OPPO Find N3 Flip review: Should you buy it?

Should you buy the OPPO Find N3 Flip?

If you saw the Find N2 Flip, it’s clear that the N3 Flip is an evolution of the same design for its first US outing. Despite the similar appearance, the improved Flexion Hinge is 25% stronger and continues to offer a gapless design and minimal display crease. The N3 Flip bolsters its hardware with a new Alert Slider, offering silent, vibrate, and ring settings without opening the phone — a nice touch. The same so-so IPX4 rating remains, but stronger Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection protects the phone from drops. The inner display continues to look brilliant to my eye, and it’s clear that the time taken to perfect OPPO’s clamshell hardware was well spent.

The front cover screen is familiar, too (it’s the same panel). While it was one of the larger outer displays at the time of the N2 Flip’s release, it’s now one of the smaller options. However, OPPO has improved the software experience thanks to third-party app support, in addition to its weather, timer, camera, calls, audio recorder, and now 3D pet widgets. I had no problem accessing a bunch of handy tools without ever needing to open the phone.

“Mini apps,” as OPPO coins them, are a small selection of popular apps, including X (formerly Twitter), WhatsApp, Gmail, Google Maps, Wallet, and others, that run on the Cover Screen. You don’t have to download them separately (it’s the same app, just running on a small screen), but you have to enable each one in the settings menu. These are available under “Labs,” which notes that bugs may appear. I didn’t encounter anything experience-breaking, but the setup definitely feels bolted on.

My biggest complaint is that the display is too small to fit a keyboard comfortably, which takes up too much screen space to see what you’re replying to anyway. Sending messages and emails via the cover screen is a chore (even pressing some smaller app buttons is a pain) — I ended up just opening the phone, defeating the screen’s purpose. However, you can use voice-to-text, which is a decent compromise for short replies.  Furthermore, app support isn’t as wide-ranging as the Motorola Razr’s essentially full Android experience on the front screen. Your mileage will vary, but I certainly can’t use the phone for long without opening it.

OPPO claims that the comparatively smaller cover display ensures a no-compromise approach to the camera setup. That’s a little hard to believe when the lenses are crammed into the small Hasselbland-branded camera housing ripped from the look of other OPPO/OnePlus phones. I understand the desire for cross-handset brand recognition, but the phone is an aesthetic downgrade from its predecessor. When you see what the competition is doing with larger displays, the leftover space feels wasted.

Still, OPPO has upgraded the ultrawide to a 48MP f/2.2 aperture model, and there’s a third lens this time — a 32MP beast with a 47mm focal length providing a 2x zoom. That’s hardly game-changing for long-range photography, but it is an excellent addition for portraits. Let’s take a look.

First, OPPO’s Hasselblad partnership leans on the saturated side of color science. Still, I like the look for the most part; it’s a vast improvement on last year’s dubious results. Importantly, there’s the same look regardless of the three lenses you’re shooting with. That’s often still a lingering issue for other brands. Details from the primary camera are solid, if not a little soft when looking at a 100% crop, and the new ultrawide looks mostly distortion-free. If you want even more from the camera, the Pro mode and editing tools are incredibly robust.

When I first saw the 2x lens on the spec sheet, I thought, “Oh boy, just making up the numbers, are we?” I couldn’t have been more wrong; the 2x lens produces sublime pictures even at 5x — thanks to a healthy dose of image fusion. Watch closely after hitting the shutter; you can see the magic upscaling happen. OPPO has clearly shared tech with the equally brilliant Find X6 Pro.

Details are a little soft, but there’s no arguing about the color, exposure, and natural bokeh of the Find N3 Flip’s zoom snaps. It’s excellent for portrait and subject photos and is my favorite lens out of the three. The only downside is that the telephoto doesn’t always kick in for closer-range macro, leaving you with much more clearly upscaled shots when relying on the main camera.

2x optical hardware has its limitations, of course. This isn’t a long-range rival to the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 10x zoom. OPPO lets you extend to 20x, but the results are messy. Stick to 5x, which is plenty for most scenarios, and this camera package won’t disappoint you.

There isn’t much to say about selfies; you should use the primary camera so the results look as excellent as all the other snaps. Skin textures and tones are brilliant, as is the additional software bokeh. The only notable drawback is that the low camera position makes it easy to block. It took a few snaps before I became used to flipping the phone upside down. Despite that frustration, the internal camera just isn’t as good; I’d stick with it exclusively for video calls.

You don’t buy a flip phone for gaming, but the Find N3 Flip has us a little concerned over temperatures nonetheless. It is not that the phone is hot but instead tries extremely hard to remain cool.

First, performance is below what we’ve seen from the MediaTek Dimensity 9200 handsets; it’s closer to the Pixel 7‘s Tensor G2. That’s still perfectly suitable for everyday tasks and has the upside that the device stays very cool while gaming, at the expense of frame rate. To get around this, you can engage the High Performance Mode. Speaking of, this lower performance point also means that battery life is excellent; the phone easily lasts an entire day. It scores 10 hours of web browsing, 16 hours of video streaming, and just under five hours of extreme gaming in our tests.

Limited thermal headroom also has knock-on effects for OPPO’s SuperVOOC fast charging. Despite boasting 44W peak power, which is sustained for mere seconds, the phone spends most of its time charging just below 20W. As such, the Find N3 Flip takes 52 minutes to fill and 23 minutes to hit 50%. That’s faster than last year but not exactly super fast for a 4,300mAh battery. While we’re being picky, 15W from non-SuperVOOC chargers isn’t great and means the phone will charge much slower with third-party plugs and power banks.

What are the best OPPO Find N3 Flip alternatives?

Without international pricing, it’s hard to gauge the phone’s value proposition, but we’re probably looking at something around or just above the $999 mark, which seems like fair value. While we wait for stock (if it ever arrives), there are plenty of clamshell Find N3 Flip competitors that could be just what you’re after.

• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 ($999.99 at Samsung): Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 is the big name in the clamshell foldable space and the handset to beat at this price. The phone boasts a larger cover screen and a wider array of quickly accessible apps, albeit with their own caveats. Samsung also offers wireless charging, an IPX8 rating, and more color options. But the OPPO Find N3 Flip has a more robust camera setup and a virtually invisible crease.
• Motorola Razr Plus ($699.99 at Amazon): With another huge cover screen, the Motorola Razr Plus offers plenty of ways to use the phone without opening it up. This is a great clamshell pick for its high-end performance, dust resistance, and silky-smooth software. That said, the cameras aren’t brilliant for the price, leaving the door open for OPPO.
• Google Pixel Fold ($1799 at Amazon): While not a clamshell and far more expensive, the compact book-like stature of the Google Pixel Fold is eminently pocketable. Boasting a brilliant camera setup and Pixel-exclusive features, it’s a hard foldable to overlook. Still, the Find N3 Flip is more compact and still has the edge regarding performance.
• OPPO Find N2 Flip ($1029 at Giztop): If you have to get your hands on an OPPO clamshell, the Find N2 Flip, with its five-year update policy, still has plenty of life in it yet. We didn’t think quite as highly of the camera, but the display and build quality are every bit as good as the N3 Flip. Best of all, it’s available in European markets.

OPPO Find N3 Flip specs

OPPO Find N3 Flip review: FAQ