Oppo Find N5

Regular smartphones haven't seen much change over the past few years, with mostly incremental upgrades to the camera, battery life, or display. With foldable phones though, there's still more room for improvement. Earlier models suffered from a lack of sturdiness and clearly noticeable folds or bumps when opening the inner screen. Also, foldable phones have mostly been a lot bigger and thicker than a regular phone so far. This is why I was keen to try out the Oppo Find N5, as it is currently (and for just a little while longer) the thinnest foldable smartphone available. Unfortunately, it hasn't come out in Europe, but trying out the device for about a week has given me a good idea whether I'd like to switch to a foldable phone in the near future.

First off, let's start out with the device in its closed or folded state. The black matte version of the device I tried looks quite inconspicuous when folded. Especially when viewed from the front, the Oppo Find N5 looks and handles like a regular smartphone. I've put it side-by-side to a regular phone, in this case the OnePlus 13, and the screen dimensions are pretty much the same. This also means that the Find N5 doesn't need to be unfolded to do the most common phone things, such as taking a call or using messaging apps during a commute, for example. With 2450 nits peak brightness and a 120Hz refresh rate at 2616 x 1140 Pixels, the 6.62" AMOLED cover display is a very likeable screen to use by itself, and I see no downgrade to useability compared to a normal phone.

When still folded, this is also when thickness of the device matters most, in my opinion. The Find N5 is still a size thicker than regular phones, but is comparable to a regular phone when you include a case. For example, when putting the folded Oppo Find N5 next to my OnePlus 13 in its phone case, the devices were about equally thick, which means that if you're comfortable using a phone without a case, the Oppo Find N5 will handle like a regular smartphone. In my case though, for what it costs, I wouldn't take this phone anywhere without a case, which will probably increase the thickness to a little short of double the size. Still, with the Oppo phone being quite lightweight as well at 229 grams, I imagine that Oppo has reached a degree of thinness to make this comfortable to store in a pocket without issue. Even when using a case.

Unfolding the phone is when the device truly shines, which it does with a nice blossoming animation in the phone's wallpaper. I've taken the device with me on some social occasions, and this was the first time I was able to wow people with a phone in many years. Opening the phone requires two hands at all times, and takes some getting used to finding the right thumb positioning, but it's seamless and feels solid. The hinges at the back felt sturdy enough without any wiggle room. I can't say if this will last for the average phone life but after just a short time, but my impression is that this is a solidly constructed phone. The unfolded device has a good balance to it, with only a slightly heavier feeling on the side with the camera modules. The only issue I had, is that the fingerprint sensor is in an awkward position when you need it in unfolded mode, because it's placed on the thin right side of the device.

The inner screen folds out to a pretty big, but still easily holdable 8.12" of display. When it comes to display quality, Oppo and OnePlus have demonstrated before that they can deliver great-looking displays and the Find N5 is no different. The display is clearly flagship-quality when it comes to pixel density, colours, and a high refresh rate at 135Hz. Even more important is that there's no visible crease in the centre of the display, like older foldables used to have. The display looks like one piece from side to side, with the centre axis also responding well to touch during my testing. Also outside in the sun, the display is still useable.

When it comes to consuming content, there are some caveats, however. The main drawback isn't unique to Oppo's foldable phone, which is that most (video) content isn't made for square screens. I watched some YouTube and Netflix videos, but unfortunately you don't get the full screen experience. There will be sizable black bands around any horizontally-oriented content you're viewing, which limits the useful increase in display size. On the other hand, if you're mostly glued to TikTok and other vertical video, the black edges are far smaller, and video content takes up almost the entire screen. I've tried some gaming on the phone as well, again with some games showing the content across the entire display, while some other games will leave black bands on the top and bottom of the display.

Besides for consuming social media, the bigger screen seemed most useful to me when reading web pages or multitasking. For example, there's plenty of room to keep a messaging app like WhatsApp open, alongside an article to read in the browser. When doing so, the Snapdragon 8 Elite CPU keeps everything running smoothly and I didn't notice any heating. I've been used to OnePlus phones for some time now (which are part of the same company as Oppo), and the Oppo Find N5 shared many conveniences: super fast charging (up to 80W with cable or 50W wireless), smooth performance, and decent battery life that will easily last a day.

Lastly, I also tried out the device's cameras, which again reminded me a lot of the pictures of the OnePlus 13. The Hasselblad-branded main camera shoots great-looking images, and I enjoy the 3x optical zoom camera for portrait photos and ability to zoom in without losing quality in videos. Both the main and zoom cameras have optical stabilisation for sharper photos and generally stable video. The ultrawide camera is clearly of lower quality though, and probably won't be used much if you own this phone. AI-processing of photos is also quite heavy. When taking a photo, I usually got quite a blurry picture initially, which was then turned into a much sharper image after a few seconds. Sometimes, it will fill in colours or little details wrong. Yet, on the whole, the Oppo Find N5 takes good pictures and videos, but it comes with some limitations.

Concluding, looking at the display quality, ease of unfolding the device, and the low weight and balanced weight distribution, the Oppo Find N5 is a top foldable phone. The device is great if you're looking mostly at (vertical) social media content or enjoy reading and browsing the web, as it will make maximum use of the screen real estate available on the inner display. Notably, there are no visible bumps or dents in the inner display where the screen folds. Its outer display is as good as its interior one, meaning there's no compromise to the phone experience when keeping the phone folded. Coupled with the great but not perfect cameras, the Find N5 is a phone I would have loved to have kept using as my daily phone. And even though thinner foldables are rumoured to come out soon, the Oppo Find N5 will remain a well-rounded device offering a superb display experience. The biggest downsides though are that the device isn't available officially in Europe, and where it is available it is quite expensive at 1500 euros or more.