Many phone makers release a new folding (or non-folding) phone each year with a few small tweaks and upgrades over the previous generation. The goal is not to get customers to upgrade with each new iteration but to incentivize upgrades from users of two or three generations-old devices to upgrade to the latest hardware.
That’s most phone makers, but Oppo has taken an entirely different approach to folding phones. The Oppo Find N3 was launched in October 2023, and last month, Oppo announced its successor, the Oppo Find N5. It should have launched as the OnePlus Open 2 in the US, but the two companies chose to scrap the planned launch, handing the US market to its chief competitors, Samsung and Google.
Despite its limited release, the Oppo Find N5 represents a significant step forward for the best folding phones and has many features that every folding phone should adopt. Here’s why.
Form factor, design, and build
One of the biggest takeaways from my Oppo Find N5 review is that it essentially has the perfect form factor, design, and build. I’m sitting on a train typing this on the front screen and constantly reminded of how perfect this design is: folding phones have reached the pinnacle of the book-style folding form factor.
It is 4.21mm thick when unfolded and 8.78mm when folded, which makes the Oppo Find N5 under 1mm thicker than the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. This is the first time a folding phone can be easily mistaken for a non-folding phone, and I’ve often mistakenly taken my Find N5 out of a pocket instead of the iPhone.
Much of this wouldn’t matter if the phone weren’t incredibly lightweight. At 229 grams, it’s 10 grams lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 6, but the difference in size means it feels lighter as the weight is spread over a broader surface. It’s also considerably thinner at 1.5mm when unfolded and over 3mm when folded, offering a stark difference between the two devices. Phones like the ultra-slim Galaxy S25 Edge and Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition prove that Samsung can make much thinner devices, so I hope we’ll see improvements in the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold is much closer to the Find N5, but there are still design cues that Google can learn. First, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is 0.9mm thicker unfolded (and 1.6mm folded), offering opportunities for Google to slim it down further. It’s also 28 grams heavier, and this is one area that Google needs to improve as the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is far less comfortable in daily use than the Oppo Find N5.
Bigger displays with dual-screen stylus support
One reason the Find N5 feels so comfortable is its size, similar to a regular phone. The Oppo Find N5 features a 6.62-inch Cover display that opens to an 8.12-inch main display. Both displays are the largest of any folding phone, and in many ways, the front display is the perfect size for folding phones.
The Cover display is rich and vibrant, and it has a range of features, including a 1-120Hz Dynamic refresh rate, UltraHDR Image and HDR Vivid support, and a peak brightness of 2,450 nits. It’s similar in size and features to the 6.58-inch display on the Oppo Find X8, but crucially, it isn’t as large a compromise as other folding phones.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold feature 6.3-inch main displays, which matches the average smartphone screen size but doesn’t cater to those wanting a larger display. Yes, you can unfold the display, but that isn’t as convenient as having a larger main display. Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the Find N5 supports stylus input on both displays.
Most folding phones start with the main display and work backward to the Cover display, but the Find N5 took the opposite approach. Rather than just focusing on the main display, Oppo carefully considered the front display experience; as a result, the Cover display is uncompromising in size, features, or aspect ratio over a flagship non-folding smartphone.
Larger Silicon Carbon batteries and faster charging
The Oppo Find N5 also features the largest battery and fastest charging of any folding phone. This is achieved using Silicon Carbon technology, which offers up to 40% more density than the lithium-ion technology used in most phones.
The 5,600 mAh battery is 27% larger than the Galaxy Z Fold 6 (4,400 mAh) and 20% larger than the 4,650 mAh battery in the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. It’s also 9% larger than the 5,150 mAh battery found in the Honor Magic V3, which also uses Silicon Carbon technology and was the previous thinnest folding phone in the world. Combined with the excellent software, the larger battery delivers outstanding multi-day battery life.
Like every Oppo phone, the Find N5 also features superfast charging, whether wired or wireless, and the results are telling. Thanks to 80W charging, you can charge from empty to 15% in 7 minutes, 50% in 20 minutes, and 80% in 35 minutes.
Standardizing the charging against the competition, the Find N5 charges at 112 mAh per minute, significantly faster than some of the competition. The closest is the Honor Magic V3, which is slightly slower at 109 mAh/min, but the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold are considerably slower at 51 mAh and 48 mAh, respectively.
Open Canvas multitasking
Before using the Oppo Find N5, my go-to folding phone was often the OnePlus Open, which is based on Oppo’s previous folding phone, the Find N3. The Find N5 was meant to launch as the OnePlus Open 2, but while it won’t, it does feature the best part of the OnePlus folding phone experience.
Open Canvas launched with the OnePlus Open and was unavailable on the Oppo Find N3. It’s OnePlus and Oppo’s answer to multitasking on the big screen, and it’s a key addition to the Find N5 experience. It is also the best multitasking on any smartphone, bar none.
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Zoomed out view on Open Canvas lets you interact with all three apps at once - 2.
Two split windows and one big expanded window underneath
Most Android phones allow you to run up to three apps side-by-side and divide the screen into sections to achieve this. It also means that app windows can be small and narrow or don’t offer enough space to cover the entire viewport.
Open Canvas reimagines the phone as multiple screens and allows you to swipe between different apps, resize them, and visualize them all in one viewpoint. It is so good that Android should include the feature by default on all phones.
A few areas of opportunity for rivals
My Oppo Find N5 review featured only a few negatives, including the ultrawide camera. While the wide and telephoto cameras are impressive, the ultrawide camera feels like an afterthought. Yet, as an entire camera system, it’s still better than the competition.
In particular, the Oppo Find N5 takes great photos at longer zoom lengths, which means it has a camera system on par with many flagship non-Ultra phones. Yes, it won’t beat the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and the ultrawide is inferior to most flagships, but the others are similar in features and performance to the sensors found on the Oppo Find X8 Pro.
| Phone | Cover Display | Main Display |
| Oppo Find N5 | 6.62-inch LTPO OLED 1140 x 2616 pixels, 431 ppi 1-120Hz, HDR10+ 2450 nits peak brightness |
8.12-inch, Foldable LTPO OLED 2248 x 2480 pixels, 412 ppi 1-120Hz, HDR10+, Dolby Vision 2100 nits peak brightness |
| Galaxy Z Fold 6 | 6.3-inch, Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 968 x 2376 pixels, 410 ppi 1-120Hz, 2600 nits peak |
7.6-inch, Foldable LTPO AMOLED 1856 x 2160 pixels, 374 ppi 1-120Hz, HDR10+, 2600 nits peak |
| Pixel 9 Pro Fold | 6.3-inch OLED, 1-120Hz 1080 x 2424 pixels, 422 ppi HDR, 2700 nits peak |
8.0-inch Foldable LTPO OLED 2076 x 2152 pixels, 373 ppi 1-120Hz, HDR10+, 2700 nits peak |
| Honor Magic V3 | 6.43-inch LTPO OLED 1060 x 2376 pixels, 402 ppi 1-120Hz, Dolby Vision, 5000 nits peak brightness |
7.92-inch Foldable LTPO OLED 2156 x 2344 pixels, 402 ppi 1-120Hz, HDR10+ Dolby Vision, 1800 nits peak |
| OnePlus Open | 6.31-inch LTPO3 OLED 1116 x 2484 pixels, 431 ppi 1-120Hz, 2800 nits peak |
7.82-inch Foldable LTPO3 OLED 2268 x 2440 pixels, 426 ppi 120Hz, Dolby Vision, 2800 nits peak |
The Find N5 uses the 7-core Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which sacrifices one performance core for better heat management and battery life. I consider this tradeoff worthwhile, especially considering the excellent battery life, but it’s another area that will inevitably see improvement.
In many ways, the Find N5 represents the ideal folding phone design, and it’s hard to see how you can improve on factors like size, thickness, and durability, especially as Oppo had to build a custom USB-C port to fit the thin profile. Similarly, the battery, charging, and display represent steps forward for folding phones.
The Oppo Find N5 is the best folding phone right now, but most people can’t buy it as it’s only being released in a few markets. The real question is whether competitors adopt the same design, size, display, and battery life improvements but also improve the camera and availability.
