Oppo has announced the existence of the Find N, its first foldable Information is scarce at the moment, but if Oppo pulls this off, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 could be the rival it needed

Oppo's press release reveals some interesting details about the new book-shaped foldable, as does the video attached to the related tweet Full details will not be revealed until Oppo's "INNO DAY" event next week, where the company's new smart glasses and NPU chip will also be detailed

So does this mean that the days of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 reigning at the top of our Best Foldable Phones guide are over? That depends on whether Oppo can solve some of the problems that Samsung has yet to address in its flagship foldable phone To see what we think the problems are and how Oppo can tackle them, read below

Photography is not a focus in either of Samsung's foldable phones But it's not so good to get a very standard triple-sensor rear camera block when you can get more and better cameras on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, especially considering how much you pay for the Z Fold 3 An under-display camera inside the phone is a good idea on paper, but this is still a new technology and doesn't work as well as a regular punch-hole camera notch

According to the teaser shot, there are at least three cameras on the back of the Find N, and you may have caught a glimpse of the on-display punch-hole camera in the video This is a good start, but it will take more to surpass Samsung

Oppo excels at powerful smartphone photography, as we recently saw with the Find X3 Pro If Oppo could port its effective collection of cameras to the foldable - instead of adding the bare minimum to cover its bases - it would better explain why the Find N is the greatest phone it has ever made

This is a difficult problem to solve, but it is probably the biggest problem facing foldables today The size of the foldable's display requires a lot of power to operate This is also the case with the Z Fold 3, which has a much smaller battery capacity for its size As a result, the life of the phone was not extended

Oppo's blog makes no specific claims about battery size or battery life If the company is serious about making the Find N a "groundbreaking and efficient experience," then improved battery life, either through larger capacity or more efficient parts, is a must

Samsung has basically figured out how to make the hinge durable enough, but has yet to fully address the impact the hinge has on the display The fold in the middle of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is easily noticeable, and the sunken areas of the display make swiping difficult

Oppo claims to have "solved" the hinge crease with its new hinge and display design, and while the Twitter video certainly shows no signs of a crease, we know better than to take a cleverly filmed promotion at face value We will have to wait until next week to see how Oppo did this and whether his claims are really true, but this is another area where Oppo could easily overtake Samsung

This may sound trivial compared to the hardware points discussed above, but folding phones can be quite unintuitive For example, the Z Fold 3 requires two non-identical home pages to be set up in order to get the most out of both the external and internal displays Also, Samsung has somehow hidden one of the smartest new features of this phone, the static taskbar for app shortcuts, in the menu and disabled it by default But you can only find out about these features by searching around in the "Settings" menu, not when setting up the phone

On his blog, Lau promises that the Find N will offer "a really easy-to-use and innovative experience" on both the external and internal displays " and promises to be "really easy to use and innovative This means a more consistent experience between folded and unfolded modes, and hopefully a more direct guide on how to get the most from the folded version The Find N will likely be the first foldable phone for several users

One of the biggest problems with previous potential Z Fold rivals is that they ended up being China-only releases; the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold is one example, and the Huawei Mate X2 never made it to the UK

All Oppo needs to do to be considered a competitor, aside from the above, is to be available for purchase in Europe and North America; Oppo currently sells a number of phones in the UK, so it is not too big a leap to assume that its first foldable will appear here as well However, there is no better introduction for US buyers than a sleek, attention-grabbing foldable to the company's handset portfolio, even though it has not been introduced to the US market as of yet

For a more detailed overview, here is our take on how the Oppo Find N vs Galaxy Z Fold 3 battle could go