Oppo launches its first foldable smartphone amid battle to fill Huawei’s void in high-end market
- Oppo’s Find N features a 12-layer bendable display developed in collaboration with Samsung
- Oppo has been vocal about its ambition to become one of the most popular premium smartphone brands in China
Chinese smartphone maker Oppo debuted its first foldable handset on Wednesday in its latest push into the high-end market where rivals are locked in a cutthroat competition to fill the void left by Huawei Technologies Co.
The Find N unfolds to reveal a 7.1-inch display, offering 60 per cent more screen than a typical smartphone with a standard 6.5-inch display, said Oppo chief product officer Pete Lau in his first major public appearance since the company merged in June with sister brand OnePlus, where he served as chief executive. The phone also features a 5.49-inch display on the outside.
While the smartphone industry has been trending towards bigger screens as people come to depend on their handsets to view more types of content, foldable phones have yet to catch on because of durability issues and a visible crease where the screen folds, Lau said at the Shenzhen-based company’s InnoDay event.
The Find N’s 12-layer display, developed in collaboration with Samsung, can endure 200,000 folds without creating creases, Lau said. The phone went through six iterations over four years of development, Oppo said.
The Find N, which sells in China at a starting price of 7,699 yuan (US$1,200), marks Oppo’s latest attempt to compete with rivals at home and abroad, including Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei, all of which have launched their own foldable models in recent years even though demand remains niche.
“The foldable phone will be a product that will help them to prove that they are part of the high-end competition,” said Will Wong, a Singapore-based analyst at market research firm IDC. “The same thing applies to chip development as well.”
