Oppo is about to launch the world's thinnest foldable phone

Thin phones are back in fashion.

Apple is rumored to launch a thinner version of the iPhone, called the iPhone Air, in the fall. But China's Oppo is trying to steal some of Apple's thunder with the Oppo Find N5, which the company claims will be the world's thinnest foldable phone.

Oppo posted a teaser this week that indicated the Find N5 is indeed an extremely thin device, as it's significantly thinner than a common pencil.

Oppo's chief product officer, Pete Lau, shared the image of the device on Weibo (via GSMArena). Details are scarce, but the post does say that the phone is coming in February.

When it comes to regular smartphones, I'm not entirely convinced that thinner is better; a device that's too thin can be easier to damage (remember Bendgate?) and sometimes it's just easier to manage a phone that has a little heft in the hand. For foldables, however, thinner is better, as most foldable phones are still significantly heavier and thicker than regular devices. A foldable phone this thin feels like having your cake and eating it too — you get that extra screen real estate without sacrificing pocketability.

Right now, the thinnest foldable phone around is Honor Magic V3, which is only 4.35 millimetres thick when unfolded and 9.2 millimetres thick when folded, so expect Oppo's new phone to be a little thinner than that.

There's no official word on specs, but rumors say that the Oppo Find N5 will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, a triple, 50-megapixel rear camera system, and a 5,900mAh camera.

While the Oppo Find N5 will likely only be available in China, it's quite possible that Oppo's sister company OnePlus launches it as the OnePlus Open 2 — after all, that's exactly what Oppo did with the Oppo Find N3 and the OnePlus Open.