OPPO has had quite the run with its own foldable phones, so while hearing about some of them getting rebranded for specific markets is not surprising, hearing about them getting outright cancelled is. But that’s what has happened in the span of two months, with two separate claims of the brand cancelling its foldable phones, complete with a company denial in the middle.
Industry leaktser Yogesh Brar claimed on X, previously Twitter, to have a list of upcoming foldable phones for the year. In the list, the clamshell-type OPPO Find N5 Flip is notably being labelled as getting cancelled. Which is a tad odd, as book-style version, the Find N5, as well as a potential rebadge in the form of the OnePlus Open 2, are still on track to being released at some point this year.
2024 Foldables lineup:
– Galaxy Z Fold6 & Z Flip6 (Global)
– OPPO Find N5 (Global)
– Samsung W25 & W25 Flip (China)
– OnePlus Open 2 (Global)
– Xiaomi Mix Fold 4 (Global)
– Xiaomi Mix Flip (China)
– Vivo X Fold3 (Global)
– Vivo X Flip 2 (China)OPPO Find N5 Flip – Cancelled…
— Yogesh Brar (@heyitsyogesh) March 6, 2024
Making this claim more surprising is that a previous rumour claiming that OPPO is shutting down its foldable endeavours outright has been shot down by the company, via a statement to GSMArena. That being said, technically speaking cancelling one model is not the same as giving up on foldables entirely.
While OPPO is the only one claimed to be outright cancelling its clamshell foldable, it’s not exactly an outlier, depending on the way you look at it. If the list is accurate, fellow Chinese brands Xiaomi and vivo will continue to produce both book- and clamshell-type foldables, but they will be locking the latter to their home market.
At any rate, such rumours should already be taken with a pinch of salt, and now with new claims contradicting a prior official statement, it’s especially the case here. We’ll find out for sure when each get their own respective announcements, but for OPPO specifically we may be in for a long wait, judging from when the N3 family was launched.
(Source: @heyitsyogesh / X, GSMArena, Hankyung)
