Oppo launches Find N6 as Apple foldable rumors circulate

Oppo, a Chinese smartphone maker, launched the Find N6 globally, a foldable phone that the company said uses upgraded hinge technology to make the screen crease “virtually imperceptible.”

The handset measures 8.93 mm when folded and weighs 225 grams.

It runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform.

Pete Lau, Oppo’s senior vice-president and chief product officer, said the crease has been a primary concern for users and that Oppo has worked on the issue since the original Find N.

The launch comes as the industry faces rising memory prices and growing buzz about an Apple foldable iPhone that some expect to debut this year.

Oppo announced price increases of 300 to 500 yuan (US$41 toUS$68) on some handsets last week to offset higher component costs; the company said the new prices took effect on March 16.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Oppo is holding its ground in foldables while it readies the Find N6

The global foldable market is forecast to reach 55 million units by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 114% since 2019 1.
Most of that momentum sits in China, which led the world by taking 26% of foldable shipments in 2022 1.
In China, Oppo’s Find N2 Flip took about 15% of the foldable smartphone market. Including Oppo Find N2 lifts the combined share to 22% 1.
Oppo is using the Find N6 to protect its place in a fast-growing category, as Samsung faces projections of a market-share slide 2.

Apple’s foldable roadmap could tighten a strained memory market

Reports place an Apple foldable launch in the second half of 2026. Analyst Jeff Pu says Apple may ship a foldable iPhone with the iPhone 18 Pro models, plus 12GB LPDDR5 memory (a type of mobile RAM used in smartphones) across the iPhone 18 lineup 3.
Memory pricing is rising. One report says 12GB LPDDR5X modules (a faster variant of LPDDR5 mobile RAM) doubled to $70 from $30 in about a year 4.
Pu forecasts a 4% drop in the overall smartphone market in 2026. He ties the hit to memory costs, with Android low-to-mid-end sales taking the brunt 3.
A report says Apple is weighing supply-chain moves to curb costs. That includes looking at Chinese suppliers Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), chipmakers that produce memory and storage components, for memory and storage chips tied to the iPhone 18 series plus other products 5.