Oppo’s new folding phone transforms into a teeny-tiny MacBook

Macworld

The Apple ecosystem enables a lot of great interactions, but there’s one thing we can’t do—access our Macs on our iPads and iPhones. We can share files, sync email, and share photos, but we can’t just log into a virtual version of our Mac on our other devices.

If you buy one of Oppo’s new Find N5 foldable phones, however, you’ll be able to do just that. Using Oppo’s O+ Connect for iOS and macOS, you can work remotely on your Mac no matter where you are. You can use it full screen on your phone like a tablet or fold it in half to bring up a keyboard and use it like a miniature laptop.

According to The Verge, the software includes multi-touch gestures as well as a “clunky” mouse cursor and “some buttons that recreate common keyboard shortcuts.” Not a perfect experience, perhaps. But if you’ve ever wanted to access your Mac’s desktop on your phone while on the road, this is the first and only way to do it. The image above of someone using a ridiculously small keyboard as if it were a MacBook is a little outlandish, but the idea is still intriguing.

Apple introduced a similar feature in reverse with macOS 15 last fall with iPhone Mirroring. Instead of accessing their Mac on an iPhone, users can access their iPhone’s screen on their Mac when both are connected to the same network. It’s not hard to imagine it expanding to remote access in macOS 16, nor is it unrealistic to think Apple could make a similar system for accessing your Mac on an iPad Pro.

With persistent rumors that Apple is working on a foldable device, this is a feature that Mac users would absolutely love. With Apple unlikely to ever add touch support to the MacBook, the ability to run a virtualization of their Mac desktop on their iPhone is an appealing alternative. But if you don’t want to wait until 2027, go grab yourself a Find N5 and try it out right now.