OPPO Find N3 vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5: Which is better?

Yes, that video is finally here – our comparison between the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 and the OPPO Find N3, also known as the OnePlus Open. They’re the same phone, but with different names. We’ve already hinted about this comparison quite a lot in our full review of the Find N3 – and I have spent about 2 weeks just comparing these two devices. This is going to be a very long video, by the way.

Just to be clear – no matter what other people are saying, these two phones are not perfect. None of these is better than the other. There are lots of compromises between the two – and we’ll start off by talking about the cover display.

Cover display

Aside from the very obvious size difference, these two displays have very different technical capabilities in terms of color reproduction.

It’s clear that the color accuracy of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is just much better than the OPPO Find N3. I mean, I have no idea why OPPO’s screen is so bad. I expected at least 100% sRGB color gamut coverage – but we don’t even get that.

The maximum brightness is also another point that I want to highlight. From our test, I found out that the Find N3 is dimmer than the Z Fold 5.

But I’m sure many people like the wider cover display that the OPPO Find N3 has. However, having a wider cover display like the OPPO Find N3 means the entire inner display will have to be even wider than before – and that’s just uncomfortable to use.

Honestly, I know a lot of people are saying that the Galaxy Z Fold 5’s cover display is too thin and they want a wider display. Truthfully speaking, I think this thin and tall display is the correct way to go.

Inner display

The wider display on the OPPO Find N3 makes it impractical to hold the phone with just one hand. It’s not impossible, but just uncomfortable even with big hands like mine.

One thing that I like to do is to read books on the phone like this but folded in a little. Apps like Google Play Books will even create a “book-like” interface by splitting the text. Then, since my hand is on the volume button, I can press those buttons to change between pages. I’ve been using the Galaxy Z Fold phones for years now.

If I want to do this on the OPPO Find N3, it’s just impossible.

What Samsung could’ve improved though, is shrinking the bezel size of the cover display. That would’ve been better than just blindly making the phone wider.

Also, I want to impose a question to those who want a larger cover display – are you using your foldable device folded or unfolded most of the time? If you prioritize the cover display more, then why did you buy a foldable device?

We’ll then focus on the technicalities. By comparing the color accuracies and brightness between these two phones’ inner display, it once again tell the same story. I have no idea why the Find N3’s screen is not color-accurate at all, yet also dimmer than Samsung’s screen.

Crease

Now, at first glance – the crease on the OPPO Find N3 is definitely shallower. It does use a completely different type of support behind the foldable display, hence it is flatter than Samsung’s crease. Still, I’m not sure what’s the long-term implications on OPPO’s side since we only had this phone for about 2 weeks or so. My Galaxy Z Fold 5’s crease got deeper over the course of about 2 months or so.

Hinge

Of course, the hinges on both these devices are also different. OPPO has an arguably thinner hinge but as mentioned in our full review that you can watch at the top right corner, it doesn’t open flat and you can also test this out yourself by placing it on a table.

It’s not a big deal though, since I – a foldable user – didn’t realize it at first until someone pointed it out to me.

What I am curious about is the lack of proper IP-rating on OPPO’s part yet their official video shows that the phone is splashed wet with water. There is no official rating on OnePlus Open’s webpage as well.

Even though I won’t dunk my phone inside a bowl of water, I can at least go about my day knowing that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is certified for IPX8.

Design

The design of both these phones is very minimalist and clean – though I did wrap my Z Fold 5 with a skin to improve its grip and offer some protection.

Either way, I really do like the Galaxy Z Fold 5 more since the camera bump is out of the way and also much smaller. Why? Because holding the phone while using the cover display is just… it just feels weird and my finger is constantly touching the camera bump, especially the ultrawide angle camera.

I mean, it’s just a waste of space. The camera sensors are not that big, and I’m now consistently smudging up the lens because of that camera bump placement.

Since this camera bump is so huge, the OPPO Find N3 does not have wireless charging – so keep that in mind.

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 does not have all of these issues and still has wireless charging.

Cameras

Now, the cameras are very different between the two – of course. Both of these phones use completely different camera sensors and produce different colors, but the focal lengths on both these phones are pretty much identical.

To have a look at all the pictures, zoom shots, videos, and other features regarding the cameras, watch the video at the top of this video.

Software

Now, the software though, is by far the most polarizing aspect between these two. I find myself liking and disliking some of the features on both these phones.

Let’s start off with the taskbar. I have no idea why OPPO’s implementation is so limited and I can only put 4 items in the taskbar and nothing more. The Galaxy Z Fold 5, on the other hand, lets us put double the amount of items and 4 recent apps – filling up most of the space. Samsung’s implementation is definitely better here.

Then comes multitasking. Both of these phones have the same implementation for side-by-side views, but OPPO has something new called Boundless View. I think this is currently the most unique and actually good implementation of multitasking that I’ve seen so far.

However, OPPO’s implementation of the sidebar is pretty pointless. It’s mostly a duplicate of the taskbar’s app list button – whereas Samsung’s taskbar is customizable. You can choose what you want and it also offers a lot of actually useful utilities within that sidebar.

Once we fold the phone, the OPPO Find N3 will tell us to swipe up if we want to continue using the app on the cover screen. This is a more flexible implementation compared to Samsung’s rigidity. I have to select the app to automatically transition to the cover display every single time and why I can’t choose on a case-by-case basis?

That power button

And this. It might seem like just a power button, but the software plays a big role into making this one button to become multi-functional. Samsung calls it the “side button” and you can customize it in the settings menu to do two tasks. I just leave it like this since I like to launch the camera quickly.

OPPO, on the other hand, hardlocks the button to launch the Fineasy app. Again, I don’t use this Fineasy app and yet I cannot customize it into something else. Not even to launch Google Pay or launch the camera quickly. If I disable the Fineasy app, then the shortcut will just not work at all.

Now, there is another shortcut that we can enable in the camera app – double tapping either volume up or down to launch the camera. But that doesn’t work if I have a pair of earbuds in my ears.

But what about app compatibility for the unfolded display? Well… that’s a funny thing to ask. I have always complained about apps like Lazada not scaling properly and the UI elements are just out of whack on the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Even to this day, the UI elements are still horrendous.

But on the OPPO Find N3, it does this. It splits the interface in two??? The left half always displays the home page and whatever else I did is shown on the right side. Why is there such an interface?

And also – while I was doing some shopping, I realized that OPPO is rather rigid in this regard. I cannot dynamically adjust their sizes like what I can do on Samsung’s side. I mean, I would prefer this view instead of the Boundless View if I want to compare prices.

Something that I really like with Samsung’s software is Modes and Routines. That feature is particularly special for foldables since we can customize it to trigger some action whether the device is folded or unfolded – or even folded halfway! I find myself using some features like having YouTube to automatically rotate to landscape mode while the phone is fully unfolded and whatnot – yeah, having the flexibility is good.

OPPO also has an alert slider that I like a lot. It’s just simple to push the button and quickly set the phone into complete silent mode. It’s convenient and I think all phones should have something like this.

Performance

How about the performance then? This is where things get a little funky. You see, both phones are using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and in our review of the OPPO Find N3, I redid the gaming test for both phones. And it is shown that for whatever reason, the OPPO Find N3 is not that good in terms of performance.

That is because the phone just thermal throttles earlier, which might be due to the thinness of the phone. Also, that camera bump acts like a heat trap and that doesn’t help with the performance either.

Battery life

So… what about the battery life, then? This is a bit complicated. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 has 4,400mAh battery whereby the OPPO Find N3 has a larger 4,805mAh battery.

Yet in our controlled battery life test – they’re very similar to each other. It is probably be due to the difference in resolution but I think it’s just funny that OPPO managed to match the battery life of the Z Fold 5 so closely.

Charging speed

Okay, what about the charging speed? Obviously, OPPO is going to be faster here since it takes in 67W but it’s the proprietary SuperVOOC charger. You’ll need their own cable and charger to actually fast charge your phone – and I think that’s ridiculous.

If I plug in a USB-PD PPS charger into the OPPO Find N3, it only takes in 18W. 18W! That’s like 2015 level of fast charging! the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is only taking in 25W and it’s definitely not the fastest. But hey – it uses USB-PD PPS charging standard. I can plug in the same charger to the phone or to the laptop, and it’ll work accordingly. And yet the temperature control is much better than OPPO’s proprietary 67W charger. I really wish more brands to use USD-PD PPS charging standard.

Few more things to mention

And I still have two more things that I want to mention quickly. Both these phones use USB 3.0 ports and have display output via USB-C – but Samsung has its iconic DeX whereby OPPO just mirrors the display.

On the other hand, OPPO does have an IR blaster so you can add remote controls to your phone and just control everything with your phone. You don’t have to upgrade everything into a “smart home appliance” to be controlled via the internet.

Do I recommend the Galaxy Z Fold 5 or the OPPO Find N3?

Finally, after using these two phones for so long, I have a very thorough idea of what these two phones have to offer. So – which one will I pick?

It’s rather difficult to decide. Both these phones have their own pros and cons. I’ll go for the OPPO Find N3 for its cameras, the alert slider, and also the Boundless View feature.

However, for the overall software experience, the phone’s overall shape and size, screen color accuracy, and little things like USB-PD PPS charging standard support – I’ll go for Samsung. I think it’s just a more holistic user experience.

None of these two phones are exclusively better than the other.

As for the price though, I’ve charted a graph of its launch price across its generations. It is not to scale since the currency is different, so we’re only showing the trend of how the prices change between generations.

As we can see, Samsung’s prices started high but have decreased and then maintained over time. OPPO, on the other hand, I had to use the Yuan prices since it was not launched in other countries prior to the Find N3. And the price was maintained at first but has risen. Perhaps the OPPO Find N4 next year will have the price too.

Anyway, I still want to comment about the price gap between these two phones in Malaysia. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is RM7,299 for the 512GB version while the OPPO Find N3 is RM7,999 – and I just gotta be straightforward with you guys here – I think the OPPO Find N3 is too expensive.

Sure, it is better than the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in some aspects, but it’s not RM700 better. I do think that this is more of a direct competitor to the Galaxy Z Fold 5, and should have been priced about the same instead of over-pricing it by so much. Maybe try to undercut Samsung’s price? That’ll definitely raise a lot of eyebrows.

I have not even mentioned about promotions and deals since Samsung will perpetually have them from time to time – and I don’t want to get into them since they vary.

The price of the OnePlus Open, on the other hand, is cheaper than the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in the US. I don’t know what to make of this – so I’m just pointing it out.

So – this is the end of my comparison between the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the OPPO Find N3 fold. Which phone is better and which will you get? Or do you still think that foldable phones are not ready for the public yet? Do let me know all your thoughts down in the comments section below.

Where to buy? (Affiliate links)

• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
  • Amazon
  • Lazada
  • Shopee
  • Samsung.com (US exclusive deal)
  • Samsung.com (Malaysia exclusive)
• OPPO Find N3
  • Amazon (OnePlus Open; same phone but different name)
  • Lazada
  • Shopee

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