Oppo Find N5 review: Stellar foldable has one big problem

It’s, in fact, one the best takes on app multitasking on foldables around, and an experience that no rival has done a particularly good job of rivalling so far, so far.

As for jumping between the two screens, an open app on the 6.62-inch outer screen will be readily available on the main display the moment you open the Find N5 up. When closing it back down, however, you’re prompted to swipe up on the external panel to resume whatever app you’re using, which might sound tedious, but actually proves unobtrusive and prudent, based on real-world use.

To go in hand with the phone’s aluminium frame and IP-rated protection, Oppo has also added a new anti-shock layer to the main folding display, which the company claims makes the panel 70% stronger against impacts than previous Find-series foldables. Months of use, at this point, have yet to yield any noticeable wear and tear either (beyond dust gathering at the edges of the non-removable screen protector), so I’d say the company’s durability efforts are paying off.

Whichever of the phone’s screens you’re using, you’re served crisp, vibrant, bright visuals, with a responsive 120Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness of 2100 nits on the main screen (2450 nits on the outer screen), plus a respectable panel-wide brightness max of 1400 nits (1600 on the outer screen), making the N5 a great option for use outdoors and when enjoying HDR content.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

Premium display features, like fine-grain control over the colour space the UI operates in, eye comfort (for easier viewing in low light) and Adaptive Tone (to adjust white balance relative to your surrounds) are all welcome inclusions too.

Despite the restrictive thinness, the Find N5’s loudspeakers offer impressive clarity and minimal distortion throughout their range, going decently loud with a balanced sound, although more bass would always be nice, even if physics might now allow in this particular situation.

Specs & Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (7-core variant)
• 16GB RAM & 512GB storage
• RAM Expansion up to an additional 12GB

In China, Oppo serves the N5 with either 12GB of (LPDDR5X) RAM and 256GB of (UFS 4.0) storage, 16GB of RAM paired to 512GB of storage, or a 1TB model which also boasts satellite communication support. Internationally, however, you’ll find only that middle variant, which I think delivers more than enough for the average app-loving multitasker.

Although the Find N5 uses the chip of choice for 2025 Android flagships – Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite – it sports a rather uncommon 7-core variant (opposed to the standard 8-core version). This was one of my biggest concerns before getting my hands on the N5; primarily because of the fact that foldables like these demand some of the highest price tags on the market, falling into a category where you expect the best of the best, regardless of the need for it.

Oppo’s decision here was probably fuelled by thermal concerns, with the 7-core version likely creating less heat at full tilt than its full-fat sibling.

In practice, you’re unlikely to find fault with the Find N5’s performance. It’s excellent at everyday tasks, especially when multitasking on that expansive main display, while demanding games, like Infinity Nikki, default to Ultra/High graphical settings.

I will say that after 20 minutes of play time, the Find N5 did feel pretty warm in the hand, with the occasional dropped frame during the game’s cutscenes, despite a consistent experience when actually in gameplay.

Oppo Find N5 benchmarks

It’s synthetic benchmarking where that missing core becomes apparent, which is to say, the phone can keep pace with other 8-core 8 Elite-powered phones – like the Honor Magic 7 Pro, OnePlus 13 and, of course, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 – in the real world, even if the likes of Geekbench 6 place its multi-core scores at between 4% and 8% lower, going by numbers alone.

Oppo also includes its Trinity Engine tech on its devices, with performance, RAM and storage optimisation algorithms. That’s in addition to other performance management features like Gaming Tools, which includes graphic customisation options co-developed with Qualcomm for a higher-fidelity gaming experience that you won’t find on select rivals.

Cameras

• 50Mp main, 8Mp ultrawide and 50Mp 3x telephoto sensors
• 8Mp selfie camera (on inner and outer screens)
• Imaging tuning courtesy of Hasselblad

Although we never got the OnePlus Open 2 many had hoped for, the Oppo Find N5 gives us the best idea of what that phone might have been like, and one of the most surprising generational changes has been to the camera setup.

Where the original OnePlus Open (and equivalent Oppo Find N3) led with a large 1/1.4-inch 50Mp Sony LYT-808 sensor, the Find N5 actually opts for physically smaller and more modest imaging hardware (led by the 1/1.56-inch Sony LYT-700).

However, in side-by-side comparisons, the company’s HyperTone Image Engine does some heavier lifting this generation, in order to produce visually superior shots, with sharper, brighter and more vivid presentation.

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You’re trading a degree of optical authenticity for more manufactured but more pleasing results overall, so as long as you’re comfortable with the trade-off, the smaller sensors on the Find N5 still deliver in everyday shooting conditions.

Add in the 3x periscopic telephoto sensor (Samsung’s ISOCELL JN5, if you’re wondering) and an 8Mp ultrawide – complete with autofocus, and the Find N5 features an impressively versatile camera setup, with telemacro shooting from as close as 10cm from a subject, up to 120x at the phone’s maximum zoom range.

The N5’s camera system also benefits from some of the Oppo Find X8 Pro‘s camera tricks. AI Telescope zoom helps upscale those long-range shots (beyond 10x) effectively, and LightningSnap allows for faster capture (combining an ultra-short exposure to freeze motion, and a long exposure for colour and contrast information), for the first time on one of the company’s foldables.

Camera samples highlight the phone’s solid detail retention at higher focal lengths and mostly accurate but slightly punched-up colour science. I was also particularly impressed with the Find N5’s ability to deal with high-contrast low-light shooting.

However, work on consistent contrast and exposure management across the phone’s various focal lengths wouldn’t hurt – it’d enable a more consistent shooting experience.

Battery Life & Charging

• 5600mAh (Si-C) battery
• 80W wired + 50W wireless charging
• 100% charge in <50 minutes (based on testing)

One of the most impressive aspects of the Find N5’s slim design is that it still allows for a capacious 5600mAh battery capacity.

Despite only measuring 2.1mm thick, the cells inside each half of the Find N5 likely serve up such a high capacity as a result of using second-gen silicon carbon (Si-C) battery tech. We’ve seen this from the likes of Oppo and OnePlus before, and it allows for greater energy density.

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Compare that to the similarly-sized Z Fold 7, which relies on older Li-ion (lithium ion) technology instead, meaning its 4400mAh battery works out to more than 20% reduced capacity compared to the N5’s.

Of course, in spite of that large cell, book-style foldables like the Find N5 basically serve up the equivalent of three screens in terms of display surface area, which means a lot more pixels to power.

Variation in battery longevity is also more unpredictable, as some people might live their mobile life on that 8-inch main display, while others will only switch to the larger screen for streaming video.

I lived with the Find N5 for months and tried to balance my usage between the two screens as much as possible. Although others have reported screen-on time figures upwards of 8 hours, I consistently achieved around five and a half. It’s less than I expected, but as the Find N5 boasts the largest screen in its class, I’m not too surprised.

For context, five hours usually equates to a day of general use, meaning the Find N5 will likely need daily charging. That said, there’s a caveat which lies in the phone’s battery benchmark results.

Testing using that main display, the Find N5 did a superb job in PCMark’s Battery 3.0 assessment, with a score of 13:58 (almost identical to that of a conventional candy bar flagship – the Xiaomi 15 Ultra). And if solely using that smaller 6.62-inch outer screen, it reached over 19 hours.

If you still have battery anxiety concerns, Oppo’s latest foldable thankfully charges as rapidly as ever, with 80W SuperVOOC wired charging (as well as support for up to 50W wireless charging).

Using the included charger, I was able to reach 50% charge in around 20 minutes and a full charge in 49 (just shy of Oppo’s own claim of 47 minutes). Compare that to Samsung’s newest entry, with its more underwhelming wired speeds passing 50% in 30 minutes and hitting 100% at “well over an hour”.

Check out our rundown of the best battery life phones for more.

Software & Apps

• ColorOS 15 atop Android 15 (at launch)
• O+ Connect allows for remote control of Mac/PC
• 4 years OS + 6 years security update support

While Honor and Samsung have been able to out-engineer some aspects of the Find N5’s hardware, I still think it has the edge when it comes to software that fully leverages the unique benefits of these phones’ foldable form factor.

When brands talk about ecosystem, they focus on seamless interoperability between their own products, systems and services; Oppo is playing things differently, taking a path that’s far more open and beneficial to the end user.

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Not only was the company among the first to bake in a native Android-to-iOS file transfer system, but it has also since expanded that experience into O+ Connect. The latter works with a desktop Mac or PC client to allow for rich file management, including AirDrop-level convenience, plus a full remote control feature, letting you access and interact with your machine from afar.

Provided you’re happy with granting the desktop O+ Connect client fairly deep access to your personal machine, you can use the Find N5 like a small laptop in its own right, with the lower half of the screen allowing for trackpad-like interaction and room for multi-finger gestures. While Samsung’s DeX experience emulates a desktop-like PC on the go, Oppo’s O+ Connect feels a lot closer to the real thing.

Oppo also boasts some of the most practical and useful implementations of AI on a smartphone right now

Beyond the obvious and unique productivity benefits such a feature holds over the Find N5’s rivals, as touched on before, the expansive multitasking of Open Canvas is also the best around when it comes to managing multiple apps and windows.

The phone’s ColorOS 15 experience (atop Android 15) is otherwise a pleasantly capable and customisable spin on Android, with a learning curve for some of its more unique attributes, and a little bloat in the form of duplicate apps to many of Google’s pre-loaded offerings.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

I also think Oppo – and by extension OnePlus’ OxygenOS – also boast some of the most practical and useful implementations of AI on a smartphone right now, with a dynamic toolset that surfaces features (from translation to screen reading) from the phone’s admittedly Samsung-like Smart Sidebar, depending on what you’re doing.

The OS also notices when you pair certain apps in split-screen view and auto-suggests when you might like to create a one-touch shortcut to open them up side by side in future; all smart, thoughtful inclusions that show Oppo’s development team is focusing on features that benefit the user first and foremost.

In terms of software updates, Oppo is offering four years of major OS updates and six years of security patches. It’s a solid commitment, though well behind the seven years of both that Samsung is offering on the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Price & Availability

If it isn’t clear by now, I’ve been left impressed by the Oppo Find N5, and in spite of fresher competition, I’d recommend it in an instant…if only for one pretty major flaw.

Despite initial intentions by the company to bring the Find N5 to most markets internationally, it seemingly walked back the phone’s rollout following its February debut in Indonesia at the last minute, hugely hampering its ability to compete in markets where its key competitors play.

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While US users haven’t ever really been able to walk into a store and grab an Oppo phone, across the southern border, the Find N5 is available in Mexico, and moving eastwards, it’s sold in the UAE. Beyond that, however, availability remains confined to Asian markets, like Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, and Thailand.

The UK and the entirety of Europe – regions where Oppo does typically sell some of its best devices – miss out on the Find N5 completely, leaving the door open for its aforementioned competition to walk right in, and that’s a real shame.

As for price, the phone launched at SGD$2499 (approximately £1400/$2000/€1700) for the same 512GB model as reviewed here, on par with the Galaxy Z Fold 7. In some regions – including Singapore – that price has since fallen to SGD$2099 (£1200/$1600/€1400), but it’s still among the most expensive phones around, which isn’t too surprising, considering what’s on offer.

Should you buy the Oppo Find N5?

If you’re lucky enough to live in one of the markets where the Find N5 is sold, and you’re after a new book-style foldable, yes.

The Oppo holds enough key advantages over its fresher-faced rivals that I’d argue it’s the best of the bunch, though we’re yet to test the international variant of the Honor Magic V5.

Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd

It offers more functionality (including stylus support) and faster charging than the Z Fold 7, while ColorOS has proven to be a more elegant, approachable and capable experience than Honor’s MagicOS. Honor might have the Find N5 beat from a numbers perspective when looking at the hardware on offer, but I think the Find N5 might be the nicer entry to live with.

If the Find N5 isn’t readily available, I’d say that, in spite of its greatness, the hoops to import one and ensure all of its functionality is available to you are likely too numerous to overcome, especially when two similar-capable alternatives will be widely available in many markets without caveats.

Specs

• ColorOS 15 atop Android 15 (at launch)
• 6.62-inch 20.7:9 1-120Hz 2616 x 1140 LTPO AMOLED outer display protected by Nanocrystal Glass
• 8.21-inch 9.9:9 1-120Hz 2480 x 2248 LTPO AMOLED main display
• Side-mounted capacitive fingerprint sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (7-core variant)
• China: 12GB, 16GB | RoW: 16GB RAM (LPDDR5X)
• China: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | RoW: 512GB (UFS 4.0)
• Cameras:
  • 50Mp 1/1.56-inch f/1.8 Sony LYT-700 main sensor w/ OIS
  • 8Mp 1/4-inch f/2.2 ultrawide
  • 50Mp 1/2.75-inch f/2.65 Samsung ISOCELL JN5 3x telephoto w/ OIS
  • 8Mp selfie camera (both inner and main displays)
• Stereo speakers
• Dual-SIM
• Wi-Fi 5/6/7
• Bluetooth 5.4
• 5600mAh battery
• 80W SUPERVOOC wired charging
• 50W AIRVOOC wireless charging
• 160.87 x 74.42 x 8.93mm (closed) | 160.87 x 146.58 x 4.21mm (open)
• IPX6/IPX8/IPX9 certified
• 229g
• Colours: Dusk Purple (China only), Misty White, Cosmic Black