The foldable smartphone market in Kenya is maturing but the OPPO Find N3 and N3 Flip will be the most exciting devices set to launch next year in the country.
OPPO isn’t the only company in Kenya with the new format of devices as TECNO and Samsung already have their versions as well. We have the Galaxy Z Flip5, Galaxy Z Fold5, Phantom V Flip, Phantom V Fold and OPPO’s very own Find N2 Flip available in the country.
The competition is heating up and it’s a good thing for both the smartphone companies and most importantly, the consumers.
OPPO launched the Find N2 Flip in China in December 2022 and it went global in February 2023 before launching in the country in late May. It was an incredible alternative to the Galaxy Z Flip4 and Z Flip5 before the Phantom V Flip launched last month.
OPPO has already updated its Find N series with the new third-generation foldable. The Find N3 and N3 Flip launched in China in late August and went global in October.
OPPO Find N3 Flip
OPPO switched things up with their third clamshell-style foldable.
It now has a triple camera setup tuned by Hasselblad and is made up of a 50MP Sony IMX890 main sensor, a 32MP telephoto sensor(2x optical zoom) and a 48MP ultrawide sensor.
Talking about the portrait telephoto lens, the Find N3 Flip shares the same camera as the midrange OPPO Reno10 series.
It comes with the same vertical 3.26-inch display that its predecessor had which is smaller than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 3.4-inch screen.
There’s now more utility to the cover screen which now supports more third-party apps including Google Maps, Google Calendar, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, Twitter, and Spotify – an improvement over the Find N2 Flip.
The hinge is still the same zero-gap Flexion Hinge which OPPO says has been tested 400,000 folds. So the phone folds completely with no gap in between when closed.
Flexmode is still here which allows you to take hands-free selfies and videos from the main camera or front-facing 32MP camera which can now shoot 4K video.
The hinge also makes the inner display lack the visible crease present in the likes of its rivals like the Z Flip5.
Opening up the flip is the 6.8-inch AMOLED display sporting an adaptive refresh rate of between 1Hz and 120Hz.
While its rival, the Z Flip5 has IPX8 protection, the N3 Flip has IPX4 rating.
The N3 Flip has a curved glass design along the sides instead of the boxy look of the Find N2 Flip.
Dimensity 9200 chipset powers the Find N3 Flip paired with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage(UFS 4.0). It also comes with Android 13 and ColorOS 13.1, 4 years of major Android OS updates and 5 years of security patches.
OPPO Find N3 Flip has a 4300mAh battery with support for 44W fast charging – the charger is included in the box. This is the largest battery among the clamshell foldables. The fast charging means that you can charge the phone to 50% in under 22 minutes.
Sadly, like the Find N2 Flip, there’s no wireless charging here.
The fingerprint reader is embedded in the power button. OPPO borrowed from its sister company, OnePlus and added an alert slider to the Find N3 Flip. The slider allows you to switch between various profiles including vibrate, silent and ring.
OPPO Find N3
The Find N3 Fold is the one I’m most excited about.
It’s lighter at 239g and slimmer at 11.7mm than the chunky Samsung Z Fold5.
It has a 6.31 cover screen that’s more normal than the narrow outer screen of the Z Fold5 so you can use it more even without unfolding it to use the main screen.
The exterior screen is protected by a Ceramic Guard. Like the Find N3 Flip, it also has IPX4 rating.
The flexion hinge is much stronger with OPPO saying that it can withstand 1 million folds.
Both the main and cover screens are 2K AMOLED LTPO displays with 120Hz refresh rate and 2800 nits brightness.
Oneplus ditches MediaTek for Qualcomm with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 which powers the Find N3. It comes with Android 13 and ColorOS 13.2. RAM and storage options start from 12/16GB and 512GB/1TB respectively.
I’m looking forward to using the Triple Splits feature of ColorOS that lets you open three apps vertically and use time side by side on the main screen – and that you can pre-set up to nine sets when multitasking.
There’s a taskbar with app tray as well at the bottom of the screen. The large screen also supports desktop-style web browsing which I’m pretty sure I’ll love.
Hasselblad-tuned cameras are on the Find N3 as it sports a 48MP main, 64MP 3X zoom telephoto and 48MP ultrawide. The main screen has a 20Mp selfie camera while the cover screen has a 32MP selfie camera. All of these cameras promise better performance when put against its rivals.
The main camera shoots 4K 60fps while the selfie camera does 4K 30fps.
It has a 4805mAh battery with 67W wired charging.
Launch Dates, Availability and Pricing Details
OPPO Find N3 Flip starts from $932 for the 256 GB version and $1042 for the 512GB version.
If it launches locally early next year, then we expect its pricing to start from around Ksh 150,000. The Find N2 Flip sells in the country for Ksh 130,000. It’ll still be cheaper than the Z Flip5 which goes for Ksh 190,000.
OPPO Find N3 starts selling from $1700 which is roughly Ksh 260,000. Even if OPPO marks up the price in Kenya, it will still be cheaper than the Samsung Z Fold5 which goes for Ksh 325,000.
—Techweez
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