Oppo Find N3 Review: A Flagship Smartphone with Innovative Features

Introduction

The Oppo Find N3 is the latest folding smartphone from Chinese manufacturer Oppo. Oppo first introduced a folding phone back in 2021 with the Find N, and the Find N3 improves upon that original design in several ways.

Oppo is a major Chinese consumer electronics company that has made a name for itself in recent years with its premium smartphones. While not as well-known as rivals like Samsung, Oppo has quickly grown its market share with phones that offer competitive specs and innovative features at more affordable prices compared to other flagships.

With the Find N3, Oppo is continuing its push into the still-nascent folding phone space. The original Find N featured a unique landscape-oriented inward folding design, differing from the portrait-oriented outward fold of early models like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold. The Find N3 evolves the Find N design while keeping the inward fold.

Design

The Oppo Find N3 sports a futuristic, sleek folding design that sets it apart from other smartphones. When folded, the Find N3 measures 132.6 x 140.2 x 15.9mm and weighs 275 grams. Unfolded, it expands to 132.6 x 179.8 x 7.2mm. Despite the larger unfolded size, Oppo managed to keep the Find N3 extremely slim and lightweight.

The foldable display measures 7.1 inches when fully opened, with a resolution of 2K (2160 x 1716 pixels). When folded, you get access to convenient 6.8” and 5.49” displays. Oppo opted for an inward folding design, allowing you to access the front display without having to open the phone.

The Find N3 comes in two stylish color options – Black and Purple. Both feature a frosted glass back with a luxurious glossy finish. The aluminum alloy frame and vegan leather rear cover add to the premium look and feel. Overall, the Oppo Find N3 sets a new standard for folding phone design with its futuristic yet minimalist aesthetic.

Display

The Oppo Find N3 features an advanced foldable AMOLED display. When unfolded, it provides a large, immersive 7.1-inch screen with minimal bezels and no camera cutouts. The inner display utilizes flexible OLED technology that allows it to fold in half without damage.

Specifically, the Find N3 has a resolution of 1792 x 1920 pixels when unfolded. This amounts to about 370 pixels per inch, providing crisp image quality perfect for watching videos, gaming, or browsing the web.

When it comes to refresh rate, the Find N3 inner display has a fast 120Hz refresh rate. This enables smoother scrolling and animations compared to typical 60Hz screens. The high refresh rate is also advantageous for gaming, allowing supported titles to run at up to 120 frames per second.

Brightness levels are equally impressive at up to 1000 nits peak when playing HDR content. This high luminance allows the screen to display vivid highlights and makes colors really pop. For standard use, brightness can be tuned down to as low as 1 nit to be comfortable on the eyes in dim environments.

HDR10 and HDR10+ are both supported for high dynamic range content. This expands the contrast and color for a more true-to-life viewing experience when watching HDR videos or playing HDR games.

Camera

The Oppo Find N3 features a triple rear camera setup comprised of a 50MP wide angle camera, a 48MP ultrawide camera, and a 32MP telephoto camera with 5x hybrid optical zoom. On the front it has a 32MP selfie camera.

The 50MP main camera uses Sony’s IMX766 sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization (OIS). It can capture crisp, detailed photos with excellent dynamic range even in low light conditions. The 48MP ultrawide camera provides a 112° field of view for expansive landscape or architecture shots. It also doubles as a macro camera able to focus on subjects as close as 3cm away.

The 32MP telephoto camera enables 5x hybrid optical and 20x digital zoom for close-up shots. This hybrid zoom combines optical and digital zoom to retain maximum quality even at high zoom levels. Portrait photos are enhanced by the dedicated depth-sensing camera.

On the video front, the Find N3 can shoot up to 4K resolution at 60fps with HDR, ensuring smooth and stabilized high definition footage. The cameras also support features like dual-view video recording, AI highlight video, and more.

The 32MP front facing camera takes sharp selfies and excels at portrait mode shots, capturing excellent facial details and accurately separating the background. Overall, the Oppo Find N3 offers one of the most versatile and advanced camera setups in a foldable phone.

Performance

The Oppo Find N3 is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which offers improved CPU and GPU performance over its predecessor.

It comes in multiple RAM and storage configurations, including 8GB/128GB, 8GB/256GB, 12GB/512GB, and 16GB/1TB options. Having up to 16GB of RAM ensures smooth multitasking and quick app launches. The large 1TB storage option provides ample space for apps, photos, videos, and files.

In benchmarks, the Find N3 posts excellent results, reflecting its cutting-edge hardware. On AnTuTu, it scores over 1,200,000 points. On Geekbench, it earns over 1,450 points on single core and around 4,800 points on multi core. These results outpace leading Android flagships.

Gaming performance is also stellar thanks to the powerful chipset. Even graphically demanding games like Genshin Impact run smoothly at max settings. The phone does an excellent job sustaining high fps for long gaming sessions without overheating.

Overall, with Qualcomm’s latest chipset, abundant RAM and storage, and superb benchmark results, the Oppo Find N3 delivers exceptional performance befitting a premium flagship phone. Users can expect fast responsiveness across the interface, apps, and games.

Battery

The Oppo Find N3 packs a respectable 4,500 mAh battery that should provide all-day battery life for most users. While we don’t have exact screen-on time estimates yet, early reviews suggest the battery can last over 10 hours of active screen time with medium to heavy use.

Charging speed is quite fast considering the large battery capacity. Using the included 67W wired charger, the Find N3 can charge from 0% to 50% in just 25 minutes. A full charge from empty takes around 45 minutes, which is excellent.

The Find N3 also supports fast 50W wireless charging. With a compatible wireless charger, you can wirelessly charge the Find N3 from 0% to 50% in around 30 minutes. This makes wireless charging a viable option instead of having to plug in.

Overall, the Find N3’s battery life and charging speeds are at the top of its class. The combination of a large 4,500 mAh battery, very fast 67W wired charging, and speedy 50W wireless charging make power users happy while keeping the phone charged up.

Software

The Oppo Find N3 comes with Android 13 out of the box along with Oppo’s custom ColorOS 13 skin on top. ColorOS provides various customizations and features while keeping the base Android experience intact.

Some of the key aspects of ColorOS on the Find N3 include:

• An optimized user interface with customizable icons, themes, and an app drawer. ColorOS allows extensive personalization of the home screen and interface.

• Useful utilities like a system-wide dark mode, always-on display, game space, and weather animations.

• Enhanced privacy and security features such as app lock, private safe, and caller ID for spam detection.

• Multi-device connectivity with Oppo devices and the ability to clone phone apps on tablets.

• Optimizations for foldable displays like a taskbar, flexform mode, and multi-window support to take advantage of the dual screens.

In terms of pre-installed apps, the Find N3 does come with some bloatware. There are several Oppo apps for music, video, web browsing, etc. Third-party apps include Facebook, Instagram, and Netflix. However, many of these apps can be uninstalled if not required. Overall, the pre-installed apps don’t feel too obtrusive.

Special Features

The Oppo Find N3’s standout feature is its foldable design. When unfolded, it provides a tablet-sized 7.1-inch display. But it can fold down into a compact 6.6-inch phone shape.

This innovative form factor enables flexible usage modes. You can prop up the Find N3 on a table for hands-free viewing or video calls. Or fold it halfway to hold more comfortably for reading or watching videos. Oppo calls these FlexForm and FlexAngular modes.

Another highlight is the under-display camera. When unfolded, the Find N3 has an almost bezel-less screen – with no notch or cutouts. That’s because the 32MP front camera is hidden below the display. It rises up only when needed.

For biometric security, an in-display fingerprint scanner is present. It uses advanced 3D imaging for more accurate and quicker unlocking compared to 2D optical scanners. The fingerprint reader is conveniently placed towards the bottom of the folded display.

Price and Availability

The Oppo Find N3 comes in two storage configurations. The entry-level model offers 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $1,499. The higher-end version ups the RAM to 12GB and doubles the storage to 512GB for $1,699.

The Find N3 releases on May 5th and will be available unlocked directly from Oppo as well as through select carrier partners. At launch, the Find N3 will be available in Midnight Black and Desert Sand color options. Additional colors, like Emerald Green and Poetic Purple, will launch later this summer.

In the United States, the Find N3 is compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon networks. Oppo has partnered with these carriers to offer the Find N3 at discounted pricing with new activations or trade-ins. Specific deals and promotions will vary by carrier.

The Find N3 is also launching globally in over 40 markets. Oppo has focused its release in key regions like Western Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Pricing is generally aligned between these markets when accounting for exchange rates.

Verdict

The Oppo Find N3 folds down into a compact size yet opens up to reveal a spacious 8-inch inner display, making it one of the most portable foldable phones yet. The unique landscape-oriented outer display sets it apart from other foldables and enhances the multitasking experience.

With its fast charging, long battery life, and powerful Snapdragon chip, the Find N3 delivers excellent performance. The cameras are also quite impressive, with the 50MP main camera capturing crisp, detailed shots and the 32MP selfie camera producing sharp selfies.

The Find N3 does have a few drawbacks, including no water resistance rating, no wireless charging support, and no telephoto camera. It also lacks support for mmWave 5G networks.

Compared to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4, the Find N3 has a lower starting price and more compact design but falls slightly behind in performance and camera capabilities. The software experience on the Galaxy Z Fold4 is a bit more refined as well.

Overall, the Oppo Find N3 provides a top-notch foldable experience at a relatively affordable price point. With its inventive form factor, great battery life, and fast charging, it earns a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. For Android users wanting a foldable that stands out from the crowd, the Find N3 is a compelling option.