Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 - Branding Nightmare. Dream Phone

It's not every day we get a whole new kind of phone.

Since pioneering the folding screen on a handset back in 2019, Samsung has pretty much dominated a section of the market it literally created out of thin air.

Well, until recently.

Over the last couple of years it seems like all the big names have caught up, releasing their own folding phones and in some cases, laying down the gauntlet to Samsung with innovative form-factors and pushing the boundaries with hinge technology, latterly eliminating the dreaded "crease" almost completely.

Samsung hasn't taken this lying down, also continuing to refine its Z Fold and Z Flip lines, making each generation more durable, thinner, lighter and yes, less creasy.

And now they've got a new one entirely.

The confusing thing is, it has an old name. Last year's Galaxy Z Fold7 has been updated but it isn't the Z Fold8. It's become the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra instead. That's fine. The first one didn't have a Z in its name, it was just a Fold. If they want to add an Ultra to the title too, whatevs.

The trouble is, that's not the phone I'm reviewing today.

Today we're looking at the Galaxy Z Fold8. So, essentially last year's name on a brand new phone. Could Samsung actually have made this any more confusing?

I can only speculate as to why they've done this - and I'll touch on that shortly - but first, let's just enjoy something new and exciting.

Let me start by admitting I never quite understood why the original Fold was the size and shape it was. I mean, I get that when opened up, the proportions of the internal display matched up quite nicely with those of a small tablet. But in my view, Samsung's design team put too much focus on getting that part right and didn't pay enough attention to the cover (outer) display.

Sure, it's fun to show off that folding screen to your mates and when you're doing actual work on your phone - browsing websites, editing documents, pictures and video, obviously that larger display is just the ticket.

However, the rest of the time (and by "the rest" I mean "most") many people would be using the Fold in its folded state, kind of like any other phone. That meant a very long, skinny outer display, literally too tall for most people to be able to operate with one hand. Too long to fit comfortably in a pants pocket and too narrow to comfortably fit all your usual apps and widgets on the home screen.

Anecdotally, casual users spend 70% to 80% of the time using folding phones folded, so unless you're the kind of power user who tends to reverse those stats, perhaps a tall skinny phone has limited appeal.

Well, seven generations later and Samsung has finally come up with what I like to think of as "The People's Fold." Simply by making it shorter and wider, the new Z Fold8 solves pretty much all of those complaints in one fell swoop - with very little compromise on durability, power or performance.

The Z Fold8's more squat display measures 5.5-inches diagonally as opposed to 6.5-inches on the Ultra - but because of its extra width, the difference in screen size when opened isn't nearly so dramatic; 7.6-inches vs 8.0. 

As far as I'm concerned, this is a major win, certainly in terms of sheer pocketability. The Z Fold8 slips into my front pants pocket, or the inside pocket of my jacket in much the same way Samsung's clamshell foldable, the Z Flip8 does, taking up so much less vertical space and not stabbing me in the thigh or armpit with its sharp corners every time I move.

It still has the same flagship CPU as the Ultra; the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, both inner and outer displays offer 1-120HZ adaptive refresh rates and peak brightness levels top out at a dazzling 3000nits - all just like the Ultra.

The battery is slightly smaller, although given the screens are too, there's only about an hour's difference in how long the charge will last and the benefit is, the Fold8 ends up being noticeably lighter than the Ultra too.

The only significant tradeoff is the camera array. Both inner and outer selfie cams are the same; 10MP - which is fine, although these days that's lagging behind some competitors by quite a margin.

More conspicuously, there's a whole sensor missing on the Fold8 's main camera module compared to the one on the Ultra - no telephoto lens at all. The primary Wide shooter is 50MP as opposed to the 200MP option on the Ultra but the 50MP Ultra Wides are both the same.

So... Does that actually matter? Obviously, not if you take a lot of wide-angle shots and because Macro shooting uses the Ultra Wide sensor too, there won't be any difference in close-ups either.

However, keen-eyed camera buffs will probably detect the difference in detail and the accuracy of the background blur in portrait (or bokeh) shots taken with the main lens. Don't get me wrong, 50MP is great. But 200MP is super-great.

Then, depending on what you use your phone's camera to take photos of, the missing telephoto lens could be an issue if you take lots of sports shots or perhaps things like your kids/pets/partner playing in the surf.

To be honest, I've been clicking away with the Z Fold8 quite happily and not once have I thought to myself, "Gee, I wish I had a bit more optical zoom here" or "I wonder if I'm going to be able to blow this photo of my dog up to be a ten-foot mural on my wall?"

It is another interesting design decision from Samsung though, as this new aspect ratio (both on the outer and inner displays) was clearly focussed on creating and consuming more streamable, meme-able, portable content.

And I assume the slight camera compromise is the main reason the new shaped phone is now the Z Fold8 and the "Zoomier" one becomes the Ultra. Understandable? Maybe. Still confusing as hell though.

Name confusion and camera mismatch aside, I really love this phone. I've noticed how quickly I've taken to using it as my daily device - so easy to handle and recent upgrades to Samsung's durability ratings with its foldables mean I no longer feel as if I have to treat a handset like this with kid gloves. I also think, because it's more comfortable in the hand, that I do actually use the inner (sorry, "Main") display more often - especially when dealing with emails or watching video.

It has all the high-end features I've come to depend upon with a flagship; it charges wirelessly, connects via Wi-Fi 7 for incredible download speeds and One UI is certainly one of my favourite Android interfaces.

As for that squishy home-screen issue I had on the previous Folds - now I have the opposite challenge of course; plenty of room to fit my widgets widthways but a whole row of app icons shorter. Oh well, I'll get used to that, I guess.

Please don't ask me about AI . Like most Galaxy phones, this one is packed with it; Gemini, Co-Pilot - Galaxy AI itself - and as usual, I'm not always sure which one I'm using when. Just rest assured, the Z Fold8 does all the tricks. And when it comes to features like real-time translation, Samsung is one of the best I've tried.

Available in Cream, Graphite, Lavender or Pistachio(Online only) - the Z Fold8 is potentially one of the most exciting phones of the year - if for no other reason because it really is new. There's no other phone quite like it at the moment - well, not for another couple of months anyway.

But don't get one just because it's the new thing - get one because it's the right thing. I'm not saying the taller, skinnier Ultra isn't still the best option for many users, and I'll be reviewing that one in more detail in the weeks to come.

I just happen to think for the more casual, drop-it-in-your-pocket and forget it's there users like me, the Z Fold8 might just be a better fit.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8.

motorola signature and motorola razr fold - New Zealand's New Perfect Power Couple

I've been doing this for years. I've reviewed dozens and dozens of phones.

So you might think I'd get a bit blasé about it. If you've seen one phone, you've seen them all. Right?

Except...

Every now and then, I take a phone out of the box and I immediately find myself saying, "Oh yeah. That's nice. That's a really nice phone."

I mean, literally. Like, out loud. Actually saying that. Even though no-one else is in the room.

It doesn't happen often.

But the other day, it happened twice. Simultaneously.

And I never would have expected it from a motorola... let alone a pair of motorolas.

Today, motorola has launched 7 new handsets to the New Zealand market, which in itself, is pretty unprecedented. These range wildly in both price and form-factor. From the NZ$549 g37 with its enormous battery life, to the iconic clamshell foldable, the razr 70 ultra, at NZ$2,499, there's something for everyone - even for people like me who thought they'd seen it all before.

Yes, as part of this major handset shakeup, there are two completely new models and these are the ones that took my breath away.

But not before I got a good whiff of them. I'd completely forgotten motorola likes to imbue its premium handsets with an enticing scent that permeates through the box and the packaging, creating a unique "new phone smell" that ensured my unboxing of the razr fold and motorola signature was always going to be a feast for all five of my senses. (Did I taste them? Maybe. What if I did?)

I'll start with the razr fold, because this is the one I thought I knew most about. For those of us who are aware motorola still actually makes phones, decades after the world-sweeping success of the original razr, we were well aware they'd immediately jumped on board the foldable wave to try and recreate a bit of clamshell mania.

But few of us had anticipated the introduction of a book-style folding handset as well. This form-factor has quickly become both an indispensable productivity tool for busy power-users on the go, as well as a bit of a corporate flex, when owners unfold the phones in front of their colleagues to make a note on their presentation or just to check their calendar.

Against the odds, on its first attempt, motorola's longways foldable has managed to tick all the boxes most other brands have taken several generations to perfect; durable, sturdy hinge mechanism, excellent internal screen-to-body ratio, long battery life, flagship-quality external display, stylus compatibility... the razr fold has pretty much nailed it all on debut.

To a very discerning eye, the crease on the main, internal display is admittedly still a little more prominent than those on a few of the other similar-style phones I've trialled lately, but so far, that's honestly the only place the motorola has fallen ever-so-slightly short.

And in one other area, it surges into first place. Which is why it carries the DXOMARK Gold Award for its primary camera array. Since the very first foldable screen, I've been somewhat bemused to see people handing over thousands for a phone with a just-alright camera.

Apparently motorola thought that was weird too, so they've put their best camera on their most expensive phone. Kind of... what's the word?... logical?

What remains to be seen is how many Kiwis are prepared to hand over NZ$3,499 for a phone from a brand a lot of people still think stopped making phones some time before the turn of the century.

The good news is, you can get that same camera on another phone that costs a lot less.

The motorola signature is my favourite phone ever. And it became my favourite phone about half a second after I picked it up for the first time. I've never come across a handset that looks or feels as good as this.

And that's before I even turned it on.

My review unit is Martini Olive. If that's not the coolest name for a phone colour, I don't know what is. What's more, it's actually a cool colour; a luxurious shade of green that tends more towards gold, which looks incredible on the glimmering aluminium side rails and matching camera module surround. 

The rear panel is described as "twill-inspired" - a sumptuously tactile matte finish that's easy to grip and allays any fear of a cracked glass back so many of us have had to have repaired in the past. (The alternate Carbon option is more of linen look and feel, apparently)

And wow, is this thing thin. A mere 6.99mm and just 186grams.

Best of all, motorola has utterly eschewed the recent trend in flagship phone design; the dreaded camera module bump. Somewhere along the way we all agreed it was okay for the best phones with the best cameras to have a massive slab of glass and metal whacked on the back, just to hold the lenses. These unwieldy eyesores have only grown bigger as cameras have become more powerful, in some cases doubling the thickness of the phone and throwing the balance out completely.

I happen to hate sharp corners and I absolutely love curves. Both the razr fold and the signature still have camera modules, but the rear panels swoop up to the edges seamlessly. Comparing this design to other high-end phones is a bit like comparing a Corvette Stingray to a container ship.

Other than their wonderful curves, the signature and razr fold have a lot else in common - starting with their primary camera arrays consisting of 50MP wide, 50MP ultra-wide and 50MP periscope telephoto sensors. This means very consistent and accurate colour and contrast, no matter the focal length, from 0.5x through 1x and 3x optical, right out to 100x Super Zoom Pro.

You can shoot strikingly detailed video in 8K, enhanced by remarkable intelligent stabilisation.

This is the kind of camera that never leaves you asking, "I wish I could..." ...because you probably can.

The selfie camera situation gets complicated because the razr fold has two of them - well, three if you count the primary camera, of course. In fact, there's an onscreen shortcut to do just that when you open its camera app. So you have a choice; the 20MP front-facing cam on the outer screen, the 32MP inside, or you can go full 50MP with the main shooter because, why wouldn't you?

Not to be outdone, the single selfie-camera on the signature is 50MP too, and it shoots video in 4K. So that's pretty crazy.

Both the fold and signature draw on 12GB of RAM and the superior power of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip to perform any task instantly, or indeed simultaneously with other tasks, smoothly and flawlessly.

Whether you're using Moto AI, Gemini, Perplexity or Co-Pilot to create, edit, search or streamline your workflow, neither handset misses a beat. Have I mentioned how much I appreciate the motorola OS, Hello UI? It's about the most stripped-back version of Android 16 you'll find on a phone and that means I get everything I want and nothing I don't.

Oh, and how does seven years of Android security updates sound?

Both these phones charge wirelessly - which for me is essential. And again, they go a step further. If you have the right charger, you can juice up at 50W. That's still wireless, by the way. Even faster plugged in.

Both have big batteries too - lasting well into a second day on a full charge if not seeing it out two days completely.

Both phones are also surprisingly tough - the signature because it's so slim, the razr fold because, well, it folds. The latter carries IP48 and IP49 water resistance ratings and the outer display is protected by the latest and greatest Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3.

Meanwhile, the signature's screen is Gorilla Glass Victus 2, it's both IP68 and IP69 rated against water and dust and is MIL-STD-810H compliant. So extreme altitude, heat and cold can't really hurt it.

These phones even sound good - both pump out pretty decent Dolby stereo tuned by a little company you may have heard of called Bose.

For me - and remember, I've reviewed a lot of phones - there's only one area where these two come up short - and it's nothing to do with the phones themselves. I want an ecosystem; in short, I want more motorola. I've paired them both with the truly excellent moto buds+ but don't they know I need a watch too?

I know motorola makes them, but for some reason, you can't easily find them in New Zealand. Let's hope that changes. And soon.

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy these two handsets while I have them, especially the signature which, I'll say it again, is my new favourite phone ever. Not bad for $1699. Not bad at all.

    

Click here for more information on the motorola signature.

Click here for more information on the motorola razr fold.

HONOR X9d - A Lot of Tough for Not Many Bucks

Compromise.

Not everyone has $2000+ to drop on a phone. 

So if you've just dropped yours. Or drowned it. Or cracked it. Or just lost it... What features are you prepared to give up in order to keep the price down?

Bearing in mind, if your new phone isn't dust or waterproof or particularly robust, it might only be a matter of time before you're having to replace it again. So you won't have saved any money at all.

However, if you work or play in demanding environments - building sites, outdoors - or you're just a bit of a klutz, destroying your phone might just be an unfortunate inevitability.

But it doesn't have to be.

The HONOR X9d is built to take a knock. Or two. Or all of them. And it'll cost you less than eight-hundred bucks.

Let's talk what this phone doesn't do shortly but first; its strengths. Which are mostly about its strength.

These days, most flagship phones carry an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. Essentially, that means you can submerge the device in question down to a metre or so for up to half-an-hour.

The X9d can do that too.

Some other devices carry an IP69 rating. This means they can resist high-pressure, high-temperature jets of water. Why you would want to steam-clean your phone is a bit of a mystery, but...

Yes, the X9d can do that too. In fact, throw in IP66 and IP69K too. What the hell?

Okay then. How about the SGS rating that proves triple resistance against drops, water and dust? Has it passed the IEC 62262 impact resistance test?

Apparently. And I haven't even heard of some of those before.

The X9d isn't just built to keep water, dust and extreme temperatures out, it'll definitely take a knock or two. The display is covered by "ultra tough tempered glass" - and also a factory-fitted TPU screen protector which HONOR insists on putting on these devices, even though the aluminosilicate glass underneath is probably more scratch-resistant and much harder to crack.

There are six layers of cushioning built into the handset which has earnt it a 2.5m drop-resistance rating.

Remember, this isn't just HONOR talking. These are highly-regarded, independent tests.

It's indisputably one of the most durable phones I've ever reviewed.

To capitalise on the amphibious abilities of such a device, you'll even find an underwater mode in the camera app, as you'll see me demonstrate in the video below. While in this mode, you can use the physical buttons on the side of the phone to take still pictures or videos - complete with sound.

The camera setup is where we start to see a little of the trade-off in order to bring the price down. The dual array on the rear module consists of a 108MP main shooter and a 5MP wide lens - perfectly respectable and still capable of 10X digital zoom and 4K video. But you're not quite achieving the masterful low-light performance, or consistency of colour and contrast between lenses that you would expect from a much more expensive flagship like the HONOR Magic8 Pro I reviewed earlier in the week.

In saying that, regardless of whether you're using the rear-shooter or the 16MP selfie-cam, you still have access to a mind-bending array of effects, filters and post-shooting AI editing tools. As a quick example I just clicked off a shot from my desk of a badly lit picture on the wall, about 3 metres away from where I'm typing right now. In this first shot, there's a lot of reflection in the glass, essentially obscuring that part of the picture completely.

Using HONOR's on-board AI eraser, I was quickly able to remove almost all the reflection, as if by magic, in a matter of seconds.

So I certainly have no issue with the performance of the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 CPU, or the Adreno A810 graphics chip, both supported by a healthy 12GB of RAM.

Just like the Magic8 Pro, the X9d sports both an in-screen fingerprint sensor and face unlock - and just like its flashy cousin, I've found these to be quick and reliable. Meanwhile, this phone costs $1600 less.

In fact, as I go about my day using the X9d as my primary handset, I find myself not really missing that previous flagship at all.

Okay, it doesn't charge wirelessly and there's no eSIM capability - which I'd usually find pretty frustrating. But with its enormous 8300mAh li-ion polymer power cell, the X9d actually outperforms the Magic8 Pro in terms of battery life. I really only need to plug it in to charge every third day or so.

Finally, the X9d looks a lot more premium than its price-tag would suggest. My review device is Sunrise Gold, which features a fetching coral-coloured cloud effect on the matte back panel, brushed gold-coloured side rails and a classy gold ring around a rear camera module that doesn't protrude very far at all.

It's also available in Midnight Black - yawn - or you can go for Reddish Brown, which is gutting for me because that's undoubtedly the option I would have gone for if I was given the choice - because after all, who doesn't want a red phone?

I'm aware there are other phones out there that claim to be extra tough - perfect for the pocket of a tradie on a building site or clamped to the handlebars of a mountain bike in the weekend. Trouble is, most of those look like a brick... and operate just about as smoothly as a brick does too.

The HONOR X9d isn't that.

It looks like an expensive phone. Runs like an expensive phone. Has more battery life than most expensive phones and has been independently tested to be straight out tougher than most other phones. 

If eight-hundred bucks is all you have to spend (or all you WANT to spend) you're not cutting too many corners here to get a phone that'll go the distance.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the HONOR X9d.

HONOR Magic8 Pro - Shaking Up the New Zealand Market

For a very long time, Kiwis looking for a flagship handset really only had a choice of two brands - unless you were prepared to import something else directly from overseas, which your telco may or may not have supported once you got it up and running.

Then, slowly but surely, more and more Android devices from different brands started appearing on New Zealand shelves, giving us access to different cameras, faster charging times and various other features we'd been missing out on while the rest of the smartphone world moved forward.

More recently, you even got a choice with foldable phones and late last year, HONOR finally found its way to our shores with the Magic V5, impressing me with one of the most polished foldable flagships I'd come across to date.

Now HONOR keeps the momentum going with a more conventional flagship form-factor.

The HONOR Magic8 Pro is a very solid piece of kit, straight out of the box. Quite literally. My first impression was one of serious heft - it's quite heavy and the circular rear camera module positively dominates the back of the phone.

But that doesn't worry me because the reason this phone feels heavier than it looks is HONOR has packed so much into it. I'm not exaggerating.

There's a big battery for starters - 7,100mAh - which puts the 4,500-5,000mAh cells more commonly found in other flagship phones to shame. Not only will it absolutely cruise through two full days on a single charge, it's lithium polymer - so it won't heat up when charging. Which is good, because you can charge it at a whopping 100W. Even more amazing, with the right charger, you can juice up wirelessly at 80W! That's significantly faster than most other handsets charge using a cable.

All the controls are on the right-hand side, which means you can keep a decent grip on this thing without accidentally putting yourself on mute. That includes a dedicated AI button, towards the bottom, which doubles as a customisable shortcut button if you double-tap. I've got it set to quick-launch the camera, for example. Meanwhile a single long press brings AI Screen Suggestions to the fore - making it easy to circle-to-search or bookmark an "AI Memory" - kind of a snapshot of whatever you're doing so you can come back to it later.

Between the brute-force of the latest generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform chip, the 12GB of RAM and that beast of a battery, you can imagine how this handset scythes through even the most demanding tasks and 3D graphics manipulation like a hot knife through butter - except, without getting hot.

But it's the camera setup that probably deserves the most attention. Again, here, HONOR has held nothing back. The primary, rear-facing array consists of a 50MP Ultra Night main sensor, a 50MP Ultra Wide and an impressive 200MP Ultra Night Telephoto lens. It's this last component that really sets the Magic8 Pro apart from the rest; night-time and low-light shooting has come a long way on smartphones recently, but it's rare for that to be just as true for more specialised zoom lenses.

HONOR has achieved a massive jump in long-distance night shooting, thanks in no small part to something called CIPA 6.5-stop image stabilisation. Essentially, what this means is each shot is kept stable - even for the longer exposure pics after dark - so you still let the extra light in without any of the blur.

As you'll see me demonstrate in the video below, that also results in some crazy-stable action shots too.

Colour reproduction is also next level, and you even have the option to tweak things further, post shooting. Although, as you can see from my açaí bowl in the sunshine the other morning, no post-production fiddling was required. The Magic8 Pro's AI recognised I was taking a food shot and automatically created a masterpiece; I just had to point and click.

Similarly, the portrait options are also outstanding. I'll let doggo here speak for himself...

Continuing the theme of "all that, and a cherry on top" - HONOR hasn't pulled any punches with the forward-facing selfie-cam either. The 50MP high-res sensor is teamed with a 3D depth-sensing camera which means you can professionally fix focus on your selfie videos and shoot them in 4K at 60fps.

It also means the Magic8 Pro performs perhaps the fastest face-unlock of any phone I've used to date.

Alternatively (or as well as) you can rely on the 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor built into the screen - and I do mean "rely on" - it's been nothing but speedy and consistent every time.

The screen - as you would expect after everything else - is nothing short of sublime. 6.71-inches with a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate and capable of dazzling HDR brightness; up to 6,000nits.

Yet here HONOR shows masterful restraint, with a host of AI controlled screen adjustments to ensure less exposure to blue light, taking the temperature down in dim conditions, reducing eye fatigue and even relieving motion sickness and preventing screen-induced myopia.

Oh, you get great speakers on this phone too. I mean, who even cares about phone speakers these days? Well, Honor does, apparently. Genuine spatial sound reproduction for a more immersive gaming or streaming experience and the bass response actually isn't terrible - and for a phone, that's saying something.

Seriously, HONOR has poured about every high-end ingredient they can into the Magic8 - even the water and dust-proofing is like nothing I've seen before - not just IP68 and IP69 but now there's something called IP69K, which as far as I can make out, means you can spray it with hot lava out of a fire hose and it'll just shrug it off.

Which is why I'm mystified they still ship the handsets with a factory-fitted screen protector. I scratched the screen protector on the first day I used it. Useless. Meanwhile, the actual screen beneath is protected by HONOR NanoCrystal Shield and has a five-star SGS drop resistance certification. Needless to say, I've now peeled off the so-called protector and the phone has been blemish-free ever since.

People complain about paying more than $2,000 for a flagship phone, but when it's as feature-packed as the Magic8 Pro, I reckon this one's a bargain.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the HONOR Magic8 Pro.

OPPO Find N6 - Meet the New Leader In Foldable Flagships

Over the last year I've been able to trial quite a selection of folding phones that for the first time, really feel like polished, fully finished products - rather than the next step in something experimental that may or may not actually be going somewhere.

Suddenly there's a more solid, reliable feel to these handsets. That's important, given their wincingly high price tags.

The operating systems, generally, seem to have evolved into something more useful for the form-factor too. After all, is there any real point in having a screen twice the width if it doesn't offer anything more than what a standard sized display does?

Then there's the crease.

Something we've just come to expect from folding screens. Yes, the crease has been getting less and less noticeable but if you're going to bend a phone in half, surely there's only so much you can do.

Apparently, OPPO disagrees.

Yep, they've actually done it. Open the OPPO Find N6 and you'll discover the new Seamless View Display. I knew OPPO was claiming this was a thing. I'd heard other people talk about it. I'd even seen people demonstrate it. And yet, I still didn't believe it.

Then I saw it - and even more importantly - FELT it for myself. No crease. Barely the tiniest evidence of some kind of line if you hold the Find N6 up to a bright light in just the right way but that's it. A completely flat foldable. Who'd have thought it?

This miracle is achieved using what OPPO describes as Auto-Smoothing Flex Glass - literally 3D scanning each Titanium Flexion Hinge on every phone to then 3D print the corresponding smoothing system, unique to that phone and that phone alone.

Some poor robot has been tasked with folding and unfolding these things up to a million times and as a result, the Find N6 is certified to stay flat for at least 600,000 folds. Truly pioneering tech.

But the best thing about the Find N6 is OPPO wasn't just content to do the world's flattest folding screen and leave it at that. This is a true flagship phone in every other way too.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform is the engine driving everything - from AI photo editing to triple-A gaming. The latest iteration of ColorOS is a UI truly deserving of the 8.12-inch internal display, letting you open 3 or 4 apps simultaneously with a simple gesture - finally delivering on the productivity boost devices like this have been promising since their inception.

Another tool to help boost the Find N6's usefulness even further is the optional OPPO AI Pen - a feature-packed bluetooth stylus that charges wirelessly via its rear cover case. Not only is this a precise writing and sketching accessory, thanks to its smart button it can also be used as a media controller or even a laser pointer.

There is a downside; the rear cover the OPPO AI Pen slots into is too thick for the handset to charge through on a wireless pad. And that case is also really tricky to get off once you click it into place. So you pretty much have to choose between the convenience of wireless charging or the usefulness of a bluetooth stylus.

This is emblematic of OPPO's historically reluctant attitude around wireless charging. OPPO phones have always been about the fastest charging around, thanks to the awesome power of wired SuperVOOC charging - it's been that way for many years now.

Unfortunately, this determination to focus on fast wired charging has meant many OPPO handsets don't offer wireless charging at all - and now we've got this weird situation with the AI Pen case. There's also a more generic, two-piece cover included in the Find N6 box. Thankfully, this is much thinner and doesn't prevent wireless charging getting through.

The really weird part is, with the right AirVOOC charger, the Find N6 will actually charge wirelessly at up to 50W - faster than any other device I've ever reviewed.

Fast charging is helpful, because we're talking some serious battery here; 6000mAh. This is yet another area where OPPO has seen the opposition produce under-powered foldables with batteries that may or may not last out a whole day. Meanwhile, as I explain in the video below, I got several days use from my Find N6 on a single charge without even meaning to.

The other bizarre compromise to be found on early foldables is the camera setup. You'd think if you're asked to pay over three grand for a phone, you might expect it to take some of the best pictures and videos possible. That hasn't always been the case.

On the Find N6, it is the case.

The primary rear camera module, distinctive in its round housing and marked with a silver "H" for Hasselblad, sports a 200MP wide main camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, a 50MP periscope telephoto and a dedicated True Colour camera. This results in consistent, real-life colour, detail and lighting across all focal lengths - including distance shots and extreme closeups.

I've raved on and on about how good OPPO's phone cameras are before - especially since collaborating with Hasselblad - the camera name famous for bringing us images of the original moon landings. The results from this generation certainly don't disappoint, complete with 20MP selfie-cams on both outer and inner screens too.

We've talked a lot about that magical, folding display but the 6.62-inch external display definitely deserves a mention as well. For a book-style foldable, the Find N6 is remarkably light and thin - even more so than some more conventional, unfoldy flagships. The aspect ratio when folded is less tall and skinny than many other, similar devices and I think this goes a long way to why I feel so comfortable using it as my every day handset. The cover display features a 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate, it gets incredibly bright when it needs to and the wider aspect ratio leaves plenty of room for apps and widgets on my home screen.

The only downside is OPPO's insistence on installing factory-fitted screen protectors - which are usually far more prone to damage and scratches than the screen they're purportedly protecting. I've certainly found that to be the case on this phone, somehow scratching it just by placing it face down on my work desk yesterday morning. I'm fairly certain if I peeled this "protector" off, the ceramic guard on the display proper would prove much more scratch resistant, which has certainly been my experience with most high-end phones for the last few years. I mean, thanks for the free screen protector, OPPO. But you shouldn't have. Really.

Note: Don't go trying to peel anything off that inner screen - any layers there are integral to its functionality.

Not that this phone feels delicate in any way - which is another reason I feel comfortable casually dropping it in my pocket - and even dropping it out of my pocket and onto my hard wooden floor. Twice. So far. With no damage whatsoever. It also carries IP57, IP58 and IP59 ratings against water and dust. 

Whether you go for Stellar Titanium or Blossom Orange, it's a special phone. However, that doesn't mean you have to give it special treatment. Which is ultimately what I love about the Find N6. It's probably the most advanced collection of mobile phone technology ever built into a single device - and yet I'm not afraid to use it.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the OPPO Find N6.