World's first flip phone with a telephoto camera: Oppo Find N3 Flip

Oppo has launched its latest flip phone, the Find N3 Flip, in China, with a global launch to follow. The successor to the popular Find N2 Flip, the Find N3 Flip is the first competitor to take on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 since it launched. Side by side with the competition, Oppo's Find N3 Flip misses out on the almost-square cover screen trend Motorola set in action with its RAZR 40 Ultra. 

For photography fans, Oppo gives you something arguably more important than a biggest-in-show cover screen. The Find N3 Flip has the biggest camera sensors of any flip phone to date, it's the first of its kind to squeeze in a triple camera system, and it's the first with an optical telephoto lens.

With a primary 50MP camera sporting a 1/1.56-inch sensor, while Oppo's flip phone trails behind 1-inch sensor behemoths like its Find X6 Pro and the Xiaomi 12s Ultra, compared to other flip phones, the Find N3 Flip is class-leading. For context, the Galaxy Z Flip 5's main camera sensor is 1/1.76-inch, and the RAZR 40 Ultra's is an even smaller 1/2.55-inch.

It's a similar story for the ultra-wide camera sensor, which clocks in with a 48MP resolution, has an f/2.2 lens, and a 14mm equivalent focal length. This bests the competition with autofocus alone, and the extra sensor size and resolution gives Oppo a clear win on paper. Finally, the portrait camera, unique to the Find N3 Flip, is a 32MP module with a 2x optical zoom, and a 47mm equivalent.

If you're wondering what's so Hasselblad about the Find N3 Flip, based on past Oppo phones we've tested, the camera UI, Pro mode, and Xpan are loaded up with Hasselbladisms, though we'll know more when the phone launches globally.

The rest of the Find N3 Flip's specs look relatively uncompromising, with a flagship MediaTek Dimensity 9200 chipset, which we first saw in the Vivo X90 Pro, matched with a healthy 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

In China, the Find N3 Flip is set to be available in three colors: Cream Gold, Misty Pink, and Sleek Black, with one design highlight we weren't expecting - an alert slider - lifted straight out of the OnePlus playbook.

The cover screen looks identical to the vertical front display introduced on the Find N2 Flip, though Oppo promises extended integration with third-party apps. We saw Spotify and other third-party services rolled out to its cover screen OS after Find N2 Flip launched, so it will be interesting to see what ends up in the global version when the Find N3 Flip eventually arrives.

As for where we can expect it, the Find N3 Flip is unlikely to launch in the US, though Europe did recently see the launch of the Oppo Reno 10 series, so watch this space. In the meantime, if you're thinking about picking up a foldable and want to get a sense of what's out there, read our guide to the best flip and fold phones, and check back for more on Oppo's Hasselblad clamshell when it's availability outside China is confirmed.