Chinese phone maker Oppo launched two new foldable phones – Find N2 and Find N2 Flip – for the Chinese market at a release event on Thursday. Available in three colors, the Find N2 has a price range of RMB 7,999 – RMB 8,999 ($1,147 – $1,290). The Find N2 Flip also comes in three colors and is priced from RMB 5,999 to RMB 6,999 ($860 – $1,004). The two models will initially be available only in China, with shipping starting on Dec. 23 for Find N2 and Dec. 30 for Find N2 Flip. Oppo confirmed to TechNode that the latter model would be introduced to overseas markets soon.
Why it matters: Oppo released its first foldable phone, Find N, last year, giving the brand a 4.6% market share (in Chinese) in the Chinese foldable market in the third quarter of 2022. This year, the firm focused on slimming down the weight of its next iteration. The new tablet-like Find N2 is even lighter than some regular phones, such as the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
- This is the first time Oppo has introduced a flip-style foldable phone, as the company looks to compete with Huawei and Samsung.
Find N2: The Oppo Find N2 uses Qualcomm’s high-end processor Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which was introduced earlier this year but has now been superseded by the Gen 2.
- The phone weighs 237 grams in green and white and is even lighter in black (233 grams), which is considerably less weighty than rivals’ offerings. Its thickness is 7.4 mm when opened and 14.6 mm when folded.
- The 7.1-inch inner display supports a 120 Hz refresh rate and LTPO adaptive refresh rate. The brightness can reach 1,200 nits in HDR scenes and 1,550 nits outdoors. The external display is 5.54 inches with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 1,350-nit peak brightness outdoors.
- The Oppo Find N2 is equipped with a triple-camera system, covering frames from 47 mm to 14 mm. Its main camera comes with a 500 million pixel resolution and an F1.8 aperture.
- Oppo offers LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage chips in this phone, with two available options: 12 GB RAM plus 256 GB storage and 16 GB RAM plus 512 GB storage.
- The phone features a 4,520 mAh battery, supporting a 67 W charging speed.
Find N2 Flip: Oppo’s first flip-style foldable phone has a 3.26-inch rounded rectangular screen that the firm claims is the largest external screen of any phone in its class.
- The main 6.8-inch display supports a 120 Hz refresh rate and 1,600 regional peak brightness.
- The phone adopts an old 4nm Dimensity 9000+ processor from MediaTek and comes with a 4,300 mAh battery, supporting 44 W charging speed.
- Powered by its in-house imaging processing chip MariSilicon X, the Find N2 Flip has a 50 million pixel (MP) main camera, 8MP teleport camera, and 32MP front camera.
Context: The foldable phone market has seen strong growth both in China and overseas in the last year. Counterpoint Research projected that global foldable phone shipments will increase 77.8% yearly to 16 million units in 2022, and hit 26 million in 2023.
- Samsung dominates the global foldable market, accounting for 62% of worldwide sales. Oppo took only 3% of the market by sale-through in the first half of 2022, ranking third behind Huawei, according to Counterpoint Research.
- Huawei topped the Chinese foldable market with a 53.2% share of sales in the third quarter of 2022, according to Chinese hardware consultancy CINNO Research.