Latest news with #FindN3
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Yahoo
The Oppo Find N5 is an impressive, very thin foldable with a giant battery
Oppo is back with a new foldable, and the Find N5 is a technically impressive balance of thinness and power. Skipping over the whole unlucky number four thing (this is technically the fourth iteration of the Find foldable), the company claims its latest book-style foldable is the world's thinnest at 8.92mm. That's not a lot thicker than a typical flagship phone. Despite that, the Find N5 has a 6.62-inch outer display and an 8.12-inch inner screen which, Oppo says, features multiple durability improvements, flanked by a new titanium hinge. For the sake of clarity: While you may not have bought, used or even seen an Oppo phone, this company is under the same corporate owner as OnePlus. Last year's Find N3 foldable ended up in the US as the OnePlus Open, so you may see the Find N5 similarly rebadged. If that's the case, and this is eventually the Open 2, you won't see it this year. OnePlus announced that its follow-up foldable will not land until 2025. At an early briefing, my first impression of the Find N5 was that it was a very thin, premium foldable. Unfolded, one side is just 4.21mm — thinner than a headphone jack. (That's a great excuse for the lack of one.) It's so slender that Oppo had to reinforce and beef up the edges of the Find N5's USB-C port, which has only a razor-thin border around it. The ring camera array — which still looks a bit much — has also been shaved down 20 percent. In addition to that thinner profile, which seems to be the 2025 trend for phones, the Find N5 weighs just 229 grams (8.07 ounces). That's only two more grams than the single-screen iPhone 16 Pro Max and 10 grams less than the N5's main rival — the Galaxy Z Fold 6. It's even more impressive when you consider that the Find N5 has a bigger internal screen than all the other foldables. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. In fact, using its external screen when closed it feels like any other non-foldable phone, due to its sharp profile and light weight. A 6.62-inch screen is larger than most phones I use regularly, so browsing and watching things before I've even unfolded the N5 feels like a treat. Despite its thickness (or lack thereof), Oppo has ensured it is suitably powerful, with a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and a 5,600mAh battery. (For comparison, Samsung's latest Galaxy Fold has a 4,400mAh cell.) Unlike the OnePlus Open, the Find N5 is compatible with wireless chargers and if you have Oppo's own wireless fast charger, it tops out at 50W AIRVOOC. Using the included fast charger, you get an impressive and swift 80W wired charging speed. I could completely recharge the Find N5 in less than an hour. However, like many other recent Android phones, this device is not Qi2-ready. Oppo argued that its proprietary wireless charging tech is faster, and added that a magnetic case will be on sale when the device launches. (Oppo does include a non-magnetic case to cover the device's rear with the phone.) With its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, the Find N5 is the first foldable to pack Qualcomm's most powerful mobile chip, with substantial power efficiency gains alongside performance boosts compared to older Snapdragon 8 silicon. We've been amazed by battery life improvements on Samsung and OnePlus devices with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and Oppo continues that trend. Combined with that massive battery, this foldable typically lasted almost two days in my testing before needing to charge. One of the biggest challenges to foldables is durability, and to address this, Oppo has upgraded the Find N5's hinge and screen toughness. The hinge is now made from titanium alloy, 3D-printed to maintain the material strength while shrinking the hinge's size by 26 percent. At a press briefing in London, the company decided to showcase the hinge strength by suspending a 44-pound kettlebell from its new foldable, which spanned two tables. I'm not sure this translates to real-world toughness, but it was an impressive spectacle. Next time, put your newest thousand-dollar-plus device somewhere near a three-year-old — let's see how tough it really is. Oppo says the smaller external screen is made of nanocrystal glass, which includes an outer layer of ceramic to improve scratch and drop resistance. The company also says the inner screen has been strengthened with a new anti-shock film that can absorb impact, improving shock resistance by 70 percent. The Find N5 also comes with a literal list of water resistances: IPX6 (resistant to powerful water jets), IPX8 (resistant to being submersed in water deeper than 1 meter) and IPX9 (resistant to powerful, high-temperature water jets). If you think at least one of those must be redundant, I agree. The Find N5 is the first foldable to claim all that protection. However, there's no dust-resistance rating, which might concern existing foldable users who have been grappling with that lil' bit of dust lodged in their years-old smartphone screen. Camera improvements are focused on the periscope telephoto shooter, which is upgraded to 50MP sensor from the 32MP one found on the Find N3. The Find N5 can now punch into 3X optical zoom, up from 2X on its predecessor. There's a lossless 6X zoom that taps into AI to sharpen detail, but as usual, your mileage may vary here. I find the lossless options on most phones often a little too smooth (and turn most zoomed-in faces into nightmares), but at least it's an option. The periscope telephoto camera can also utilize a macro mode, meaning you can zoom in closer and still maintain crisp focus and detail. Macro photography with a typical smartphone doesn't always work. Your phone will cast a shadow on your subject, or perhaps you can't get your camera close enough. On the Find N5, a four-inch focal distance makes this less of an issue, and early images are promising. It's not the first time we've seen the feature (both the Huawei P60 Pro and vivo X100 Ultra have telephoto macros) but it's rare in most devices that make it to the west. We usually have to make do with a macro mode on the ultrawide camera, and hope for the best. The camera has many familiar features, too: portrait mode (with some Hasselblad assistance) and Lightning Snap burst shooting. The latter is augmented by Oppo's take on AI unblurring and sharpening. Fold in an AI eraser and reflection remover and it goes toe-to-toe with recent Samsung and Google flagships. Multitasking is similar to the OnePlus Open, with some improvements. Oppo's version is called Boundless View, with several features now accessible from a triple-dot icon, where you can shift second and even third apps into shrinkable windows. By tapping the top bar above one app, you can automatically widen it, but leave a sliver of the other app in view, making it easier to switch between them. One smart touch is that the Find N5 will gauge your multitasking, offering a prompt when switching between two apps to use them in split screen mode. As someone who doesn't use book-style foldables, I find it a nice reminder of the utility of this form factor. Another software addition is the O+ app, where you can manage files on your phone and even sling them across to your Mac. At the briefing, an Oppo exec showed how easy it was to transfer a photo across devices, which was pretty unremarkable. (Think of all the cloud options we have in 2025) But it was the Remote Mac Control that surprised me. With the Find N5 propped up and half-folded, the Oppo spokesperson used the onscreen trackpad and keyboard to interact with their Mac. This feature works with both Intel and Apple Silicon-based Macs, so I was able to test it out with my aging Intel MacBook Pro. Does anyone remember and pine for that VAIO laptop that could slip into your jeans pocket? No? Just me? Just me. Anyway, it felt like using that. You're not going to work daily from it, but if there are files, or certain simple tasks you need to accomplish in Photoshop or other PC programs, it's functional and impressive. It's not quite as effortless or seamless as Apple's own Continuity feature, since you have to install apps on the Find N6 and your Mac. Oppo promises a future update allowing you to transfer files to your Mac from Find N5's native Files app without dabbling in Remote Mac Control. With the Find N5, Oppo went to town on hardware. It feels and looks more premium than the company's previous foldables but with substantial spec bumps at a time when many smartphones seem a little iterative. (Yes, Samsung, you.) The intriguing part is, if the OnePlus Open 2 isn't happening in 2025, will this device make it to the US at all? And if it does appear next year, will all these upgrades be as impressive? The Find N5 launches globally today, with Oppo so far only announcing official pricing in Singapore: 2,499 Singapore Dollars. That equates to just below £1,500 in the UK, where it should go on sale, or shy of $1,900. That would put it at the same price point as the leading foldable, Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 6. We'll update this story when we get more precise availability.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why the OnePlus Open 2 situation is terrible for phone fans
For the last months mobile fans have been watching the Oppo Find N5 foldable phone news with interest, as it was widely expected to be very similar to the OnePlus Open 2, which unlike the Oppo phone would almost certainly be released in the U.S. during 2025. Unfortunately, OnePlus has crushed our hopes for such a phone, and clearly stated in a blog post that it has, 'made the decision not to release a foldable this year.' That's right, no OnePlus Open 2. Here's what it means, and why it's bad news. For those who don't know, Oppo entered into a partnership with OnePlus in 2021, when the two brands (both were also once separate parts of the defunct BBK Electronics empire) began working closely together on software and hardware. The OnePlus blog post shared on its Community Forum starts out by saying the company has been observing the tech world's interest in the Oppo Find N5, and the anticipation for a OnePlus version of the phone. 'At OnePlus, our core strength and passion lie in setting new benchmarks and challenging the status quo across all product categories,' the company wrote. 'With that in mind, we've carefully considered the timing and our next steps in foldable devices, and we have made the decision not to release a foldable this year.' There's no ambiguity here. It's very clear that not only will the OnePlus Open 2 not be coming this year, but there won't be a compact foldable to challenge phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 or Motorola Razr Plus either. The post goes on to say, 'while this may come as a surprise, we believe this is the right approach for us at this time,' and adds how it's going to let Oppo 'take the lead' in foldables. If the Find N5 isn't going to morph into the OnePlus Open 2 in 2025, there would be no point in it doing so in 2026 either, as it would be too far, technically, behind the curve. Few would be excited about a rebranded 2024 foldable in 2026. It seems OnePlus has given itself an entire year to assess how it next approaches foldable phones — it calls this a 'pause' and a 'recalibration,' indicating it's not leaving the space completely — but in reality it may have even longer to ponder. The Oppo Find N3 arrived at the end of 2023, around the same time as the OnePlus Open. Oppo was happy to let the Find N3 continue on throughout 2024 (skipping the Find N4), while OnePlus vaguely refreshed the Open with the OnePlus Open Apex Edition mid-way through the year. The Find N5 looks all set to be a considerable step forward over the Find N3, not least because it will take the crown of 'world's thinnest foldable phone' from the Honor Magic V3. For this reason, Oppo may decide the Find N5 will carry its big-screen foldable hopes well into 2026. OnePlus and Oppo worked together on the Find N3/Open, meaning it's unlikely OnePlus will go it alone on the development of an Open 2 and will wait to jointly develop a sequel to the Find N5 with Oppo. When OnePlus decides it's ready to make another foldable phone, it's possible such a device won't arrive until well into 2026. By that point, it may as well follow Oppo's odd naming decision and call it the OnePlus Open 3. There are two big reasons why this is bad news. The first is a continued lack of variety in big-screen foldables in the U.S., where it's the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold, or nothing. Both these phones are great — the Pixel 9 Pro Fold was one of my personal favorites last year — but without competition, prices won't drop and brands won't feel the need to quickly innovate. OnePlus will tell you the OnePlus Open Apex Edition is its 2025 foldable, but we all know this is marketing spin. It's a facelift Open, which was released at the end of 2023. It's also bad news for adoption, crucial to the growth of foldables in general, and this may be the unsaid reason OnePlus has decided against a foldable this year: they just aren't selling enough to make it worthwhile. Data collected by Counterpoint Research at the end of 2024 showed global foldable phone shipments decreased slightly between July and September, and that Samsung ruled the market with a 56% share. Tellingly, this number was substantially down on its 70% share for the prior period. This wasn't an unforeseen event. In its Worldwide Foldable Phone Forecast released in early 2024, research firm IDC wrote, 'Foldables were a hard sell in 2023, as many vendors struggled to move significant inventory. The market has not fully embraced the form factor. High prices and longevity remain a challenge to both consumers and vendors.' However, it's not like other brands aren't finding success with foldables. Vivo and Xiaomi gained ground in 2024 with the X Fold 3 Pro and Mix Flip respectively. Honor continues to build interesting and innovative folding phones, as does Tecno with its Phantom series. OnePlus's decision (or Oppo's decision, depending on how you view the partnership) may see it fall behind the competition over the next year. But because the overall Oppo/OnePlus business won't suffer due to the Find N5's existence, it's only BUYERS that suffer, particularly in the U.S. where the other foldables mentioned aren't officially sold. The death of the OnePlus Open 2 in 2025 is bad news for us, but does it leave OnePlus in a terrible position for the year? No, absolutely not. It has kicked off 2025 with what I'm beginning to think is the best phone it has ever made, the OnePlus 13. There are very few downsides to it, and the aggressive price means it really should be at the top of anyone's list when considering other phones like the Google Pixel 9 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus. I think it should be seriously considered over the Galaxy S25 Ultra too. The OnePlus 13R is also well worth your attention. Even without the Open 2, OnePlus is well on its way to a stellar 2025, but the OnePlus 13's resounding success is somewhat bittersweet, as if it brought the same magic to the Open 2, along with a modest strategic price drop, it could have stolen the market from the aging (and a bit dull) Galaxy Z Fold 6, and pricey Pixel 9 Pro Fold. But now, sadly, all discussion of the OnePlus Open 2 has become a case of 'what could have been.'
