OPPO Find N3 review: The foldable competition is on
A strong addition to the growing foldable phone market, with sleek design, strong performance and stellar cameras
OPPO
The OPPO Find N3 came as a surprise, with a host of upgrades that make it a competitive option in the growing (but still niche) foldable phone segment.
The Find N3’s most noticeable feature is its sleek, lightweight design – it weighs 239 grams at 5.8mm thickness while unfolded. Those are impressive numbers, considering its 7.8″ screen size. It feels light in the hand, and it’s easy to grip when unfolded. The only (admittedly minor) detraction to its design is the camera placement. The phone’s three rear cameras are housed in the raised Cosmos Ring design, which looks great but juts out a few millimeters from the rest of the device, so the phone doesn’t sit flat when place rear-down on a surface.
Sticking to the subject of cameras, photography is much-improved in the Find N3. The main camera holds Sony’s 48MP, 1/1.43 inch LYTIA-T808 sensor. Because of its two-layer transistor pixel structure, each pixel receives more light, providing better image detail. It is the first smartphone to use this technology, giving it an edge over its closest competitors. Meanwhile, the 64MP periscope telephoto camera has a 1/2-inch sensor, and provides 3x optical zoom (and 6x ‘lossless’ zoom through cropping), with optical stabilization thanks to a floating prism structure. Finally, the 48MP ultra-wide camera has Sony’s IMX5811/2-inch sensor. It has a 114 degree field of view and macro shot support of 4cm.
The AMOLED display has a resolution of 2,240 x 2,268, with a barely visible crease. This is ideal for anyone who needs a “phablet” experience – gamers and professionals alike will find the extra screen space useful. I booted up Fallout Shelter and noticed a real difference in the gaming experience. The same is true for reviewing presentations and documents. Its folding technology is also more warp-resistant, and TÜV Rheinland certified the phone with an impressive 1,000,000-fold durability, compared to the Find N2’s 400,000 folds, and the Galaxy Z Fold 5’s 200,000 folds.
It uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, with 16GB of RAM, 512GB storage, a dual SIM tray, a triple-speaker system and a 4,800mAh – it’s a strong performer with a long battery life. The phone will hit 80 percent battery after just 30 minutes of charging, and it lasts throughout the day – while testing it through regular use, I didn’t have any battery issues.
OPPO makes good use of the large screen size, with smart multitasking features. The App Library button toggles a pop-up menu allowing users to quick-launch an app or start split-screen mode. The File Pocket button displays recent files and images, which can be dragged and dropped into active apps. Another standout feature is the phone’s Boundless View, which widens the app in use, leaving a small portion of a secondary app in view, so you can easily swipe between the two (or more!).
Yet these features come at a cost – $2,178 (AED 7,999), to be exact. It doesn’t come cheap, but Oppo appears to have packed in as many features as possible to justify the cost in an already niche market.
