In just ten days time, Oppo will launch the Find N5, the world’s thinnest book-style foldable. I just spent a few minutes with the device and what follows are my early impressions.
Oppo is careful to use that “book-style” disclaimer, because the Find N5 isn’t quite as thin as Huawei’s trifold Mate XT, launched in China last year. Not when open that is, though the Find N5 is comfortably thinner than Huawei’s phone when closed, helped by only having two panels to fold, not three.
It feels outstandingly thin, so much so that the USB-C port is separated from the outside of the phone by what feels like a hair’s breadth of metal. Without ditching the port entirely, it’s hard to see how we get phones much thinner than this. What’s striking is that despite that, the phone feels solid, sturdy even. It doesn’t buckle under pressure, and while I’m sure JerryRigsEverything will find a way to make the phone snap, it doesn’t feel like I’m at risk of doing it by mistake.
Oppo has also tried to reduce the visibility of the display’s crease. It is there, and it is visible, but only when it catches the light at just the right angle, and it’s almost impossible to feel with your finger. The crease isn’t gone just yet, but at this point it’s close enough that it’s difficult to imagine being bothered by it.
The Find N5 is launching in black and white models, though there’s a rather nifty looking purple vegan (aka, fake) leather model that seems to be China-only, which is a real shame. It runs Oppo’s ColorOS Android skin, which means it should boast the same powerful multitasking features that were such a big draw on the previous generation.
I’m not allowed to say too much more about the Find N5 until its launch on February 20th, beyond what Oppo itself has said already: it will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip; boasts a full array of IPX6, IPX8, and IPX9 water-resistance certifications; and packs in wireless charging as well as wired.
The Find N5 launches in China and internationally next week, though not the US. That could still come later though. The previous-gen Find N3 eventually hit American stores as the OnePlus Open, and so it’s a safe bet that a version of the Find N5 with a OnePlus logo will be announced Stateside before too long.
Photos by Dominic Preston / The Verge
