6.2-inch, 25:9 display we saw on the Galaxy Z Fold 3. The main display, when unfolded, is likely to retain a 4:3 aspect ratio.
This is the exquisitely engineered #OPPOFindN.
Hold. Fold. Enjoy. Repeat.
Coming December 15. #OPPOINNODAY2021 pic.twitter.com/LVZKNgYiAv— OPPO (@oppo) December 9, 2021
While we do not know the hardware specifications of the Oppo Find N yet, shortly after the official teasers went live, a Geekbench listing appeared, revealing that the device could be powered by the Snapdragon 888 chip from Qualcomm and that it will feature up to 12GB of RAM.
Going by what we know so far, the Oppo Find N certainly looks like a competent phone that could cause some churn in the foldable segment currently dominated by Samsung.
