By Florence Ion Published March 9, 2025 | Comments (2) | A killer foldable you can't buy in the United States. Florence Ion / Gizmodo For the first time since the Galaxy Z Fold 4 launch in 2022, I have not been using a Samsung foldable to do my bidding. Instead, Ive felt perfectly content doing it all on the Oppo Find N5 since it arrived a few weeks ago. The book-style foldable has an 8.12-inch inner screen and a 6.6-inch outer screen. Its a larger device than the Galaxy Z Fold 6 thats out now and even Googles Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Its relative thinness compared to the rest of the foldable offerings makes it palatable despite the larger screen sizes. It makes us wonder if Oppo has the same plans for the brand it sells in the U.S., OnePlus, which hasnt seen an update to its loudly lauded foldable since 2023. Thats not to say the Oppo Find N5 is a perfect foldable. It starts at $2,500 Singapore dollars, or about $1,880 USD. It still suffers from the conundrum of using this factor in the first place, especially with small hands. Its a hefty cradle with just the fingers! My hands are medium-to-small, I know, and were not built to act as phone holsters. However, the bigger inside screen made me realize that what I want is a folding tablet phone. I dont want a folding device pretending to be a phone in my pocket. I like the screen space to wander, read, and deep dive into a niche subject, no matter where I am. Thats the point of such an expensive phone that does this, and the Find N5 facilitates all that. Im ready to embrace bigger, thinner folding devices. One of the best foldable experiences Florence Ion / GizmodoThe Find N5s front cover screen is 6.6-inches across. Lets talk about what you do get with the Oppo Find N5, especially if, for some reason, you are so enamored with this overseas release that you try to import it for yourself. For one, this is one of the thinnest folding devices you can hold today. The Find N5 is 4.2mm thin when splayed open, compared to the Pixel 9 Pro Folds 5.1mm, which boasts one of the thinnest designs in the foldable space in the U.S. Wireless charging remains intact, thanks partly to Oppos proprietary charging infrastructure, which facilitates up to 80W SuperVooc tethered and 50W wireless charging, but only with the brands cables. The battery is ample enough, at least for what Oppo has going on here. Its a 5,600 mAh battery, a little bigger than youd find in Google and Samsungs foldables. Its way bigger than Samsungs Galaxy Z Fold 6, which has a 4,400 mAh battery. I havent run the full battery test, but battery life has been promising anecdotally. Thats with the Find N5 connected to a mobile network and getting all my notifications from the newspaper and chat apps I have installed, plus the OnePlus Watch 3 syncing my workouts. (For what its worth, Ive been running the Find N5 with a SIM connected to the Mint network, and its been fine.)Everything else about the Find N5 is a standard smartphone affair, down to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. You can buy the Find N5 with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage space, but it starts with an ample 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM. The Find N5 has cute little quirks, like a mute switch on one side of the device and a fingerprint scanner embedded into the power button. Again, this seems to be a common trope of usage among folding smartphones. Samsung does this already, and there are rumors that Apple will do the same with its folding smartphone. Florence Ion / Gizmodo Florence Ion / Gizmodo The Find N5s 8.1-inch inside screen is where its at. I used it to read books and magazines on Libby, coordinate with my hobby friends on Discord, and scan through only the headlines I can handle in my two newspaper apps. Another night, I just propped it up halfway on my belly and watched episodes of The Anna Nicole Show on YouTubethankfully, the YouTube app knows how to work with a screen folded in half.Its the widescreen thats working for me. Samsungs Galaxy Z Fold 6 is good if youre trying to use a more phone-like foldable. Oppos position seems to be that, if youre going to wield one of these, you know what youre in for, so why not make it nice, big, and tablet-like? As much as I loved having a 7-inch Android tablet like the Nexus 7 back in the day, the larger screen size of the Find N5 is why I prefer it over other folding devices. It just feels like I can get more done. Florence Ion / Gizmodo Wait, why are you telling me about this phone? The Oppo Find N5 isnt readily available in the U.S., which might make you wonder why were bothering to cover it. Well, because Oppo is the parent company of OnePlus, a brand that does sell in the U.S., and one which, as Ive mentioned, often carries the traits of the Oppo devices that have been successful overseas. So far, the Find N5 is getting many glowing reviews, mainly for its slim, lightweight(ish) design and large screens. The Oppo Find N5 isnt just interesting because its a thin-ass phone, though thats the driving force behind why youd bother importing this thing in the first place. It also shows us what manufacturers think is an essential feature for its users. You cant have a thin device without a few caveats. Florence Ion / GizmodoThe backside of the Find N5 is basically a OnePlus device with the same Hasselblad branding. For instance, the camera on the Find N5 is middling. On paper, it seems promising enough with dual 50-MP camera sensors, one for primary shooting, a secondary one for telephoto capabilities, and a third 8-MP camera sensor for ultra-wide shooting. However, that primary camera often prefers to over-brighten images, unless you tap in and ask it to focus on a specific point. Like Samsungs Galaxy Z Fold 6, its limited to a 3x optical zoom. Regarding software updates, Oppo wont support this phone as long as Samsung and Google plan to do so on their respective folding devices. Samsung and Google have committed to seven years of software updates and security patches. Oppo and OnePlus remain committed to the four-year timeline.The Find N5 also isnt what Id call durable. The case the manufacturer sent over with our review unit doesnt even cover the front part of it. It pops onto the back, and theres enough case to cover the hinge. The entire cover screen remains exposed. At the very least, the Find N5 is water resistant, even if it is not built for the tough outside world. Oppo achieved an IPX6, IPX8, and IPX9 rating. The Find N5 can withstand varying water conditions, including rain submersion and high-pressure water jets. Its about the same on Google and Samsungs devices. The speakers are also limited for a smartphone that costs this much, especially compared to the bass-forward sound Id get from an iPhone 16, for instanceeven the iPhone 16e has some powerful woofers in its little phone body. You cant buy this phone (if youre in the U.S.) The war for the thinnest folding smartphone remains ongoing, even as most manufacturers seem to be at a standstill, figuring out how to cram artificial intelligence into already withering phone bodies. Its good news for those of us who are gadget freaks obsessed with the future being available now. The Find N5 is a comfortable foldable. The hinges are sturdy enough that the Find N5 can prop itself up on its own. If you havent already caught on to the great news of folding smartphones, the Oppo Find N5 will hopefully give you some faith. I like this phone as a dedicated reading device, and it has all the same software tricks as Samsungs One UI on its foldables, so it was no problem transitioning over.Sorry for the tease, however, as those of us in the U.S. cant buy this phone outright. I hope this means some good news on the horizon for both OnePlus fans and those looking for a third offering beyond Google and Samsung.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Florence Ion Published March 7, 2025 By Florence Ion Published March 6, 2025 By Florence Ion Updated March 4, 2025 By Florence Ion Published February 5, 2025 By Kyle Barr Published January 31, 2025 By Sherri L Smith Published January 4, 2025