Over the past year we have seen a lot of leaflets. Whole Fold series e Samsung Flip, Motorola Razr 5G, but also it Xiaomi Mix Fold and, more recently, theHonor magic v and Huawei P50 Pocket. Technically exceptional products, born from a concept in which there was only one brand to lead the way: Samsung.
Because it is true that each of these folding smartphones is characterized by its own identity and by software implementations designed ad hoc by each of the manufacturing companies, but it is equally true that, regardless of the form-factor, they are all "heirs" of the shapes and from the concept that Samsung introduced with its first leaflets.
And then OPPO arrived, or rather, it did not arrive (at least in Italy), which tried to change the cards at stake with its OPPO Find N, not only by presenting the cheapest folding smartphone in the Chinese market, but also by introducing for the first time a new shape and a new way of conceiving the folding itself.
It is compact, has a new internal display in which the fold is decidedly less visible, is made with materials and construction process of the highest level. With the'OPPO Find Women the brand has clearly stated that it wants to evolve the "novelty" into "necessity", the extraordinary into the ordinary. And if 2022 will be the year of the consecration of leaflets,
it is very likely that it will be precisely theOPPO Find Women the model that could pioneer this new trend: probably also thanks to the (many) mistakes made by the competition, OPPO managed at the first attempt (after 5 years of research and development) to present a product that, in some very important aspects , manages to overcome the same limits as foldable smartphones.
Too bad, however, that it will not arrive in Italy, at least not immediately. But you could still buy it through the box you find below in the same version we have on test, that is the one with Chinese rom but with all Google services (and the Play Store) working
OPPO Find N review
Unboxing
The packaging of OPPO Find Women is treated in detail. From its shape to the opening mechanism, which lifts the device when it is opened, it is clear that the company wants to convey that “premium” feeling that those who buy a foldout love so much. Too bad, however, that no protective cover has been inserted in the package.
Design and materials
Anyone who wants a foldable will probably want a larger screen in their pocket than the traditional ones or, at least, a more compact smartphone to carry in their pocket (as happens with the Flip). And if in the second option on clamshell smartphones
there is not much to change (whether they are foldable or not, the form-factor is always the same), it is in the first case (i.e. the possibility of having a larger screen to open on occasion. ) that the square relating to the real shapes has not yet been found.
And here comes theOPPO Find Women, which is basically lower and wider than a Fold 3, and is much (much) easier to handle. Given its form factor, however, the thickness is very important: we are talking about 15.9 millimeters, which makes it slightly annoying when you carry it in your pocket, also because it weighs a good 275 grams.
The winning weapon, however, is the classic rectangular format (ie 2: 1) which makes it much more comfortable to use on different occasions. In short, it is the first foldable with which you can use the external display without any particular limit even if, when open, the screen format could place some limits. But we get to that.
Excellent hinge, which allows the free opening of the screen between 50 ° and 120 ° and that in the month in which we are testing the device has always been solid and precise.
Display
OPPO Find Women it has two displays, but before we talk about the user experience (which is the most important thing) let's go to features. The internal one is 7.10 "with a ratio of 8.4: 9 (practically open it is almost a square) and is an LTPO type AMOLED with a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, a touch sampling rate of 1000 Hz and a peak brightness of about 500 nits. The external one is still an AMOLED, but it has a 5.5-inch diagonal and a refresh rate of 60 Hz.
And yes, let's get to the first compromise of this right away OPPO Find Women. This difference between the refresh rates of the two displays can be felt, especially when both displays are used constantly, and it breaks a little that solution of continuity that Oppo so exalted when it presented its smartphone.
Even more disappointing is the sampling frequency of the touch of the external display, which is much lower than that of the folding screen, and which conveys a feeling of little reactivity of the touch panel.
But now we get to the beauty of the user experience. Let's start with the internal display - it's stunning. And it is not only because the last of the 12 layers with which it is made makes the fold practically invisible, but because its shape ratio makes it perfect for everyday use.
Okay, it will certainly not be the best format for entertainment, because seeing a movie in 16: 9 on a square screen tends to maximize the black bands, but the visual experience is very comfortable in reading and browsing the web. It's like a small paperback book, and reading or browsing is truly a pleasure.
As for the external display I have already said: it is the best external display in a folding smartphone because, finally, that stupid 2.5: 1 ratio that we find in the Folds of Samsung has been abandoned. And even if the external display of theOPPO Find Women it is wider and less tall than what you would find in a traditional smartphone, using it for the most common operations is really comfortable.
OPPO Find Women is one of the few smartphones that can really be used with one hand, which allows you to type messages with one hand, and the concept is simple: Oppo has managed to produce a truly compact and comfortable device to use which, however, when open is bigger than a traditional smartphone. This is the concept that all foldables should follow.
Hardware and Performance
To animate OPPO Find Women a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 takes care of it, flanked by 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512 GB of UFS 3.1 internal memory. And perhaps the processor is the only "limit" (let me say the word) of this model, because if it did not use the new Snapdragon 8 Gen. 1, if it were to arrive on the Italian market in a few months, it would arrive with an "old" processor of at least a generation.
Ma poco bad, because by now we all know the performance of the Snap 888 and its ability to complete all possible operations on a mobile device: whether you are playing games or using complex applications, theOPPO Find Women does not miss a beat.
And if we know the performance of this processor more than well by now, we also know one of its biggest problems: that of overheating. A problem that onOPPO Find Women it is not as marked as in the other models animated by the same SoC, even if the processor management conceived by Oppo is actually more conservative.
The point, however, is another: the dissipation of heat tends to give theOPPO Find Women two distinct personalities, open and closed. And let me explain better, thermal throttling with the Snap 888 is something we are used to, but given the different dissipation of theOPPO Find Women open and closed, it is not always the same.
In a nutshell, the Antutu stress test showed that when the smartphone is used closed, therefore in a configuration where heat dissipation is more difficult, the system tends to slow down the performance of the SoC with peaks that sometimes drop towards the 60%, which does not happen when using it open: in this configuration the heat is dissipated much more easily, which turns the system performance much more stable than when using it closed.
But these are just numbers because, again, the performance of OPPO Find Women they are really good. What did not convince me is the stereo audio: for heaven's sake it is of good quality, but the two speakers are facing in the same direction and the partiality Display effect is not exactly the best.
Then there is no support for eSIMs, but it is still possible to use it with two nanoSIMs at the same time.
Cameras
OPPO Find Women It is equipped with 5 cameras, two are 32 megapixel selfie cameras, and then there are the main ones, positioned in a rectangular rear bump camera. The main sensor is an optically stabilized 766 megapixel f / 50 IMX1.8, and is flanked by a 16 megapixel f / 2.2 ultra wide angle lens and a 2 megapixel f / 13 2.4x optical zoom.
The days shots taken with the main camera are more than good, the details are present and the handling of the dynamic range is also decent. In the vast majority of lighting conditions the white balance is good and always stable.
However, this is not the case with the 16 megapixel wide-angle camera, which in our tests showed a management of the dynamic range not able to compete with what we find in the main camera, and a less pronounced sharpness along the edges of the images taken.
Then there is the zoom, which has proved more valid than I thought. Of course, it is a rather standard type of magnification, which however guarantees excellent focus, good color accuracy and the right management of the dynamic range and the balance of colors and whites.
Low-light shots are also good, where Oppo's night mode does a good job and is able to recover a lot of detail in the illuminated areas. But even here the Achilles heel of the camera sector is the ultra wide-angle lens, which always results poco bright and unable to keep up with the other two.
Excellent selfies, even if given the nature of the device, my advice is to take selfies with the main camera and using the preview in the external display, good videos that can be recorded at the maximum resolution of 4K at 60 fps and that they are rather stable and balanced.
Software
The sample of OPPO Find Women that we have in test is the Asian version and, for this reason, I do not think it is appropriate to give an in-depth judgment to the software. The smartphone is powered by Android 11, customized with the latest version of ColorOS 12, but what is worth focusing on are the customizations that the company has designed to take advantage of the foldable nature of the device.
What those of Oppo have worked a lot on is the management of multi-window applications, which can be exploited with very simple gestures, and which allows you to place two applications side by side, or open one in window mode, perhaps even on top of another pair of app.
The windows can be resized, it is possible to choose whether to start the applications in full screen mode or with the sidebands and reposition them as desired in three different areas of the screen and you can decide whether to continue using the applications on the other screen if you were to open or close the device.
Obviously having used the Asian version of the ROM of this one Oppo Find Women it had some limitations, such as minor problems with notifications, the English language and some pre-installed bloatware. But the fluidity of the system is excellent, and also the transition from the internal screen to the external one (or vice versa) is really fast.
Considerations
And there is poco to do, the OPPO Find Women it's probably the coolest smartphone we've gotten our hands on lately. It is compact and big at the same time, it works very well and is one of the very few devices that you can really use with one hand without any problems.
And all this without even having ever opened it, a condition in which you can take advantage of all the software implementations designed by the brand and, above all, the fold of the screen is practically invisible
If we really want to say it all, those of Oppo could have made some more effort on the refresh rate of the external screen, or on the stereo effect of the audio. Sure, it's not a waterproof smartphone like Samsung's Z Fold 3 and it doesn't come with ultra-fast charging technology, but it's probably the one that could really make you want to use a foldable without too many compromises.