Winners and Losers: Oppo’s Find N foldable stuns while Apple delays key Mac feature
We might be inching closer to Christmas, but with CES 2022 a matter of weeks away the tech news scene certainly isn’t slowing down.
As usual, our weekly Winners and Losers column is here to fill you in the week of tech, highlighting the very best and the worst we’ve seen over the past seven days.
Winner: Oppo Find N
Oppo held its Inno day this week, showcasing some of its upcoming wares. We got a first look at the brand’s upcoming MariSilicon imaging NPU, a pair of smart glasses and it rounded things off with the reveal of its first foldable phone.
Foldable phones have finally started to improve in 2021, with Samsung leading the charge with its Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3. These happened to be the first foldable phones we could have happily recommended to those who could afford them. We had expected them to continue without a true rival in 2022 – and then the Oppo Find N came along.
Oppo’s first foldable is something quite special, and we say this with confidence even though we’ve only spent a few days using it.
There are similarities to Samsung’s Z Fold, but many differences and clear improvements. The squatter 5.49-inch outer display, for instance, feels more like a traditional phone, while there’s no hefty air gap to deal with the device is folded up.
We also prefer the way the internal 7.1-inch sits in the landscape orientation. There’s no skimping on this display either, with LTPO tech allowing it to ramp up to 120Hz when required. Other specs include a Snapdragon 888 chipset with 5G, 512GB storage, a 50MP rear main camera and a 4500mAh battery.
Oppo has even managed to make the dreaded crease – the visible fold in the middle of the inner display – virtually invisible. That certainly gets the thumbs up from us.
Sadly, the Oppo Find N won’t be coming to the UK so Samsung can rest easy for now. Still, for impressing us so much it deserves its spot as this week’s winner.
Loser: Apple delays Universal Control
Apple released its latest bout of software updates for Mac and iOS this week and it confirmed one feature wouldn’t be making it – Universal Control. Considering it wasn’t present in any of the betas this wasn’t a surprise, but we did get confirmation that the wait for the big addition to arrive will be until Spring 2022.
Universal Control gives Mac users access to more screen real estate via a connected iPad. You’ll be able to use a mouse or trackpad and keyboard and drag and drop content between the devices. In all the demos we’ve seen it looks very handy.
Apple first announced the feature at WWDC in June and it was seen as arguably the most interesting feature to arrive as part of macOS Monterey. Now we’ll have to well into 2022 to finally get to use it.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
