Here’s a sample of apps you can use on the cover screen of the Find N3 Flip.
The Oppo Find N3 Flip has a 3.26-inch vertical cover display, similar to the one on last year’s Find N2 Flip. Despite rivals such as Samsung and Motorola supersizing their cover screens, Oppo’s doubled down on its design with major upgrades to the cover screen’s software that make this new flip phone significantly more useful. I tested the Find N3 Flip over six days and found the new screen features helped it hit a sweet spot: It’s larger and more useful than a smartwatch, but smaller and less distracting than a normal phone screen.
This Find N3 Flip brings third-party app support to the cover screen, representing a significant upgrade in capabilities on Oppo’s latest flip phone.
Find N3 Flip design gets busier
According to Oppo, the Find N3 Flip’s vertical screen makes space for the phone’s three cameras. However, the trade-off is a more cluttered design on the front cover compared to the N2 Flip, which has two small hole-punch camera bumps stacked vertically.
One of the most significant changes is the new circular camera bump, which Oppo calls the “cosmos ring.” It reminds me of the one found on the Huawei Pocket S released in late 2022.
Another new feature is the alert slider, a hardware switch popularized by OnePlus (a subsidiary of Oppo), which makes it easy to toggle between ring, silent and vibrate modes. I found myself using this frequently, and I’m glad Oppo made this change.
The Find N3’s edges are curved, compared to the boxy sides of the Find N2 Flip. The N3 also gets a fresh color palette of black, light pink and gold. Oppo sent me the light pink shade, which looks subtle and elegant.
The cover screen doesn’t sit flush with the body and has slightly raised edges that feel odd.
The Find N3 Flip’s cover screen is more useful
I find the Find N3 Flip’s new cover screen software simple and intuitive. I swipe up for notifications, swipe down for the controls shade and swipe left to serve up more cover screen apps.
The cover screen now supports popular apps such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Calendar, Reddit, Spotify and Google Maps. You can enable this using the Labs feature in the Settings app. This is a big upgrade as last year’s Find N2 Flip couldn’t run any third-party apps on the cover screen, which restricted its usability. However, Oppo said the Find N2 Flip will eventually receive a software update that will allow it to run the same apps on its cover screen.
It was a seamless experience when using apps such as Calendar, Keep, Google Maps and Gmail on the cover screen, then unfolding to use them on the larger main screen. I could continue right from where I left off, and I was more productive for it.
The Find N3 Flip has a 6.8-inch inner display.
The Find N3 Flip’s inner display, crease, hinge
When I first took a glance at the 6.8-inch AMOLED inside screen, I couldn’t see the crease. But I eventually spotted it in a bright environment by maneuvering the phone at certain angles. When I used the phone for activities like watching videos, perusing emails or scrolling through news feeds, it was hardly noticeable and didn’t undermine my experience.
The inner display, which measures 75.78 millimeters (2.98 inches) wide, is wider than competing flip phones. While this width makes it trickier to use one-handed, it helps the Find N3 Flip offer a similar experience to a standard bar phone. It serves us a pleasant experience reading the news, scrolling through social media and watching videos. Oppo has also taken advantage of the folding design with respect to the camera app, allowing you to use the bottom half as a tripod of sorts.
Taken using portrait mode. Edge detection is precise.
Sometimes however, the cameras struggled in trickier lighting environments and images turned out more fuzzy and shadowy than in real life. I didn’t have a Galaxy Z Flip 5 on hand, but I was able to compare it with images from 2021’s iPhone 13 Pro Max, and in general I preferred the photos taken with Apple’s device. It shows once again that flip phones tend to have less-than-stellar cameras compared to their slab counterparts. This is the trade-off of using a phone with a flip phone design, which has its own physical and engineering limitations.
Selfie taken with the rear ultrawide camera. Thanks to the ability to use the rear camera module’s ultrawide sensor, I was about to capture the greenery behind me.
Below are a few more images from the Find N3 Flip.
In bright environments, the Find N3 Flip’s main camera captured sharp and color-accurate photos. Here’s my dog Rocky posing for the camera.
Taken on default settings using the main camera.
Example of either 20x zoom
Taken on default settings (1x).
5x zoom example. Still crisp in the foreground but some of the buildings in the background look fuzzy.
Lunch time.
The Find N3 Flip’s battery and performance
The Find N3 Flip’s 4,000-mAh battery had enough juice on a single charge to last me a full day of moderate use. I made a few calls, read some emails, watched a couple of YouTube videos, browsed the internet and shared my hotspot. Even when the battery eventually ran out, recharging it was relatively quick work, thanks in part to that 44-watt power adapter that came in the box. Within 30 minutes, the Find N3 Flip was more than halfway charged (58%) and within an hour, the battery was fully recharged.
I also performed a battery endurance test, where I watched YouTube videos, scrolled social media and jumped on a video call within a span of 45 minutes. In that time, the battery dropped from 100% to 89%. By comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 dropped 10% in the same test, while the Motorola Razr Plus’ battery dropped only 7%.
The Find N3 Flip runs on a Mediatek Dimensity 9200 chipset. In my time with the Find N3 Flip, it handled daily tasks smoothly, including light gaming, watching videos and scrolling through my news feeds. But in performance tests the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip and the Motorola Razr Plus’ Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 from last year beat it in the performance tests below.
Geekbench 6
Oppo says it tested the Find N3 Flip’s hinge with 600,000 folds.
How we test phones
Every phone tested by CNET’s reviews team was used in the real world. We test a phone’s features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it’s bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s performance to the extremes using both standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.
All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.
We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds, foldable displays among others that can be useful. And we of course balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether that phone, whatever price it is, actually represents good value. While these tests may not always be reflected in CNET’s initial review, we conduct follow-up and long-term testing in most circumstances.
Oppo Find N3 Flip specs vs. Motorola Razr Plus vs. Oppo Find N2 Flip vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
Article source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/oppo-find-n3-flip-this-clamshell-style-phone-is-playing-to-win/#ftag=CADe34d7bf