OPPO Find N3 Flip has been announced in its home country of China. This is the company’s latest clamshell-style foldable that follows the success of the OPPO Find N2 Flip that went global early this year.
The biggest update is the cameras where OPPO added a third primary lens and the Find N3 Flip becomes the first foldable to have a triple rear camera setup.
The cameras are tuned by Hasselblad and are made up of a 50MP Sony IMX890 main sensor, a 32MP telephoto sensor(2x optical zoom) and a 48MP ultrawide sensor. All three are housed on a circular camera island.
The portrait telephoto lens is the same one on the OPPO Reno10 series that is launching in the country next week.
OPPO Find N2 Flip Review: Lots to Love
Right next to the triple camera setup is the cover screen. OPPO didn’t change anything to the vertical screen. It’s still the same 3.26-inch display that its predecessor had which is smaller than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 3.4-inch screen.
OPPO however added more utility to the cover screen that now allows you to use more third-party apps including Google Maps, Google Calendar, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, Twitter, and Spotify.
The hinge is still the same zero-gap Flexion Hinge which OPPO says has been tested 400,000 folds. So the phone folds completely with no gap in between when closed.
The hinge also allows for Flexmode for its cameras to allow you for hands-free selfies and videos from the main camera or front-facing 32MP camera which can now shoot 4K video.
The hinge also makes the inner display lack the visible crease present in the likes of its rivals like the Z Flip5.
The main screen is a 6.8-inch AMOLED display sporting an adaptive refresh rate of between 1Hz and 120Hz.
The Find N3 Flip gets IPX4 rating for water resistance. You’ll have to steer away from dusty environments with this one. In comparison, the Z Flip5 has an IPX8 rating.
We also get a curved glass design along the sides instead of the boxy look of the Find N2 Flip.
Inside the phone is a Dimensity 9200 chipset that goes toe to toe with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 present in the Z Flip5. It comes with Android 13 and ColorOS 13.1 paired with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage(UFS 4.0). OPPO has promised 4 years of major Android OS updates and 5 years of security patches.
The OPPO Find N3 Flip has a 4300mAh battery with support for 44W fast charging – the charger is included in the box. This is the largest battery among the clamshell foldables. The fast charging means that you can charge the phone to 50% in under 22 minutes.
It’s worth noting that like the Find N2 Flip, there’s no wireless charging here.
The fingerprint reader is embedded in the power button. OPPO borrowed from its sister company, OnePlus and added an alert slider to the Find N3 Flip. The slider allows you to switch between various profiles including vibrate, silent and ring.
A global launch is expected around October or November.
The company is also planning to launch the Find N3 Fold later this year.
Pricing
OPPO Find N3 Flip starts from $932 for the 256 GB version and $1042 for the 512GB version.
If it launches locally later this year or early next year, then we expect its pricing to start from around Ksh 150,000. The Find N2 Flip sells in the country for Ksh 130,000. It’ll still be cheaper than the Z Flip5 which goes for Ksh 190,000.
The Big Picture
Interest in foldable smartphones has grown tremendously with shipments going up by 50% from last year to 21.4 million units in 2023 as forecasted by International Data Corporation. They project that in 2027 that number is going to rise to 48.1 million units.
