And these options are also not lucky. Arguably they have pushed folding innovations at a faster pace than Samsung’s Fold series. Let’s take a look at how Samsung’s newest Galaxy Z Fold 4 compares to arguably the best foldable of 2021, the Oppo Find N.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is Samsung’s latest foldable flagship with high 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 gr

Folded: 132.6 x 73 x 15.9 mm Unfolded: 132.6 x 140.2 x 8.0 mm 275 gr

Display Internal display:

7.6 inch QXGA+ Dynamic -AMOLED 2X screen Aspect ratio 22.5:18 2208 x 1768 120 Hz

Cover Screen:

6.2 inch HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display Aspect ratio 24.5:9 2268 x 832 120 Hz

Internal screen:

Flexible OLED 7.1″ 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, 123-degree FoV 50MP wide, f/1.8, Dual Pixel AF, OIS 10MP telephoto lens, 3x optical zoom 10MP front selfie camera 4MP under-display selfie camera on the front

50 MP wide, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56″ 16 MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 14mm (ultra-wide), 123˚ 13 MP, 2X telephoto f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.4″

Memory 12GB RAM, 256GB/512GB UFS 3.1 Storage 12GB RAM, 256GB/512GB UFS 3.1 Storage Battery 4,400mAh Dual Battery 4,500mAh LTE Network: Enhanced 4X4 MIMO, LTECA, LTECA, Cat. 205G Water Resistance IPX8 No Sensor Capacitive Fingerprint Sensor Fingerprint Sensor (Side), Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor (Analog), Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor, Wacom Pad for Stylus Input Capacitive Fingerprint Sensor (Side), Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, OS Geomagnetic Sensor Android 12L with One UI on top Android 12 with ColorOS on top Colors Blue, Silver, Black Blue, Gray (vegan leather) Price Starts at $1,799 Starts at 8,201 Yuan (about $1,200) Note: All photos showing both phones side-by-side are of Oppo Find N and Galaxy Z Fold 3. As I’m currently on the road, I don’t have access to both devices at the same time. However, considering that the Fold 3 and Fold 4 look almost identical, apart from a few mm in height and width, the photos will give you a good idea of ​​the scale. Any photo that only shows 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, a design pioneered by Samsung. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is quite a bit taller, with a 7.6-inch main screen, 10.8:9 aspect ratio compared to the Find N’s 7.1-inch main screen with an 8.4:9 aspect ratio. The Galaxy Z Fold 4. These aspect ratios mean that the Fold 4’s main screen is an upright rectangle while the Find N’s screen is a sideways rectangle. Oppo explains that its wider, landscape-style main screen is more ideal for video consumption, but most Android apps look best in portrait orientation, so they tend to fit better in Samsung’s upright rectangular shape. 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. Oppo’s aspect ratio is much closer to a standard smartphone, so when it comes to the external display, it’s the Find N that will display apps more properly. The photo below shows 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 will still tower over the Find N like so. Find N and Z Fold 3. Every phone swap blows 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 has no such official rating. The Z Fold 4 also supports the S-Pen, although this requires an additional purchase. The Find N, however, can be folded completely flat, leaving no gap at the folding point, as Samsung’s foldables do. And the Find N’s main screen doesn’t have a harsh crease thanks to a “waterdrop” hinge design that allows the screen to fold into a less harsh angle. There’s still a slight crease on the Find N screen, it’s just much less noticeable than the pronounced crease on the Galaxy Z Fold 4. Oppo’s screen creasing is very hard to see and feel, while Samsung’s screen creasing is quite noticeable. Both hinges can stay in place all the way up, allowing the phones to act as a mini laptop. This smart feature was pioneered by Samsung, so it deserves credit. This feature is a total game changer for me as I often use these foldables to take hands-free video calls or selfies.

SoC, memory and battery

Since the Find N launched last year, it runs on the older Snapdragon 888 compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. The newer chip is obviously better, but exactly how much depends on your usage. The most important thing to note is that the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is more power efficient, so it should offer better battery life than the Find N in theory, given that both phones have similar battery sizes. However, my own test with the Find N yielded excellent battery life, and I haven’t had a chance to do the same test with the Fold 4 yet. Both phones run on 12GB of RAM and come with either 256GB or 512GB of storage.

Cameras

Both the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Find N feature a triple-lens primary system with a 50MP primary camera with a 1/1.55-inch image sensor. They’re different sensors, though, with the Find N using Sony’s IMX766 and the Fold 4 using Samsung’s GN5. Performance is very similar between these two sensors, however, as they are direct competitors, both recording 12.5MP shots with pixel binn. Photos taken from the main cameras of both will be vivid and detailed, with even a bit of natural bokeh if you get close enough to a subject. These aren’t top-of-the-line sensors, but very good nonetheless. For ultra-wide, the Fold 4 uses a 12MP f/2.2 shooter with the Find N 16MP, also f/2.2 ultra-wide. Samsung leads the way in zoom photography here, with a 10MP f.2.4 telephoto lens capable of 3X optical zoom compared to the Find N’s 13MP 2X telephoto lens. A dedicated lens for just 2X zoom seems weak in an age when slab phones can produce clear shots at 5X or even 10X zoom. The Z Fold 4’s triple lens array. The selfie front favors Oppo: the Find N has a pair of 32MP selfie shooters on each screen, and both are good front-facing cameras. The Fold 4, meanwhile, 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 due to its placement below the OLED panel. However, some people may prefer this, as it gives the Fold 4’s main screen a more seamless look.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: Software

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Oppo Find N both 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 bit more suited to handling 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 when it came to changing screen sizes. This should come as no surprise, given that Samsung has made eight foldables now while Oppo has only one. And for a first 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 in the middle of an app to activate split-screen mode, or swiping an app higher than usual to launch it in a small floating window. Doing the same window operation as an app on the Z Fold 4 requires two taps and a long press. Oppo’s ColorOS also has more zipper animations than Samsung’s OneUI. Although both phones have 120Hz primary displays, animations are simply faster and smoother on the Oppo Find N. But this advantage is purely aesthetic. The bottom line is that the Fold 4 can simply do more, like open three apps at once while the Find N can’t, and output a desktop window setting to an external display (Samsung calls it DeX mode).

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Oppo Find N: Performance

The Oppo Find N is still a great performer today, but as already mentioned, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 is a markedly superior chip to Qualcomm’s previous SoCs, so the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is simply more capable. Battery life should last a bit longer, and any intensive tasks like rendering videos or playing graphics-intensive games will be better performed on the Fold 4 than the Find N. The Fold 4’s software is also more optimized to it does things like multitasking, with less scale app issues. However, note that all of the above are more powerful user requirements. If your phone usage is more basic, like just reading words on a website, scrolling through Instagram, and taking the occasional selfie and basic indoor shots, it’s not like you’ll miss 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 easily get through a full 13-hour day for me, which 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 far. As a media consumption device, the wider aspect ratio of the Find N…