Oppo Find N2 Flip Review: Competition runs for 'Cover'!

Oppo Find N2 Flip Review: Smartphones have moved on from being a necessity to becoming more of a status symbol these days. More often than not, people upgrade to a new device only because they wish to own a trendier and sleeker device. The Oppo Find N2 Flip is one such device that is not only pocketable but also looks exquisite in the hand. The device is apparently for those who are more into vlogging, taking pictures and doing things in a more innovative way. The device lets you experiment in a lot many ways when compared to usual flagship smartphones. The best part is that you can even use a smartphone like a camcorder to record videos. Also, one of the absolute novelties of this smartphone is the large cover screen (secondary display on the folded exterior) that allows you to use the rear camera to shoot selfies without "opening" the phone. But the pricing can be a concern as the device retails at Rs 89,999 in India. Although this can be brought down to Rs 79,999 by availing certain cashback and incentives, yet, it still remains an expensive phone.

While there have been very few options available in this category, Oppo is definitely trying to raise the bar with several first-in-class features like the largest cover screen and the most powerful battery in the segment. It is also highlighting the all-new Flexion Hinge design that creates a water drop fold and the company claims it can withstand 4 lakh folds and unfolds.

Oppo Find N2 Flip Review: Design

One of the key features of the Oppo Find N2 Flip is its design. The device is raising the bar in the foldable smartphone segment with its new hinge technology and the large cover display. The Flexion hinge used in the smartphone leaves no space between two halves of the phone when it is folded. Also, it is very easy to open and close the phone. The most important part is that you will get minimal screen crease. It's barely visible while using the smartphone and the only time I realised it is when scrolling through the area of the display. However, it remains to be seen how it performs after long-term usage.

This is also a lightweight smartphone when compared to other premium flagship smartphones launched this year. It weighs only 191 grams and is 7.45 mm thin. The back panel has smooth curves which ensures that it delivers a good in-hand feel.

The Oppo Find N2 Flip is available in two colours - Astral Black and Moonlit Purple. We received the latter as the review unit. Also, the device has a polished aluminium frame that softly melds into the glass casing, which attracts very few fingerprints.

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But, one simply cannot get over the brilliant cover screen — the biggest on any flip phone. The screen measures a generous 3.26 inches, making it suitable to perform a lot of regular tasks like scrolling through notifications, glancing at messages and other mundane tasks. Let's have a look at all the features available on the cover screen.

Oppo Find N2 Flip Review: Foldable Features

Cover Screen Style

There are plenty of foldable features available in the OPPO Find N2 Flip. For example, you can customise the cover screen of the device with a screensaver or picture of your own choice and also customise the watch as per the chosen image.

Widgets

You also have the option of selecting widgets that appear on the cover screen. A user can choose up to six widgets that will appear when you swipe left on the cover screen. This feature is extremely handy for foldable phones like Oppo Find N2 Flip and is really helpful in saving the battery of the device. But there are only six options available to choose from. I feel that Oppo should have given more options to users. Just like users get the option to add more replies in the already available 'quick reply' list. The 'quick reply' allows users to quickly respond to chats on the cover screen with pre-defined replies. Also, I really liked the freedom of changing the order of the widgets at my convenience. The smartphone maker can provide more options for widgets in future updates. All the available features on the cover screen ensure that you do not have to open the phone for every small task, and this helps lengthen battery life as well.

Always on display

There's also an 'always on display'. Apart from the clock and regular notifications of different apps, users can show music info on the 'always on display' and bring up music controls when they double tap the screen when their phone is folded shut. The feature has been named 'contextual info' by the company. The same feature is also available for ride-sharing and food delivery services.

These are some very small things that have been sensibly added to make the use of Oppo Find N2 Flip phone very easy to use. So one will have to flip open the smartphone only when there is a real need. A lot of tasks can be performed even when it's folded. In a nutshell, Oppo has tried to load the small screen on the cover of the phone with big features. While some are really good, others can be improved a bit to make them more efficient.

Oppo Find N2 Flip Review: Primary Display

The Oppo Find N2 Flip has a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz of refresh rate. It offers a peak brightness of 1600nits and a touch sampling rate of 240Hz. The display is pretty sharp and vibrant and content consumption on this device is a breeze. Also, the experience is enhanced by dual speakers, which are powered by Dolby Atmos.

Oppo Find N2 Flip Review: Software and Performance

The Oppo Find N2 Flip comes with a MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ processor. The chip can do all the tasks efficiently and I even played games like Asphalt 9 and did not notice any lag. In terms of software, it runs on ColorOS 13 based on Android 13. It is quite user-friendly but does come with bloatware. The one thing that users will like is that the company is promising four years of software updates and five years of security updates on this phone.

Oppo Find N2 Flip Review: Battery

This is for the first time that a foldable phone has been launched with a 4,300mAh battery pack, sufficient to run your device for the entire day. Also, it supports 44W fast charging. I charged the device couple of times and it took around 50 minutes to charge the device from less than 10 per cent to 100 per cent.

Oppo Find N2 Flip Review: Camera

The Oppo Find N2 Flip has a dual camera setup with a primary camera of 50MP. It is accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide shooter. The rear camera supports 4K video recording at 60 fps. For selfies, the punch hole has a 32MP selfie camera. You also get Hasselblad’s Natural Colour Solution which is quite useful at times.

The rear camera captures nice and crisp images. Not only are the clicked images detailed with good dynamic range, but the colour tone is also good. However, all the images clicked using the rear camera have a warmer tone. Wide-angle shots of the Oppo Find N2 Flip are decent and some distortion around the edges can be seen. The low-light performance of the smartphone is also satisfactory, but it sometimes lacks punch.  

The 32MP selfie shooter takes decent images that look natural. But the best part is that you can use the rear camera as a selfie camera, thanks to the cover display, which works as a viewfinder. There's palm gesture support as well so you can click without touching the smartphone. The portrait mode also clicks some good images with sharp edges.

Oppo Find N2 Flip Review: Verdict

The Oppo Find N2 Flip is for those who are looking for a clamshell flip phone. The smartphone has managed to do almost everything in the way users want it - a good camera, strong battery and vibrant display. But, in terms of ruggedness, the company claims that it is capable of handling splashes, however, buyers who spend around Rs 90,000 on a smartphone would definitely want the device to come with IP68 ratings.