Oppo Find N2 Flip review: new hinge decreases the crease

theguardian.com:

Oppo’s first folding flip phone to be sold outside its Chinese home market is the Find N2 Flip, an Android clamshell aimed squarely at challenging Samsung’s popular Z Flip 4.

The next-gen flipper costs £849, undercutting Samsung by £50, and uses a different type of hinge that aims to help solve one of the most obvious flaws with folding phones: the crease in the middle of the screen.

The metal and glass form is immediately familiar, with a bright 6.8in screen that looks like a regular phone when open. The flexible OLED screen still folds in half, but Oppo’s hinge design creates a “water drop” shape at its centre instead of an even loop.

That allows the radius of the fold not to be too tight, creating less of a crease in the surface of the display when unfolded. That’s not to say there is no visible depression that cuts across the screen, but it is shallower and less pronounced than other folding phones.

The N2 Flip’s hinge feels solid when fully open, and it closes with a satisfying snap, but it offers less resistance and has a lot more play than Samsung’s folding phones. It can hold the screen open between 45 and 110 degrees, but wobbles while doing it.

The phone is only splash-resistant, not submersible, as is the industry standard. Oppo offers no formal dust-resistance rating for the N2 Flip, but has built multiple protections from dust into the back of the hinge. The phone is also rated to last more than 400,000 folds, which is more than 100 openings and closings every day for 10 years.

Main screen: 6.8in FHD+ 120Hz AMOLED (403ppi)

Cover screen: 3.3in AMOLED (250ppi)

Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 9000+

RAM: 8GB

Storage: 256GB

Operating system: ColorOS 13 based on Android 13

Camera: 50MP+8MP rear, 32MP front

Connectivity: 5G, nano