by Sitting in on a question and answer session led by several members of Oppo’s senior product and strategy teams on the first day of this year’s Mobile World Congress, we had to give us an insight into the company’s current approach to the foldable market and why it feels like it’s not the time. t right for such technology to trickle down to the mid-range space.
While we’ve been able to fork over cash for foldables for about three years, the materials, engineering and hardware that go into such devices make them significantly more expensive than similar options that don’t need to be for them to bend at the waist. .
A week before MWC 2023, Oppo released its world’s first foldable shell, the Oppo Find N2 Flip. Despite being great value for a foldable smartphone (at £849 in the UK), it’s still priced for plenty of users who would welcome the convenience of a compact foldable in their pocket.
When asked if there was room for flip or flip style phones with a mid-range price point, Oppo’s Vice President of Overseas Sales and Service, Billy Zhang, had a lot to say in response.
Speaking through a translator, Zhang explained, “Now, when we talk about a product like (mid-range folding), we have to think whether it can really deliver a good experience, because in order to try to hit the middle range. price band range, if we sacrifice things like SoC (the chipset) or imaging, that would not be good. Because, if we cut corners with the SoC, we will not be able to the computing power of the also maximize imaging.”
Zhang continued, “As shipments of foldable products increase, then certainly, there will be more room for cost reduction – from a supply chain perspective, but this process will take time.”
You’d think that was what she wrote; Zhang asserted that cutting corners to bring such a device to market would harm the user and until shipments increase, costs are unlikely to decrease.
If competitors want to do it, let them do it.
Billy Zhang, Oppo
Zhang was clearly not done; he was keen to enhance the potential and viability of mid-range foldables.
“I’d like to share more ideas about reducing the costs of flip phones,” he continued. “Some initial ideas could be removing the cover screen, cutting corners with the SoC, cutting corners with the camera.
“But when we talk about the flip phone, if we remove the cover screen, that’s definitely not a good experience, because the cover screen is important to give you more convenience to check quick notifications and things like that. Or if you cut corners in the SoC, that will have an impact as well.”
“In six months or maybe longer, there could be flip phones like this on the market, but they could cut corners – like using plastic in their frames or the cover screen remove – but definitely, that’s not a good thing. experience for us; that is not what we (Oppo) want to do. If competitors want to do it, let them do it. User experience is our first consideration.”
Affordable folders, but at what cost?
Based on Zhang’s statements, it is unlikely that we will see a foldable with a much lower price tag anytime soon.
Oppo wants to be uncompromising in its approach to product development and its message is that the user experience comes first; feature of any device that is guaranteed to suffer if you start using basic interaction methods (like cover display) or features.
However, Zhang left the door open for other manufacturers to make the tough call on what needs to be cut to bring a familiar folding experience to the mid-range market. The question then is, who will be first?
Check out our rundown of the best folders and you can find out more about the Oppo Find N2 series while you’re at it.
