OPPO Liu Zuohu Experience is more important than specifications, the form of the N2 has become history.

Experience Over Specs OPPO's Liu Zuohu on Why Function Trumps Form for the N2

【Mobile China】 After a two-month break, OPPO held another press conference to officially announce its latest foldable product, the OPPO Find N3. Compared to its previous two foldable products, the OPPO Find N3 has significant differences in its product concept and ID design, and it also aligns with mainstream foldable products in terms of screen ratio and internal screen size. Moreover, OPPO has placed a high priority on the imaging experience of this product. Not only is it compared to other foldable screen products, but even in the official promotion, it claims to be comparable to a one-inch flagship camera, making it a very unique presence among foldable screen products.

As a traditional art form of OPPO flagship product launches, the post-conference group interview session is essential. OPPO’s senior vice president and chief product officer, Pete Liu Zuohu, is definitely a key figure who wouldn’t be absent. This time, OPPO Find N series product director Zhou Yibao and OPPO software product manager Zhu Haizhou also join the media. Of course, the content of this group interview focuses on the product. In some of the answers, I can also see Pete’s understanding of foldable screen products. Here are a few questions that I think are worth sharing with everyone.

In the one-hour group interview session, Pete was asked the most frequent or most related questions about the previous Find series foldable screen flagship devices, namely the “little chubby” Find N and Find N2. These two unique products can be said to be successful, and therefore, they are beloved by many people. But the emergence of Find N3 also brings them back to reality. How does OPPO view these changes in size?

Zhou Yibao, the director of the OPPO Find N series, said that OPPO’s pursuit of foldable screens is all about achieving a very good tactile experience and not solely focusing on specific data and dimensions. “The first generation of foldables achieved the industry’s shallowest crease, and at that time, the machines were either very large or very heavy. We chose a good size to balance the tactile experience and the crease very well. For the second generation, we made the weight even lighter than the traditional flat screen devices.” So this is the reason why OPPO chose this size and scheme at the time. “We have now discovered that business professionals need a flagship with a large screen, flagship imaging, and flagship portability. In order to achieve these three flagships in one device, Find N3 is our chosen solution.” While maintaining the same weight as the previous generation, OPPO Find N3 has reduced its thickness and achieved a better imaging experience through folding pixel technology, which is what OPPO wants to offer users with this foldable product. Zhou Yibao also believes that the external screen of this model is a standard 20:9 flat screen, which can seamlessly switch with previous flat screen devices. “We discovered that the vertical screen experience is more in line with the logic of adapting to the entire Android experience in the overseas market. When considering the logic of global user experience, the choice of Find N3 is the most perfect solution at present.”

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In other issues, Pete also said, “Find N2 has indeed become history, as I said, technology is evolving, for example, the thickness of Find N2 is thicker than Find N3. The small size naturally has limited space, so the thickness will increase. Therefore, the latter size clearly tells you that there won’t be another one.”

In the entire press conference, the two points that impressed me the most were panoramic virtual screen and OPPO File Freedom. Especially for the former, it provides a new approach to multi-application switching in the Android ecosystem. Some people also asked if this feature will be updated in Find N2 in the future. Regarding this, OPPO software product manager Zhu Haizhou said, “From the beginning of the project for the panoramic virtual screen, we never intended to abandon our old users. We will definitely provide it for our old users. This time, the software features of Find N2 and Find N3 are synchronized. Find N2 may have an improvement in the early version next year, and we will also ensure smoothness. In addition, for the pad version, its aspect ratio, size, and folding mechanism are different from the foldable phone, so we will adjust the adaptation plan accordingly. It will be implemented later than the foldable phone, and we will make it more efficient for multitasking.”

Later, some media mentioned the issue of the stylus pen, and Zhou Yibao clearly expressed that OPPO Find N3 supports the OPPO Pen stylus pen. One upgrade point is that in Find N2, the stylus pen can only be used on the internal screen, but in Find N3, it can be used on both the internal and external screens. They have been optimizing this pen, whether it’s sensitivity or compatibility with third-party applications. Zhou Yibao also mentioned that Find N3 has many upgrades and highlights compared to the previous model, but due to time constraints, only the most important ones were mentioned.

At the scene, some media were curious about the timing of the OPPO Find N3, as users familiar with the digital field would know that Qualcomm will release the new flagship mobile chip platform, Snapdragon 8Gen 3, next week. They wondered if OPPO’s new product release at this time would affect the sales.

Pete said that before the group interview, Zhou Yibao told him about the current pre-order situation. After the pre-orders started, the number of pre-orders in the first hour was 1.4 times that of Find N2, and the proportion of the Collectors’ Edition exceeded 30%. “Mr. Zhang” saw this as a very good performance, and obviously, a proportion of over 30% for the Collectors’ Edition was enough to make him happy. In his opinion, “The release time is not the key. The most important thing is whether your product is good or not.” Pete also believes that a large part of the target users for big foldable products will not pursue specifications. If this platform can meet their needs, then time is not a problem for OPPO. The most important thing is to make a good product.

So, those are the issues that I think are worth sharing with everyone, especially the topic of whether Find N2 can receive updates. This is like a reassurance for many old users, and I hope these users can start using the panoramic virtual screen as soon as possible.

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