I tested a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 rival with a design I didn’t think was ever possible


Prakhar holding half-folded Oppo Find N6 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.


Last year, Samsung closed the gap between its Fold lineup and folding phones from China with the Galaxy Z Fold 7. But Oppo has come up with another exceptional innovation that puts its new folding phone ahead of rivals. 

The Oppo Find N6 isn’t as light as the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but this is the first foldable with an almost creaseless inner screen – one that feels like a true mini tablet.

I’ve been using the new Oppo phone for two weeks, and I’m glad I switched from the Fold 7. It’s the closest to being the perfect foldable phone for me. And while Samsung’s option remains one of my favorite phones, Oppo has added quality-of-life upgrades that are hard to ignore. Let me break them down.

1. Where’s the crease?

Prakhar Khanna holding the Oppo Find N6 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Oppo Find N6 (left) and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 (right)

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET

All foldable phones, including the Galaxy Z Fold 7, have a bump in the middle of their folding screen, called the crease. It deepens over time as you use the device. Oppo aims to solve both of these issues with its claimed “Zero-Feel Crease” and succeeds (to an extent). It is still the same “waterdrop” hinge, but with a new design. 

Also: Your Samsung phone is getting AirDrop-style sharing with iPhone – these models first

The Oppo Find N6 features 3D-printed, tiny liquid photopolymer droplets that fill in the imperfections inherent to each hinge mechanism. These droplets are then solidified with UV light, which helps reduce crease depth and keeps their flat design for years. Oppo says this process reduces height variance from the industry standard of 0.2mm to just 0.05mm, giving it a smoother surface.

As a result, the crease almost disappears from Find N6’s screen. You can still feel it with your nail, but only barely. When I’m reading or watching videos, I can’t see it at all. It is like using an iPad Mini that folds into a phone. In comparison, my Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a deep, visible bump to the naked eye. You don’t even need to look for it – it’s right there.

2. The most immersive folding screen on a phone

Prakhar Khanna holding the Oppo Find N6 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Prakhar Khanna/ZNDET

According to Oppo, its new design won’t let the barely-there crease deepen over time. It has a 50% thicker “Auto-Smoothing Flex Glass” with a claimed 338% greater deformation resistance, so it shouldn’t develop a crease as you continue using the device. 

My two-week review period is too short to judge these claims, but I can confidently say that the Oppo Find N6 has the most immersive experience on a folding screen right now – and it is made possible by an anti-reflective coating.

Oppo’s 8.12-inch inner screen has an anti-reflective coating, which is great for outdoor use. It is less reflective than my Fold 7’s folding display. So, navigating in Maps and reading outdoors are better, more pleasurable experiences. Although its cover screen isn’t as bright as Samsung’s.

3. Beating Samsung at its own game

Prakhar using the Oppo Find N6 with its AI Pen

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET

Once upon a time, not long ago, Samsung had the best multifunctional stylus on a phone. It downgraded this experience by removing Bluetooth features on the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s S Pen last year. Oppo saw an opportunity and introduced a stylus – with Bluetooth features – for its new foldable.

Also: I can’t wait for Motorola’s GrapheneOS phones: Why they’re a win for privacy and open source

The new stylus is part of Oppo’s AI Pen Kit, which includes a case for the Pen. You can use the stylus to annotate, jot down notes, doodle, and use it as a remote Bluetooth shutter button to shoot photos and videos. It works on both the cover screen and inner display without any issues. 

Once you’re done, you can put it back into the case without worrying about its exact placement (just keep the tip on the bottom side) because the magnets automatically rotate its pogo pins to attract it into the case. I love this implementation, though the case color could’ve been better.

4. A larger and faster-charging battery

Prakhar watching the Spider-Man Brand New Day trailer on the Oppo Find N6.

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET

The most underwhelming part of using the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra was its 4,400mAh battery. It used to last me an entire day on moderate use, but I needed to plug it in by evening if I was navigating or using the cameras more than usual. The Oppo Find N6 fares better in this regard. It packs a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery that lasts an entire day with ease.

Also: Lenovo’s new PCs offer a glimpse of the future – and it’s modular

I use the new Oppo phone as both my work and personal device, so there’s a lot of emailing, Slack messages, and ideating in Docs mixed with doomscrolling on social media apps (X, Instagram, LinkedIn), WhatsApp calls and messages, and taking photos. I never charged it twice in a day. 

And even if you have to, the Oppo Find N6 supports 80W fast wired charging (as well as 50W fast charging support with third-party chargers), which is faster than Samsung’s solution. It also supports 50W wireless charging, but that is limited to Oppo’s own SuperVOOC wireless charger.

5. A camera system that’s truly flagship

Prakhar holding the Oppo Find N6 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET

I was satisfied with my Fold 7’s 200MP main camera but disappointed with its nighttime performance and telephoto sensor. By contrast, the Oppo Find N6 offers better optics. You get a 200MP f/1.8 main camera, paired with an f/2.7 50MP telephoto camera with 3x optical and 6x hybrid zoom, and a 50MP ultrawide-angle lens.

The main sensor captures decent colors and doesn’t overexpose shots like Samsung’s. It takes great photos in daylight, with pleasing contrast, good detail, and a decent dynamic range. It beats the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in portraits and nighttime shots. The former has better-looking bokeh, while lowlight photos have less noise.

I like the 3x telephoto camera for the most part, but there’s a noticeable color shift to warmer tones. On the Galaxy Z Fold 7, you get a more consistent camera experience across lenses. However, Oppo has a better overall camera system.

The Oppo Find N6 is a considerable upgrade over its predecessor and significantly better than the options available in the US. But disappointingly, it won’t be launching outside China. I hope Samsung sees the Find N6 and borrows at least two of these features for its next foldable.





Source link

Leave a Reply

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Get our latest articles delivered straight to your inbox. No spam, we promise.

Recent Reviews


Spotify aims to provide a consistent listening experience that uses minimal data. As a result, your audio quality might be less than ideal, especially if you’re using a pair of high-fidelity headphones or high-end speakers. Here’s how to fix that.

Switch audio streaming quality to Very High or Lossless

The default audio streaming quality in both the mobile and desktop Spotify apps is set to Automatic, which usually keeps the audio quality at Normal, which is only 96 Kbps. Even though Spotify uses the Ogg Vorbis codec, which is superior to MP3, OGG files exhibit slight (but noticeable) digital noise, poor bass detail, dull treble, and a narrow soundstage at 96 Kbps.

Even worse, Spotify is aggressive about adjusting the automatic bitrate. Even though 4G is more than fast enough to stream high-quality OGG files, even with a weak signal, Spotify may still drop the quality to Low, which has a bitrate of just 24 Kb/s. You will notice such a sharp drop in quality, even on a pair of bottom-of-the-barrel headphones.

To rectify this, open the Spotify app, tap your user image, open “Settings and privacy,” and tap the “Media Quality” menu. Once there, set Wi-Fi streaming quality and cellular streaming quality to “Very high” or “Lossless.”

I recommend setting cellular streaming quality to Very high and reserving Lossless for Wi-Fi, since lossless streaming is very data-intensive. One hour of streaming lossless files can take up to 1GB of data, as well as a good chunk of your phone’s storage, because Spotify caches files you’re frequently streaming. Besides, you’ll struggle to notice the difference unless you’re listening to music on a wired pair of high-end headphones or speakers; wireless connection just doesn’t have the bandwidth needed to convey the full fidelity of Spotify lossless audio.

You might opt for High quality if you have a capped data plan, but I recommend doing so only if you stream hours upon hours’ worth of music every single day over a cellular network. For instance, I burn through about 8 GB of data per month on average while streaming about two hours of very high-quality music over a cellular network each day.

Illustration of a headphone with various music icons around.


How Audio Compression Works and Why It Can Affect Your Music Quality

Feeling the squeeze when listening to your favorite song?

Set audio download quality to Very high or Lossless

If you tend to download songs and albums for offline listening, you should also set the audio download quality to “Very high” or “Lossless.” This setting is located just under the audio streaming quality section.

The audio download quality menu in Spotify's mobile app.

If you’ve got enough free storage on your phone, opt for the latter, but if you’d rather save storage space, set it to Very high. You’ll hardly hear the difference, but lossless files are about five times larger than the 320 Kb/s OGG files Spotify offers at its Very high quality setting, and they can quickly fill up your phone’s storage.

Adjust video streaming quality at your discretion

The last section of the Media quality menu is Video streaming quality. This sets the quality of video podcasts and music videos available for certain songs. Since I care about neither, I set it to “Very high” on Wi-Fi and “Normal” on cellular, but you should tweak the two options at your discretion because songs sound notably better at higher video streaming quality levels.

If you often watch videos over cellular and have unlimited data, feel free to toggle video quality to very high.

Make sure Data Saver mode is disabled

Even if your audio quality is set to Very high or Lossless, Spotify will switch to low-quality streaming if the app’s Data saver mode is enabled. This option is located in the Data saving and offline menu. Open the menu, then set it to “Always off,” or choose “Automatic” to have Spotify’s Data Saver mode kick in alongside your phone’s Data Saver mode.

You can also enable volume normalization and play around with the built-in equalizer

Spotify logo in the center of the screen with an equalizer in front. Credit: Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek

Last but not least, there are two additional features you can play with to improve your listening experience. The first is volume normalization, which sets the same loudness for every track you’re listening to. This can be handy because different albums are mastered at different loudness levels, with newer music usually being louder.

Since I’m an album-oriented listener, I keep the option disabled. I can just play an album and set the audio volume accordingly, and I don’t really mind louder songs when listening to playlists, artists, or song radios.

But if you can’t stand one song being quiet and the next rattling the windows, visit the Playback menu, enable “Volume normalization,” and set it to “Quiet” or “Normal.” The “Loud” option can digitally compress files, and neither Spotify nor I recommend using it. This also happens with “Quiet” and “Normal,” since both adjust the decibel level of the master recording for each song, but the compression level is much lower and extremely hard to notice.

Before I end this, I should also mention that you can access the equalizer directly from the Spotify app, where you can fine-tune your music listening experience or pick one of the available equalizer presets. If your phone has a built-in equalizer, Spotify will open it; if it doesn’t, you can use Spotify’s. On my phone (a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE), I can only use One UI’s built-in equalizer.

To open the equalizer, open “Playback,” then hit the “Equalizer” button. Now you can equalize your audio to your heart’s content.


Adjusting just a few settings can have a drastic impact on your Spotify listening experience. If you aren’t satisfied with Spotify’s sound quality, make sure to adjust the audio before jumping ship. You should also check the sound quality settings from time to time, as Spotify can reset them during app updates.​​​​​​​

Three phones with a Spotify screen and the logo in the center.


These 8 Spotify Features Are My Favorite Hidden Gems

Look for these now.



Source link