Oppo’s first foldable phone could be out next month

The wait is almost over… maybe

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While we’ve recently seen some weird and wonderfulprototype devicesfrom Oppo that play around with what’s possible from a smartphone screen, we’re still waiting for a true foldable from the company – a wait that could soon be over.

According to a tip from aChinese source(viaGSMArena), the foldable handset is going to break cover next month, November 2021. It’s been rather quiet on the foldable phone front recently, so a brand new device would certainly be welcome.

This particular leak suggests the new device will be sporting an 8-inch, 120Hz refresh rate screen, but we don’t get many other details. We’ve actually been waiting for an Oppo foldable phone to arrive formost of this year.

The joy of specs

While this particular leak doesn’t give us much in the way of information besides that release window,previous leakshave. It sounds as though the foldable could be powered by a Snapdragon 888 chipset, like many top-end Android smartphones of 2021.

There will be a 32MP camera on the front and a 50MP camera on the back apparently, with Android 11 the software on board the phone. WhileAndroid 12is now rolling out to Pixel handsets, it’s going to take a while for it to arrive on other devices.

What we don’t know yet is what sort of price this foldable phone will be available for, which is likely to go a long way to determining how much of a success it is. As soon as anything is made official by Oppo, we will of course let you know.

Analysis: the rise of the foldable

Foldables have been with us for several years now, but it’s fair to say they haven’t really broken into the mainstream yet. That could well change in 2022, thanks to Oppo and other phone manufacturers thinking of pushing out foldable handsets in the future.

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While thePixel 6and thePixel 6 Proare now official, we still haven’t heard anything fromGoogleitself about the long-rumoredPixel Fold. If and when it does appear, it’s likely to push up interest in this particular form factor by several notches.

Then of course there’s the as-yet-unconfirmedfoldable iPhone:Appledoesn’t like to rush in when it comes to new technologies, so by the time that an iPhone Fold shows up (if it ever does), we would expect foldable phones to be pretty well established.

In the meantime, we’ve got the likes of theSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, theSamsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, theMotorola Razrand others flying the flag for foldables. They remain on the expensive side, but that will change as the cost of the technology comes down.

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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