Oppo Find N5 review: the final evolution of foldables

Oppo’s Discover N5 appears like the tip recreation for foldable telephones. Not as a result of it’s make or break for a phase of the telephone market that by no means fairly took off like producers hoped it could, however as a result of I merely don’t know the place we go from right here. There’s scarcely room to make the telephone thinner with out ditching USB-C solely; battery life, efficiency, and even cameras are actually on par with different flagship telephones; and this time, Oppo even managed to suit wi-fi charging and water resistance in, too. That is what we had been promised all alongside. Now what?

It’s arduous to see how the {hardware} improves a lot additional. At 8.93mm thick when closed, that is the thinnest foldable on this planet, shaving virtually half a millimeter off the earlier file holder, Honor’s Magic V3. It’s simply 4.21mm skinny when it’s open, which proves there’s nonetheless area to trim — Huawei’s trifold Mate XT runs to only 3.6mm — however we’re near no less than one arduous bodily restrict. Oppo informed me it needed to customise the USB-C port to suit it right into a telephone this skinny. There’s solely a hair’s breadth of steel on the port’s periphery. If foldable telephones are going to get meaningfully thinner, USB-C has to go first.

Each comparability you may make to different gadgets sounds spectacular. When closed, that is lower than a millimeter thicker than an iPhone 16 Professional Max or Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely and weighs solely 2g greater than the Apple telephone. Open, it boasts a much bigger display screen than an iPad Mini however is thinner and weighs much less. It’s lighter than any of the foldables you should purchase within the US proper now and is a full 3mm thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 6. It’s arduous to overstate how astonishing the Discover N5 feels and the way few compromises there are to its design and construct. I maintain selecting it up and marveling on the engineering.

That applies to the 8.12-inch primary show, too, the place Oppo has labored to cut back the crease the place the display screen bends. It’s nonetheless seen, however solely when it catches the sunshine excellent, making it simpler to disregard than to note.

Foldables have traditionally been brief on battery life. Certainly that is the place Oppo minimize corners to maintain the Discover N5 trim, proper? Probably not. Through the use of a second-generation model of its silicon-carbon battery know-how, the corporate slot in a 5,600mAh capability — bigger than any foldable you’ll discover within the US. I spent yesterday visiting buddies in an space with unreliable sign, taking loads of images alongside a countryside stroll and utilizing the big inside display screen to plan an upcoming trip collectively. The Discover N5 was solely right down to 50 p.c once I went to mattress.

The shortage of wi-fi charging was one of many main complaints concerning the earlier Discover N3, which finally launched within the US because the OnePlus Open. That’s been fastened, too, with assist for 50W wi-fi charging if you happen to use one in all Oppo’s personal AirVooc chargers and slower speeds on common charging pads. Oppo is promoting a magnetic charging case individually, too, however that’s by itself customary — the Discover N5 isn’t Qi2 Prepared-certified.

Battery life might be helped by adopting a brand new seven-core model of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which sacrifices somewhat efficiency for higher cooling and decrease energy consumption. It looks like a wise swap: I haven’t seen the Discover N5 stutter as soon as in over every week.

The 8-megapixel ultrawide lens appears like an actual afterthought, however the 50-megapixel primary and 3x telephoto cameras would maintain their very own towards most flagships. Dim lighting pulls the 2 aside somewhat, with the telephoto dropping element and overcompensating on brightness, dropping the nice and cozy, pure shade steadiness the Hasselblad-tuned cameras have a tendency to supply the remainder of the time. These aren’t one of the best cameras you’ll discover, however they’re no less than comparable with the Pixel 9 Professional Fold’s, and I reckon the telephoto right here has the sting over Google’s.

If there’s one {hardware} space with room for enchancment, it’s sturdiness. Oppo boasts that that is the primary foldable telephone with an IPX9 water-resistance ranking, however the “X” means there’s no ranking for defense from mud — arguably way more vital for a foldable telephone. Whereas the Discover N5 feels remarkably sturdy for its dimension, foldables are inherently fragile.

Oppo rightly obtained reward for its novel tackle cut up screening when it launched the Discover N3 a 12 months and a half in the past. As much as three apps will be opened on the primary display screen without delay, both sharing the area equally or with one dropping off the sting, able to be pulled again into focus with a faucet. It stays one of the best strategy to splitting up a big touchscreen, and Oppo prevented tinkering with it an excessive amount of right here. The one actual change is that it’s faster and simpler to allow, accessible by way of a three-dot menu within the notification bar.

The larger new characteristic tries to suit much more apps onto the display screen: Mac apps, to be particular. Oppo has expanded its present O Plus Join performance, which beforehand supported file sharing between Oppo telephones and iPhones or iPads, to assist Macs. It does greater than share recordsdata, although: as soon as arrange, you should use it to remotely management your Mac. You’ll be able to flip the telephone right into a teeny-tiny laptop computer, with the Mac show mirrored to the highest half and both a keyboard or imitation trackpad on the underside. The telephone and Mac don’t have to be on the identical community, although the Mac needs to be on-line and awake to provoke the connection. That is the form of performance you’d solely ever use in a pinch, but it surely runs surprisingly easily, although you must squint on the display screen.

The opposite software program adjustments are predictably AI-centric. Synthetic intelligence can enhance your connectivity, translate your calls, and summarize your paperwork. Google Gemini is now the default assistant, and virtually every little thing the digicam does is in a roundabout way AI-enabled. None of it’s particularly thrilling, and it feels prefer it’s solely there as a result of it needs to be. 4 years of Android model updates and 6 years of safety assist no less than assure that there’s much more AI to return.

The largest failure of the Discover N5 may simply be that it isn’t launching within the US. Whereas we’d anticipated OnePlus to rebadge the telephone because the Open 2, the corporate has confirmed it gained’t launch a foldable this 12 months. The UK and Europe will get the Discover N5, however the States won’t, decreasing the strain on Samsung and Google to place out {hardware} to match — or to drop their costs, which is de facto the ultimate frontier of foldables. The Oppo Discover N5 has taken book-style foldable {hardware} about so far as it might go, however at $2,499 SGD (round $1,867), that is nonetheless priced for lovers solely. If foldables are going to stay round, they should cease getting thinner and begin getting cheaper.

Images by Dominic Preston / The Verge