The Oppo Find N2 Flip, the Chinese brand’s first folding smartphone in clamshell format, is being emulated by Samsung. According to an analyst, the South Korean manufacturer will be inspired by the latter for the external screen and the hinge of its next Galaxy Z Flip 5.
Samsung knows how to draw inspiration from those who endanger its market. According to analyst Ross Youngthe South Korean manufacturer is going to enlarge the external screen of the fifth generation of its foldable smartphone in clamshell format: the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
As I told my Super Followers yesterday, there are a couple of important changes coming to the Z Flip 5… pic.twitter.com/rEcD2DvaWw
— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) December 1, 2022
Specialist in screen production chains, Ross Young indeed argues that the next Galaxy Z Flip will be equipped with a small screen of more than 3 inches, against 1.9 inches today. If the information has been put forward since December by the analyst, it has just been corroborated by leaker Ice Universe, Monday, February 20. A choice which, according to him, would be a direct response to its direct competitor in this category: the Oppo Find N2 Flip.
An external screen of more than 3 inches
Released in China in December 2022 (and available on the French market on February 27), this smartphone from the manufacturer Oppo is the first in Flip format for the brand. And yet, despite a design inspired by that of Samsung, the Chinese brand produced from its first attempt a reliable, solid, efficient and balanced phone.
Even to the point of innovating where Samsung had not concentrated its efforts with an external screen of 3.26 inches in vertical format, against less than 2 inches horizontally for the Galaxy Z Flip 4. The industrial choice mentioned by Ross Young therefore seems to be a direct response to this unexpected competitor. Moreover, if the analyst does not specify the exact size of this new external screen, the leaker Ice Universe affirms that it will be larger than that of the Find N2 Flip.
The clues have surfaced.
The first leak
I can say for sure The external screen of Galaxy Z Flip5 It is bigger than the external screen of OPPO Find N2 Flip. pic.twitter.com/E9HjUeW2ZR— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) February 20, 2023
Words supported in another more recent tweet where he shares an idea of what the external screen of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 would look like. His rendering, however, remains a very basic assembly that should not be taken at face value.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is very likely to be of this design. I am in further research… pic.twitter.com/1bVYOgmC0H
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) February 22, 2023
A hinge that marks less
Oppo was inspired by Samsung, which in turn is inspired by Oppo… and the South Korean manufacturer is not stopping there. Other information provided by Ross Young: Samsung should also review the design of the hinge of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 in order to “reduce the visibility of the crease” of the screen.
Another lesson learned from Oppo’s compact foldable smartphone, whose screen crease leaves only a barely visible mark on the open display.
Copy, yes, but not halfway
If we are delighted to see two competitors chasing each other to always offer better to consumers, we hope that this will also apply at the software level. Despite Oppo’s good decisions on the Find N2 Flip, its ColorsOS interface – which remains excellent – does not take full advantage of the potential of this format.
We think in particular of the presence of an external screen to access options without having to open the phone, and the possibility of folding the phone 90 degrees to divide the internal screen in two. Two aspects where Samsung’s One UI interface seems to have a little more control after four generations of smartphones in this format. We therefore hope that Oppo will be able to look to its neighbor for its next Flip model.
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