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10:47
Transcript
0:02
Okay,
0:03
so I've been saying for years that
foldables are for early adopters only,
0:06
and they don't make
sense for regular people
0:08
until
0:09
the only difference between a
foldable and a regular phone
0:12
is the fact that one of them
happens to fold in half,
0:15
and there's no other compromises.
0:16
So when this all got started seven
years ago with the Galaxy Fold 1,
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0:20
it was really exciting
that it folded in half,
0:22
but there were obviously a ton
of compromises back then to make
0:26
that happen for the first time.
0:27
From the huge bezels on that cover screen,
to...
0:30
to the smaller,
0:31
subpar cameras and
battery and other specs,
0:33
the extremely compromised durability,
and of course the crease,
0:36
the massive crease through the middle.
So every year,
0:39
foldables have gotten better and
better and better and better from
0:42
a bunch of different companies...
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0:44
as they slowly tackled each
one of those compromises...
0:47
So foldables have gotten thinner,
and they've gotten bigger batteries,
0:50
and they've gotten better
hinges and smaller creases,
0:53
and that's all led to this.
The Oppo Find
0:55
N6 does seem kind of random
that this is now peak foldable,
0:58
but I actually think by the end of
this video you'll agree with me.
1:02
So the obvious problem number one with
old foldables was that they sucked to
1:06
use one-handed since they're thicker,
1:08
they have worse bezels,
1:09
and just they're generally compromised
versus a normal slab phone.
1:12
But we've seen this string
of thinner foldable phones,
1:14
especially in the past few years,
and now you look at the Oppo Find N6
1:18
from the front,
1:19
you'd hardly know it's
just a normal slab phone.
1:21
Now you do have the telltale,
but asymmetrical, metal,
1:23
so rounded corners on one side,
square corners on the hinge side;
1:26
that's how you'd be able to know.
1:27
But other than that,
1:28
it just looks like a
normal 6.6-inch phone.
1:31
Oppo has been absolutely cooking
with the materials and the build,
1:34
so when you pick it up and use it,
1:36
it genuinely feels like a regular slab
phone because it's the same size as one.
1:40
Now this phone is just
under 9 millimeters thin and
1:43
weighs around 230 grams.
For context,
1:45
the iPhone 17 Pro Max is also
just under 9 millimeters thin
1:48
and around 230 grams. So...
1:49
so this is effectively a no-compromises...
1:51
normal phone, at least dimensions-wise
1:54
before you even open the thing.
1:55
So many of the previous foldables,
1:57
I remember using them and it was
like you can use the outside screen,
2:01
but you...
didn't really want to;
2:02
you'd rather just open it up
and get to the better screen.
2:05
But this, you could just use like normal.
2:07
It's perfectly fine to take pictures with,
2:10
to watch videos on, to text on,
because the keyboard isn't too small,
2:14
it's a normal aspect ratio.
2:15
It's great.
2:16
And it also has all the flagship specs
by the way: 3600 nits peak brightness,
2:20
and...
1800 nits fullscreen.
2:21
So it's very viewable everywhere outdoors.
2:24
Super responsive, 1-120Hz LTPO,
high-frequency PWM dimming,
2:28
the whole thing.
Now,
2:29
folding in half also always has
presented a bunch of challenges
2:32
with just the physics of
2:33
fitting stuff in a smaller, thinner
2:35
form factor that has to split.
2:37
So for years these folding phones
2:39
never really had flagship cameras
because there wasn't enough room.
2:42
And also the batteries would always
be smaller because they had to
2:45
split it in half around a hinge,
2:47
which is tough 'cause you're
trying to power a bigger display.
2:50
But it's 2026.
2:51
So now of course the tech has
evolved to the point where we
2:54
have silicon-carbon batteries.
2:56
And this ultra-thin phone split in half
2:58
still has a total of a 6,000 mAh battery!
3:01
which is more than a lot
of slab phones already,
3:04
plus 80-watt charging and
50-watt wireless charging.
3:06
And then as far as cameras: so
the physical sensor size can never
3:10
quite be the same as a slab phone,
3:12
because again, it's split in half.
3:14
So there's just not as much
room in the Z-axis dimension.
3:17
But there has been
development of some big sen...
3:21
with shallow Z-axis thickness
specifically to fit in thinner phones.
3:25
So this phone has the same ISOCELL
HP5 sensor that's in the S25 Edge
3:30
200 megapixels, 1/1.56 inches,
optically stabilized.
3:33
So there is that,
3:34
plus a 50-megapixel ultrawide
and a 50-megapixel 3x telephoto.
3:39
And then, I don't know if you remember,
3:41
but folding phones used to have
significantly lesser chips too.
3:44
Less room inside, less...
3:46
less room for cooling.
3:47
This phone has a Snapdragon
8 Elite Gen 5 inside,
3:49
but a binned version with one less core.
3:51
So for all intents and purposes,
3:53
I think we can say it's a flagship
chip and maximizing what you
3:56
can do in that thin of a space.
Plus,
3:58
there's a new dedicated S1 chip
for better network performance...
4:02
So now, despite being ultra-thin and
4:04
chopped in half, this thing has
4:06
flagship displays, flagship chips,
flagship specs, high-end cameras.
4:09
It's also IP59 water- and
dust-resistance rated,
4:12
which used to be nuts for foldables,
but now you can just...
4:15
spill water on this
thing and it'll be fine.
4:17
But the pièce de résistance
4:19
for this
4:20
N6 is, without question,
4:22
this center display.
4:24
For years...
4:25
for folding phones,
we've gotten used to them, you know,
4:28
having an amazing folding screen,
but also having a small crease...
4:32
in the middle.
And the crease, you know,
4:34
it's just one of those
things where on most phones,
4:36
most of the time, it doesn't bother you.
4:38
Trust me,
as someone who's used these phones,
4:40
I've said before: it's like bezels.
Most of the time,
4:42
you're just looking at
the content or reading
4:44
or typing, so you're not really seeing it.
4:46
But every once in a while,
it catches the light the right way,
4:49
or you run your finger over it...
and it just hits.
4:51
You're reminded of it,
and so you can still notice it sometimes.
4:54
but!...
not with this phone.
4:56
So the N6 has this new thing they
developed called the No-Feel Crease.
5:00
And
5:01
I'd seen the marketing, I'd heard,
I'd watched some videos about it,
5:03
but they're mostly sponsored,
so I was a bit skeptical...
5:06
Okay.
But I got it in my hands,
5:07
and this thing is
actually super impressive!
5:10
You open it up,
it's the classic big square, 8.1 inches,
5:13
corner-to-corner,
5:14
same fullscreen brightness,
same 1-120Hz LTPO, same PWM dimming.
5:17
But you might notice there's
basically no perceptible crease here.
5:21
I mean, there's...
5:22
there's a little bit of crease
if you're really looking for it.
5:25
But compared to other foldables
we've seen and that I've used,
5:29
this is basically no crease.
5:31
And the extra bit of engineering
that goes into solving...
5:34
this last problem
5:36
is actually...
very intricate.
5:38
And they're already doing a bunch
of the stuff that everyone
5:41
else has already thought of,
5:43
like softening the crease radius by
doing a teardrop shape when it's folded.
5:47
But the main innovation here
5:49
is with this hinge: they literally
laser-scan each individual titanium
5:53
hinge to map the slightest
variations across the surface.
5:56
Then...
5:57
3D-print a liquid polymer
to fill in the exact...
6:00
micro-gaps to perfectly smooth out...
6:02
the hinge,
and then harden it with ultraviolet light
6:05
it is incredibly complicated.
6:06
But the end result...
6:07
is they minimize the surface-level
variations across the hinge...
6:11
from 0.2 millimeters down to 0.05...
millimeters,
6:14
which is apparently less than
half a human hair thickness.
6:17
So that,
6:18
combined with the slightly thicker
layer of top glass that they're using,
6:22
really makes a big
6:23
visual difference and feel difference.
6:25
A lot of these foldables also,
they look great out the box,
6:29
but the more you use it, as you know,
the more you fold and unfold it,
6:33
the deeper that crease becomes,
the more you notice it.
6:36
This process, they're saying
6:38
is good for
6:39
600,000 folds and still
not showing any significant
6:42
crease.
which, you know,
6:44
obviously I've been folding
and unfolding this a lot...
6:47
but not that many times,
6:48
so I'm just going to have
to take their word for it.
6:51
But yeah, now...
that
6:52
really that's the last few percent...
of like,
6:54
quality of life when
you're using a foldable,
6:57
never really...
noticing or perceiving the crease...
7:00
at all.
7:01
And the cherry on top is,
unlike Samsung's Fold,
7:03
it actually has pen support...
7:05
So there's this little half case you can
snap on the back of this phone that holds
7:09
the pen near the coil so it wireless
charges from the phone's battery.
7:13
And then yeah,
it works on both the front cover screen...
7:17
and...
7:17
the interior display with more
than 4,000 levels of pressure
7:20
sensitivity and minimal lag.
So
7:22
if you're the artist type or
the handwritten note type,
7:25
this display has digitizer
layer to keep that dream alive.
7:28
And yes,
it charges because it does have Bluetooth,
7:32
so it can still be used
7:33
as a remote camera shutter.
7:36
So now in 2026, this Oppo Find N6...
7:38
is complete...
7:39
as far as I'm concerned.
7:41
We've gone through
7:42
one by one each of the potential
7:45
compromises of a folding phone...
7:47
and engineered them away.
7:49
So aside from the price tag, of course,
this is effectively
7:53
a regular phone that just
7:55
happens to fold in half.
7:57
And so yeah, peak foldable...
7:58
we've arrived, I guess,
8:00
which of course got me thinking about
the obvious elephant in the room.
8:04
We are saying all of this before
8:06
Apple jumps in the ring with what
we expect to be a folding iPhone.
8:09
The rumors are saying it's
probably going to be this year,
8:12
end of this year.
8:13
And actually that makes perfect
sense because that's what Apple
8:15
does with emerging technologies.
8:17
That's kind of their thing.
8:18
They'll sit on the sidelines for
the first few cycles while the
8:21
the most aggressive, daring companies
8:23
innovate and work out all the bugs
and the kinks and the compromises.
8:27
And then once that
technology is mature enough,
8:30
that's when they jump in with all
the learnings from everyone
8:33
else and like an Apple-ified...
version of it.
8:35
So that's Vision Pro jumping
into the world that already
8:38
existed of VR headsets...
8:39
that's HomePod jumping into the world
that already existed of smart speakers.
8:43
Heck, that's what the original iPhone did,
jumping into the already existing world...
8:48
of mobile phones.
8:49
So now that we're at peak foldable
and we've sort of engineered away the
8:53
compromises and we've got to this
point where the tech is mature,
8:57
it's ready for Apple to jump
in if they wanted to and...
9:00
do their own...
Apple-ified version.
9:02
The question is what is the,
9:04
what is the Apple-ified
thing for a foldable?
9:06
Because you know,
9:07
typically when they
jump in a new category,
9:09
their cheat code is just by making
theirs the version that works
9:13
well with the iPhone...
9:14
and that automatically gets you a
bunch of users from iPhone land.
9:17
But this is an iPhone
9:19
Fold...
So what's the trick?
9:20
Will it, like,
run a special iPadOS when it's open?
9:23
Or maybe, you know,
9:24
every foldable has multi-window support
and extra multitasking features,
9:28
so maybe that will make its
way to the iPhone Fold too.
9:31
Maybe...
Don't really know, software-wise.
9:33
But the one
9:34
big,
9:35
weird thing that the rumors
are actually pointing to is
9:38
playing with aspect ratio again.
9:40
Cause so many of these modern foldables,
full-size folds have trended towards the,
9:44
like,
9:45
regular slab phone aspect
ratio when it's closed.
9:47
And we talked about this,
9:48
that leaves you with the
square when you open it up,
9:51
which is bigger.
But it is a little bit compromised.
9:54
It's not as good for
9:55
widescreen media, things like that.
9:57
But this iPhone Fold is
supposed to be more of a small,
10:00
passport-style, so a short,
squat,
10:02
like five-and-a-half-inch
display while it's closed,
10:05
and then that opens up to
an almost 8-inch widescreen,
10:08
kind of like a portable iPad mini.
10:10
There's a little bit of a throwback.
10:12
We used to see more interesting
shapes in folds a couple years ago
10:15
even from earlier Oppo Find Ns.
10:16
So this won't be the first to try it,
and it certainly won't be the last.
10:19
We'll see how much of the other
stuff like the no-feel crease...
10:22
and the super-thin build...
10:23
silicon-carbon battery, flagship cameras,
10:25
we'll see how much of that other
stuff makes it to the iPhone
10:28
Fold as well later this year.
10:30
But we'll see.
I'm looking forward to it.
10:32
Also subscribe to be among the first
to see that when it does come out,
10:35
because we'll cover it
here on the channel.
10:38
Thanks for watching.
10:40
Catch you guys in the next one.
10:42
Peace!
— end of transcript —
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