One of the few smartphone makers trying to compete with Samsung in the foldable phone market has just dropped some intriguing news. Oppo now claims that its Find N3 Flip and Find N3 foldable devices have been certified by TUV Rheinland for 1 million folds, surpassing Samsung's Z Flip and Fold devices.
What's curious is that, upon launching the Find N3 Flip in August, the company said the device is rated for 600,000 folds. But after the Find N3 (the OnePlus Open clone) was unveiled in October, the company said both devices are certified for 1,000,000 folds (each).
Exactly why this rating has changed is unclear. Perhaps the methodology has changed, but there's no information on the matter. Maybe Oppo took a wild guess when it mentioned 600,000 folds and the phones performed better at TUV Rheinland than expected.
Story continues after our Galaxy Z Flip 5 review video
In contrast, Samsung uses a different certification body to rate the durability of its foldable phones. In collaboration with Bureau Veritas, Samsung officially rated the Galaxy Z Flip 5 for 200,000 folds.
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 exceeded this figure in a brutal independent test that pitted the phone against the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra. The Z Flip 5 finally broke after 400,000 folds and being covered entirely in flour, egg, sugar, and cornmeal.
Time will tell if Oppo's foldables will outlive Samsung's
Up to this moment, other foldable phones have never beaten the durability of the Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold lineups. But the Oppo foldables have a much higher rating. Too high to ignore.
If the test methodologies used by Samsung and Oppo are anything similar, then the Oppo Find N3 series should perform better than the Galaxy Z lineup in durability tests and over the years. In laboratory conditions, at least.
In practice, it's worth noting that the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 benefit from an IPX8 water-resistance rating, whereas Oppo's foldables are only splash-resistant at IPX4. In real-life situations, Samsung's higher IP rating might help its foldable phones survive longer than the Find N3 series, even with Oppo's impressive 1-million-fold claims.
