Despite the fact that the OPPO Find N6 has not officially launched yet, 57 HardwareZone forum members were already holding one, turning it over in their hands, folding and unfolding it, running their thumbs across the display, trying to find the crease on the afternoon of 14 March. For most of them, the reaction was the same: a slightly incredulous grin.
This was the OPPO Find N6 World’s First Premiere Showcase, held at the SPH Auditorium, co-hosted by OPPO and HardwareZone. It was also the first member event HardwareZone had run since Covid, and the response had been, as the sign-up page put it, “overwhelming”. Demand far exceeded the venue’s capacity, and 57 lucky members were selected from the entries submitted.
Each confirmed attendee arrived knowing they were getting something most people in the world had not had access to yet, alongside a gift pack that included a high-speed OPPO power bank and a special event voucher for a discount on the Find N6. Not a bad afternoon’s work.
Setting the scene
Known to many as “Dr Vijay” in the forums, or also known as my boss, the editor-in-chief of HardwareZone, shares his knowledge of OPPO’s history.
Photo: OPPO
Kicking off the session was HardwareZone’s own Editor-in-Chief, Vijay Anand, who took the audience on a brief history of OPPO. For Vijay, the story goes back further than most would expect: he first encountered the brand not through smartphones, but through their high-end Blu-ray and media players. It was the kind of unexpected origin story that set the tone for an evening that kept things personal and grounded, rather than slick and corporate.
Dylan Yu, OPPO Singapore’s Head of Marketing and E-commerce
Photo: OPPO
Then came Dylan Yu, OPPO Singapore’s Head of Marketing and E-commerce, who took centre stage to walk members through the Find N6 in detail: what it took to make the crease disappear, the engineering behind the hinge, the productivity tools built around the larger canvas, and the camera system that OPPO says puts a foldable phone properly in the conversation alongside today’s flagship bars.
It’s also worth noting that some of the improvements to the Find N6 came directly from feedback enthusiastic HardwareZone members had submitted through the OPPO User Group in our Forums. That is not a small thing. The people in the room that afternoon had, in some small but real way, contributed to the phone they were now holding.
Going creaseless
Marveling at the lack of a crease!
Photo: OPPO
For anyone who has used a foldable phone, the crease is the thing. It is there when you watch a video. You feel it when you write or swipe across the screen. And there is always that low-level anxiety about whether it will get worse over time. OPPO clearly understands this because Yu spent considerable time explaining exactly what the company had done about it.
The solution comes in two parts. The first is what OPPO calls the 2nd-Generation Titanium Flexion Hinge, described as the industry’s flattest hinge. The engineering goal was to ensure that the screen never “lifts” or “bulges” at the fold. The second is the Auto-Smoothing Flex Glass, a self-springing glass material engineered so that the crease bounces back rather than settles into a permanent line.
