Oppo Find N3 Flip First Impression: Clamshell phones hold a unique nostalgic appeal for many. Revived in 2020 with foldable displays, this category has been growing steadily.
Enter the latest addition: the Oppo Find N3 Flip. It is a high-end, feature-rich clamshell phone that’s designed to impress. Is it worth a serious look?
Oppo Find N3 Flip Design
The Find N3 Flip has an unmistakable design language that’s quite hard to mistake for something else.
It looks quite similar to its predecessor, the N2 Flip, except for a few changes, the most notable one being the new Hasselblad-branded camera ring. This is a bit of a polarising design element, but I don't mind it since it houses 3 cameras: a first for a flip-style smartphone.
Oppo has made the aluminium frame of the phone thinner, which has allowed them to curve the panels more and create a more visually appealing design. They have also added an Alert Slider on the left side, which lets you easily silent calls or notifications.
The hinge of the smartphone features this cool wave pattern which you may or may not like. Talking of this hinge, it remains wonderfully gapless, but Oppo has improved it this time around, making it more durable with a new stainless-steel core.
It is now rated to last for over 6 lakh folds, which is equivalent to over 16 years if you fold the phone 100 times a day.
The hinge on the Find N3 Flip allows you to keep the phone at different angles, which can be useful in some situations. However, opening the phone still requires both hands.
You can open it with one hand with some gymnastics. However, the phone does have a satisfying soft clasp when you close it.
When folded, the Find N3 Flip is 16.5mm thick, which isn’t bad, but if this is your first foldable phone, you are gonna feel it.
Oppo Find N3 Flip Utility
The Find N3 Flip in India is available in only one variant with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The Find N3 Flip has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that's quick and accurate but is prone to accidental triggers because of its positioning.
The smartphone is IPX4 rated which is good, but not as good as the Z Flip 5’s IPX8 rating. Oppo is also kind enough to bundle a colour-matched case with this phone for added durability.
Talking of durability, the exterior of the phone is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus.
Anyway, I used the Find N3 Flip with my Jio SIM card and had no issues with connectivity. The speaker earpiece volume was loud and crisp as well.
Also, the Find N3 Flip's stereo speakers are excellent. They're loud and clear, and they deliver a great listening experience.
Oppo Find N3 Flip Displays
Like all clamshell phones, the N3 Flip has two displays. Let’s start with the 3.26-inch cover display. It is an AMOLED panel with a peak brightness of 900 nits.
While it is not as big as the cover displays on the Z Flip 5 or Razr 40 Ultra, this display has an ace up its sleeve, which is its 17:9 aspect ratio.
This makes it a smaller version of a conventional phone screen, providing better app compatibility than the square-shaped screens of its counterparts.
While you cannot use the entire phone on this display, it still offers a lot of functionality which we’ll discuss later.
The main display is a 6.8-inch foldable LTPO AMOLED panel and it provides a truly immersive viewing experience. What’s amazing is how Oppo has handled the crease: it is non-existent when viewed head on. Sure, the crease is not invisible, but it's far less intrusive than that on the Samsung.
The display has a dynamic refresh rate of 120Hz and is also HDR10+ certified, enabling vibrant and lifelike colours with enhanced contrast and detail. Notably, the Find N3 Flip's screen also offers great brightness, reaching up to 1,600 nits.
Oppo Find N3 Flip Performance & Software
Surprisingly, only a handful of phones with the Dimensity 9200 chipset have arrived in India, with the Find N3 Flip being one of them.
This flagship MediaTek chipset guarantees a seamless and rapid performance typical of high-end smartphones. All functions operate flawlessly, as expected from a luxury device.
The phone is capable of handling high graphic gaming sessions, though the clamshell design generally limits gaming capabilities. Due to this, the phone can sometimes throttle under prolonged stress.
On the software front, you have Color OS 13.2 built on top of Android 13. While very fast and fluid, ColorOS comes with plenty of bloatware. For instance, it's baffling why an app like Josh is included in a high-end foldable like this one.
Nevertheless, Oppo has skillfully tailored its software to enhance the usability of the cover display. While it doesn't support every app, it has a growing library of fully functional apps.
So, you can watch youtube shorts or use Google Maps without unfolding the device. Truecaller’s caller ID also works like a charm on this cover display.
That being said, I must admit that trying to type on a display this narrow is borderline funny.
Despite these quirks, the implementation of the cover display ranks among the best in the industry.
Oppo Find N3 Flip Cameras
Not only is the Find N3 Flip the only clamshell phone with a dedicated telephoto camera, it also has the highest resolution cameras in this segment.
You get a 50MP main, a 48MP ultrawide, and a 32MP telephoto camera with 2x zoom.
There’s also the iconic Hasselblad branding to top everything off.
The main camera produces 12.5MP images by default that exhibit a wide dynamic range, along with a natural look due to balanced processing and minimal excessive sharpening.
Even in low-light conditions, the main camera performs well, capturing detailed images with accurate colours.
When it comes to video recording, the main camera supports 4K resolution at 30fps and offers good video quality. The recorded videos display a high level of detail, good stability and a wide dynamic range.
The ultrawide camera’s photos also showcase low noise, accurate colours, and balanced processing similar to the primary cameras.
Ultrawide videos are well-exposed, detailed, and display a wide dynamic range.
Telephoto photos are also quite impressive, although they can be a bit soft at times. The colours are well matched with other sensors as well.
However, the telephoto lens does refuse to fire up in artificial light, and what you get instead is a 2x crop from the main camera.
Another great thing about the clamshell form factor is that you can use the rear cameras to take high-quality selfies, so that you do not have to rely on the inner 32MP camera much, because it is average at best.
But, based on my observations, the cameras on this phone seem quite prone to shake. So, keeping your hand steady is crucial while capturing photos to avoid any blurriness.
Oppo Find N3 Flip Battery Life
The Find N3 Flip has outperforms other clamshell phones when it comes to battery life.
Its large 4,300mAh battery meant I didn't worry about running out of charge by day's end.
Typically, it offered me about 5.5 to 6 hours of screen time with mixed use.
The phone charges rapidly too, reaching 50% in just 30 minutes thanks to its 44W superVOOC charging. However, it lacks wireless charging, which is quite surprising.
Oppo Find N3 Flip Quick Review
The Oppo Find N3 Flip not only does it get the basics right, but it also has the best battery life of any clamshell phone.
That being said, it costs ₹94,999, which is a lot of money.
After all, traditional smartphones offer more features and better battery life for the same price.
But if you’ve waited forever to yet again buy a cool clamshell phone, then the Find N3 Flip is a no-brainer.
Also watch: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Review
