From the first foldables to the latest and greatest options in the market, from stalwarts like Samsung and Honor, there’s one consistent issue that manufacturers can’t seem to overcome: the crease.
It makes sense when you think about it; when you fold something, it deforms, and a crease appears. It’s just physics. But for some reason, we’re expecting manufacturers to somehow overcome the most fundamental of things – though, to be fair, they’ve been doing a pretty good job at it.
Compared to the grand canyon of a crease that was present on Samsung’s first Fold back in 2019, the crease on modern phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Honor’s new Magic V6 is negligible. You can barely see them head-on, and compared to flip-style foldables with a horizontal crease, the vertical crease in the middle of the screen means you rarely actually touch it.
But it’s when you inevitably have to tap or swipe around the area of the crease that it becomes more apparent – as well as trying to look at the screen side-on, thanks to the overly reflective plastic screens foldables employ.
For phones whose entire schtick is focused around the big internal screen, it’s a compromise that many smartphone fans simply can’t get over – and I get it. It is a compromise on a phone that can cost easily double that of a pretty solid bar-style flagship like the Pixel 10.
However, with the upcoming Oppo Find N6, the company has managed the impossible; all but erased the crease.
Oppo has done the impossible with industry-first techniques
So, how has Oppo seemingly done the impossible? It all starts with the hinge – and an all-new manufacturing process Oppo has cooked up.
Rather than just stamping out parts and calling it a day, Oppo laser-scans every hinge component to build an ultra-precise digital model, then uses a new 3D liquid printing process to smooth out microscopic imperfections. Tiny droplets of photopolymer resin are placed exactly where they’re needed, filling in gaps and irregularities before being instantly hardened with UV light.
The end result is a hinge structure that’s far smoother and more consistent than traditional stamped or machined hardware, which in turn helps the inner display sit flatter when you open it up. In fact, Oppo claims that the dip is just 0.05mm deep – thinner than a human hair – compared to the 0.2mm variation found in foldables from Samsung and Honor.
The hardware itself has had an upgrade too. The hinge and its wing plates are now made from Grade-5 titanium alloy, making them lighter and stronger than the stainless steel used by many rivals, and allowing Oppo to use a wider waterdrop-style fold.
That wider folding area reduces the pressure on the panel every time you close the phone, which is one of the main reasons creases form in the first place. There’s also an updated carbon fibre support plate beneath the screen to keep everything rigid without adding weight.
The display itself has also had an upgrade, with a new Auto-Smoothing Flex Glass layer that replaces the ultra-thin glass (UTG) used in most other foldables right now. It’s 50% thicker than typical UTG, which gives it greater elasticity and makes it much more eager to spring back to its original shape after being bent.
That’s key for combating what Oppo engineers call “creep” – a slow shifting of internal layers that can deepen a crease over thousands of folds.
According to Oppo, this combination of titanium hinge, carbon fibre support and Auto-Smoothing Flex Glass delivers an 82% reduction in long-term crease depth compared to last year’s Find N5, and says the N6’s display remained essentially flat, with no visible crease, even after more than 600,000 folds, with the ability to survive up to 1 million folds.
More impressively, Oppo claims that after 200k folds, the crease measured just 11μm, compared to 72μm on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and 127μm on the Honor Magic V5, proving just how effective it is compared to some of the best foldables around in 2026.
It’s still there, but you really need to look for it
That’s a very fancy way of saying the Find N6’s internal foldable screen has practically no crease – and having used the phone for the past few weeks, I can confirm that’s largely the case.
If you really go hunting for it, the signs are still there. Angle the screen just right towards a light source and you’ll spot a subtle distortion along the middle – though only when the screen’s off – and a finger run across the hinge reveals a slight indentation.
But when I say slight, I really do mean slight. It’s almost imperceptible, and in day-to-day use I simply don’t notice it – aside from the odd moment when I’m actively marvelling at its absence. It has massively boosted my enjoyment of the internal panel as a result.
It really is as close to a crease-free experience as we’ve seen from any manufacturer so far, and it makes the usual foldable trade-off feel far less like a compromise. I’d be surprised if Apple’s first foldable, due later in 2026, can meaningfully beat what Oppo has managed here.
Much more to come next week
Of course, there’s much more to Oppo’s latest flagship foldable than just its disappearing crease, and you might’ve noticed a distinct lack of specs throughout this article – that’s very much on purpose.
Despite having had it in my pocket for the past couple of weeks, I can’t say much more about the Oppo Find N6 until the phone is officially unveiled at its launch event in China on 17 March, but it’s safe to say it’s shaping up to be one of the most exciting foldable launches of 2026.
The big question now is whether the Oppo Find N6 will actually get a global release; the Find N5 was limited to select Asian markets like Singapore, Malaysia and China, after all. If Oppo does go wider this time, it could genuinely threaten the dominance of Samsung and Honor in the foldable space – but for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.
