Every year or a few months, smartphone manufacturers refresh their device lineup. That doesn't always mean the refresh results in changes in the newer models. But for OPPO, the OPPO Find N3 Flip renewal this time seems intriguing, especially the cameras.
OPPO let us play around with the Find N3 Flip for a week before its official launch in Singapore. So, let's check out what's interesting about the company's new flip phone.
Design - Elegant!
Compared to its predecessor, the Find N3 Flip somehow feels more compact, sleeker and premium when you hold it. The back of the glass and metal frames add an elegant touch to its appearance. However, the glass back is quite slippery, so you should take note of that and not get too careless with it.
Can barely see the crease in the middle
Look at this beauty here
The alert slider
The usual volume rockers and power button/fingerprint scanner
(L-R) Speaker grille, USB-C port and the SIM card tray
As you can see, the four corners of Find N3 Flip are rounded, while the rear camera module bump sticks out quite a bit. But still, the Hasselbled branding on the shiny round camera bump gives off that unique premium feel, which makes it stand out. This effectively makes the overall design better than its predecessor. Also, we really love this Cream Gold variant.
In some ways, the rear camera module looks like a mini-camera version of the OnePlus 11. Of course, the 3.26-inch cover screen is one of the highlights of the Find N3 Flip, which comes in very handy for viewing custom applications. We often use it to check daily apps such as X (formerly Twitter), WhatsApp, Telegram and Spotify.
The things you can do on the cover screen
However, the absence of a touch-to-wake feature was unfortunate. It meant we needed to press the power button every time we wanted to turn on the cover screen. That said, the cover screen has an always-on feature that at least displays the time when we lift up the device. It's also worth mentioning that the cover screen is still readable in direct sunlight outdoors.
For those wondering, the crease in the middle of the interior screen looks almost flat, so it's better than most foldable phones on the market. We can still feel the crease when we touch the centre, but it's not that noticeable. Another interesting feature is the alert slider often seen on OnePlus phones. As OPPO fans would know, it's convenient when you want to seamlessly swap to silent mode.
Tech specs and features - Not just premium looks, but great specs too
Here are the complete specifications of the OPPO Find N3 Flip:
- Mediatek Dimensity 9200+
- 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage
- Body size: 166.4 × 75.8 × 7.8mm, weight 198g
- 6.8-inch 120Hz LTPO AMOLED main display (HDR10+, 1600 nits peak brightness, 1080×2520 pixel resolution, aspect ratio 21:9, 403 ppi)
- 3.26-inch AMOLED cover display (Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, 250 PPI, 900 nits peak brightness)
- Triple rear camera - 50 MP (main, OIS) + 32MP (telephoto, 02x optical zoom + 48MP (ultrawide, 114°)
- 32MP selfie camera
- Feature - side-mounted fingerprint scanner, alert slider
- 4300mAh battery with 67W charging technology
- ColorOS 13.2 based on Android 13
For those curious about the MediaTek Dimensity 9200+, we can tell you that the Find N3 Flip performed well with this chipset. After a week of testing, we didn't encounter any performance problems. Overall, the phone was not only good for daily activities like scrolling social media feeds or playing mobile games.
You might think a slender phone like this wasn't meant for gaming. But on the contrary, the phone performed surprisingly well in mobile gaming (we will get to that later). Additionally, the AMOLED displays on both sides were visually pleasing. The 120Hz refresh rate and 1440Hz PWM Dimming make it easy for those sensitive to PWM, and there's a variety of colour modes to suit your preference. This includes Cinematic Mode, which promises accurate colour representation.
Good colour contrasts
Brightness level is great
Choose or customise your own cover screen wallpaper
Thanks to the HDR10+ and high peak brightness of up to 1600nits, the displays on the Find N3 Flip are easy to read under the sunlight, as previously mentioned. It also has up to 12GB of virtual RAM for a total of 24GB RAM. That's more than what anyone would need if we're being honest. On top of that, OPPO promised to deliver four years of Android upgrades and five years of security updates.
Performance - Achieving expectations
Earlier, we mentioned how surprisingly well the Find N3 Flip performs on mobile gaming. Granted, PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends don't require such high-end specs to play spectacularly. But if you want to, you can play both at high settings in 60FPS. The back of the phone does become a bit warm, but that happens to any phone without a high-end cooling solution.
Initially, we were worried about the battery life because of the displays and always-on functions. But we were quite surprised as it managed to last a full day on a single charge. Mind you, that's with us using it to stream videos, play games, and browse social media pages. The 4300mAh battery proved reliable, and with the 67W SUPERVOOC charge, it can quickly charge up to 50% in just 30 minutes and up to 100% in around an hour.
Scores from Geekbench (left) and 3DMark (right)
Settings in PUBG Mobile
In terms of performance, the highlight of the Find N3 Flip would be the cameras. We expected the triple rear camera to take really good pictures, and it delivered. Photos taken during the day were highly detailed, bright and natural looking. For example, skin tones looked quite accurate from the telephoto camera in 5x zoom. Even 20x zoom shots looked great.
Since it's a flip phone, you could also use the 50MP primary camera as your selfie snapper. OPPO made some improvements to photos taken at night or in low-light environments. We noticed the Find N3 Flip was quite fast in capturing images in night mode compared to other phones. Anyway, we'll let the photos do the talking below.
Selfies
Ultrawide (left) and normal shot (right)
2x (left) and 5x zoom in (right)
10x (left) and 20x zoom in (right)
Primary camera shots
Night mode
Conclusion - A luxurious camera flip phone
Overall, the OPPO Find N3 Flip has an elegant sleek design and robust performance. The cameras are among the best parts of the phone and could be a primary reason to pick it up, especially if that's part of your checklist. If we have to nitpick something, it would be the cover screen, which could use more improvements. Also, you may want to stick to pro mode to get better night mode photos.
There aren't a lot of foldable flip phones available in Malaysia. But there's the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 at RM4499, just slightly higher than the Find N3 Flip. Both phones are similar, but you could get the Samsung phone if you're a fan of the Galaxy ecosystem. If you're on a budget, check out the Tecno Phantom V Flip 5G for RM2999 instead. The choice is yours.
So, what do you think of the OPPO Find N3 Flip? Are you looking to get a foldable flip phone? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned to TechNave for more reviews like this.
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