Americans Won’t Get One of the Coolest Foldable Smartphones

Oppo has been a trendsetter on the smartphone stage, especially among foldable smartphones. The company’s Find N5 folding smartphone is gaining traction for its claim that it’s as thin as the USB-C port will allow. We’ll know more details when the folding phone debuts globally in about two weeks. Sadly, this is one svelte smartphone we won’t see coming to the States anytime soon.

Oppo’s upcoming Find N5 flagship foldable is making the rounds on Chinese social media. Oppo’s Find series product manager, Zhou Yibao, has been teasing the device since last month. The pictures thus far reveal that the Find N5 is thinner than the iPhone 16 Pro Max when splayed out in tablet mode. Another photo shows its thickness relative to a stack of physical credit cards.

Information about the specifications inside is still pretty limited, though Zhou summarized some specs on Weibo. The phone will rely on a “3D printed titanium alloy hinge” and will be the first Android device equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Extreme—we’re only on Elite here in the U.S., at least as far as phones you can buy outright. Zhou also teased IPX9 waterproofing despite the super-thin chassis, though the rating is not enough to keep out dust. The Find N5 will charge fast at 50W and provide reverse charging for other devices in tow.

Oppo is OnePlus’s parent brand overseas. The companies merged years ago, and now, we look to what Oppo does with its marquee devices to see what’s coming to the U.S. through OnePlus down the pipeline. There’s still no successor to the well-rated OnePlus Open, which is why this has excited us all. The biggest problem with foldables is that they’re still quite bulky when shut closed. It looks like manufacturers are all in the race to make theirs the thinnest they can be without compromising too much of the value-adds.