Will it pull another one over the current foldable king, Samsung?
Oppo launched its first-ever foldable smartphone, the Oppo Find N, last month — albeit in China only. It delivered stellar hardware, a flat display, and a much better landscape orientation than Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold3. Now, the company looks set for another foray into the foldable market, as rumors point to an incoming clamshell handset, complete with a launch timeline and pricing information.
91Mobiles reports that tipster Mukul Sharma has revealed Oppo’s plan for its next folding smartphone. According to him, the OEM will launch a clamshell foldable, focusing on making the technology more affordable and accessible. The device is expected to hit the market sometime in the third quarter of this year, and when it arrives, it might cost less than the already reasonably priced Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3. The report doesn’t mention any potential names for the phone, but it should likely fall under the Oppo Find line, just like the Find N and other flagships. According to the leak, Oppo could also be working on another foldable besides this flip phone — and they suspect it might be the Find N’s successor.
Many consider foldables to be the future of smartphone technology, but we can mostly agree that they still need a lot of improvements. While we’ve certainly seen many interesting form factors — including three-way foldables and rollables — the current mainstream solutions are the two-way and clamshell folding designs. They’ve been largely popularized by Samsung, giving the company considerable headway over the competition. But as Oppo showed with the Find N — at least the hardware department — there’s enough room for innovation in this space. It’ll be interesting to see what it can do with this supposed clamshell design.
That said, these are still the early days, and it won’t be until July at the very least before the device goes live, based on the proposed dates. However, we’ll be staying atop all the latest developments, so make sure to watch this space.
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