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Oppo is back with a new foldable, and the Find N5 is a technically impressive balance of thinness and power. Skipping over the whole unlucky number four thing (this is technically the fourth iteration of the Find foldable), the company claims its latest book-style foldable is the worlds thinnest at 8.92mm. That's not a lot thicker than a typical flagship phone. Despite that, the Find N5 has a 6.62-inch outer display and an 8.12-inch inner screen which, Oppo says, features multiple durability improvements, flanked by a new titanium hinge. For the sake of clarity: While you may not have bought, used or even seen an Oppo phone, this company is under the same corporate owner as OnePlus. Last years Find N3 foldable ended up in the US as the OnePlus Open, so you may see the Find N5 similarly rebadged. If thats the case, and this is eventually the Open 2, you wont see it this year. OnePlus announced that its follow-up foldable will not land until 2025. At an early briefing, my first impression of the Find N5 was that it was a very thin, premium foldable. Unfolded, one side is just 4.21mm thinner than a headphone jack. (Thats a great excuse for the lack of one.) Its so slender that Oppo had to reinforce and beef up the edges of the Find N5s USB-C port, which has only a razor-thin border around it. The ring camera array which still looks a bit much has also been shaved down 20 percent. Mat Smith for Engadget In addition to that thinner profile, which seems to be the 2025 trend for phones, the Find N5 weighs just 229 grams (8.07 ounces). Thats only two more grams than the single-screen iPhone 16 Pro Max and 10 grams less than the N5's main rival the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Its even more impressive when you consider that the Find N5 has a bigger internal screen than all the other foldables. In fact, using its external screen when closed it feels like any other non-foldable phone, due to its sharp profile and light weight. A 6.62-inch screen is larger than most phones I use regularly, so browsing and watching things before Ive even unfolded the N5 feels like a treat. Despite its thickness (or lack thereof), Oppo has ensured it is suitably powerful, with a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and a 5,600mAh battery. (For comparison, Samsungs latest Galaxy Fold has a 4,400mAh cell.) Unlike the OnePlus Open, the Find N5 is compatible with wireless chargers and if you have Oppos own wireless fast charger, it tops out at 50W AIRVOOC. Using the included fast charger, you get an impressive and swift 80W wired charging speed. I could completely recharge the Find N5 in less than an hour. However, like many other recent Android phones, this device is not Qi2-ready. Oppo argued that its proprietary wireless charging tech is faster, and added that a magnetic case will be on sale when the device launches. (Oppo does include a non-magnetic case to cover the device's rear with the phone.) With its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, the Find N5 is the first foldable to pack Qualcomms most powerful mobile chip, with substantial power efficiency gains alongside performance boosts compared to older Snapdragon 8 silicon. Weve been amazed by battery life improvements on Samsung and OnePlus devices with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and Oppo continues that trend. Combined with that massive battery, this foldable typically lasted almost two days in my testing before needing to charge. One of the biggest challenges to foldables is durability, and to address this, Oppo has upgraded the Find N5s hinge and screen toughness. The hinge is now made from titanium alloy, 3D-printed to maintain the material strength while shrinking the hinges size by 26 percent. At a press briefing in London, the company decided to showcase the hinge strength by suspending a 44-pound kettlebell from its new foldable, which spanned two tables. Im not sure this translates to real-world toughness, but it was an impressive spectacle. Next time, put your newest thousand-dollar-plus device somewhere near a three-year-old lets see how tough it really is. Mat Smith for Engadget Oppo says the smaller external screen is made of nanocrystal glass, which includes an outer layer of ceramic to improve scratch and drop resistance. The company also says the inner screen has been strengthened with a new anti-shock film that can absorb impact, improving shock resistance by 70 percent. The Find N5 also comes with a literal list of water resistances: IPX6 (resistant to powerful water jets), IPX8 (resistant to being submersed in water deeper than 1 meter) and IPX9 (resistant to powerful, high-temperature water jets). If you think at least one of those must be redundant, I agree. The Find N5 is the first foldable to claim all that protection. However, theres no dust-resistance rating, which might concern existing foldable users who have been grappling with that lil bit of dust lodged in their years-old smartphone screen. Camera improvements are focused on the periscope telephoto shooter, which is upgraded to 50MP sensor from the 32MP one found on the Find N3. The Find N5 can now punch into 3X optical zoom, up from 2X on its predecessor. Theres a lossless 6X zoom that taps into AI to sharpen detail, but as usual, your mileage may vary here. I find the lossless options on most phones often a little too smooth (and turn most zoomed-in faces into nightmares), but at least its an option. The periscope telephoto camera can also utilize a macro mode, meaning you can zoom in closer and still maintain crisp focs and detail. Macro photography with a typical smartphone doesnt always work. Your phone will cast a shadow on your subject, or perhaps you cant get your camera close enough. On the Find N5, a four-inch focal distance makes this less of an issue, and early images are promising. Its not the first time weve seen the feature (both the Huawei P60 Pro and vivo X100 Ultra have telephoto macros) but its rare in most devices that make it to the west. We usually have to make do with a macro mode on the ultrawide camera, and hope for the best. Mat Smith for Engadget The camera has many familiar features, too: portrait mode (with some Hasselblad assistance) and Lightning Snap burst shooting. The latter is augmented by Oppos take on AI unblurring and sharpening. Fold in an AI eraser and reflection remover and it goes toe-to-toe with recent Samsung and Google flagships. Multitasking is similar to the OnePlus Open, with some improvements. Oppos version is called Boundless View, with several features now accessible from a triple-dot icon, where you can shift second and even third apps into shrinkable windows. By tapping the top bar above one app, you can automatically widen it, but leave a sliver of the other app in view, making it easier to switch between them. One smart touch is that the Find N5 will gauge your multitasking, offering a prompt when switching between two apps to use them in split screen mode. As someone who doesnt use book-style foldables, I find it a nice reminder of the utility of this form factor. Another software addition is the O+ app, where you can manage files on your phone and even sling them across to your Mac. At the briefing, an Oppo exec showed how easy it was to transfer a photo across devices, which was pretty unremarkable. (Think of all the cloud options we have in 2025) Mat Smith for Engadget But it was the Remote Mac Control that surprised me. With the Find N5 propped up and half-folded, the Oppo spokesperson used the onscreen trackpad and keyboard to interact with their Mac. This feature works with both Intel and Apple Silicon-based Macs, so I was able to test it out with my aging Intel MacBook Pro. Does anyone remember and pine for that VAIO laptop that could slip into your jeans pocket? No? Just me? Just me. Anyway, it felt like using that. Youre not going to work daily from it, but if there are files, or certain simple tasks you need to accomplish in Photoshop or other PC programs, its functional and impressive. Its not quite as effortless or seamless as Apples own Continuity feature, since you have to install apps on the Find N6 and your Mac. Oppo promises a future update allowing you to transfer files to your Mac from Find N5s native Files app without dabbling in Remote Mac Control. Wrap-up Mat Smith for Engadget With the Find N5, Oppo went to town on hardware. It feels and looks more premium than the companys previous foldables but with substantial spec bumps at a time when many smartphones seem a little iterative. (Yes, Samsung, you.) The intriguing part is, if the OnePlus Open 2 isnt happening in 2025, will this device make it to the US at all? And if it does appear next year, will all these upgrades be as impressive? The Find N5 launches globally today, with Oppo so far only announcing official pricing in Singapore: 2,499 Singapore Dollars. That equates to just below 1,500 in the UK, where it will go on sale, or shy of $1,900. That would put it at the same price point as the leading foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 6. However, it's much more interesting (and impressive) than Samsung's latest foldable. However, without US availability, this is just an exercise in currency conversion for now.We'll update this story when we get more precise availability. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/the-oppo-find-n5-hands-on-release-date-price-120058154.html?src=rss
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While graphics cards have been getting almost ludicrously more powerful over the years, it's also been increasingly difficult to actually buy one. In an effort to address this problem, NVIDIA has introduced a plan it's calling Verified Priority Access for its recently released GeForce RTX 50 series of GPUs. Verified Priority Access offers an unspecified number of people the chance to buy either a GeForce RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 Founders Edition graphics card direct from the company. This "opportunity" will only be available to US customers with an NVIDIA account that was created on or before January 30 at 9AM ET/6AM PT. Interested parties can sign up on a form and invites will be sent starting next week. NVIDIA took a similar approach to dealing with shortages of its 4090 card, although that was an invite-only pilot. This system could help keep more of the products away from scalpers or crypto operations in favor of legitimate customers. But considering how long GPU access has been an issue, it would be nice to see more robust responses coming from the manufacturers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/you-can-now-apply-for-the-opportunity-to-purchase-an-rtx-5090-or-5080-from-nvidia-235549765.html?src=rss
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Attention audiophiles: the archive of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop is being made available to the public for the first name. This department was founded in the 1950s as a laboratory that could invent original music and sound effects for BBC radio, and later television, programming. Over the years, its roster of innovative musicians and composers created audio for iconic BBC productions of the 1950s and 1960s such as Doctor Who, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Goon Show and Blake's 7. In addition to developing those signature sounds, members' work also laid early foundations for creating electronic music and sampling. In the words of Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres, the department "was purely for making bonkers noises." Now, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop library is being offered to today's creators to sample through a collaboration between Spitfire Audio and BBC Studios. This library includes sounds from the studio's original tapes as well as new recordings and content from the Workshop's members and associates. The collection has subheadings for topics such as found sounds, junk percussion and synths, so there's a lot of fascinating stuff to explore. It is available at an introductory price of $159 (119/143) until March 6; afterwards, the standard price will by $199 (149/179). This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/the-bbc-radiophonic-workshops-archive-is-now-available-to-sample-223100146.html?src=rss
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