For most people in the world, if they want a flip phone, it’s Samsung or nothing. But if you live in China or are an open-minded import enthusiast, you have other options.
And these options are not cheap either. They have certainly pushed folding innovations at a faster pace than Samsung’s Fold series. Let’s take a look at how Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 4 compares to the best foldable hardware of 2021, the Oppo Find N.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is Samsung’s latest foldable flagship, with high-end specs and up to 512GB of internal storage. However, you cannot expand it with a microSD card.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Oppo Find N: Specifications
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 Oppo Find N CPU Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 Snapdragon 888 Dimensions and weight
- Folded: 67.1 x 155.1 x 14.2- 15.8mm
- Unfolded: 130.1 x 155.1 x 6.3 mm
- 263 g
- Folded: 132.6 x 73 x 15.9mm
- Unfolded: 132.6 x 140.2 x 8.0 mm
- 275 g
Screen Inner screen:
- Dynamic 7.6-inch QXGA+ screen -AMOLED 2X
- Aspect ratio of 22.5:18
- 2208×1768
- 120 Hz
Cover screen:
- Dynamic AMOLED 2X HD+ 6.2-inch display
- 24.5:9 aspect ratio
- 2268×832
- 120 Hz
Inner screen:
- 7.1″ flexible OLED with UTG
- 1792 x 1920
- 120 Hz refresh rate
Cover screen:
- 988×1972
- 60 Hz refresh rate
- 18:9 aspect ratio
camera
- 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.2 ultra-wide, FoV 123 degrees
- 50MP wide, f/1.8, dual-pixel AF, OIS
- 10 MP telephoto lens, 3x optical zoom
- 10 MP front selfie camera
- Front 4MP selfie camera under the screen
- 50MP wide, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56″
- 16MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 14mm (ultra-wide), 123˚
- 13 MP, 2X f/2.4 telephoto, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.4″
Memory 12 GB RAM, 256 GB/512 GB storage UFS 3.1 12 GB RAM, 256 GB/512 GB storage UFS 3.1 Battery 4,400 mAh dual battery 4,500 mAh LTE network: Enhanced MIMO 4X4, 7CA, LAA, LTE Cat. Water resistance 205G IPX8 Cap Sensors Capacitive fingerprint sensor (side), accelerometer, barometer, gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor, Hall sensor (analog), proximity sensor, light sensor, Wacom layer for the pen input Capacitive fingerprint sensor (side), accelerometer, barometer, gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor OS Android 12L with a user interface on top Android 12 with ColorOS on top Colors Blue, Silver, Black Blue , gray (vegan leather) Price from $1,799 Starting at 8,201 yuan (around $1,200)
Note: All photos showing the two phones together are of the Oppo Find N and Galaxy Z Fold 3. Since I’m traveling, I don’t have access to both devices at the same time. But given that the Fold 3 and Fold 4 look almost identical except for a couple of mm in height and width, the photos will still give you a good idea of the scale. Any photo showing just Samsung’s foldable is of the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: Design and hardware
Both devices are foldable devices inside, a design pioneered by Samsung. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is slightly taller, with a 7.6-inch main screen with a 10.8:9 aspect ratio compared to the 7.1-inch main screen and an aspect ratio of 8.4:9 from the Find N.
The Galaxy Z Fold 4.
These aspect ratios mean that the Fold 4’s main screen is a vertical rectangle while the Find N’s screen is a sideways rectangle. Oppo reckons its wider, landscape-style main screen is more ideal for consuming videos, but most Android apps display best in portrait orientation, so they tend to suit the vertical rectangle shape better from Samsung.
The Oppo Find N.
When folded, the Find N is very compact, with a 5.5-inch, 18:9 display compared to the Fold 4’s 6.2-inch, 23.1:9 display. The aspect ratio of Oppo is much closer to a typical smartphone, so when it comes to the exterior display, it’s the Find N that will display apps more appropriately. The photo below doesn’t show the Find N next to a Z Fold 3, not the newer Z Fold 4. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is slightly shorter and wider, but for the most part, the Z Fold 4 is still ‘will rise above the Find. Not like that.
Find the N and Z 3-fold.
Each phone trades in other bits of hardware. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 supports an official IPX8 water resistance rating (meaning it can be submerged in water and survive), while the Find N does not have such an official rating. The Z Fold 4 also supports the S-Pen, though it requires an additional purchase.
The Find N, however, can be folded completely, without leaving a gap at the fold point like Samsung’s foldables do. And the Find N’s main screen doesn’t have a hard fold thanks to a “waterdrop” hinge design that allows the screen to fold at a less hard angle. There’s still a slight crease on the Find N’s screen, but it’s much less noticeable than the hard crease on the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
Oppo’s screen crease is very hard to see and feel, while Samsung’s screen crease is quite noticeable.
Both hinges can be held in place when folded in half, allowing the phones to function as a mini laptop. This nifty feature was pioneered by Samsung, so it deserves credit. This feature is an absolute game changer for me as I often use these foldables for hands-free video calls or selfies.
SoC, memory and battery
Since the Find N came out last year, it’s powered by the older Snapdragon 888 compared to the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 in the Galaxy Z Fold 4. The newer chip is obviously better, but exactly how much depends on your use The most important thing to note is that the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is more power efficient, so it should deliver better battery life than the Find N in theory, given the sizes of both phones of similar batteries.
However, my own tests with the Find N yielded excellent battery life, and I haven’t yet had a chance to do the same tests with the Fold 4. Both phones run on 12GB of RAM and pack 256 GB or 512 GB of storage.
cameras
Both the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Find N feature a triple-lens primary system topped by a 50MP primary camera with a 1/1.55-inch image sensor. They are different sensors, however, with the Find N using Sony’s IMX766 and the Fold 4 using Samsung’s own GN5. However, performance is very similar between these two sensors as they are direct competitors, both capturing 12.5MP shots with pixels. Photos captured by the main cameras on both will be vibrant and well-detailed, with even a bit of natural bokeh if you get close enough to a subject. These are not the best flagship sensors, but they are very good.
For ultra-wide, the Fold 4 uses a 12MP f/2.2 to 16MP shooter from the Find N, also f/2.2 ultra-wide. Samsung takes the lead in zoom photography here, with a 10MP f.2.4 telephoto lens that can produce 3X optical zoom compared to the Find N’s 13MP 2X telephoto lens. A dedicated lens for just 2X zoom seems weak these days when slab phones can produce clean 5X or even 10X zoom photos.
The Z Fold 4’s triple lens array.
The selfie front favors Oppo: The Find N packs a pair of 32MP selfie shooters on each screen, and both are good front-facing cameras. Meanwhile, the Fold 4 uses a decent 10MP selfie camera on the outer screen and a 4MP “under-display” selfie camera on the main screen that produces very smooth image quality because it’s placed under the OLED panel . However, some people may prefer this, as it gives the Fold 4’s main screen a more uninterrupted look.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: Software
The Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Oppo Find N run Android 12, but Samsung’s foldable runs Android 12L, which is a version of Android optimized for larger screens. This makes the Android version of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 a little better suited to handle the odd aspect ratio of foldable phones. In fact, even before Android 12L, Samsung’s OneUI was already doing a better job than Oppo’s ColorOS at dealing with changing screen sizes. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering Samsung has made eight foldables now while Oppo only has one.
And for a debut foldable offering, the Find N’s software isn’t bad at all, it’s just not as polished as Samsung’s. Oppo introduced some intuitive gestures, like swiping down from the center of an app to activate split-screen mode, or swiping up on a higher-than-usual app to launch it into a small floating window. Doing the same window mode with an app on the Z Fold 4 takes two taps and a long press.
Oppo’s ColorOS also has faster animations than Samsung’s OneUI. While both phones have 120Hz primary displays, animations feel faster and smoother on the Oppo Find N. But this advantage is purely aesthetic. The bottom line is that the Fold 4 can only do more, like open three apps at once, while the Find N can’t, and send a desktop window setting to an external monitor (Samsung calls it DeX mode) .
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: Performance
The Oppo Find N is an excellent performer even today, but as already mentioned, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is a noticeably superior chip to previous Qualcomm SoCs, so the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is more capable Battery life should be a bit longer, and any intensive tasks like rendering videos or playing graphics-intensive games will work better on a Fold 4 than a Find N. The Fold 4’s software is also more optimized for getting things done such as multitasking, with less application scale. questions
However, keep in mind that all of the above are more powerful user demands. If your phone use is more basic, like reading words on a website, scrolling through Instagram, and taking the occasional selfie and basic indoor photo, it’s not like you’re missing out on that extra power that the Fold 4 offers. And I want to make it clear that the Find N’s battery life isn’t bad either: the phone can comfortably go 13 hours a day, something the older Galaxy Z Fold 3 couldn’t do. However, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 should be able to beat that, given the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1’s very impressive battery life in other devices I’ve tested so…