Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Oppo announced its new foldable smartphone that costs over $500 less than the current market leader Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, reports Bloomberg. The Oppo Find N has a 7.1-inch inner display co-developed with its Korean rival and an exterior 5.5-inch screen. Oppo says it has almost no crease in the inner fold, a big distinction from its pricier competitor. It will start at RMB 7,999 yuan ($1,250) in China from December 23, undercutting the $1,799 Galaxy Z Fold 3.
Consumers have been slow to adopt foldable phones, one of the industry’s biggest innovations of past years, in part because of high price tags and variable quality. Apple has so far avoided the category while Samsung and Huawei have offered devices as far back as 2019. Lenovo’s Motorola joined the race in 2020 with a foldable version of its classic Razr, but it too showed signs of being premature. Xiaomi launched its first offering earlier this year.
In 2021, Samsung scored robust sales with the more affordable $999 Galaxy Z Flip 3, encouraging rivals and potentially heralding a wave of devices next year. “Rival device makers appear hopeful they can build on Samsung’s market-making efforts with its Z-Flip and Z-Fold models,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight. “We’ll see a slew of folding smartphones in 2022.”
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