One of the best things about modern smartphones is their ability to take excellent, almost-professional quality photos with ease. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is one of the best camera phones, packing in a 200MP main camera lens that few others can match. Not to mention a 50MP ultrawide camera, 50MP telephoto lens (5x optical zoom) and 10MP secondary telephoto (3x zoom).

However, the S26 Ultra is far from the only phone with such impressive hardware. The newly-released Oppo Find X9 Ultra also offers a 200MP main camera, but unlike Samsung, that high-resolution lens has not come alone. Oppo also included a 200 MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom as well, plus a 50MP ultrawide shooter and secondary telephoto lens capable of 50MP resolution and 10x optical zoom.

As we're fond of saying here at Tom's Guide, the camera hardware only tells part of the story. The quality of the final photo relies on so many other factors, including computational photography software. This means you can't conclusively say which camera produces better photos until you put them to the test.

So we did exactly that, taking over 150 photos with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and the Oppo Find X9 Ultra. So which one produced the best photos? Read on to find out.

Camera specs compared

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Daytime

When it comes to the main camera, the Oppo definitely has an advantage in terms of coloring. The photos came out richer and less washed out than the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which seems to have ramped up the brightness a little more than I would like.

That said, the coloring can't make up for the fact that the Galaxy S26 Ultra has produced much crisper photos with a lot more detail and less blur — especially when you look closely at the subject.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Ultrawide

When it comes to the Ultrawide lens, the coloring comes out a little differently, with the Oppo offering a brighter and slightly more oversaturated shot compared to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Both offer fairly similar-looking photos and the dynamic range on both is about equal.

But when it comes down to it, the Oppo has managed to pick up a lot more detail with its own 50MP ultrawide camera. Sadly, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra produces good photos at a glance, the quality is such that you would struggle to read the names on the memorial — an issues the Oppo didn't really have.

Winner: Oppo Find X9 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Zoom (3x)

When it comes to the 3x magnification, I can't say either phone produced a particularly good shot. For Samsung, that's a little understandbale, since the 3x optical zoom is powered by a 10MP telephoto lens. But since the Oppo's 3x lens offers 200MP resolution, I had hoped for a better photo. Alas, this was not to be.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra suffers from too much brightness, to the point where you can barely see the brown in my smaller dog's fur. The Oppo manages to capture the colors a little better, without letting the sun overpower everything, but the quality is noticeably worse. Both dogs are blurry and out of focus, and in general it does not look like a good photo.

Winner: Draw

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Zoom (10x)

The 10x zoom is equally bad on the Oppo Find X9 Ultra, in fact, it almost looks like the same shot when you look closely. It makes me wonder whether The Oppo has cropped a higher resolution photo to give the illusion of longer optical zoom.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra shot is a significant improvement over the 3x magnification, likely aided by the higher 50MP resolution. The quality is significantly better, letting you almost make out a lot of the finer details on both my dogs. The shot is still quite bright, but its nowhere close to the brightness we saw on the 3x shot.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Low Light

When it comes to low-light photography, it's clear that the Oppo captured a much better shot. Not only is its photo of the church brighter than the one from Samsung, but there's also significantly more detail on display — both on the church itself and the surrounding foliage.

Samsung's photo isn't bad, per se, and it features more natural coloring. However, the building is a lot blurrier, and the foliage looks more like a mess of green and brown. Overall, it's nowhere near as impressive.

Winner: Oppo Find X9 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Selfie

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra has a 50MP front-facing selfie camera, and it's easy to assume that such a hi-res lens will run rings around the Galaxy S26 Ultra's 12MP shooter. But that's not the case. Both cameras produced some exceptional selfies, but there's a clear winner.

The Oppo definitely produced the brighter photo with more true-to-life colors, especially in the bright sunlight, but the finer details just aren't there. The Samsung managed to capture a lot of smaller details, including my dog's fur, as well as my own stubble and stray gray hairs.

It even picked up the loose dog hairs on my clothes, something that every Labrador owner will be able to empathize with.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Portrait

It's a totally different story with Portrait mode switched on. It seems Samsung's selfie camera has given up, failing to adapt to the light shining through the trees and blurring up my face in the process of shooting the photo.

That's not to say the Oppo has fared much better, and the quality of the shot is significantly worse than the one taken by the regular selfie camera.

Still, the photo is a lot clearer than the one produced by Samsung, and the bokeh effect has seamlessly been applied around my person — adapting perfectly to the slightly unkempt nature of my hair. The S26 Ultra sadly added a weird halo effect around me, which makes a bad shot look even worse.

Winner: Oppo Find X9 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Color

When it comes to color reproduction, it seems both phones perform similarly. While Oppo didn't focus on the flowers the way I'd prefer, you can't deny that it managed to recreate the various colors in the shot pretty well — from the orchid to the blue Ikea bag hanging out in the background.

Samsung's colors seem a little more vivid in this shot, but they are no less realistic compared to the Oppo Find X9 Ultra.

Winner: Draw

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Macro

Macro photography is a little tricky, especially since Galaxy S26 Ultra and Find X9 Ultra both have automatic macro modes that can't be triggered manually. This can lead to focusing issues with the final shot, and it was a recurring problem with the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

When the Galaxy could focus on macro shots correctly, the quality of the photos was impressive and on par with the Oppo Find X9 Ultra. Unfortunately, the issues actually getting the macro shots count against it, and it means the Oppo's consistently good photos come out on top.

Winner: Oppo Find X9 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Panorama

The interesting thing about the panorama shots on both these phones is how they present the final product. Oppo's camera is narrower, but stretches the panoramic view out a little more — which means the scene doesn't look so bunched up.

Samsung does the opposite, squashing the landscape into a skinnier shot, but making up the difference by capturing more of the vertical axis. That certainly makes the Galaxy panorama look a lot goofier-looking when you look at the two side by side. To make matters worse, the actual quality of everything in shot isn't as crisp, which gives the Oppo camera a clear win.

Winner: Oppo Find X9 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Verdict

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra camera is a lesson in why better camera hardware doesn't always mean better results. As impressive as its performance was in this shootout, across multiple key categories, I can't help but feel disappointed by its zooming performance.

The fact that a 200MP telephoto lens couldn't easily outmatch a 10MP lens is downright embarrassing. More so when you consider that the photo at 10x magnification was just as bad. Then again, the Galaxy S26 Ultra's awkward macro mode performance isn't exactly something to write home about.

Still, seeing the results of this shootout suggests that just because a phone has a grand history of taking better photos, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's always going to stay that way. It should be a warning to Samsung that it needs to stop being so complacent with its camera hardware — especially if the software isn't going to pick up the slack.

Both the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Oppo Find X9 Ultra can take some great photos. But it seems as though Oppo has the slight upper hand right now. At least in terms of background quality from its main and ultrawide lenses.

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When it comes to smartphones, we're basically living in two different worlds right now. On one side, you have brands like Samsung and Apple still sticking with lithium-ion batteries, while on the other, companies like Oppo, and Xiaomi have moved to silicon-carbon battery tech.

This change means that silicon-carbon batteries on these newer flagships are often around 25-35% larger than what traditional lithium-ion phones offer. Yet, brands like Apple and Samsung still claim "all-day battery life" in their presentations.

And to be fair, that does hold up... to an extent. We've seen phones like the iPhone 17 Pro Max outperform a lot of Android flagships, including the Galaxy S26 Ultra, when it comes to battery life.

But how well does that claim stand when you compare it to phones with much larger silicon-carbon batteries? I put the iPhone 17 Pro Max up against the Oppo Find X9 Ultra to see which one actually lasts longer and charges faster, and the results genuinely surprised me.

Hardware and specs

Before we get into the test results, let's quickly go through the hardware and internal specs of these phones. While Apple doesn't officially publish battery capacities of the iPhones, credible reports suggest the iPhone 17 Pro Max packs an estimated 4,823mAh battery on models with a SIM tray, while the U.S. eSIM-only version is said to feature a larger 5,088mAh cell.

This is a noticeable jump over previous models. Alongside the bigger battery, Apple has also upgraded the cooling system on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, adding vapor cooling for the first time to manage heat from the A19 Pro chipset. It also supports faster wired charging, going up to 40W with the right charger.

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra, on the other hand, packs a massive 7,050mAh silicon-carbon battery. This is easily one of the biggest you'll find on an 'Ultra' flagship. It also leads in charging speeds, with support for up to 100W wired charging.

On top of this, similar to most flagship phones in 2026, the Find X9 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, and Oppo has included its 3D Cryo-velocity cooling system to keep temperatures in check during heavy use and maintain sustained performance.

Overall, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra clearly holds the lead on paper and is already shaping up to be one of the top contenders for the best battery life phones, but does that actually translate to real-world usage? Here's what we found.

Battery life & YouTube test

To run the battery test, we put both the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and the iPhone 17 Pro Max through a YouTube playback test to see how they hold up. We played the same YouTube video at 1080p resolution over Wi-Fi on both phones, kept brightness levels similar (around 50%), and ran the test for three hours starting from 100%.

After the three-hour mark, the iPhone 17 Pro Max dropped to 90%, which is honestly very impressive on its own. However, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra managed to go a step further, ending the test at 94% after the same three hours of playback.

This shows that while Apple has made solid improvements with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra clearly comes out ahead when it comes to battery life in this test.

The gap may not look massive on paper, but losing just 6% over three hours of continuous video playback is something you don't see often, and — extrapolated out — it gives you a lot of confidence the Find X9 Ultra can comfortably last a full day, no matter how you use it.

Charging test

No matter how big the battery is, you'll have to charge your phone sooner or later, so we also tested the charging speeds.

For this, we used Apple's 40W charger (with a 60W peak output) for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, while the Oppo Find X9 Ultra was charged using a OnePlus 100W SuperVOOC charger. Since OnePlus and Oppo share the same charging tech, and the Find X9 Ultra supports the same 100W speeds, this setup shouldn't skew the results.

Apple claims the iPhone 17 Pro Max can hit 50% in around 20 minutes. In our testing, it reached 35% in 15 minutes and 64% in 30 minutes, which is still pretty solid.

But once again, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra pulls ahead. It reached 44% in 15 minutes and 74% in 30 minutes, and that's while charging a much larger battery, which makes the result even more impressive.

Bottom line

Overall, this test once again shows that while Apple has clearly improved the battery life and charging speeds on the iPhone 17 Pro Max, competitors in the Eastern markets are pushing things even further.

Speaking for myself, the Find X9 Ultra is easily one of the best phones I've used in a while, not just for battery life, but also for its camera performance and overall design.

It really makes me wonder how much better Apple and Samsung devices could get once they finally adopt silicon-carbon battery tech. But until that happens, it doesn't feel like they're quite catching up to what brands like Oppo are doing right now.

More from Tom's Guide

• These 9 hidden Android settings will give your phone longer battery life
• Just bought an iPhone 17 Pro Max? Here are the 7 settings I recommend you change first
• Samsung Galaxy S26 still has the same battery tech as older phones — but silicon-carbon is still in the works

Silicon-carbon (Si-C) batteries are here, and are here to stay. Almost every flagship and mid-range phone made by Chinese manufacturers in the past two years — even those sold in the US (like the OnePlus 15) — now pack fast-charging Si-C batteries with capacities ranging from 6,000mAh (Xiaomi 17 Ultra) to 10,000mAh (Realme P4 Power). Yet Apple, Google, and Samsung have been reluctant to adopt this new battery technology.

That’s why ultra-thin handsets like Apple’s iPhone Air (3,190mAh) and Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge (3,900mAh) deliver merely adequate battery life, while Honor’s 6.1mm thick Magic8 Pro Air (5,500mAh Si-C) easily cruises along for over a day on a charge. It’s the same with many of the best foldable phones. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold7 comes with a measly 4,400mAh cell, while Oppo’s Find N6 and Honor’s Magic V6 boast 6,000 and 6,660mAh Si-C batteries, respectively.

Poke around the Internet, and you’ll find a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) about Si-C batteries. Last year, I asked a Google exec on the Pixel team when Google would start using Si-C batteries in Pixel handsets, and the response I received was — and I paraphrase — that Si-C batteries aren’t mature, safe, or durable. Meanwhile, every Chinese phone I’ve used with a Si-C battery (like Oppo’s awesome Find X9 Pro) has been a revelation.

Because, as it turns out, two-day battery life is a game changer. So what’s going on here? Are Si-C batteries really unsafe? Are durability and longevity an issue? Is there a cost or manufacturing barrier? I decided to go directly to the source and interview experts at Honor, OnePlus, and Oppo about Si-C batteries. I talked to Hope Cao, Honor senior product expert, and Rudolf Xu, senior product marketing manager, OnePlus. Here’s what I found out.

Note: Oppo was unable to participate in this interview because of scheduling constraints (Chinese/Lunar New Year followed by Mobile World Congress). But since OnePlus and Oppo are related companies, it’s safe to assume that OnePlus and Oppo share almost identical Si-C battery technology.

Si-C batteries are mature and improving rapidly

It’s pretty clear that standard Lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells with traditional graphite anodes have hit a limit when it comes to energy density. By adding silicon content to the anode, Si-C batteries offer vastly higher capacities in the same physical space. But silicon in anodes expands and contracts a lot during charges and discharges, and is challenging to integrate safely into cells. And that’s where each manufacturer’s secret sauce comes in.

Honor was an early player, delivering the industry's first Si-C battery in a phone back in 2023, with the Magic5 Pro. The company’s progress has been remarkably aggressive ever since. For the Magic V6’s fifth-generation Si-C battery, Honor and partner ATL were able to achieve 25% silicon content. But the 1TB Chinese market version of the Magic V6 features 32% silicon content, resulting in a folding phone with a massive 7,150mAh battery. As Honor's Cao puts it, this milestone is "marking the start of the 7,000 mAh era for foldable phones".

OnePlus joined the party a bit later with the OnePlus 13, which featured 10% silicon content. For its latest flagship, the OnePlus 15, the company’s proprietary Silicon NanoStack design managed to raise the silicon content to a 15% industry high. By combining this with a custom dual-cell architecture, the OnePlus 15 packs a whopping 7,300mAh Si-C battery into a standard candy-bar smartphone footprint.

Si-C batteries are enabling ultra-sleek designs

The most immediate consumer benefit of Si-C batteries is their profound impact on industrial design. Since these cells deliver significantly higher energy densities, manufacturers like Honor, OnePlus, and Oppo are able to offer thinner form factors with outstanding battery life. This also makes Si-C batteries ideally suited for folding phones like the Honor Magic V6 and Oppo Find N6, or ultra-sleek flagships like the OnePlus 15.

For Honor, Si-C batteries are critical to the company’s folding phone strategy. Keeping these devices highly pocketable requires a split battery design with two smaller, thinner cells. Thanks to Si-C batteries, the Magic V6 manages to pack up to 7,150mAh into a chassis that’s merely 8.75mm thick when folded. Honor”s Cao emphasizes that "Flagship-level capability does not necessarily require sacrificing a slim, lightweight in-hand experience."

OnePlus is focused on using Si-C batteries to improve the look and feel of traditional candy-bar smartphones, noting that consumers are showing a "fresh appetite for compact flagships". Si-C batteries allow the company to slightly reduce device thickness while greatly increasing battery capacity. As a result, the OnePlus 15, which boasts a 7,300mAh Si-C battery, combines a slim, premium design with industry-leading battery life. It’s no wonder that it has the best phone battery life of any device that Tom’s Guide has tested.

Si-C batteries are more expensive and more difficult to manufacture

Despite all the aforementioned benefits, the transition to Si-C batteries faces a couple of significant hurdles. As you’d expect, Si-C batteries are fundamentally more difficult to manufacture and more expensive than standard Li-ion cells.

Honor is transparent about the higher cost, and states that Si-C batteries are typically 20% to 40% more expensive to manufacture than Li-ion batteries at the cell level. This premium reflects higher material costs, stricter production environments, and more complex manufacturing processes the company has developed to mitigate the rapid expansion and contraction of silicon in anodes while charging and discharging.

OnePlus also confirms that Si-C batteries are more expensive. Xu is candid about current prices, saying, "We do not foresee Si-C anode batteries becoming cheaper than conventional graphite-anode cells in the near term."

Si-C batteries require state-of-the-art engineering

The challenge with using silicon in anodes is its extreme volatility. As the silicon in the anode absorbs lithium ions, it expands drastically, which creates extreme mechanical stress within the cell. Both companies overcome this obstacle in their Si-C batteries through impressive engineering feats.

Honor handles this problem in multiple ways. Cao explains that the company broke away from traditional anode designs "by layering the silicon and graphite systems like a 'sandwich'.” It also developed a Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) process that allows the silicon in the anode to expand in a more uniform way, reducing mechanical stress. Honor also uses a microscopic "spider-silk" adhesive, an elastic binder that keeps the cell’s internal dimensions stable under compression.

OnePlus tackles this issue by using spherical silicon-carbon particles and an aerospace-grade coating that the company developed in house. Beyond the Silicon NanoStack battery itself, the OnePlus 15 uses an AI-based battery management system (BMS) to prevent the cells from degrading over time.

Si-C batteries are safe and durable

Given how much silicon in anodes expands while charging, and the resulting mechanical stress, both companies have taken exceptional steps to ensure that their Si-C batteries remain safe and durable for years to come. This includes extreme testing that exceeds the certification requirements used for Li-ion cells.

​Honor’s testing goes far beyond industry standards. Besides obtaining mandatory CB (IEC 62133), UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed), and CE (European Union) certifications, the company subjects its Si-C batteries to tests in extreme conditions to ensure stability. As Cao notes, "In response to the unique expansion characteristics of Si-C batteries, Honor conducts even more rigorous evaluations, such as puncture resistance tests, extreme stress tests, structural deformation tests, and high-temperature stability tests."

​OnePlus is similarly thorough, and runs more than seventy unique tests on its Si-C batteries. The company evaluates cells in a broad range of temperature, voltage, and stress conditions to make sure its Si-C batteries meet strict durability and safety targets. According to Xu, device longevity is critical to OnePlus, and the Silicon NanoStack battery used in the OnePlus 15 is designed to maintain "over 80% of its original health after 4 years of use."

Bottom line: two-day battery life for all

So there you have it. After hearing from experts at Honor and OnePlus, two leaders in the field of Si-C batteries, I hope you have a better understanding of what this technology brings to the table — the benefits, the limitations, and the remaining challenges. What’s abundantly clear is that Si-C batteries today aren’t some exotic fad. They are a mature, safe, and durable technology that drastically improves the smartphone user experience, and are here to stay.

With Chinese manufacturers relentlessly marching forward, it’s only a matter of time until Apple, Google, and Samsung join the Si-C battery party. And that's a good thing, because their manufacturing volume and marketing power will make this technology accessible to everyone — in other words, ubiquitous. After all, who doesn’t want a fast-charging smartphone with two-day battery life?

More from Tom's Guide

• I didn’t get the hype around foldable phones, but this phone changed my mind
• iPhone Fold release date just tipped for delay — it could arrive months after iPhone 18 Pro
• The iPhone Fold could blow away the Galaxy Z Fold 8 on Apple’s very first try — here’s why

Foldable phones have been around for a while now, and while they haven't quite become as mainstream as traditional flagship slab phones, the category does feel like it's hitting a bit of a saturation point.

Sure, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is wider and impressively thinner, and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is among the most durable foldables out there, but there hasn't been much meaningful innovation lately. That was the case, at least, until I tried Oppo's new Find N6.

Oppo has launched its latest book-style foldable, and the company is calling it the world's first foldable with a 'zero-feel' crease. The inner crease has always been a major concern for potential buyers and even for those who try a foldable phone in stores for the first time. Oppo's Find N6 solves that, giving it a clear advantage over other foldables available right now.

Oppo Find N6 is unlike any other foldable phone I've ever used

I've used plenty of foldable phones in the past. I've tested multiple Galaxy Z Fold devices from Samsung, tried the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and even used Chinese flagship foldables like the Honor Magic V5 and Oppo's previous Find N5. But there has always been one issue that kept bothering me, and that is the crease running down the middle of the inner foldable display.

Sure, you don't notice it all the time, but every now and then, when you swipe across the center while gaming or when light hits the display at certain angles, the crease becomes noticeable. And as someone who's paying a premium price for a foldable phone, that doesn't feel great.

The Oppo Find N6 is the first foldable that aims to genuinely fix this. The company has re-engineered the hinge and display to achieve a surface variation of just 0.05mm, which is essentially the dip your finger feels when moving across the screen, and it's practically impossible to notice. Having used this phone for a while, even when you run your finger across the screen, the crease is barely noticeable.

Oppo says it had to redesign the entire hinge system to achieve this near-zero-crease result. It laser scans each titanium hinge part to map even the smallest surface variations. It then uses that data to 3D-print a liquid polymer that fills micro-gaps in the hinge.

Combine that with its Auto-Smoothing Flex Glass that prevents long-term deformation, and you get a display that stays nearly crease-free over time. The company claims it's been tested for up to 600,000 folds, which is on par with other foldables.

In real use, the result is a foldable that feels almost crease-free. Most of the time, you won't see or feel the crease at all, but the moment you put it next to any other foldable, the difference is immediately noticeable.

The rest of the Find N6 is just as impressive. Whether it's packing a massive 6000mAh battery into a slim sub-9mm body, using the powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, or even supporting stylus input while others have dropped it in the name of thinness, there's a lot to like here.

But after using it, the thing that truly stands out is the inner display and how well Oppo has handled the crease.

If Apple can replicate this on the iPhone Fold, it'll be a winner

One brand that is finally set to enter the foldable phone market, and the one everyone has been waiting for, is Apple. After nearly seven years since foldables first went mainstream, Apple is expected to launch its first foldable iPhone (or iPhone Fold as the rumor cycle currently calls it) in 2026, alongside the rumored iPhone 18 series.

Apple doesn't usually rush into new form factors until it feels the technology is "ready," and most of the time this technique has worked out for the brand. The company was late in adopting USB-C, always-on display, and even 120Hz refresh rate displays on the iPhone. This year finally feels like Apple is ready to enter the foldable space.

And this is exactly where something like the Oppo Find N6 becomes relevant. If Apple can replicate a near crease-free display like this, the iPhone Fold could instantly match or even surpass current Android foldables in its very first attempt.

There are already reports suggesting that Apple has been working aggressively on reducing the crease, even prioritizing eliminating it "regardless of the price." The company is also rumored to be using a new display stack (ironically developed by Samsung Display) with integrated touch sensors, which could help reduce thickness and improve durability.

Reports suggest that the iPhone Fold may achieve a crease depth of under 0.15mm. That is impressive, but the Find N6 has already shown that even lower levels are possible.

That said, using the Find N6 has made me hopeful about the iPhone Fold, especially since Apple is reportedly taking a different approach to the form factor. The iPhone Fold is said to be less tall and much wider, unfolding into something closer to a true iPad mini-sized tablet.

One thing I've always complained about with Android foldables is that they often open into a squarish display that doesn't quite deliver a proper tablet-like experience, but Apple seems to be working on a different solution here. Combined with the (almost) crease-less display, I can't wait to see what Cupertino has in store this fall.

More from Tom's Guide

• I didn’t get the hype around foldable phones, but this phone changed my mind
• iPhone Fold release date just tipped for delay — it could arrive months after iPhone 18 Pro
• The iPhone Fold could blow away the Galaxy Z Fold 8 on Apple’s very first try — here’s why

We didn't need to have any more excellent Android phones launch in 2025 — we've had plenty already. But I'm still glad that Oppo has brought out the Find X9 Pro, as it shows that even this year's best phones have some flaws that they don't need to have.

The headline-grabbing parts of the Find X9 Pro's kit are hard to ignore. A battery that's larger than anything its rivals offer by some margin and a 200MP telephoto camera will do that. And don’t forget the optional teleconverter kit to give that sensor even more reach.

But this isn't a phone for only the hardcore. Long battery life benefits anyone, and a strong chipset and a below-average price for all this hardware means it could be a great choice for anyone who's feeling unimpressed by the latest Galaxy or Pixel models. The only people who should be looking elsewhere are American buyers who won't have easy access to this phone in a store or the AI obsessed who desire more built into their phone.

It's been a thrill testing the Find X9 Pro for this review. And I can't wait to share just how good a handset this is with you.

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Specs

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Price and availability

On sale from October 28, the Find X9 Pro will cost £1,099 for its lone model. There's no official U.S. availability, but the determined can always find a way around that.

Oppo's really putting the screws to its competition with that pricing. For the same money, you could have an iPhone 17 Pro, a much smaller phone with all the limitations that this brings. If you wanted an alternate but equivalent Android phone, you could pay £1,249 for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, or £1,199 for a Pixel 10 Pro XL, two phones that the Find X9 Pro is definitely on par with.

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Design

Oppo has thrown out the rounded shapes of previous Find X devices in favor of a flat-edged phone with a square camera block design. It fits right in with other recent smartphones, although with Apple having moved from a square camera block to a rectangular one spanning the whole phone, the Find X9 Pro amusingly looks more unique despite matching Apple's older designs.

Around the sides, along with the expected volume and power keys and USB-C port, you'll find two strangely familiar buttons. One is the Snap Key, which by default is used to take screencaps or audio recordings for Oppo's AI Mind Space app, though you can also set it to perform various other shortcut options.

In addition to9 the Snap Key, you'll find the Quick Button, a Camera app shortcut as well as shutter button and in-app zoom adjuster via swiping left or right.

The fruity inspiration of these two buttons is not hard to see. But having both on an Android phone is certainly novel, if not useful. It's the kind of smartphone design convergence that I can get behind.

Alongside the usual toughened glass, Oppo is touting the Find X9 Pro's triple water resistance ratings of IP66, IP68 and IP69. These ratings should ensure the phone remains intact in cases of immersion in water and when the phone is struck by either hot or cold water jets.

The last thing to mention here is the Find X9 Pro's colors. You only have two simple shades to pick from —Silk White (the color of my review unit) and Titanium Charcoal. Both are made of aluminum, despite the latter colorway’s name; they look stylish if a little plain. I would have loved even one token bright color to lend the phone additional personality.

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Display

The 6.78-inch OLED screen on the Find X9 Pro comes with a 1 - 120Hz adaptive refresh rate that fits right in with its rivals. Oppo rates the Find X9 Pro's display as having a 3,600 nits peak brightness, which is reasonably bright.

In fact, the Find XP Pro looks brighter than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, at least to my eye, though it can't match the supercharged display of the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. But Oppo also mentions the Find X9 Pro's 1-nit minimal brightness, for more comfortable use in the dark.

I am not sure this is something to be encouraged — many people have enough trouble putting their phones down at night as is, let alone if they can make their phones even easier to use in a darkened room. But, if your willpower holds out, it's good to have that flexibility available. Hopefully, the Find X9 Pro's speedy 2160Hz PWM dimming rate reduces headaches for those who are sensitive to screen flicker.

Hiding beneath the panel is a 3D ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, the gold standard for fingerprint unlocking thanks to their reliability and speed even when the screen above is dirty or scratched. Oppo continues to treat its display for easier use with wet or oily hands, too, which is handy if you're using your phone outdoors or while you're doing the dishes.

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Cameras

Oppo furnishes users with a whole lot of megapixels with the Find X9 Pro's cameras. The loadout consists of a 50MP main camera, 50MP ultrawide camera and 200MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, along with a 50MP selfie camera up front. There's also a True Color Camera on the back to capture color temperature across the scene and apparently make your images reproduction more accurate.

Images shot with these sensors are processed with a pipeline developed along with camera maker Hasselblad, as well as Oppo's own LUMO Image Engine.

Now let's bring on the samples, beginning with the Find X9 Pro, the iPhone 17 Pro Max and a display of chocolates. The Oppo's image is a touch brighter, which helps make the various colors of the hearts and cups look more appetizing. Even the wooden table looks more inviting thanks to warmer tones.

The iPhone's image is not bad by any means, and seems to have more of the shot in focus than what the Find X9 Pro managed.

Heading to Picadilly Circus at night, and with the Galaxy S25 Ultra in hand, I was impressed at how dark the Find X9 Pro's shot can be while still staring at the bright advertising boards that the square is known for. The Galaxy S25 Ultra's image is much more typical, with the light bleeding into the darkness and making everything a little fuzzy-looking.

Back with the iPhone as our comparison device, this ultrawide shot of an unusually empty Charing Cross station offers more proof of how good the Oppo is at making bright but detailed shots. Even in a well-lit public space, the iPhone 17 Pro Max yields a dimmer image.

Looking up at this church spire, with the Oppo's 3x telephoto camera, the Find X9 shows the brickwork off in brighter colors without sacrificing detail. The iPhone is shooting at 4x here, meaning that it should be at a detail advantage here, but it's not noticeable.

At 6x(or 8x in the iPhone's case), brightness takes a dive for the Oppo, while it increases in the iPhone shot. There's more detail in the Find X9 Pro's shot when you look at the walls of the spire closely, but it's hard to say it's a better result than the iPhone's.

Going back to 3x, but with the Galaxy S25 Ultra this time, we have the opening set of Hadestown. The stage has a lot of highlights and shadows, and the Find X9 Pro keeps everything in check nicely.

While the S25 Ultra does well in the darker areas, it doesn't have the range to then bring out the full brightness of the areas where the stage lights are shining.

I used the Pixel 10 Pro XL for this selfie portrait comparison with the Find X9 Pro. I'm not sure I like the way the shape of my face looks through the lens of the Oppo, but I do like its colors, even compared to the Pixel, a phone whose selfies I generally find attractive and lively-looking.

We should also mention the teleconverter accessory that Oppo offers alongside the Find X9 Pro.

Availability and pricing info isn't clear yet, but this accessory clips to the back of a specific case (included in the box) and lets you get 10x optical quality images using the Find X9 Pro's telephoto camera.

The teleconverter makes the Find X9 Pro a lot less pocket-friendly, and renders all the other rear cameras unusable when attached, but it is effective, as these photos demonstrate.

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Performance

Oppo strays from the usual Android flagship path by using a Dimensity 9500 chip in its Find X9 series, not the more typical Snapdragon 8 series silicon you'd see in phones from Samsung to OnePlus. Fortunately for Oppo, the latest Dimensity flagship SoC is a mighty one.

The Find X9 Pro is noticeably ahead on graphics benchmarks, such as the 3DMark test we see above. It's also got a reasonable single-core Geekbench score, reflecting strong single-app performance, although the overall multi-core score puts it behind the latest iPhone and Galaxy phones.

Even though it's using unusual silicon, I didn't see the Find X9 Pro struggle to run any apps when I used the phone. Playing Destiny Rising was just as fun and smooth as on other phones, even after prolonged use.

Oppo is making picking storage and RAM on the Find X9 Pro easy since there's only one available spec of 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. That's on the generous side for the price, but I always feel that users deserve at least two choices, especially a lower capacity one that helps keep the price of a phone down further. Alas, the lack of a 256GB edition of the X9 Pro is a double-edged sword.

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Battery and charging

It’s fitting that I’m reviewing the Find X9 Pro around Halloween. Like a relentless axe-wielding maniac in a slasher movie, this phone just won’t die.

There's a 7,500 mAh silicon-carbon battery inside the phone, which is 50% larger than the typical flagship Android phone battery. And while every battery slowly decays, OnePlus is apparently guaranteeing 80% of the capacity to remain after five years.

But it's the longevity enabled by this battery that really shines. In my usual battery test — three hours of 1080p YouTube playback at 50% brightness — the Find X9's battery dropped just 10%. This is the best result I've ever seen on this test, and if we ever get the chance to put the Find X9 Pro through our official TG lab testing, I'm sure it would be giving the best phone battery life leaders including the ROG Phone 9 Pro and the OnePlus 13 a run for their money.

Filling this large battery back up is no easy task, but Oppo offers users 80W wired and 50W wireless charging (plus 10W reverse wireless charging for donating power). Sadly you don't get the necessary plug in the box for these maximum speeds, but Oppo offers a compromise. With a USB Power Delivery (PD)-compatible charger of sufficient power, you can charge the phone at up to 55W.

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Software and special features

The latest ColorOS update, featuring Android 16, comes with a new Flux Home Screen design, that makes the Find X9 navigate a little more like other iOS-influenced Android skins. That includes a new Dynamic Island equivalent for keeping track of ongoing tasks, but also the more unique ability to resize folders and app icons more freely.

You can set them to take up a 2x2 slot on your home screen grid, or a 1x2 vertical or horizontal bar if you prefer that look or density to your main interface. It helps fill out the space or fit more into less, depending on how you like things.

Along with the default Google Gemini powers, the Find X9 Pro's central AI feature is its AI Mind Space. With a tap of the Snap Key or a three-finger swiping gesture on-screen, you can capture special screenshots that are squirreled away in the Mind Space app, where they are then cataloged for you to arrange or ask chatbot questions about as you see fit. (In that sense, it's a lot like the Pixel Screenshots feature on Google's flagship phones.) You can make audio recordings too if that's how you like to make notes for yourself.

Oppo phones already offered file sharing and remote control abilities with the O+ Connect app, available on both Windows PCs and Macs. But as well as controlling your Apple desktop from your Android phone, this suite of tools now allows you to open up to five phone app windows on your Mac/Windows laptop from your X9 via Bluetooth. It really takes iPhone Mirroring to another level, letting you use even more of your phone as part of a full desktop setup.

We're not done with the Find X9 Pro messing with Apple gear. Currently unavailable, but on the way, is the ability to pair an Apple Watch with the Find X9 Pro via Apple Watch Connect.

Yes, you read that correctly — you'll be able to use an Apple-made smartwatch with this Android-powered Oppo device. Doing so requires you to jump through some hoops, including performing initial set-up of the watch with an iPhone, but you can apparently use all the regular features via Oppo's own app. Once this is available to use, I'll report back with a thorough account.

Oppo Find X9 Pro review: Verdict

As 2025 comes to an end, Oppo has put in a show-stealing performance with the Find X9 Pro, upstaging solid phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Pixel 10 Pro XL — and even the iPhone 17 Pro Max to an extent. The Find X9 Pro shows up weaknesses in all these phones, but we still can't ignore how hard this is to buy for many TG readers.

If you do happen to live in an area where Oppo sells its products, this is absolutely a phone to go for if you love big battery life on your premium smartphones. That's even more so if you're a photography fan, since it's on a level with the best from Samsung, Google and Apple, and can do even more than those phones if you want to buy the teleconverter kit.

While other phones are trying to refine their existing hardware as much as possible without making big changes, Oppo has taken huge swings that have paid off. The Oppo Find X9 Pro goes right on the list of "Phones I wish my American friends and colleagues could easily buy," and stands as a prime example of how smartphones still have room to grow. The Find X9 Pro is a 2026 phone that happens to have arrived just a little early.

Oppo will likely launch its flagship Find X9 Pro later this year, and if rumors are to be believed, this phone will feature a giant battery and the as-yet unannounced MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chipset. The Find X9 Pro could also feature a 200MP periscope camera and 50W wireless charging, according to that same tipster.

The potential specs come from regular Chinese leaker Digital Chat Station who posted on Weibo about the Find X9 Pro.

Based on a machine translation of the DCS post, these are some impressive specs, highlighted by the battery.

The X9 Pro is set to feature a 6.78-inch display running a MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chip and a 7,500 mAh battery. Speciality phones can have larger batteries — at MWC 2024, my Tom's Guide colleagues saw an Energizer-branded phone with a 28,000 mAh power pack — but 7,500 mAh would be out of the ordinary for a more conventional flagship device.

As an example, the current Oppo Find X8 Pro features a 5,910 mAh battery. While we don't include that device in our best phone battery life list, it was still impressive in our informal testing.

DCS does not mention if the battery is a silicon carbon battery, which creates more battery cell capacity in the same amount of space as the more common lithium ion. Both Apple and Samsung are reportedly exploring using silicon carbon in their future phones.

Extra big battery

Oppo already uses silicon carbon batteries in its phones including last year's flagship. It means that despite the larger size, the Find X9 Pro will likely be smaller or the same size as its predecessor.

The largest phone battery I've seen is the gimmicky Oukitel WP100 Titan that doubles as a lamp and projector with a 33,000mAh battery. However, that phone also weighs just under 2 pounds. By comparison, the Find X8 Pro weighs 7.6 ounces.

Typically, MediaTek announces its Dimensity chips in the fall, around September, and we expect a similar schedule for the Dimensity 9500. That should also be on TSMC's third-generation 3nm process, similar to the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2.

Oppo has largely been one of the first phone manufacturers to feature the top-end Dimensity chips in its flagship phones. Last year's excellent Find X8 Pro launched in the fall with the Dimensity 9400.

What else?

Additionally, DCS claimed that the Find X9 Pro will feature a 200MP periscope camera plus a 3D ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, IP68/69 resistance and 50W charging.

The camera is massive upgrade over the 50MP sensor in last year's model and could put the Find X9 Pro more on par with Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max — not to mention the iPhone 17 Pro Max coming in September.

The fingerprint sensor was introduced in the Find X8 Ultra last year, and the OnePlus 13, launched in early 2025. Both those phones also got IP68 and IP69 resistance as well.

Apple and Samsung are rumored to feature battery specs and charging speeds in upcoming devices that look a lot like their current models. So it'll be interesting to see if Oppo spurs either company to make changes down the road.

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At the time of its launch, the Oppo Find N5 is the ultimate foldable phone. But even as new models arrive on the scene, it's hard to imagine the Find N5 losing its lead.

Thinning out its foldable's dimensions to previously unprecedented levels hasn't stopped Oppo from adding two beautiful displays, strong camera hardware, the latest chipset and a huge battery capacity to the Find N5.

Rivals like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 or Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold look years out of date by comparison, and even the wonderful OnePlus Open can't keep up.

Sadly, we don't know how easy it's going to be to buy the Find N5, which makes it tough to decide where this device should sit on our best foldable phone list. The software support window is also shorter than you get from Samsung or Google. That's not ideal when you're spending this much on a foldable phone.

But you can't really fault this new Oppo foldable from a hardware perspective, as you'll see through the rest of my Find N5 review. I hope you aren't the jealous type if you already have a Z Fold or Pixel Fold.

Oppo Find N5: Specs

Oppo Find N5: Price and availability

The Oppo Find N5 was announced on February 20, but we have yet to get specific availability or pricing info outside of Singapore, where the launch took place. We'll update you as soon as we learn more.

Going for $2499 SGD with 512GB storage, the Find N5 seems to be aimed to be a touch cheaper than the Galaxy Z Fold 6, which goes for $2548 SGD in its basic spec. The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold starts at $2,399 SGD, but it costs $2,579 if you want the same amount of storage capacity as the Oppo, making the Find N5 an attractive deal despite its high price.

Oppo Find N5: Design

Understandably, Oppo is crowing loudly about how the Find N5 is the "world's thinnest book-style foldable," meaning unless you're holding it next to a triple-foldable like the Huawei Mate XT, it's thinner than any other flexible phone around.

If you want specifics, the Find N5 is just 8.93mm thick when folded (just a touch thicker than the non-folding OnePlus 13), and a mere 4.21mm when open. That makes it slimmer than any other rival foldable, and even other devices sold on their sleekness like the 13-inch iPad Pro M4 (5.1mm or 0.2 inches thick). It's also just 229 grams (8.07 ounces) in weight, about 5-10% lighter than other book-style foldables.

Just to hammer home the slimness point, the USB-C port on the bottom of the Find N5 was apparently customized in order to fit in the slim frame. There is barely any metal on either side of the opening for the charging port, but it still feels sturdy when you plug in or remove cables.

The back, made from "aerospace-grade fiber" (not glass like a typical modern flagship phone) is daubed with either a matte Cosmic Black colorway, or a layered Misty White one.

The white model, which you can see in these photos, looks rather special, with the pattern in the back glass shifting in intriguing ways as you hold the phone in different lighting.

Both phones use aluminum side rails and inner frames, but have different finishes on each color option to match the style better. It's on these side rails where you'll find an alert slider for switching between normal, silent and vibrate profiles, a OnePlus staple that Oppo's started to borrow for some of its flagship phones.

Foldables aren't known for their durability, but Oppo's focused on waterproofing the Find N5, having it rated IPX6, X8 and X9. So while it's not rated for dust proofing, it is in theory able to shrug off splashes or immersion, or even jets of hot water were you ever to encounter them for some bizarre reason.

Oppo Find N5: Displays

The main attraction of the Find N5 is its dual screens: an almost perfectly square 8.12-inch inner screen, larger than any rival device, and a 6.62-inch outer display with a slightly narrower than average width but a fairly similar shape to a regular phone.

Both panels have a 1 - 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, with a 2450-nit peak brightness on the outer screen and 2,100 on the inner display. The two screens also have 2160Hz PWM dimming to reduce eye strain.

The main screen does have a crease in it to allow it to fold, which covers about the same area as the Galaxy Z Fold 6's or Pixel 9 Pro Fold's. But the crease is quite a bit shallower than either of those foldables, meaning it's less obvious to the touch and to your eye.

Oppo Find N5: Cameras

Within its Hasselblad-branded camera block, the Oppo Find N5 houses a 50MP main camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera and a 50MP 3x telephoto camera. For front-facing sensors, the Find N5 uses a pair of 8MP punch-hole cameras, one on the inner display and one on the outer.

Neither the Galaxy Z Fold 6 nor the Pixel 9 Pro Fold are slouches when it comes to photography, so I took both out for my comparative testing, starting with this main camera shot of a sculpture outside Paddington Station.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold's image is effectively a darker version of the Oppo Find N5's here. The Google foldable does have a little better contrast as a result though.

This shot over the Paddington Canal against the Galaxy Z Fold 6 shows the Find N5's shot again as the brighter one, with the Samsung going all-in on saturated colors.

The Oppo's ultrawide camera is its lowest-resolution sensor, and that shows in this shot of a latte in a bright red cup. The Find N5 shows the colors of the ceramic, coffee and milk in brighter hues, but the detail is very much lacking.

Oppo's 3x telephoto camera with 6x in-sensor zoom mode fits neatly with the 3x and 5x telephotos of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold respectively. So I pointed both at the archway of St Mary's Hospital to see the differences.

There's not much separating the Find N5 and the Galaxy Z Fold 6 in this 3x comparison. The Samsung's shot is brighter this time around, but its colors and detail are nowhere near as strong as the Find N5.

Despite relying on digital zoom for this 6x shot, the Find N5 is sharper than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold's, perhaps because the Pixel's sensor is a meager 10.8MP. The two shots' color and brightness levels are similar, but you can more easily make out the face of St Mary and the text around the plaque in the Find N5 image.

Finally we come to a pair of selfie comparisons, starting with the outer cameras and portrait mode enabled. This shot against the Galaxy Z Fold demonstrates that Samsung remains the master of portrait mode, cutting accurately around my glasses. It's offering a slightly cooler tone for my skin than the Find N5, but not in an obviously bad way.

Switching to the internal cameras, and to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold as my comparison phone, the Find N5 becomes the one furnishing us with a cooler-looking image. The brighter look of the Oppo shot doesn't help here, even if the Pixel has dialed up the colors a little too much as well.

Oppo Find N5: Performance

Oppo picked the Snapdragon 8 Elite to drive the Find N5, making it the only foldable to use this chip at the time of its launch. The benchmarks show how far ahead this silicon puts it of currently-available foldables, but we can also see how similar the Find N5's scores are to the OnePlus 13, another phone from the combined Oppo/OnePlus stable that uses the 8 Elite chip.

The Find N5 comes with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, which is just as generous as you'd hope for a super-premium foldable phone. That said, perhaps a 256GB storage edition would have been nice as an option to make the N5 a little more accessibly-priced.

Oppo Find N5: Battery and charging

By using a pair of silicon-carbon cells, Oppo has been able to fit 5,600 mAh of battery capacity into the Find N5. That's over 25% larger than the battery capacity of the Galaxy Z Fold 6, or 20% compared to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

That extra battery space isn't just for show either. The Find N5 lost 15% of its charge while playing three hours of YouTube over Wi-Fi at 50% brightness. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 drops 18% on the same test, and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold 21%.

Oppo also beats the competition with its charging speeds - 80W wired and 50W wireless. The latter works with the OnePlus/Oppo magnetic wireless charging puck provided you buy a case with the necessary magnets installed.

The Find N5 doesn't come with a charger in the box in every market due to regional laws. But if yours does, you'll be able to charge the Find N5 to from 0 - 34% in 15 minutes, to 66% in 30 minutes and to 100% in 52 minutes, based on my testing.

Oppo Find N5: Software and AI

The typical collection of AI transcription, translation, summary and image editing tools comes with the Android 15-based ColorOS 15. Using the text features is especially good on the inner screen since the phone can use that extra space to show a before/after view of what you're working on.

There's also a Galaxy Z Fold 6-style interpreter mode, where you partly close the phone and then set it between you and another person for an instantly translated conversation. And there's Circle to Search and Gemini from Google.

For more general productivity, Boundless View is here. Like the OnePlus Open's Open Canvas, this keeps up to three app windows at a proper size while letting the user move between them like sliding a camera viewfinder over a flat layout of different documents.

It's far better than cramming your apps into a single static screen, which is the best that the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold can do.

More uniquely, the Oppo offers O+ Connect, a sharing app that notably allows you to send photos to an iPhone with the respective app installed. This was introduced on the Find X8 series, but the Find N5 takes this a step further by now allowing you to pair the phone with a Mac (Intel or Apple Silicon), sharing files, and even controlling it remotely if you wish by downloading the O+ Connect Mac app from Oppo's website.

The app's rather demanding, requiring lots of permissions to be altered to make it work, but it does function, whether on Wi-Fi or on a cellular connection. There's lag to contend with, and having to swap between the trackpad and keyboard would get in the way of full-on work sessions.

But navigating my MacBook from the Find N5 did work, even down to the trackpad gestures. I wouldn't use this much, but I can see it coming in handy sometimes.

Oppo does offer an Oppo Pen stylus for doodling on the Find N5. This works on both the inside and outside displays, a step ahead of the Galaxy Z Fold 6's S Pen which functions only on the internal screen. However, there's no indication where this Oppo stylus is sold as of yet, so it might be hard to get hold of one depending on where you live.

Oppo has been offering its latest flagship phones five years of software updates and six years of security updates, which is hopefully enough to last most owners before they upgrade. But both Google and Samsung offer seven years of updates for their latest foldables.

Oppo Find N5 review: Verdict

If Oppo offered a couple of extra years of software support, and guaranteed that users around the world have direct route to buying the Find N5, then it would be as perfect a foldable as we could have right now. But even without those two problems addressed, this is still a long way ahead of the current best foldables.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold are going to have to undergo huge improvements if their next-gen versions want to compete. But the fact that they’re going to be sold in the U.S. and the Oppo isn’t will keep them as the best available foldables for a huge amount of possible customers.

We had hoped that the OnePlus Open 2 would be along soon, borrowing large parts of the Find N5's design along the way, but OnePlus has confirmed it won't launch a foldable this year.

That said, if you can buy an Oppo Find N5, you will be getting your money's worth and then some. Users wanting more value from a flagship device or the ultimate cameras may want to look elsewhere, but if your heart is set on a foldable, and you want the best performance, power efficiency and a futuristic design that's practical to use open or closed, the Find N5 is the phone to seek out.

If you've followed OnePlus, you know that the Chinese smartphone maker loves its batteries and optimizing battery life.

Its phones already feature massive batteries, and the recently released OnePlus 13 sports a huge 6,000mAh battery.

The batteries of the OnePlus phone are so good that they take four of the top ten slots in our picks for the smartphones with the best battery life, only losing to the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro.

However, that's just the first step. A leaked roadmap and a report from regular tipster Digital Chat Station (via Phone Arena) claim that OnePlus is developing 7,000mAh — and, eventually, 8,000mAh batteries.

The roadmap indicates that the next flagship OnePlus phones could feature impressive 7,000 mAh batteries. However, that may not be enough for OnePlus, as DCS claims that OnePlus is developing a ridiculous 8,000 mAh battery.

More powerful batteries in the works

In their post, DCS wrote, "Ouga Lab tested 8000mAh ± 80W, 15% silicon content."

Ouga Lab is a research and development center for Oppo and OnePlus. Based on DCS' claim it appeared the lab produced a battery significantly bigger than the glacier battery introduced with last year's China-exclusive OnePlus Ace 3 Pro. This new battery increases "silicon content" from 15% to 6%, more than the Ace 3 Pro.

According to reports, silicon can store more lithium ions than graphite, making the power cells made with it more powerful than traditional batteries.

It's also supposed to support 80W SuperVOOC fast charging speeds.

It will be interesting to see if these larger batteries make OnePlus phones bigger. Part of the reason for introducing the Glacier battery was that the manufacturer could pack 6,000mAh worth of capacity into the same space as a 5,000mAh battery.

Blows current phones out of the water

If OnePlus is able to launch 7,000 or 8,000mAh smartphones, that high capacity would likely blow the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra or iPhone 16 Pro Max out of the water, despite their current excellent battery life.

As you can see from the above table, it would even best current offerings from OnePlus. The additional 1,000 or 2,000mAh of a new battery would presumably at least two hours, possibly more to its capabilities.

Though, as you can see with Google's Pixel 9 Pro XL, it's not all about battery capacity. Optimized chips like Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite or Apple's new A18 processor also do a lot for making phones operate more efficiently. Google's current Tensor chips aren't as good at that aspect of maintaining stronger batteries.

OnePlus currently uses Qualcomm's chips which combined with the bigger batteries could lead to impressive results down the line.

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The Oppo Find N5, which the company claims is the "world's thinnest book-style foldable phone," is launching in just over a week. And since this is the phone that the upcoming OnePlus Open 2 will likely be based on, it would be wrong not to take the chance for an early hands-on.

We can't show the device in action yet, but fortunately there's still plenty to appreciate even with the phone turned off. So feast your eyes on the images in this article while we wait for the official February 20 launch day.

Thinness is undoubtedly the main focus of the Oppo Find N5's design, going by previous teasers and the "slim yet powerful" tagline being used in the marketing. These teasers indicated that, when unfolded, the Find N5's thinner than two coins, or a stack of four credit cards. When I held the Find N5 in my hands, I found it difficult to believe it's possible to make a phone with such small tolerances.

I mean, just look at that USB-C port in the image below. There's barely anything separating the opening from the back of the phone. The same thing goes for the SIM tray on the other side of the phone too.

Even the camera block, which looks to contain three Hasselblad-tuned cameras like the OnePlus Open and previous Find Ns, doesn't add a huge amount of extra depth. And when holding the folded-up Find N5, it feels basically the same as a regular phone, both in screen area and thickness.

The thinness of the Oppo Find N really becomes apparent when you stack it next to other foldables, as we did in the above shot with a Galaxy Z Fold 6 to the right of Oppo's new device. Samsung's phone is 5.6mm thin; we're still waiting on the official word from Oppo about specs, but some reports place the Find N5's thinness at 4.2mm.

Stacking the phone up with other foldables, like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the original OnePlus Open, and the Oppo Find N5 is clearly the thinnest of the bunch.

The Oppo Find N5 is not that heavy either, at least for a foldable, tackling another common issue for big-format foldables like this.

Thinness aside, the Oppo Find N5 looks gorgeous with its beveled flat sides and symmetrical camera block. It looks especially good in this white color, which features a matte, marble-like texture on the back panel. There's a plainer black version also shown in Oppo's current marketing material, for those who prefer their phones in darker tones.

Sharp-eyed readers may also see that there's an alert slider present on the phone's left side. This is a signature feature of OnePlus phones that stablemate Oppo has decided to pilfer for its own devices, including the recent Oppo Find X8 Pro flagship phone.

A folding display of course means a crease down the middle of the panel. But luckily, the Find N5's crease is hard to spot or feel if you open it up. It still catches the light but with the right conditions, it shouldn't cause problems when trying to concentrate on what's on screen. But we'll only know for sure once we've done our testing.

Oppo's leadership has already confirmed via social media that the Find N5 will receive a global launch on February 20 , although this will likely not include the U.S. just as with other Oppo phone launches.

But with the OnePlus Open 2 believed to be sporting a near-identical design when it allegedly launches later this year, American users will get their hands on this phone in one form or another.

It's hard to come to much of a conclusion about this "slim yet powerful" phone right now. But while the power part has yet to be proven, it's easy to see the Oppo Find N5 deserves the slim description. And then some.

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In a surprise reveal it seems that Oppo will be releasing the Oppo Find N5, which is expected to be rebranded as the OnePlus Open 2, globally in two weeks.

Oppo is one of those phone makers that took the market, and us, by surprise with its great design and features. For instance, the OnePlus Open was a fantastic device and still sits as our best foldable phone.

We've been waiting with bated breath for the next device, and it seems we won't have to wait long at all. In a recent post on Weibo, spotted by Android Authority, an Oppo executive named Zhou Yibao stated that the Find N5 would be released simultaneously across the globe.

It's not only the Oppo Find N5 that is stated for release, Zhou states in another post that Oppo will also be releasing the Oppo Watch X2 alongside the phone. The post in question includes a slightly blurry image of the watch's face, although we can't get a clear idea if it is bigger, or the same size as the OnePlus Watch 2. We also can't see if the rumored rotating dial crown has made an appearance.

Oppo choosing to release the phone globally is unexpected, and it also raises some questions about OnePlus. Usually, Oppo will release in Asian Markets first, then OnePlus will rebrand the device and release it in Western markets. If Oppo does release globally, there seems little reason to rename the device the OnePlus Open 2 outside of brand recognition.

Oppo has claimed that this will be the thinnest foldable ever, with the phone appearing to be as thick as a USB C port (4mm) when unfolded. Currently, the thinnest foldable phone is the 4.35 mm thick Honor Magic V3.

We recently saw some leaked images of the OnePlus Open 2 that show it to be about half as thick as the 8.25mm thick iPhone 16 Pro Max. Meanwhile, Oppo themselves recently released a trailer on Weibo, showing off how thin the phone is compared to the 5.8 mm thick Oppo Find N3.

Without a doubt, this is a big announcement for the future of both companies and there are still a lot of questions that will have to be answered. However, everything we have seen about the next generation of Oppo foldable phones leaves little doubt that this is a device phone that could entice users away from more mainstream brands.

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When I think of smartphones, devices from Oppo rarely comes to mind, given the phone maker's primary focus on its home market of China. However, the Oppo Find X8 proved to be a pleasant surprise with the kind of features you like to see in an entry-level flagship.

With the Find X8, Oppo seems to be concentrating on AI capabilities and the phone's camera setup — understandable given all the attention AI features are commanding at the moment between the iPhone's Apple Intelligence and the Galaxy AI capabilities onboard Samsung's flagships. And cameras, as ever, remain a crucial factor in which smartphones we buy.

If we rated a phone simply on cameras alone, the Oppo Find X8 would go a long way toward cementing Oppo's place among the top phone makers. But there's more to a phone than a single feature, and as we'll find out in this Oppo Find X8 review, some of those other things ultimately keep this device from ranking among the best phones available.

Oppo Find X8 review: Specs

Oppo Find X8 review: Price and availability

All we know about the Oppo Find X8 is that it's unlikely to appear in the U.S., given that Oppo doesn't bring its phones to that part of the world. But unlike its more expensive sibling, Oppo Find x8 Pro, the phone may not arrive in the U.K., either. So far, Oppo seems content to release this phone only in China and a few other markets in Asia.

Using the Indonesian price of the phone, you'd pay around $860/£690/AU$1,385 for the 12GB/256GB version of the Oppo Find X8. A 16GB/512GB model costs around $985/£785/AU$1,585. Essentially, we're talking a phone that's in the ballpark of the Pixel 9 Pro or the Galaxy S24 Plus, and a device that sells for about £300 less than the £1,049 Oppo Find X8 Pro.

There are three color options available for the Oppo Find X8: Star Grey, Space Black and Shell Pink.

Oppo Find X8 review: Design & Display

The Oppo Find X8 looks pretty generic from the front. You get a 6.59-inch display with a punch-hole in the upper middle of the screen housing the front camera. I find this to be the worst part of the screen design, as I feel it takes away from the display, which as we'll see is one of the Find X8's stronger points.

Oppo has taken a note out of Apple’s book, using a flat-sided design that features a screen lock and volume button on its right. Special mention should be made for the 1.45mm bezel on the side of the phone, which is the thinnest yet seen on an Oppo phone.

Sadly, the Quick Button found on the Oppo Find X8 Pro ins't included with this phone. Instead, you've got an alert slider to quickly set the phone to Silent, Vibrate and back to full volume with a simple push. While that might feel a bit old-fashioned when compared to Apple’s Action button, it does its job. I like the feel of the slider, however, as there's something to be said about a switch. When the phone isn’t in a case, though, it can be a bit easy to accidentally turn the phone to silent or vibrate.

The really interesting design aspect is the back camera, where Oppo has worked to make the Find X8's camera housing slightly less obvious. While it is certainly still noticeable in the pocket, the edges have been smoothed down a bit to make it more streamlined, as well as optimized stacking to make the lenses appear more symmetrical. It's a nice look, and Oppo has cut the camera bump down by about 40%, but the hard edges are still pretty noticeable.

Oppo has designed the Find X8 using what it calls Armor Shield Construction. This method aims to be more robust by combining reinforced glass, aluminum alloy and shock absorption. As a result, the Oppo Find X8 carries both military-grade and Swiss SGS certification. It also boasts IP68 and IP69 water resistance ratings, meaning it can withstand dunks in water as well as jet streams of liquid.

The display showed off videos fantastically, with no real stuttering or other issues. Unfortunately, when it comes to brightness, we haven't been able to test it in our lab to compare it to other phones. Oppo has claimed that the phone has a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, which would make the screen brighter than both the Pixel 9 Pro and Galaxy S24 Plus. However, I don't know how accurate that is, as while it might appear brighter than the Galaxy, I found that the Pixel looked much brighter.

Oppo Find X8 review: Cameras

The Oppo Find X8 comes with three cameras on the back of the phone, a 50MP wide camera, a 50MP ultrawide shooter and a 50MP telephoto lens. All of the cameras worked fantastically in my testing, and are easily the main selling point of the phone.

It's worth noting that Oppo adds watermarks to photos be default. You'll need to turn off that setting you start taking pictures with the phone, unless you want your images covered with Oppo branding.

To test the main camera, I put the Oppo Find X8 up against the Galaxy S24. Personally, I prefer the S24's shot in this comparison featuring a statue, mainly because the overall brightness is limited, leaving less shine from the sun. I also think the colors seem a bit deeper in the S24 version. The Find X8 shot borders on being over-exposed.

The opposite happened when I compared the Oppo Find X8's 50MP ultrawide camera with the Pixel 9 Pro when taking a photo of a bridge over a canal. Here, the Oppo was slightly darker, although the actual quality of the images was pretty even. I would say that the Pixel 9 Pro does seem slightly more defined, but the difference is pretty negligible.

The telephoto lens is where the Oppo Find X8 really comes into its own. The Paddington statue looks a lot brighter in the Oppo image, and the shadows blend nicely, giving it an impression of shape without overpowering the image. In contrast, the Galaxy S24 photo looks a lot darker, which does make the colors that are there pop a bit more.

Aside from the three cameras on the back, the Oppo Find X8 also has a 32MP selfie camera. As you can see in the selfie above, it offers much warmer colors than the Galaxy S24 while softening my face. I also like how the find X8 doesn't blur the background quite as much as the S24, which just looks a bit more natural to me.

The Oppo Find X8 also has a Nightshoot mode and it is leagues above the Pixel 9 Pro. If you look at the comparison images, you can see that the Oppo has a much higher range of colors and uses shadows to create a sense of contrast, rather than simply trying to remove them.

Finally, there's the AI telescope zoom on board the Oppo Find X8. It allows the phone to zoom in to an incredible degree, while also improving the image. You can really see the difference between the Oppo Find X8 and the Galaxy S24 with the lines being much more defined and easy to read in the Oppo shot.

Overall, the Oppo's cameras are impressive in so small a phone, but the selfie camera and Nightshoot are easily the best options on the device.

Oppo Find X8 review: Performance

Instead of the Snapdragon 8 chipset that generally powers the best Android phones, Oppo has turned to MediTek's Dimensity brand of chips, specifically the Dimensity 9400. The result is impressive performance, when compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 silicon that shipped late last year and powers phones like Samsung's Galaxy S24 lineup.

The Dimensity chip inside the Oppo Find X8 beats out other Android devices in the both the single and multicore versions of Geekbench, a test that measures CPU performance. It trails the iPhone 16 and its A18 chip in Geekbench's single-core test. The MediaTek's reign as a top performer could be short-lived given the arrivlal of the Snapdragon 8 Elite and the 2025 Android phones likely to use that system-on-chip, but you still get some impressive processing muscle from the Oppo Find X 8.

Test scores are only a part of the equation, the real test is how the phone runs in real-world scenarios. I tested the phone on two different games, Genshin Impact and Warhammer 40,000: Taciticus. The Find X8 could run both demanding games quickly and seamlessly, with no real load times to complain about. I found the same thing while searching the web on the Find X8, with pages loading with no wait time outside of what I would expect from my internet service.

Oppo Find X8 review: Software and special features

The Find X8 runs on the Android-based ColorOS 15, which offers users a full five years of full updates with an additional year of security support. While certainly more generous support than what Android phone makes offered a few years ago, Oppo's policy falls short of the seven years that Google and Samsung now offer for their flagship phones (and the midrange Pixel 8a in Google's case). Still, that's really going to impact you, only if you plan on going more than five years before your next phone upgrade.

For the most part, ColorOS 15 offers what you expect from a variation of Android. You’ll have access to the wildly popular Circle to Search feature, as well as more than 800 new animations, AI photo editing and Touch to Share. Out of these, the most novel capability has to be Touch to Share, which aims to make it easier than ever to transfer data from the iPhone to the Find X8.

The real selling point of most modern phones is undoubtedly the AI, and the Oppo Find X8 comes with a full AI toolbox, including AI Summary, Speak and Writer. The phone also comes with Google Gemini installed on the device. It can generate summaries of hours of audio thanks to the Gemini-powered recorder, and it recently got access to Google Live. Finally, the Oppo Find X8 has an improved Notes and documents app.

Oppo has introduced a wealth of AI camera features, which all come with fancy names but turn out to deliver pretty standard photo-editing capabilities. The Oppo Find X8 can enhance low-quality images to make them look crisper, unblur images and remove reflections with only a few taps. Finally, there is an AI studio that allows you to create images using only a single picture — turning you into a 3D cartoon or as a felted doll. All of these are easy to use, and it’s nice to see them included, but I wouldn’t buy a phone just to have access to these tools.

All the features work as you would expect, and I like how easy it is to access the AI features thanks to Find X8's Smart Sidebar feature. This is essentially a toolbar that you can access through the Accessibility tab in settings. Once activated, you only need to swipe at the top of the screen to see apps you can access. Not only that, Smart Sidebar also offers the odd suggestion regarding what tools you might want depending on what you're looking at.

Oppo Find X8 review: Battery and charging

One of the most impressive things I found when using the Oppo Find X8 was just how long-lasting the phone really is. The Oppo Find X8 runs on a 5,630 mAh battery, which is bigger than the 4,000 mAh battery in the Galaxy S24 and the 3,561 mAh battery in the iPhone 16 .

In terms of real-life usage, you’re looking at an impressive battery life compared to other models. For instance, I played a video on the device for 3 hours to test how much the battery drained, and the Find X8 only lost about 10% of its overall charge.

When you do need to charge the phone, the Find X8 supports 80-watt wired charging which easily fills up the phone's battery in a little less than an hour. The Find X8 also offers 50W wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging. That's a decent charging rate, so you won’t be waiting for long for your phone to get ready to go. However, we’d recommend checking out our piece on how to keep your Android battery healthy to keep it running for as long as possible.

Oppo Find X8 Review: Verdict

There’s a lot that I like about the Oppo Find X8, but my issue with it is that the phone simply doesn’t stand out to me. The phone's look feels pretty generic, and while the camera layout has a certain charm to it, it's still a bit of a hindrance when you hold it. Meanwhile, the AI features are nice to see, but again they all feel a bit by the numbers.

That said, the cameras perform very well, and the performance measures up against any phone you can name. All that's great — if you can actually buy the Find X8. Right now, outside of certain countries in Asia, that's not an easy thing to do. Should Oppo change that, this phone is a lot more compelling, but right now, it's more of a hint at the kind of phone we could be getting instead of one we have to buy.

The Oppo Find X8 Pro has emerged as a late-2024 surprise that could keep Google, Samsung, Apple and the like on their toes well into 2025. And I couldn't be happier that this is the case.

Newly returned to the global market — though sadly, not to the U.S. — Oppo and its Find X8 Pro could offer us a taste of what the OnePlus 13 will offer when its global launch occurs early next year. (Oppo and OnePlus are owned by the same company with their top models sharing a lot in common.) Still, there are some obvious differences that set the Oppo apart from its smartphone cousin, not to mention many rivals, such as four rear cameras, a huge battery, a big and bright display and a price that surprises in a good way.

If it's available to buy where you are, the Find X8 Pro should be on your shortlist alongside any of the best phones from Samsung and OnePlus — and maybe even Apple if you're flexible about your choice of OS. The value that Oppo has stuffed into this phone has astonished me; even better, I have barely any complaints about how it all comes together with this phone.

I promise I'm not overhyping this phone, and after reading my Oppo Find X8 Pro review, I'm sure you'll see why.

Oppo Find X8 Pro review: Specs

Oppo Find X8 Pro: Price and availability

The Find X8 Pro goes on sale November 21, initially via Oppo's own web store and via carrier O2. The cost of the single 16GB/512GB version is £1,049, an aggressive price that makes it cheaper than the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL (£1,100) and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (£1,250) in the U.K, although you can still pick up a OnePlus 12 (£849) for less.

The price is only in pounds because Oppo doesn't sell in the U.S., even if it does cover much of the rest of the world. Americans who are jealous can still order the Find X8 in from abroad via various online stores, or wait for the OnePlus 13, which is likely to have similar if not identical specs.

Oppo Find X8 Pro review: Design and display

You can see how the design of Oppo and OnePlus phones have converged to the sleek-looking design with a round camera block as we see on the Find X8 Pro here. But changes have still been made from earlier models.

The camera bump has been flattened out to make it less likely to catch on your pockets. Oppo has also gone for a quad-curved display to make it slightly more comfortable to hold both vertically and horizontally, though the side rails remain fairly flat to match the current trend seen on other flagship phones.

The screen itself measures 6.78 inches and offers a resolution between the typical FHD and QHD standards other phones stick to. Like other flagship in its class, the Oppo Find X8 Pro features a screen with an adaptive refresh rate that scales between 1Hz and 120Hz. Oppo also promises a peak brightness of an impressive 4,500 nits maximum.

We didn't get the opportunity to test the Find X8 in our lab, but anecdotally I think the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL remains the brightest phone available. The Oppo Find X8 Pro did outshine the Galaxy S24 Ultra to my eye, even with the Samsung's Extra Brightness mode enabled.

Oppo has also borrowed the alert slider from OnePlus phones to use on the Find X8 series. This standard/vibrate/silent toggle is very useful to have alongside the regular Android Quick Settings version. I did find myself accidentally switching modes when taking the phone in and out of my pocket, though — something I've never experienced with OnePlus phones' sliders.

There's also another addition to the side of the Find X8 Pro in the form of the Quick button, effectively a simplified version of the iPhone 16's Camera Control.

It's fully haptic, with no physical button like the Camera Control, and while it still acts as a camera shortcut and shutter button as you'd expect, its other functions are limited to adjusting zoom levels with swipes, or taking burst photos if you hold the button down. There's far less functionality to be found here than with Apple's Camera Control, but I think Oppo's approach might be better for the majority of users the majority of the time.

Oppo is touting its use of a toughened glass display and aluminum rails for the Find X8 Pro, but it doesn't explain exactly what's new or what standard these meet. What we do know however is that this phone features both IP68 and IP69 dust/water protection.

IP68 ratings are common among flagship phones, and mean that the phone's been tested for water resistance by submerging it at least 3 feet 3 inches in fresh water for at least 30 minutes. IP69 meanwhile means the device can shrug off high-pressure water jets, heated to 176 degrees Fahrenheit. It's a level of resistance you're unlikely to need in everyday life, but it could help save your phone in a freak disaster situation.

The last thing to mention here are the color choices for the Oppo Find X8 Pro. There are only two: the sensible option of Space Black, or the more eye-catching Pearl White you see in our photos. The unique coating that Oppo uses for Pearl White apparently never makes the same pattern twice, so you can feel a little bit more special owning this particular model.

Oppo Find X8 Pro review: Cameras

Oppo managed to stuff four cameras into the back of the Find X8 Pro, rivalling the Galaxy S24 Ultra. While Oppo can't match the huge 200MP max resolution of the S24 Ultra's main camera, it can instead boast that all four of the Find X8 Pro's cameras are 50MP in resolution. In theory, that should make for more consistent photos across the zoom range.

Speaking of zoom, the Find X8 Pro offers 3x and 6x optical zoom, with a max magnification of 120x. There's an AI Telescope Zoom feature on top of that, but we'll explore this more later.

Starting with the main camera, we see that compared to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the Oppo Find X8 Pro tends toward the more dramatic, with darker shadows and brighter highlights. It's visible all over these photos of this vintage car/ice cream truck.

Against the Pixel 9 Pro XL, the Oppo Find X8 Pro also exaggerates the darkest and brightest areas of this statues of two bears. The Pixel's interpretation of the scene is much closer to how I saw it, but I don't think the Oppo version looks worse — just different.

Sticking with the Pixel 9 Pro XL for an ultrawide comparison of a church, the Oppo shows off much more detail, despite the images having almost identical resolutions. The dark/light balance difference I pointed out before applies here, too, if you look at the sky or the shadowed doorways.

Now it's time for a series of zoom comparisons against the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which like the Find X8 Pro uses two telephoto cameras. In this initial 3x face-off looking across Paddington Station's rooves, the S24 Ultra takes the lead because of its coloration.

At 5x/6x, there's less of a difference. I still like the Galaxy S24 Ultra's color treatment of the scene, but the Find X8 Pro is picking up slightly more detail in the buildings.

Normally I don't test cameras phones' digital zoom features, since it's invariably just a worse, cropped-in version of their highest magnification camera. But Oppo claims that its new AI Telescope Zoom helps bring clarity to photos zoomed in over 10x and higher, even up to 60x and above. So I zoomed right into the GWR logo to test it.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra's version of this shot is pretty clear, but it's quite soft in terms of detail. While there's a bit more noise in the shot from the Find X8 Pro, the clarity difference is staggering. Its colors are much more accurate to the scene too, with the Samsung making things look way too yellow.

I also checked how the Find X8 Pro performed at night with its low-light camera mode against the Pixel and the iPhone, This garden shot between the Oppo and Apple phones shows the Find X8 Pro's superior ability to deal with extreme lighting, competently balancing the flare from the solar light and the shadows of the trees and bushes. The iPhone image is brighter, which helps bring out detail from the darker areas, but also makes the better-lit portions of the photo overexposed.

The Oppo's preference for extreme contrast is shown off most clearly in this shot of statues near Paddington Station at night. It's a moody-looking shot of these banqueting animals for sure, but the Pixel 9 Pro XL reveals so much more detail, sacrificing the legibility of the glowing clock in the background but allowing us to see much more of our subjects.

We'll finish up with a portrait selfie comparison, again between the Oppo and the Samsung. The Find X8 Pro's done a lot better than I expected here, offering a flattering but more natural pink hue to my selfie rather than the yellower tone of the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The Oppo also cuts around me and my glasses to apply the bokeh effect near-perfectly, something I can normally only rely on the Samsung phone to do consistently.

One other point in favor of the Find X8 Pro's photography is its minimal shutter lag. The camera remains fast and responsive even if you're hammering the shutter button in the hope of capturing a fast-moving object or a fleeting expression on your subject's face.

Oppo Find X8 Pro review: Performance

Oppo selected MediaTek's Dimensity 9400 chip to drive the Find X8 series, eschewing the Snapdragon 8 Elite that we expect many of the best Android phones will adopt over the coming year. In the Pro model we have here, it comes with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, a strong default spec compared to the 12GB/256GB many Android flagships come with.

Our test results make for interesting reading, with the Find X8 Pro outperforming all its rivals on the Wild Life Extreme Unlimited GPU test, including the iPhone 16 Pro Max's mighty A18 Pro chip and the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro running the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon at full power.

The Dimensity chip is also competitive in the Geekbench CPU benchmarks, beating the iPhone in the multicore test and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered OnePlus 12 on both single and multicore tests. It lags behind the iPhone when it comes to transcoding a video with Adobe Premiere Rush, though.

Oppo Find X8 Pro review: Battery and charging

Despite being a similar size to its rivals, the Oppo Find X8 Pro contains a 5,910 mAh battery, using a more compact silicon-carbon material rather than the usual lithium-ion that other batteries rely on. The result is a huge capacity compared to the 5,000 mAh cell inside the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and a decent chunk more than the OnePlus 12's 5,500 mAh power pack, too.

In my own testing, the Find X8 Pro lost 14% charge after 3 hours of YouTube over Wi-Fi. In that same time, he Pixel 9 Pro XL drains 15%, the Galaxy S24 Ultra 21% and the OnePlus 12 18%, so the larger battery has paid off for Oppo, but perhaps not as much as expected.

For power, Oppo's using an 80W SuperVOOC wired standard for the Find X8 Pro, but it can also charge at up to 55W via USB PowerDelivery, meaning you still get good speeds even if you don't have an Oppo-made charger. There's also 50W AirVOOC wireless charging on offer if you buy the correct charging stand or one of Oppo's new Mag Charge cases, which enable a MagSafe-style magnetically-aligned puck to easily connect to the phone to begin refueling.

Oppo sent us a Find X8 Pro with a SuperVOOC charger in the box, although this apparently isn't standard worldwide. After plugging in the Oppo at 0% charge, the brick powered the phone back to 46% full after 15 minutes, 81% after half-an-hour and 100% at the 48-minute mark. That's not quite as fast as the OnePlus 12's sub-30-minutes full refill time, but we can forgive that considering the extra capacity the Oppo has to fill up.

Oppo Find X8 Pro review: Software and special features

The Find X8 Pro runs on the Android 15-based ColorOS 15, which offers five years of full updates and six years of security updates. That's behind the seven years offered by Google and Samsung for their latest phones, but perhaps that won't matter to you if you intend to upgrade your phone again before then.

One of the most interesting upgrades made to the Oppo Find X8 Pro is it can now share files with iPhones more directly. A new Share with iPhone option can be found when opening the sharing menu for a given item, and iPhone users can install the O+ Connect app to accept them. This works by setting up a temporary Wi-Fi hotspot for the iPhone to connect to, and it works effectively. That said, it's not that much easier than just sending files by a cloud folder or through a messaging app.

In keeping with modern trends, Oppo has bundled up some new AI features for the Find X8 Pro to use. All of these capabilities are in line with what we've seen rival phones offer — summarization, translation, audio transcription, text generation and photo editing tools are all present, as is Google Gemini as the default digital assistant, plus Circle to Search. These tools all work to varying levels of effectiveness, due to the inconsistent nature of generative AI.

What I will praise Oppo for is the option to access relevant AI tools from a toolbar you can summon by swiping in from the side of the screen. It keeps the features accessible without permanently taking up screen space in the interface; the toolbar also does its best to suggest the most likely tool you'll need rather than letting you swipe through all of them every time.

Oppo Find X8 Pro review: Verdict

I'd happily recommend the Oppo Find X8 Pro to anyone who wants a well-balanced flagship phone. The Find X8 Pro might be harder to find in the United States, and its software update schedule is shorter than the best in the business, but everywhere else, this phone is top-tier.

Having four cameras on a phone that has a more typical flagship phone price rather than an "ultra" one is remarkable. A battery that's nearly 20% bigger than major rivals, a handsome-looking screen, and competitive benchmark results only reinforce what value you'll gain with the Find X8 Pro.

Oppo may have left it a little late in 2024 to launch the Find X8 Pro, but it's a phone of the year contender that could continue to be a thorn in the side of Apple, Samsung and Google well into next year depending on how those companies develop their premium phone offerings.

I had feared that the Find X8 Pro and the incoming OnePlus 13 would end up clashing, but from the specs we've seen after the OnePlus 13 launch in China, that may not end up happening. It looks like OnePlus' new product is going to remain an amazing deal for users who want a standard flagship phone, while Oppo will undercut and outperform Pro and Ultra models from other phone makers. All Oppo needs to do is bring the Find X8 Pro to U.S. carriers for easier purchasing, and the stage will be set for a real smartphone showdown.

When Oppo launches the Find X8 smartphone, it will come with a familiar feature that was just released on the iPhone 16 Pro. 

Posted to the Chinese social media site Weibo, Zhou Yibao, a product manager for Oppo, posted a video showcasing their version of a pressure-sensitive camera shutter button (spotted by 9to5 Google).

Yibao's video shows someone pressing the button to open the camera app and to take photos. Like Apple's Camera Control button, you can swipe to zoom in or out. 

In a move we're sure Apple isn't promoting, the video shows the camera control button being used while underwater, meaning the camera can be used even if your touchscreen isn't available.

To be fair to Oppo, their version of this button has probably been in development for a while now, and Apple's new iPhones only just launched in September.

Oppo isn't the only Chinese smartphone manufacturer launching their next handsets with this feature. Oppo's plans were leaked within the same week of Apple's Glowtime event, where the company revealed the iPhone 16 series. Realme and Nubia also showed off their versions of the Camera Control button within a week.

A separate shutter button isn't a new idea (the swiping is more innovative, though). The Sony Xperia 1 VI features a separate camera button, and phone makers like Nokia and HTC have had separate camera controls on various devices for years.

In China, the Oppo Find X8 should launch in late October. Typically, its phones see a global launch a few months later, meaning they will probably leave China in 2025. Beyond the camera control button, it should have upgraded cameras and a refreshed design.

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Oppo recently revealed an image of the upcoming Oppo Find X8, and it appears to beat the iPhone 16 Pro in at least one area. 

This comes from a recent post on X by Oppo Chief Product Officer Pete Lau, which shows an image of two phones side by side. The phones, according to a comment by known tipster IceUniverse, are the Oppo Find X8 and the recently released iPhone 16 Pro. While the two devices look pretty similar, there is one noticeable difference for the sharp-eyed as the bezels on the Find X8 appear to be the thinner of the two. 

The image also suggests that the Oppo Find X8 will have a flat-screen instead of the curved display that we saw on the Oppo Find X7. This seemingly confirms other leaks on Weibo by Digital Chat Station (via Gizmochina) that state that the Oppo Find X8 Pro will be the only model with a curved screen. Other than that, we can't see much of the phone's design, including whether it will keep the circular camera design that made the Oppo Find X7 Ultra one of the best camera phones in the Chinese market. 

We have seen a few leaks regarding the upcoming Find X8, one of which is that the phone will have a copy of the iPhone 16's camera button, although it will be called the "quick button." There are also indications that the Oppo Find X8 will come with a MediaTek 9400 chip, as well as the so-called Glacier Battery Tech according to Oppo Find series Product Manager, Zhou Yibao.

There has been something of a constant battle between the best phones when it comes to bezel size. Over the last few years, phones have increased the screen size and reduced the borders to the degree that they're almost unnoticeable. For instance, the iPhone 16 Pro Max has shipped with a much larger screen and thinner bezels. However, it seems that Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra will be even thinner according to recent leaks.

For the time being, we have no official Find X8 release date. However, there have been some rumors that we could see a launch on October 21. This was the same date that saw the release of the Oppo Find X6 and the Oppo Find X7. The real question is if the Oppo Find X8 will be launched outside of China after a post on threads revealed that a European release is planned. 

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Apple has been a trendsetter in the smartphone industry for nearly two decades for better or for worse. (Looking at you 3.5mm jack.) So it's no surprise that the newly the new camera control button debuting on the iPhone 16 this week is already inspiring a number of copycats. 

Three different Chinese Android smartphone manufacturers announced plans or revealed versions of the shutter button that will appear on forthcoming handsets. 

The party got started late last week when Ni Fei, the president of Nubia, announced on Weibo that the company's next Z70 Ultra smartphone would feature a "more realistic camera button." In a previous post, replying to the regular leaker Digital Chat Station, Fei confirmed that the phone would also have two-stage shutter function, which allows you to focus with a half-click and then take the photo with a full press.

Before last week's Glowtime event where Apple revealed the iPhone 16 lineup, regular device tipster, Ice Universe posted that Oppo's upcoming Find X8 series would have a camera button as well. Android Authority reported that that Oppo's version would be called "Quick Button."

Apple's Camera Control button stands out by including support for swipe gestures that let you change photo setting menus or zoom in on your subject. We don't know yet if Nubia or Oppo will offer similar features with their dedicated camera buttons. For now, it appears their buttons are mostly shutter controls. 

Meanwhile, Realme showed off a video on Weibo this week of a new camera button on an unnamed Realme phone that actually appears to extremely similar to Apple's design. In the video, you can see the Realme employee swiping on the key to zoom in on distant skyscrapers. Later, he taps the button to take a picture. I don't know if their version has the two-stage controls, but I would not be surprised if that feature is forthcoming as well. 

To be fair to all three phone makers, a separate shutter button for the camera on a smartphone is not a new idea. Sony's Xperia 1 VI still features separate camera button. Companies like Nokia and HTC have had separate camera controls on various devices for years.

Additionally, Realme has a habit of showing off tech they're working on that doesn't always launch. Recently, the company showed off a 320W charger that can refill a smartphone battery in less than five minutes. It isn't on any phones and so far, and there haven't been announcements of its imminent arrival. Previously, Realme duplicated Apple's MagSafe feature, but hasn't actually released it anywhere.

For U.S. customers, we might not see any of these phones, since they may not appear outside of China. Instead, it's a question of whether bigger rivals like Samsung and Google decide to follow suit with their own take on a camera button. Both are known to crib ideas from the Cupertino-tech giant, so it's not out of the realm of possibility.

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The iPhone 16 has a brand-new Camera Control button, as we learned at the Glowtime event earlier this week. And it's clearly making an impact as a few Android phones have already announced they want to imitate it.

One example is Chinese phone maker Nubia. Company president Ni Fei took to social network Weibo (via Android Authority) shortly after Apple's announcement to claim that the Nubia Z70 Ultra would adopt a "more realistic camera button" with a half-press-to-focus function. Such a button would build on the Nubia Z60 Ultra, which already has a sliding key that can be used to quickly open the camera or another app, but it couldn't be used to actually take photos.

This fits in nicely with an older report (again via Android Authority) from leaker Ice Universe about how Oppo's next-gen flagship Find X8 series may use a new "Quick Button." That certainly sounds like a camera shortcut but we don't get anything more concrete than that.

We can't bring up camera controls without talking about Sony phones. Sony has used camera buttons on its handsets like the Xperia 1 VI for years already, acting as Camera app shortcut and press-to-focus key as well as a shutter button. No doubt Sony feels vindicated for sticking with this feature, and perhaps we'll see future Xperia phones double-down on them.

Apple may have put its own spin on the idea of a dedicated camera button with its ability to adjust multiple settings and its incoming Visual Intelligence shortcut. But this is a long-standing concept that the iPhone, by virtue of being one of the most, if not the most, desirable phone brands in the world, has now brought new attention to. And it's going to be fascinating to see if this catches on more widely as a result.

You can learn more about our thoughts on the iPhone 16 Camera Control here, and our more general take on the new phones in our iPhone 16 hands-on and iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max hands-on. Expect full reviews from us very soon.

More from Tom's Guide

• First iPhone 16 benchmark results are in — here’s how the A18 stacks up
• Best camera phones in 2024
• iPhone 16 just made the iPhone 16 Pro look pointless — here’s why

Fans of physical media are gluttons for punishment. (I'm speaking from experience here.) Not only does physical media tend to cost more than its digital equivalent, but the hardware required to play it can often cost hundreds of dollars. 

That is, unless you want the very best 4K Blu-ray player ever made — then you should be prepared to spend at least $1,000. 

The model I'm referring to is the Oppo UDP-203, a 4K disc player that was made in the mid- to late-2010s and has since been discontinued. The average price on eBay is $1,000, with some pristine Oppo UDP-203 models selling for between $1,500 and $2,000. It's also available on Amazon brand-new for $4,598 — but, in spite of all the good things I'm about to say about it, DO NOT pay that much for it as second-hand models should work just as well for a fraction of the price.

There are cheaper alternatives out there — the Panasonic DP-UB820-K chief among them — but the Oppo UDP-203 is the Holy Grail for cinephiles for a reason.

Meet the Holy Grail of 4K Blu-ray players

What makes the Oppo so special? Well, it does a few things better than any other Blu-ray player. As long as you downloaded the last firmware update, the UDP-203 can switch between Dolby Vision and HDR10+ modes on the fly and, thanks to its support for the Rec2020 color gamut, it offers a wider color gamut than some cheaper alternatives. Inside, it uses Oppo's own Balanced Universal Disc Loader for error-free reads and a specialized 4K UHD Blu-ray decoder that has never been matched by any other manufacturer.

Its other many talents include the playback of DVD-Audio and SACDs, a feature that's harder to find than it ought to be, and support of the two major spatial audio formats, DTS:X and Dolby Atmos. There's even support for 3D Blu-ray for those that invested heavily in the short-lived display technology and still have a 3D TV alive and kicking.

That doesn't mean the Oppo UDP-203 has all the latest and greatest technology — it only has HDMI 2.0 ports, for example — but it has all the necessary specs and features to make modern 4K Blu-rays and older HD Blu-rays look their best.

Ultimately, the result of this symphony of specs, features and format support is an uncompromising picture, one that offers fully detailed images befitting of the name Ultra High-Definition. The Oppo UDP-203 is designed from the inside-out to deliver the best possible experience. and in my experience, it's the only 4K Blu-ray player I trust when I test TVs for Tom's Guide.

The cheaper alternatives

In a twist of cruel fate, Oppo stopped making Blu-ray players in 2018, making the existing units a rare and coveted item for cinephiles. That's why it's selling for an absurd amount of money online. (For reference, when it was released, Oppo sold it for $549 and now the Oppo UDP-203 routinely sells for double or triple that amount.)

So what are your other options? Well, unfortunately the main manufacturers of 4K Blu-ray players haven't found a reason to release new models, so what's left are holdovers from a few years ago. 

The one I mentioned earlier, the Panasonic DP-UB820-K, is probably the second-best choice out there. It doesn't have the picture processing chops of the Oppo UDP-203, but it provides most of the same support minus SACD and DVD-Audio formats. An Xbox Series X will work in a pinch, too, but the results can sometimes be laughably bad.

If I didn't have an Oppo leftover from the last decade, the DP-UB820-K would be my first port of call with the likes of the more affordable Panasonic DP-UB420-K and Sony UBP-X800M2 as my second and third stops, respectively.

That said, if you're an obsessive collector — and most 4K Blu-ray collectors certainly are — then there's no substitute for the now-defunct, but still top-of-its-game Oppo UDP-203, the GOAT of 4K Blu-ray players.

More from Tom's Guide

• The best looking 4K Blu-ray I’ve ever seen is definitely not the movie you’re expecting
• The best smart TVs for streaming
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It appears that Oppo’s latest smartphone, the Find X7 Ultra, has a major design first that could help it compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 and iPhone 16, but, sadly, you won't be able to buy it if you're based in the U.S.

The Find X7 Ultra was recently released in China and is the first smartphone with two periscope cameras. The first camera offers 3x zoom and uses a 1/1.56-inch sensor that Oppo claims is the biggest telephoto sensor in a smartphone. Meanwhile, the second camera offers a 6x optical zoom with a 2.51-inch sensor.

The Find X7 Ultra has an impressive setup, and would undoubtedly lead to some fantastic shots. The larger sensors will mean that the cameras perform better in low light conditions, while the periscope lenses will allow for a more detailed zoom. However, there is still the issue of movement being amplified when using a periscope lens. Essentially, the zoom magnifies movement, meaning a simple twitch can ruin an entire shot.

From what we know this is all controlled by Oppo’s new software: the HyperTone Image Engine. This software is designed to reduce digital artifacts while enhancing clarity using the Extra HD Algorithm. This system does, apparently, require 400% more computing power than normal but promises to deliver much cleaner images and clearer details. 

The two periscope cameras are only part of the four that come with the Oppo Find X7 Ultra. The phone is listed with four 50-megapixel cameras, including the main camera that is apparently the first phone on the market to use Sony’s new LYT-900 1-inch sensor. There is also an ultrawide camera with a 1.95-inch sensor. It's an impressive collection and will certainly make the Find X7 Ultra an exciting prospect for any hardcore phone photographer. 

Aside from the cameras the Find X7 Pro is running the SnapDragon 8 Gen 3 processor, with a 5,000 mAh battery. It has a 6.82-inch 1440p screen, with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz and between 12-16GB of RAM.

Frustratingly, it appears there are no plans to release the phone outside of China meaning only Chinese phone fans will get to benefit from this impressive new camera tech.

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Some alleged specs for the OnePlus V Fold have been published by 91Mobiles in collaboration with leaker Yogesh Brar, giving us our first potential insight into this mysterious new foldable.

The report points to the OnePlus V Fold looking a lot like its stablemate the Oppo Find N2, or more specifically that phone's upcoming replacement, the Find N3. With display, camera and battery specs all mentioned in the report, it's starting to look like the V Fold could be an effective challenger for the newly announced Google Pixel Fold and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5.

A bigger display than rivals

To begin, the OnePlus V Fold/Oppo Find N3 will supposedly be a mid-sized foldable with a book-style hinge and an 8-inch, 120Hz inner display. That matches the style and refresh rate of the Pixel Fold, and presumably the Galaxy Z Fold 5 too, except the V Fold would be larger than these two 7.6-inch models. Hopefully, that also translates to a nice wide outer display that is still easy to use when the phone's folded up, something that earlier Samsung Galaxy Z Folds have struggled with.

Impressive cameras

Even better than a larger display, the OnePlus V Fold will apparently use cameras from the Oppo Find X6, one of the best camera phones of the year, though sadly not one we can buy in the U.S. or U.K.. If OnePlus took all of the Find X6's cameras for the V Fold, that would mean it's equipped with 50MP main, 50MP ultrawide, 50MP telephoto with 2.8x zoom and 32MP selfie shooters.

However, 91Mobiles goes on to specify a 48MP ultrawide camera and a 32MP telephoto camera, which are the same cameras that the Find N2 uses now, along with a 20MP front selfie camera and 32MP inner selfie camera. Perhaps only the main camera, and maybe one of the selfie cameras, will be getting the Find X6's sensors.

Even still, this could mean trouble for the Pixel Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 5. The Pixel Fold uses a 50MP main camera, and the Z Fold is likely to use a 50MP sensor again, but their ultrawide, telephoto and selfie cameras are all believed to be smaller in resolution than any equivalent tipped on the OnePlus foldable. Megapixels aren't everything of course, but they certainly help with image quality alongside sensor size, aperture size and effective post-processing.

The final spec detail given in the report is an alleged 4,805 mAh battery for the OnePlus V Fold. That would be larger than the Galaxy Z Fold 4's 4,400 mAh battery, but slightly smaller than the Pixel Fold's 4,821 mAh battery. Such a small capacity difference is unlikely to mean much more battery life for the Pixel Fold, considering the Google Pixel family's historic poor performance on our battery tests, maybe the V Fold could still be a battery life champion among foldables.

More OnePlus foldables to come

91Mobiles and Brar expect the OnePlus V Fold to launch in Q3 of this year, as OnePlus teased a few months back and subsequent rumors have backed up. They also mention a OnePlus V Flip model could also exist to rival the Galaxy Z Flip 5, although they don't know when that would appear. In all likelihood though, it'll also be based on an Oppo foldable, presumably either the Oppo Find N2 Flip or its successor.

Foldables have been steadily developing for the past couple of years, but with Google and soon OnePlus joining, it means we in the U.S. and U.K. finally have a meaningful alternative to Samsung's Galaxy Z foldables, even as a bumper crop of upgrades are teased for both the Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5. By the end of the year, we could see some huge shifts on our best foldable phones page, and frankly, we can't wait to see how it plays out.

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A recent report that OnePlus and Oppo were about to withdraw from the U.K. and other European countries seems to be inaccurate, at least in OnePlus' case.

Leaker Max Jambor tweeted a claim the twin Chinese phone makers will soon be announcing their withdrawal from the U.K., Germany, France and the Netherlands, with the companies' status in the rest of Europe up in the air, further tweets said. 

However, OnePlus and Oppo have confirmed to Tom's Guide this isn't the case.

“OPPO and OnePlus are committed to all the existing European markets. We had a great start in 2023 with the successful launches of several products in Europe and have a line-up of upcoming products for the rest of the year. As always, OPPO and OnePlus will continue to provide more innovative products and the best-in-class service for users moving forward.”

Jambor is usually a source of accurate OnePlus leaks, so it seems odd that he'd go all-in on a rumor as big as this. OnePlus and Oppo are currently in a dispute over patents with Nokia in Germany, and as a result, neither have sold phones there since mid-last year, so perhaps there are rumblings of a permanent exit there. Fortunately for the rest of Europe, these two phone makers seem to be sticking around for the foreseeable.

Not going anywhere

Leaving Europe would have been a very sudden decision for Oppo and OnePlus, given that the OnePlus 11 and Oppo Find N2 Flip only just launched in the past month, with Oppo also currently sponsoring the UEFA Champions League, one of the biggest sporting events in Europe.

We really like both the OnePlus 11 and Oppo Find N2 Flip, plus many of the companies' previous phones, so we're glad we'll continue to get more phones. Smartphone buyers deserve as many high-quality phone options as possible, and losing both OnePlus and Oppo would have meant two fewer competitors to challenge the dominant Apple and Samsung.

We've been looking forward to OnePlus' upcoming devices too, such as the OnePlus Pad and the rumored OnePlus V Fold. While these have been announced (or at least teased), we're still not sure when they're coming to the U.K. or European markets, let alone the rest of the world.

OnePlus has announced it'll be debuting a new cheaper OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite phone at the start of next month, while Oppo's staying quiet for now about its next big release. Hopefully whatever comes next will be sold all over Europe (and the U.S. too in OnePlus' case), and we can rely on OnePlus and Oppo to provide exciting alternative devices for Android users for a long time to come.

More from Tom's Guide

•  OnePlus Pad — why I’m actually excited about this Android tablet 
•  You can try the OnePlus 11 free for 100 days — here’s how 
•  OnePlus V Fold — 6 ways it can beat Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 

If you’re looking for things to add to the list of “stuff you never thought you needed,” then boy do we have something for you. It turns out Oppo and sister company OnePlus brought a rather unique gadget to MWC 2023 — a 45W Liquid Cooler for smartphones.

This is, of course, the same OnePlus behind the liquid-cooled OnePlus 11 Concept. That suggests that someone behind the scenes is a very big fan of that technology. Probably someone important, though we couldn’t guess as to who.

According to fact sheets on display at the Oppo booth, the liquid cooler is a semiconductor-based water cooling system, with the ability to reduce the temperature of your phone by 20 degrees Celsius (around 68 degrees Fahrenheit). Which is a not-insignificant amount of heat, especially if you plan on doing any performance-heavy activities like gaming

The cooling system looks like a very large power supply connected to some kind of wireless charging cradle, so it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how the thing works. Of course, the Oppo and OnePlus variants are slightly different, for some reason.

The Oppo variant connects to your phone magnetically, and the connector looks like a black puck attached to a long red cable. This Liquid Cooler model also functions as a wireless charging, offering up to 10W speeds. The fact sheet also says that it can work on almost any flat service, rather than just your phone.

The OnePlus Liquid Cooler has a little clip on the end of its cable, much like the ones you’d find on a car phone mount or some kind of stand. This one does not wirelessly charge your device as best we can tell, and it wasn’t clear whether it worked on other devices. It’s not clear why there’s a difference, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the lack of wireless charging support in the OnePlus 11 itself played some role.

I was able to give the OnePlus variant a try, and the cooler got to work almost as soon as we’d clipped the mount around a nearby phone. The difference in the temperature was immediate, with the phone feeling noticeably cool after being attached to the cooler for several seconds.

Apparently the Liquid Cooler will go on sale at some point. However we don’t have information on pricing, availability or even when it’s likely to hit store shelves. Still, the idea of a hardcore phone cooler is an interesting idea, even if the size of the unit makes it feel a little bit extreme. I’m certainly intrigued, if a little skeptical.

Chinese manufacturer Oppo has announced at MWC 2023 that its highly anticipated Find N2 Flip phone will be releasing in Australia, making it the first territory to receive one of the company's foldables outside of its homeland.

Similar in design to Samsung's popular Galaxy Z Flip 4 handset, the Oppo Find N2 Flip is a clamshell device which closes vertically to reduce its size by half.

Oppo Find N2 Flip: Screens and specs

Like the aforementioned Z Flip 4, the Find N2 Flip sports an exterior AMOLED display, only Oppo's version is significantly larger (and arguably more useful) than Samsung's at 3.26 inches. When unfolded, the Find N2 Flip boasts a 6.8-inch AMOLED (with LTPO) display with a dynamic 1-120Hz refresh rate.

Oppo's Find N2 Flip also features a new Flexion Hinge folding mechanism which, the company says, is certified to withstand up to 400,000 folds and unfolds.

In terms of its photographic prowess, the Find N2 Flip offers a 50MP wide-angle Sony IMX890 sensor as its main shooter, with an additional 8MP ultra-wide camera. Additionally, the Find N2 Flip features a 32MP Sony IMX709 sensor on its interior, however you also have the option of snapping selfies with the main 50MP camera using the previously mentioned exterior display.

In terms of horsepower, the Find N2 Flip carriers a MediaTek Dimensity 9000 Plus chipset and 8GB of RAM, with a 4,300mAh battery, which is a fair amount larger than what other foldables in Australia offer.

Oppo Find N2 Flip: Price and availability

Available for pre-order from JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman from March 2, the Oppo Find N2 Flip will release on March 16 priced at AU$1,499 — the same price Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 4 is set at. The Find N2 Flip will launch in Astral Black and Moonlit Purple.

While the handset is every bit as beautiful as its competitors (maybe even a little too close in appearance), Oppo's Find N2 could prove a tough sell in Australia. Pricing the device identically to the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is a gutsy move, but realistically, Oppo doesn't have the same brand recognition that Samsung enjoys.

And, though the device does offer a number of design improvements over the Galaxy Z Flip 4, such as a larger exterior display and bigger battery, Oppo's ColorOS 13 user interface won't be every Android user's cup of tea.

That said, it's great to see a new alternative hit the market, and we hope that Oppo follows up the Find N2 Flip's release with a local launch of its other Find N2 foldable, which is closer in design to the Z Fold 4.

• Oppo Find N2 Flip just got announced — and the Galaxy Z Flip 4 should be scared

A phone like the Oppo Find N2 Flip was in a way inevitable, thanks to the niche opened up and still dominated by phones like Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 4. What was less guaranteed was how good the first true Z Flip rival would be, and as it happens, it's really good.

The Find N2 Flip takes the Galaxy Z Flip 4's template and runs with it, making adjustments to make itself leaner and more effective. While we've only had a short time to test out Oppo's new foldable so far, it's made changes that we think Samsung and other wannabe small foldable makers need to copy or adapt, or else they'll face irrelevance in this category.

It's not as unique as the larger Oppo Find N2, but unlike that model, the Find N2 Flip will be available to European buyers. And if you've got the budget and the inclination to buy foldable phones, customers in Europe are likely going to be tempted by would could be one of the best foldable phones yet.

Oppo Find N2 Flip hands-on: Price and availability 

Oppo is bringing the Find N2 Flip to the global market, making this its first foldable to be sold outside of China. Unfortunately, that doesn't include the U.S., but if it is available in your country, it's up for pre-orders from February 15 and goes on open sale on March 2.

You'll pay £849 ($1,025 / AU$ 1,485 converted) for a Find N2 Flip in the U.K. For comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 retails for £899, so the price difference between it and the Find N2 Flip is pretty negligible.

Oppo Find N2 Flip hands-on: Design and displays

With its clamshell-style design, side-mounted fingerprint sensor and dual cameras, the Find N2 Flip initially looks like a close relative of the Galaxy Z Flip 4. There's one big difference though, and it's the much larger 3.26-inch outer display, inset into the glass for a perfectly smooth top surface. You can't operate the full phone from it like you can on a big foldable phone's outer screen, but you can still do more than you can on the Z Flip 4's outer panel.

Opening the phone up, you get a more typical 6.8-inch FHD 120Hz OLED inner display. Oppo promises up to 1,600 nits of maximum brightness, and also a unique anti-glare coating that helps the display look its best even in bright light.

As a foldable, the Find N2 Flip does have a crease running across the center of its display. Fortunately, it's pretty hard to notice when you're using the phone, even if you run your finger directly across it. Unless you're shining bright lights on the display trying to deliberately see the crease (as I did here), you shouldn't find it an issue.

The hinge itself, using Oppo's "Flexion Hinge" technology, lets the phone open and close smoothly and with little resistance. But it also has the option to open part-way so you can stand the phone up to take photos from a stable position or watch things hands-free, as we've seen on other foldables. The phone does rattle a little if you are moving around a lot with it open, but otherwise it feels sturdy.

Oppo promises that you'll be able to fold the Oppo Find N2 Flip at least 400,000 times without a problem, and that its ultra-thin glass inside display, supported with a steel back plate, and Gorilla Glass 5 outer display will also keep the phone in peak condition for a long time to come. The big missing feature here though is water resistance, something that currently only Samsung offers on its foldables in the form of an IPX8 rating.

Oppo will sell you the Find N2 Flip in either the matte Astral Black or the glossier Moonlit Purple (pictured). It would be nice to have more options but both of these colors are attractive.

Oppo Find N2 Flip hands-on: Cameras

The Find N2 Flip features a 50MP main camera (shooting at 12.5MP or the full 50MP), an 8MP ultrawide camera and a 32MP inner selfie camera. These are similar to the 12MP/12MP/10MP cameras offered by the Galaxy Z Flip 4, but given you can get a top-quality camera phone like the Google Pixel 7 Pro for the same amount of money, you're still arguably a bit short-changed.

On top of the basic hardware, the Find N2 Flip's cameras feature Hasselblad color science like other Oppo and OnePlus phones, alongside Oppo's MariSilicon X Imaging NPU, which the company claims enhances night mode and HDR video.

In my initial testing of the cameras, which you can see in the gallery below, I really liked the main camera's performance, since it captured the setting sun over the canal and office towers of Paddington in beautiful colors. The ultrawide camera however isn't quite as impressive, making a shot of a wall of foliage look rather cold, and failing to capture the depth of color in the image looking up at a neon sign.

Oppo Find N2 Flip hands-on: Performance 

Unlike the regular Find N2 or the Galaxy Z Flip series, Oppo opted for a MediaTek-made Dimensity 9000 Plus chipset for the Find N2 Flip, rather than a flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. Oppo has focused its marketing on the efficiency of this chipset, which when reading between the lines, has us concerned that this chip may be lacking in power.

The gap between Dimensity chips and the standard Snapdragon chips that many Android phones use doesn't tend to be that large, and can even sometimes go in the MediaTek silicon's favor. However, this is a potential area where the Find N2 Flip could fall behind the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and its potent Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC.

RAM and storage on the standard model are 8GB and 256GB respectively, which beats the base Galaxy Z Flip 4's 128GB storage. In China, the Find N2 Flip can be specced with up to 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, which would be unprecedented amounts of memory for a foldable of this size, but it's possible we won't get this model overseas.

Oppo Find N2 Flip hands-on: Battery and charging 

Thanks to some clever repositioning of internal components, Oppo has stuffed the Find N2 Flip with a 4,300 mAh battery, which is quite large for a compact foldable (the Galaxy Z Flip 4's battery is 3,700 mAh). Oppo says that as a result this is the longest-lasting clamshell foldable around, a claim we're looking forward to testing properly for ourselves.

Oppo's also been generous with charging, equipping the Find N2 Flip with a 44W brick, beating the 25W maximum of the Z Flip 4, which doesn't even ship with a charger. Oppo claims the included charger will get you to 50% in 23 minutes, and 100% in under an hour. 

Oppo Find N2 Flip hands-on: Software and special features 

The Find N2 Flip runs Android 13 in the guise of ColorOS 13.0, a visually distinct version of Android but one that behaves pretty typically, beyond some fun flourishes like a shelf of widgets you can access by swiping down on the display. 

More importantly, Oppo is promising 4 years of Android updates, plus an additional fifth year of security updates. That's in line with the best Android phones such as the latest Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4, and means you'll get plenty of new features to play with throughout the Find N2 Flip's life.

With the outer display, there's the freedom like on other folding phones to close the phone up and take selfies with the outer display, or show a preview image to your subject so they can see what they'll look like in the final shot.

You can also bend the phone in half to a 90-degree angle and then use a camcorder-style grip for a convenient preview of what you're capturing.

You also get a plentiful selection of widgets to use on the Oppo Find N2 Flip by swiping left and right on the unlocked cover display. It can let you quickly adjust your quick settings, check and send pre-canned replies to your notifications, open a camera widget for taking selfies with the main dual cameras and use miniaturized versions of other apps like Weather or Clock, all of which are easy to operate thanks to the large display size. Alternatively, you can just use it as an always-on display instead if you want to keep things simple.

Oppo Find N2 Flip hands-on: Early verdict 

We've got more work to do in order to thoroughly test the Oppo Find N2 Flip for our full review. As things stand now though, the Find N2 Flip has brought us the next big evolution of the Galaxy Z Flip 4's clamshell-style foldable design, and everything works together excellently.

We do appreciate the Find N2 Flip's better battery/charging specs, but the larger outer display is the phone's killer feature. It allows you to get more out of the device when folded up, meaning less stress on the hinge per day and hopefully fewer potential distractions for users who often find themselves drawn into browsing other apps after unlocking your phone to check just that one email.

U.S. users are unfortunately still stuck with the Galaxy Z Flip 4 in this style of foldables, which remains an excellent option. It's just that Oppo has found the cracks in the Z Flip's armor and is merrily exploiting them, and unless we find any glaring issues in our final tests, the Find N2 Flip may well be taking Samsung's spot on the best foldable phones list.

Not content with competing with Samsung for the best foldable phones, Oppo’s next traditional flagship could be a genuine Samsung Galaxy S23 rival if leaks from tipster Fenibook on Weibo (via Notebook Check) are to be believed.

The Oppo Find X6 and X6 Pro will be the follow-up to the Oppo Find X5 Pro, a solid Android phone that unfortunately wasn’t available in the U.S. With the alleged specs in this leak we’re hoping that Oppo will rectify that this time around. 

According to Fenibook, the X6 range looks to have three devices to choose from. The Oppo Find X6, the Oppo Find X6 Pro Dimensity Edition, and the Oppo Find X6 Pro Snapdragon edition. 

What is the difference between the three models?

The Find X6 looks set to be the base model in the range but still looks to offer a solid package with Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 silicon, a 50MP rear camera and 32MP front camera. These camera specs are the same across all three phones, but it is under the hood where the pro models should really shine.  

The X6 Pro Dimensity Edition will feature a Dimensity 9200 chipset and larger 5000 mAh battery with 100W wired charging. Most noticeably it's set to feature a different screen to the standard X6 with a Samsung E6 120Hz display. 

It is the claimed Oppo Find X6 Pro Snapdragon edition that has us most excited, however. 

In images leaked by Fenibook it appears to look identical to the Dimensity edition, but as well as all the improvements of the Dimensity Edition, it features a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 2 chipset that can be found in the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S23. That's not all, the Snapdragon edition phone will also have UFS 4.0 — a faster storage system than the UFS 3.1 on the other Find X6 options.

There is no word yet on a Western release nor on pricing strategy. But at the right price point, Oppo could have a contender for one of the best Android phones on its hands.

The Oppo Find N2 and Find N2 Flip are coming, and if you're able to buy them, they could be the new best foldable phones around.

Announced at the company's annual Inno Day presentation, and costing the equivalent of $1,150 (roughly £932/AU$1,700) and $860 (around £697/AU$1,271) respectively, these two flexible phones have the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 in their sights. The bad news is that the larger Find N2 is China-only for the time being. However, the Find N2 Flip is getting a global launch at the start of next year, including "most European countries." This could mean U.K. users will at last have a second small foldable option to pick from alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 4.

Oppo Find N2 Flip

Let's start with the Find N2 Flip, Oppo's first vertical-style foldable. On its face, it looks very much like the Galaxy Z Flip 4, especially when opened, exposing its 6.8-inch variable refresh rate 120Hz OLED display. 

However, closing the Find N2 Flip reveals a portrait-oriented 3.2-inch cover display, much larger than the 1.9-inch outer screen on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and what Oppo calls the "largest cover screen on any flip phone." It should make snapping photos with the phone closed or viewing your notifications far easier than it is on the Samsung.

Speaking of cameras, the Find N2 Flip is equipped with a 50MP main camera and 8MP ultrawide camera, plus a 32MP selfie camera. Those fill the same roles as the Galaxy Z Flip 4's cameras, but it uses 12MP main and ultrawide cameras and a 10MP selfie camera, potentially providing a detail advantage for wide shots but nowhere else.

Inside the Find N2 there's a Dimensity 9000 Plus chipset, the MediaTek equivalent of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus, which should hopefully offer similar levels of performance and battery efficiency to the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Oppo's also managed to squeeze a 4,300 mAh battery in the Find N2 Flip, a full 600 mAh more than the Z Flip 4's battery. The cell should also power up faster thanks to Oppo's 44W charging, which promises to fill the Find N2 Flip in 57 minutes.

Oppo Find N2

And what of the larger model? Oppo had more to say about this model but unfortunately for users looking for a Galaxy Z Fold 4 alternative, the Find N2 is staying in China for the time being.

It's a shame for several reasons, a big one of which is the Find N2's camera array. 48MP ultrawide camera (also capable of macro photography), 50MP main, and 32MP 2x telephoto camera, with Hasselblad color tuning like previous Oppo Find series and OnePlus flagship phones. 

On the front there's a 32MP selfie camera, and another on the inside, although unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 4, this one isn't under the display. That will interfere with whatever you're looking at on the Oppo's inner display, but should mean it takes better quality images than the Samsung under-display camera.

Oppo's stuck with its unique squarer phone shape for the Find N2, although it's still pretty large when unfolded, measuring 7.1 inches and offering a variable 120Hz refresh rate and an impressive 1,550 nits of maximum brightness. The outside is much smaller, measuring 5.54 inches but in theory should still be easy to use thanks to the wide profile of the screen and 1,350 nits max brightness. Oppo's promised a less visible crease too, which would make the inner display more immersive.

Even with the reduced crease, and a new hinge design, Oppo's offering its own version of Samsung's Flex Mode. This lets you open the phone at any angle within a given range, letting you stand the phone up for taking photos or watching video more stably.

On the inside, the Find N2 features a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, the same chip Samsung uses in the Galaxy Z Fold 4, and with up to 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. Its 4,520 mAh battery is equipped with 67W charging, capable of a full charge in 42 minutes. That's both higher capacity and faster than the Z Fold 4's battery specs. 

With all of that packed into a body that's lighter than some non-foldables like the iPhone 14 Pro Max (233g/8.2 ounces for the vegan leather-backed model), the Oppo Find N2 looks just as potent as the Find N2 Flip. It's a pity that Oppo seems to think nobody outside of China wants this phone.

Samsung likely won't have any new foldables to show off until next August, a year after the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 arrived. The rumors for these devices are scarce for now, but Samsung really needs to up its game now that the Oppo Find N2 series here, not to mention the newly revealed Honor Magic Vs and the rumored Google Pixel Fold, also on the horizon for next year.

It looks like Oppo has two new foldable phones coming, based on some leaked specs spilling details about the rumored devices.

The leaks appeared on Chinese site Weibo, courtesy of Digitial Chat Station, and the more interesting details seem to surround the Oppo Find N2. That's the rumored successor to the Oppo Find N, one of the few foldables to give Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 4 a run for its money in our opinion. Like the Samsung phone, the Find N2 is tipped to run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset.

In addition to the leaked Find N2 specs, Digital Chat Station also leaked some specs for the rumored Oppo Find Flip. First reported on by MyFixGuide, the rumored clamshell foldable would be a first for Oppo, which has previously stuck to a tablet-style foldable phone.

The Find N never shipped outside of Oppo's home market of China. Whether the Find N2 and Find Flip enjoy a wider release or not, it's still worth paying attention to the details of these devices as they could have an influence on other foldable phones. Here's the latest details to leak about Oppo's foldable plans.

Oppo Find N2: Rumored specs 

There aren't a ton of leaked specs for either device, but we do get some insights from Digital Chat Station. The Oppo Find N2 is tipped to get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset, a 7.1-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 4,520mAh battery. This represents a refresh to the Oppo Find N rather than a major leap forward, but the listed features should keep the foldable phone in line with the competition.

Aside from the technical specs, it also seems that the Find N2 will keep the side power button fingerprint scanner from the Find N. The new phone is rumored to have a faux leather back and come in black, white and green colorways. Unfortunately, it also is currently expected to be China-only, which is a definite disappointment.

Oppo Find Flip: Rumored specs 

The details on the rumored Oppo Find Flip have a bit more substance, but mostly due to some leaked camera details. The phone is tipped to have two screens, a typical move for clamshell foldables. The main screen is rumored to be a 6.8-inch OLED display with 2520 x 1080 pixels resolution. The outer cover screen display would use a 3.26-inch OLED panel — that's bigger than the cramped 1.9-inch screen on the outside of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4.

In terms of cameras, the rumored specs are encouraging. The Find Flip could have a 32MP Sony-produced selfie camera, which is a massive step up from the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s 10MP sensor. The outer cameras are tipped to include a main 50MP Sony sensor and an 8MP ultrawide Sony sensor, which isn’t groundbreaking, but would put the Find Flip in line with many top-tier smartphone cameras.

We still don’t have details regarding a potential system-on-chip yet, though whichever silicon powers the phone will likely come from Qualcomm. Current speculation is between the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 or the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon Plus Gen 2, which the chip maker has yet to announce. Time will tell which specs and features these phones ultimately get, so stay tuned for more updates as we get them.

Update: Oppo Find N2 and Oppo Find Flip specs leaked — here’s how they'll take on Galaxy Z Fold and Flip 4.

In the west, Samsung has been largely unchallenged in the foldables market after the first couple of underwhelming Motorola Razr foldables failed to make an impact. But that could change in 2022, not just from Motorola with the souped up Motorola Razr 2022 , but from Chinese giant Oppo, which looks set to release a couple of foldables outside of China later this year.

The reliable leaker Yogesh Brar told Pricebaba that Oppo is bringing two new foldable smartphones to market this fall: the Oppo Find N Fold and Oppo Find N Flip. These will both pack Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset and, as the names suggest, go toe to toe with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4. 

The Find N Fold will likely be much like the original China-only Oppo Find N: a normal looking smartphone that opens up to reveal a larger tablet. The Find N Flip, meanwhile, will behave like the Moto Razr or Galaxy Z Flip series, allowing you to fold your regular-sized phone in half when not in use, making it more compact.

If these were a China-only release, like the original Find N, this likely wouldn't bother Samsung too much. But early signs suggest that Oppo has a bigger goal in mind, with Pricebaba spotting listings for both handsets on the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) website earlier this month.

As it is, Samsung should be worried. Despite there being no U.S. release, we went hands on with Oppo's debut foldable in our Oppo Find N review earlier this year. Our phones editor Jordan Palmer was enormously impressed, praising the advantages it had over the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3: no gap when folded, no obvious crease and a sturdier feeling hinge. "While it shares similar lackluster battery life with other foldables and seriously underwhelming cameras, I’d much rather use the Find N than the Galaxy Z Fold 3," he wrote.

While it may make Samsung executives uncomfortable, a worldwide release of Oppo's next foldables should be welcomed by everyone else. Not just because it gives consumers more choice generally, but because competition leads to innovation. 

Samsung’s latest foldables are impressive products, but they're definitely more evolution than revolution, and we can only hope that a bit of healthy competition will push Samsung to being more bold with next year's Fold and Flip phones.

Oppo, once a formidable high-end home theater player, is a relative newcomer to the burgeoning smartphones market and the Enco Free2 are the second incarnation of its entry-level true wireless earbuds.

The Enco Free2 are certainly specified to compete — after all, active noise-cancellation isn’t all that common in sub-$100 earbuds. Bluetooth 5.2, voice control, dual pairing… these are all equally worthwhile and welcome features. The absolute-best-case 30 hours of battery life is slightly less impressive, though.

And in practice, the Enco Free2 aren’t as alluring as they are in theory. Sound quality is heavily midrange-centric — so while the Oppo do great work with communicating singers, their latent treble spikiness and poorly defined bass reproduction make them a less-than-compelling listen. These sonic shortcomings aren’t helped by the rather vague nature of the way the earbuds fit, either. 

Oppo Enco Free2 review: Price and availability 

• Active noise cancelling for under $100
• Not currently on sale in the U.S.

The Oppo Enco Free2 are on sale now priced at £89 / AU$199. They're not currently available in the U.S., but U.K. customers can buy them directly through the Oppo UK store as well as online retailers including Amazon, while Australian customers can buy direct through the Oppo Australia store.

You don’t need to be any kind of search-engine genius to establish that while this is a competitive price, there are alternative designs at similar money from rival manufacturers both great and small — check out our best wireless earbuds under $100 and see where the ranked in best fake AirPods roundup. So while some of the niceties of the Enco Free2’s specification help them stand out just a little, they’re going to need to be special if they’re to make a meaningful case for themselves.

Oppo Enco Free2 review: Design

• Drop-stem mimics AirPods' design
• Slightly bulbous enclosure

Faced with the eternal true wireless earbud design choice of ‘small pebble’ or ‘dangly stem’, Oppo has gone with the latter. 

The ‘earbud’ part of the design is home to a 3/8inch (10mm) dynamic driver, an oversized design by prevailing standards which goes some way to explaining the rather bulbous nature of the Oppo enclosure. The company is claiming a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz, which is ‘full range’ in anyone’s language.

Oppo Enco Free2 review: Comfort and fit

• Imprecise fit
• Rated to IP54 for sweat and water resistance

The earbuds are supplied with ‘S’, ‘M’ and ‘L’ eartips to help secure a decent fit, but those fans of the twist-to-fit ‘small pebble’ alternative design are likely to find these Oppo earbuds give a slightly imprecise fit. 

But they’re not all that burdensome in terms of weight, mind you — each earbud tips the scales at just 0.16 ounces. And thanks to an IP54 rating against water and dust, they can confidently be worn in pretty much any real-world conditions.

Oppo Enco Free2 review: Controls

• Reliable touch controls
• Personalized sound

Each earbud has a capacitive touch-surface integrated into the ‘stem’ part of the design, and they prove reliable in operation, responsive and disinclined to shift the fit of the earbuds when they’re used.

Their specific responsibilities can be defined in the third-party ‘Hey Melody’ app (for Android and iOS devices), or Oppo smartphone users can take care of business in their phone’s Bluetooth settings. The app also includes ‘noise control mode’, which cycles between ‘noise-canceling on’, ‘noise-canceling off’ and ‘transparency’ — there’s also the opportunity to take a brief hearing test which lets the earbuds personalize both the sort of noise-canceling they apply and an EQ specific to your hearing characteristics. 

In addition, the app features four (scarcely different) EQ presets, battery status indication and the ability to pair the Enco Free2 to a couple of devices simultaneously. Here’s also where you can check for firmware updates.

Control is also available via your source player’s native voice-assistant. The Oppo have a triple-mic set-up to deal with voice-assistant interaction, call quality and noise-cancelation — and it’s no trouble to make yourself understood.

Oppo Enco Free2 review: Sound quality 

• Excellent midrange clarity brings out vocalists
• Good bass depth but lacks detail

Oppo has teamed with Danish loudspeaker savant Dynaudio when voicing the Enco Free2 headphones. It's not the first time that brands have partnered, but this is perhaps not the most auspicious example of the collaboration. This is not to say the Enco Free2 are without merit, but there are some areas where they’re not quite a match for their price-comparable rivals.      

Midrange reproduction, for example, is very agreeable indeed here. A recording that shines a spotlight on a singer (like Kate Bush’s "Somewhere In Between", for example) is handled very sympathetically by the Oppo — thanks to impressive detail-retrieval and attentiveness to nuance, voices enjoy real character and expression. There’s a wholeness to the way the Enco Free2 deal with vocalists, a willingness to explain their attitude and temperament that’s by no means a given in earbuds at this sort of money.

Elsewhere, soundstaging is confident, so every element of a recording is secure in its position and safe from encroachment. Dynamic headroom for the ‘loud/quiet’ bits is more than adequate, and (at least as far as the midrange is concerned) the harmonic dynamics of a recording are handled with assurance too.

Either side of the midrange is rather problematic, though. As far as the lower frequencies go, the Oppo want nothing for depth — the company’s claim of 20Hz extension seems fair enough. But despite the weight and punch, and despite pretty well organized attack and decay that keeps rhythms sounding naturalistic, there’s a lack of expression to bass sounds that puts them quite strongly at odds with the midrange. Everything that happens at the bottom end is — well, ‘monotonal’ is too strong a description, but it’s kind of appropriate at the same time. There’s no nuance, no light and shade to the way the Free2 describe bass — it just thumps.

At the opposite end of the frequency range, the problems are different but no less significant. Treble sounds are absolutely as bright and as hard as they dare to be — and that’s when playing some sympathetic material. Switch to something with a bit of bite and attitude to its top end ("The Seed" by The Roots is a good example) and the Enco Free2 become overconfident. Volume, predictably, exacerbates this trait — so unless you’re a fan of a top end that can make you wince, you’ll need to keep volume at a realistic level.

Oppo Enco Free2 review: Active noise-canceling

Active noise-canceling is a far less qualified success. The Oppo aren’t going to give Bose QuietComfort 45 earbuds (admittedly at twice the money) any sleepless nights, but they do very acceptable work when dealing with external sounds. And they manage to do so without altering their broad sonic characteristics (which is not in this instance an entirely welcome trait, to be fair).

Oppo Enco Free2 review: Battery life 

• Up to 36 hours battery life
• USB-C charging  

Oppo is claiming battery life of somewhere between 24 hours (with noise-cancelation switched on — four hours playback from the buds themselves with five further charges from the case), and 36 hours (ANC switched off, six hours from the buds and six from the case). These figures are quite strongly in the ‘good’, rather than the ‘great’, category.

Charging is via the USB-C input on the charging case — there’s no facility for wireless charging. From flat, expect to wait 90 minutes or so before the Enco Free2 are fully charged again.

Oppo Enco Free2 review: Call quality and connectivity 

The Oppo use Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless connectivity, which is ideal, and are compatible with SBC and AAC codecs, which is emphatically not. Even at this price-point, it’s not unusual to see aptX or LDAC codec support for some genuinely high-resolution listening. Still, connectivity itself proves solid, and the claimed 10m range is certainly achievable.

And call quality is pretty successful, too. The mic array resists wind-noise well, and intelligibility at either end of a conversation is never an issue.  

Oppo Enco Free2 review: Verdict 

These are curious true wireless earbuds and no mistake. Where they’re good — active noise-cancelation, control options, midrange fidelity — they’re a match for any real-world rival. But the sound they make is fundamentally skewed, with altogether too much top end attack and a lack of low-end variation. Which ultimately means they’re not the contenders they so easily could have been.

While we were cooing at the news of a 150W-charging OnePlus phone, Oppo has been showing off what it claims is the world's fastest phone charging system at MWC 2022.

As you can see in the video below, Oppo has created a 240W charger that can power up a compatible 4,500 mAh phone to 100% in 9 minutes. It's not ready for commercial use yet, but the fact it exists at all is pretty wild.

The issue with offering faster and faster charging speeds is that they have a negative impact on the health of the battery being charged, particularly when you consider the daily charging cycles that most phones go through.

This doesn't seem to be a problem for the slower 150W standard that Oppo worked on, and that we'll see used in OnePlus and Realme phones later this year. This charging system, in addition to being capable of a 50% charge in five minutes, apparently keeps the battery in good condition too, with up to 80% of the original capacity sticking around after 1,600 charging cycles. That's equivalent to charging the phone once a day for over four years, and is double what the normal two-year standard for battery health on smartphones is considered to be.

Fast charging is just one of the reasons it's a shame that Oppo phones have yet to reach the U.S.. The company's most recent flagship, the Oppo Find X5 Pro, rivals the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra for specs while boasting Hasselblad-tuned cameras and 80W charging. It's shaping up to be one of the best Android phones of the year, but only for U.K. and other non-American markets.

It's probably going to be at least a year or two before we see 240W charging on a phone you can actually buy. However today, big phone makers like Apple and Samsung are sticking with much slower charging speeds (20W and 45W specifically for their latest phones), even while 80W and higher charging standards are becoming more common. Unless future iPhones and Galaxys up their charging speeds soon, companies like Oppo are going to leave them even further and further behind.

Oppo's produced some impressive flagship Android smartphones over the past couple of years, and the newly revealed Oppo Find X5 Pro is the company's latest potential contender for our best Android phones list. 

There is a small caveat tin that the Find X5 Pro won't be coming to the U.S. but for U.K. buyers there's a new contender for the Android flagship crown, and a potential rival for the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. 

A suite of flagship specs

As one might expect from a flagship phone, the Oppo Find X5 Pro has a solid high-end specs sheet. You’ll find the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 at its heart, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage backing up the slice of silicon. 

A 6.7-inch 120Hz refresh rate display is present, but this time a new LTPO panel means its adaptive nature can scale as low as 1Hz to reduce power consumption, similar to the Galaxy S22 Ultra. And there's a huge 1,000Hz touch sampling rate so that your fingers feel like they are interacting with the apps themselves as opposed to glass.

Superfast charging, a staple of Oppo phones, has been ramped up from 65W to 80W in order to juice up the 5,000 mAh battery pack faster than ever. Wireless charging comes in at 50W but with a proprietary AirVOOC charger. 

A familiar but eye-catching design

The Find X5 Pro’s design is broadly similar to that of the Oppo Find X3 Pro’s, only this time it’s dropped the oddball microscope camera, resulting in a more compact camera bump that’s integrated into the phone’s unibody. 

I wish Oppo had done more with the design, given the Find X3 Pro was a dramatic departure from the Oppo Find X2 Pro. But the Glaze Black and Ceramic White options are easy on the eye, and the Find X5 Pro is a lovely phone to hold and use, though the shiny black model shows fingerprints like crazy.

As for cameras, the X5 Pro brings in a new 50-megapixel main camera, backed up a 50MP ultrawide camera with the same Sony IMX766 sensor. Those are joined by a 13MP telephoto camera with a 2x optical zoom. The selfie camera sits at 32MP. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but that's basically the same specs sheet as the Find X3 Pro’s cameras.

However, there's more to the story here. Oppo, like its sibling phone maker OnePlus, has joined forces with Hasselblad, with Oppo taking care of the hardware and the Swedish camera specialist aiding on software and color tuning. 

We’ve seen this applied with some success to the OnePlus 9 Pro, but the really interesting thing here is the new MariSilicon X imaging neural processing unit the Find X5 Pro uses.

Oppo Find X5 Pro: Let there be light

This 6-nanometer chip is used to power the Find X5 pro’s AI image processing, and promises to deliver better overall photography, especially in low-light situations.

Now, I’ve not had too long to test the Find X5 Pro but for a clutch of shots I’ve taken and briefly compared to the iPhone 13 Pro and Google Pixel 6 Pro, Oppo has once again produced a very capable camera system. 

The shots might not quite have the sheer contrast of Google’s phone, and Apple’s phone has a warmer take on colors, but so far I’m impressed by the Find X5 Pro.

But this year the secret sauce is in low-light photography and video. The new MariSilicon X has been tuned to filter out more noise when using night mode than before. Overall, it seems to have worked.

Take a look at the shot below. The Find X5 Pro has done a rather impressive job at handling a dimly lit street. It’s a shot flush with detail, with the letters and numbers on car plates more defined when one zooms than with a comparative iPhone 13 Pro shot. Streetlights aren’t blown out either, which is something even the best phones struggle with.

In some darker conditions, the Find X5 Pro can occasionally be beaten by the iPhone 13 Pro. But at times when Cupertino’s flagship fumbles to illuminate a seriously dark shot, the Find X5 Pro comes out on top.

But good night modes aren’t exactly uncommon in flagship phones, especially the Samsung Galaxy S22 range with their new Nightography chops. So Oppo plans to have the Find X5 Pro stand out when it comes to shooting videos at night. 

The new 4K Night Mode, again powered by the MariSilicon X chip, can take gloomy scenes and brighten them up considerably, pulling detail out of shadows and keeping light sources from blowing out the shot. 

I’ll need more time to test this, but there are some promising signs already that the Oppo Find X5 Pro could end up being one of the best phones of the year when it comes to night time photography and video recording. 

And I should hope so, as at £1,049 it’s far from cheap. The Oppo Find X5 may mildly undercut it’s £1,099 predecessor, but it’s still priced higher than the iPhone 13 Pro, Pixel 6 Pro, and Galaxy S22 Plus. That's a dangerous position to be in, especially when it doesn't offer a brand-new design.

While I’ll have to fully review the phone before I come to any definitive conclusions, there's a real feeling of refinement and a lack of fluff or gimmicks to the Find X5 Pro, and that’s looking very promising indeed.

The rumored Oppo Find X5 Pro looks set to be a contender for a high spot on our best Android phones list, if newly leaked specifications and images are anything to go by. 

Posted by WinFuture, a clutch of images show off a phone that’s offering an evolved take on the Oppo Find X3 Pro — a personal favorite phone of mine from 2021 — rather than a grand departure in design. Given that it’s expected to be a flagship-grade phone, it's unsurprising that there’s a high-end specs sheet here. 

Starting with the design, around the front there’s a 6.7-inch 3216 x 1440 resolution display with what’s expected to be a 120Hz refresh rate and a 10-bit LTPO panel; the latter was seen on the Find X3 Pro and offers a greater range of colors. The screen appears to be gently curved on its sides and sports a punch-hole selfie camera in the upper-left-hand corner.

Around the back, we see a rear-camera module similar to the one on the Find X3 Pro in that the array is covered by the rear panel. On the Find X3 Pro, we appreciated how it did away with intrusive camera-module edges that can trap dust and debris. It’s a design we’ve not seen elsewhere, so it’s no surprise Oppo is leaning into it for a second time.

The layout of the cameras is different this time, though. Rather than a setup that looks rather similar to that camera layout of the iPhone 13 Pro, the Find X5 Pro is expected to have two 50MP main and ultrawide cameras stacked vertically, then a 13MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom on the right hand-side of the camera array. There’s what appears to be a secondary flash or sensor, but there’s no information as to what that might be.

Printed on the camera module are the words “powered by MariSilicon,” which suggests that Oppo’s 6-nanometer neural processing unit (NPU) will handle smart image processing and AI-powered computational photography. 

When combined with a partnership with Swedish camera specialist Hasselblad, as seen in the OnePlus 10 Pro, the Find X5 Pro could offer a big boost in photography capabilities over its already impressive predecessor.

As for other specs, Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset is expected to power the Find X5 Pro, supported by 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That's set to be a fairly standard clutch of specs for flagship Android phones this year.

A 5,000 mAh battery with 80W fast charging is on offer; that’s an upgrade over the already speedy 65W charging the Find X3 Pro has. Two colors for the phone are expected: "ceramic black" and "ceramic white."

If the Find X3 Pro can deliver on the photography side, we have no doubt that it will be an impressive smartphone, as the Find X3 Pro proved Oppo is the phone maker to watch. We’d expect the Find X5 Pro to be revealed later on this month at MWC 2022 or early March.

However, there are a couple of caveats here. The Find X3 Pro didn't make it over to the U.S., and it’s unclear whether the Find X5 Pro will or simply get as far as the U.K. Providing that these leaks are legitimate, I can’t help but feel Oppo could have gone a little further with the design; it has previously shown how it can shake up its design from one phone generation to the next, with the Find X3 Pro being notably different to the Find X2 Pro.

Furthermore, the Oppo Find X5 Pro will need to be keenly priced, as it’ll have to compete with the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22 range, expected to be revealed Feb. 9. With the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra shaping up to be a successor to the Galaxy Note as well as a powerful and well-equipped flagship phone, competition in the big-phone arena is going to be stiff this year.

Update: A new batch of claimed leaked renders show off how the standard Xiaomi 12 will look more understated than its Ultra sibling.

Qualcomm has take the covers off the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. Formally, predicted to be called the Snapdragon 898, the chip maker has gone for a new naming convention. But ultimately this is an evolution of the previous Snapdragon flagship 8-series chipsets, only this time sporting a new 4-nanometer process and a suite of improvements. 

These have been touted to be focussed on camera improvements, gaming, 5G and AI benefits. However, we won't know just how good this chip is until we get it in a real production phone. And the companies who will make the first round of these have now come forwards to ail the colors to Qualcomm's mast. 

The first company already with its name down for Snapdragon Gen 1 chips is Xiaomi, which has confirmed during Qualcomm's launch event that its next flagship, named Xiaomi 12, will arrive with the chip soon. 

The last equivalent phone, the Xiaomi Mi 11, first appeared in December of 2019, meaning we could see the Xiaomi 12 at debut in Xiaomi's native China before the end of this year, then get a wider release in early 2022. 

After Xiaomi, there's Oppo, which confirmed that a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip-equipped phone will arrive in the first quarter of 2022. If this phone is the follow-up to the Oppo Find X3 Pro, then it could launch in March, a year after its predecessor.

Leaks for the tentatively-named Find X4 aren't comprehensive yet, but the details we have are quite enticing. The phone will supposedly use a high-resolution QHD display and 12GB RAM, and most excitingly, 80W charging. That would be faster than almost any other phone we've tested here at TG, plus since Oppo is now intertwined with OnePlus, it could mean we see 80W charging on the OnePlus 10 later in 2022 too.

Finally, we've got Motorola. It announced its also launching its first Gen 1 phone in China, with the title of Edge X30, on December 9. The leaks we've heard for the phone make it sound far more luxurious than the average Moto handset, featuring a 6.67-inch 144Hz display, 50MP main and ultrawide cameras, a 60MP selfie camera, 5,000 mAh of battery capacity and 68W charging.

While these are only the first phones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, we'll no doubt see it in more phones in due course. 

Snapdragon's flagship ships are widely used by Android phone makers, with the most obvious being Samsung's U.S. flagship phones, the next being the Galaxy S22 that's expected to arrive in February. However, companies like OnePlus, ZTE, Realme and Vivo have all used this line of chips too, and will likely do so again on their premium phones of 2022.

The only Android phone-making company we expect to not to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is Google. With the launch of the Google Pixel 6, it's moved away from buying in Qualcomm-made chips and started designing its own, named Tensor. Samsung's phones outside the U.S. are also unlikely to use Snapdragon-branded silicon, as Samsung prefers to use its own line of Exynos chips, such as the upcoming Exynos 2200, when it can.

Oppo, the company behind the Oppo Find X3 Pro and OnePlus' new parent company, is reportedly developing its own smartphone chips by 2023/24.

That's right, another smartphone company is looking to try and make its own chipsets, according to sources speaking to Nikkei Asia. A change as fundamental as a whole new chipset is a big deal, and marks the second major manufacturer to try to ditch Qualcomm just this year. But with Oppo having close ties to OnePlus and other smartphone companies, this development effort could have big ramifications for multiple Android phones.

• These are the best Android phones right now
• Plus: Apple iMac 2022 just tipped with these killer specs

A 3-nanometer beast

Nikkei's sources add that Oppo wants to work with TSMC, the same chip maker behind Apple's A-series mobile silicon, and make the chip with a 3-nanometer process. Currently the leading chips on the market use a 5-nanometer process, so Oppo would in theory end up at the forefront of chip technology when its own chips appear in two to three years.

Google has gone its own with the Google Pixel 6 with its new Tensor chip. Apple has had its own silicon for the iPhone with the A-series, and other companies like Huawei have previously developed their own chips when they didn't fancy buying silicon from Qualcomm or MediaTek. Samsung develops its own Exynos chips, but is in an unusual in-between zone since it currently uses Qualcomm Snapdragon in the U.S. to avoid the cost of licensing necessary modem technology from Qualcomm.

The benefit of a phone maker designing its own chips are that you can in theory achieve greater harmony between hardware and software, with greater total control over how the two work together. Again, Apple is the primary example of this with how beautifully iOS and the A-series chips work together with the iPhone 13. We're currently testing the Pixel 6, but we'd imagine that Google's phone could be the best way to experience Android 12, and provide further inspiration for Oppo's future phones and ColorOS iterations. 

What this could mean for OnePlus

What this could mean for the end-user might be, in the best scenario, new Oppo phones that offers unique and powerful new abilities while addressing existing weaknesses. Oppo in particular might be able to bring its already good photography abilities up to par with Samsung and Google with a proprietary processor, alongside the algorithms and image signal processors (ISPs) that are also mentioned by Nikkei's sources.

Equally, Oppo may want to design a high-performance chip that could take on the incredible might of the Apple A-series. It's hard to say at this point precisely what Oppo is aiming for based on the limited rumors, but the point is that it's free to pursue its own hardware priorities, which is great news for Oppo fans and Android users in general.

However, the biggest impact for U.S. and U.K. users may actually come via OnePlus. OnePlus and Oppo have undergone a merger this year to unify the two company's hardware and software development teams, which should mean OnePlus would have access to whatever chips Oppo designs, and therefore use them in future phones.. 

That would be important since Oppo doesn't have a U.S. presence, and only a small one in the U.K. compared to the more established OnePlus brand. Considering OnePlus' phones, especially this year's OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro, are already in our best Android phones and best phones overall lists, custom silicon could help push these phones higher. We'd love to see a custom OnePlus chip if it could give its photography abilities a further boost.

Oppo and OnePlus' stablemates at BBK Electronics, including  Vivo and Realme, should also benefit from these chips since the companies have regularly shared other parts and features. This would be particularly exciting for Realme, as it's a budget-focussed brand that would really benefit from a unique chipset to stand out from a crowd of similar, Snapdragon and Dimensity-powered phones. So no matter your budget or your location, you could still get to see the benefits of Oppo's rumored decision, just perhaps with a non-Oppo badge on it.

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As we've grown accustomed to notches and hole-punch cutouts for selfie cameras, some Android phone manufacturers have been trying to rid their phones of visible front-facing cameras altogether. We saw this first with the ZTE Axon 20 5G, which wasn't a stellar example of the technology.

But now Oppo has announced its latest tech, claiming that its new under-display camera solves the problems that previous iterations created. While the company only has a prototype — one that no media outlet that we know of has seen — it says that its newest advancements obviate the display and picture quality issues that we've seen thus far.

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Oppo's new approach doesn't reduce the pixel density around the camera — the point of which would be to allow more light to reach the lens. The prototype instead uses smaller pixels, maintaining a 400 ppi density. Oppo has also figured out transparent wiring with a 50% reduction in width, with both advancements ultimately allowing more light to hit the camera and should therefore reduce blur. It also means the screen stays sharp even around the camera.

One example of this technology in action is the photo of the prototype running an e-reader app. You want high pixel density in such an application to keep the text as sharp as possible, especially with the white background. If you'd notice an under-display camera anywhere, it'd be in an e-reader app.

But for us as the end users, this new technology could mean the true realization of an all-display phone without pop-up cameras. While devices like the Zenfone 8 Flip or OnePlus 7 Pro tried to give us that all-screen experience, they introduced more points of failure with the motors needed to drive the flip/pop-up cameras.

Furthermore, if Oppo is correct, this new prototype could address the issues that we've seen on attempts at under-display cameras thus far. If Oppo's efforts mean a solution to the display clarity and picture quality problems, I'm all for it.

Just imagine a true edge-to-edge display on a future Galaxy S or OnePlus phone — or even on a far-future iPhone, given Apple's near-perfectionism — without a front camera cutout. Sounds far-fetched, but if Oppo and ZTE figure the tech out, it's distinctly possible.

For now, Oppo's announcement relates to a prototype only, so I doubt we'll see it on the Find X4 Pro or any time soon. But Oppo also typically moves pretty quickly when it comes to pushing new boundaries, so I could be wrong.

Of course, we have the ZTE Axon 30 to consider, which claims to have improved the underwhelming under-display camera tech that we saw in the Axon 20 5G (the Axon 30 Ultra we reviewed had a camera cutout). It's a battle that I don't think many people asked for, but the technology, and its prospects, are interesting all the same.

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OnePlus, which makes some of the best Android phones, can trace several features on devices like the OnePlus 9 Pro back to similar capabilities on Oppo handsets. Oppo can say the same thing. And in the future, it sounds like these two phone makers are going to be a lot closer.

Posting in the OnePlus Forum, CEO Pete Lau broke the news. Specifically, Lau — who already serves as Oppo's head of product experience — wrote that OnePlus will "further integrate our organization with Oppo," which leaves a lot to the imagination as to how the move will affect future phones from either company.

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You may be unfamiliar with Oppo, since the company doesn't sell its devices in the U.S. yet. However it's one of OnePlus' stablemates at BBK Electronics, and produces some great phones, such as the Oppo Find X3 Pro. Oppo's SuperVOOC charging technology is also the basis for OnePlus' own Warp Charge system, one of the best parts of its recent phones.

Hearing the two companies are joining forces may sound extreme, but from what Lau writes, saying that OnePlus will "continue to operate independently", it sounds like it's more back-end changes than something you'll notice in future OnePlus or Oppo phones.

However this likely means more sharing of parts and research that will improve the phones of both companies. It may mean even more budget handsets for OnePlus like the Nord N200 or Nord CE, since Oppo makes several cheaper handsets in the form of the Reno and A series. We may even see Oppo finally make landfall in the U.S., although the political climate is still not that welcoming for Chinese phone makers.

The OnePlus 9 Pro is the best of the best phones overall, so there's not much that needs improving for the OnePlus 9T, assumed to be coming later this year. When the next OnePlus flagship does arrive though, it'll be interesting to see what might have changed as a result of this new OnePlus/Oppo relationship, and likewise when we see the next batch of Oppo phones emerge.

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New videos have given us our best look yet at the upcoming Oppo X 2021 rollable phone — and revealed that it will support wireless air charging.

The Chinese manufacturer’s concept phone already looked like a proper rival to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, thanks to its rollable screen that seamlessly expands at a touch. But a new video from Oppo now shows that it also has fancy new over-the-air wireless charging — a feature that’s not yet available on any phone you can buy.

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The hands-on video, released by Oppo on its Mobile World Congress Shanghai microsite, shows the device held above a charging pad and continuing to juice up even at a distance of several centimeters. 

In fact, Oppo has said it will work up to 10cm away from the charging mat and can deliver up to 7.5W of power. Furthermore, while some wireless charging products need to be positioned in a certain way in order to work, the X 2021 will use ”magnetic resonance technology“ to avoid this problem. In essence, this involves using magnets to deliver inductive coupling between two wire coils, one in the device and one in the charger. 

The Oppo hands-on video also gives us another look at how the concept phone’s rolling mechanism will work: merely sliding a finger down the side of the phone is enough to make it expand from 6.7 inches to 7.4 inches.

As well as the short clip from Oppo itself, we’ve also been treated to two new hands-on videos from a couple of European sites.

XDA Developers first spotted these videos, which come courtesy of Brandon Le Proktor in France and AllroundPC in Germany. While these videos have certainly tested our non-English speaking abilities, they give us a proper look at how the rolling mechanism will work on the device.

Unveiled during the company’s annual INNO Day last year, the videos don’t tell us much more about the phone. But just watching the screen expand and shrink over and over again is pretty remarkable. 

If you’re curious how this impressive rollable screen works, the device uses interlocking back plating powered by a pair of small motors that slide apart and then back together as required. 

The videos also show Oppo’s ColorOS software and various apps adjust in real-time as the screen is unfurled. 

Oppo is most certainly not the only phone manufacturer in the expandable-screens game. Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 3 is expected to launch later this year and will give the Oppo X 2021 some competition.

The big advantage of a rollable screen, compared to one that folds out, is the lack of hinges. Early foldable models have had recurring problems with hinges breaking or the motion of frequently unfolding the phone causing creases on the screen itself. Rollable screens are set to avoid these problems.

Before you get too excited, we still don’t have confirmation that the Oppo X 2021 will ever actually be released to consumers. That said, based on these hands-on videos, we wouldn’t be surprised if an announcement is forthcoming. Time will tell here. 

But if you want a smartphone with a flexible display then check out our selection of the best foldable phones you can buy right now. 

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Oppo’s Reno4 Pro may have debuted in China over the summer, but it’s only now reaching the U.K. It arrives in a crowded field of phones, all trying to make their mark while keeping prices under control.

In some ways, the Reno4 Pro does a good job at that. It's a smartly designed phone, with some stand-out elements like 65W charging and a good display/speaker offering. However it stumbles a little when it comes to photography and some of its older components. Our Oppo Reno4 Pro review finds a phone that doesn’t benefit from its late arrival. With so many other phones already doing a similar job there aren't many reasons why you'd pick a Reno4 specifically over a Google Pixel 5 or a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE.

Oppo Reno4 Pro review: Price and availability

In the U.K. the £699 Oppo Reno4 Pro is currently available from Oppo itself, as well as retailers like Amazon and Carphone Warehouse or phone carriers like EE or Vodafone. There's only one model you can buy, with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, but there's a choice of Space Black or Galactic Blue with the £699 version. A unique Green Glitter version available only from Oppo costs an extra £50.

Oppo doesn't sell its phones yet in the U.S. If you're interested in this handset, you can likely import it at a small markup. Just remember to make sure the device supports the correct 4G and 5G bands for your mobile carrier, otherwise it'll be almost useless as a phone.

Oppo Reno4 Pro review: Design

Unpacking the Reno4 from its oddly large box, you can immediately see the resemblance it has to its stablemate, the OnePlus 8T. (The same parent company owns both Oppo and OnePlus.) The front camera punch-hole is in the same spot in the top left corner on both phones, and the buttons on the sides are in the same location too, although Oppo hasn't copied OnePlus' handy iPhone-style alert slider. Another big difference is the curve of the Reno4 Pro's display — it’s not dramatic, but it does help the Reno4 Pro stand out and fit nicely in your hand without making you worry about accidentally tapping the screen.

The back of the Reno4 Pro curves into the flat side rail, making for a neat elliptical cross-section. The back itself is quite special though, since the Galactic Blue model has a dark diagonal streak of color baked across the center of the phone, as well as having a slightly glittery smudge-proof matte finish. Combined with the mirror finish on the rounded rectangular camera bump in the top left corner, there's a lot to take in for a phone that otherwise is quite plain on its reverse. I like how unique the Reno4 looks, but I'd understand if someone else thought this mix of colors and finishes looked cluttered.

The Reno4 is a comfortable phone to hold despite the large 6.5-inch display. The slightly rounded design is ergonomic, and the matte texture on the back not only gives the phone a unique texture that's pleasant to the touch but helps give a firmer grip.

That's handy since this is a phone you really don't want to subject to the elements. Oppo hasn't had the Reno4 Pro officially rated for resistance to water and dust. However it promises that the phone's still been thoroughly tested against intrusion, even if there isn't an IP68 rating like the OnePlus 8 Pro or other leading Android phones offer.

Oppo Reno4 Pro review: Display

With a 6.55 inch screen, the Reno4 Pro would be considered a phablet, though not a massively sized one. It matches the measurements of the OnePlus 8T, but is smaller than something like a 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus.

The refresh rate on the Reno4’s display is 90Hz — faster than the average smartphone, but not as fast as the 120Hz refresh rate enjoyed by phones like the Galaxy S20 FE or OnePlus 8T. In theory, 90Hz puts less of a strain on the phone’s battery.

The maximum brightness of the Reno4 Pro's AMOLED panel is 1,100 nits. We weren't able to check this with our own measurements, but I could use the Reno4 outdoors in the bright winter sun with no problem.

I watched the new trailer for Disney Plus' Loki on the Reno4 Pro’s display and found the nighttime scenes impressively dark, with the phone’s OLED panel offering plenty of detail and color. Trying out a round of the Shadow Arena fighting game proved what a benefit a high refresh rate could be, with the quick kicks, punches and sword swings coming across far clearer on the Oppo's display than it did on 60Hz screens.

A display isn't much good without speakers to pair sound with the visuals. The Reno4 Pro offers stereo speakers, which is a solid start to producing good sound. Those speakers have quite a lot of strength behind them too, as I was immediately struck by how loudly the Reno4 could render the trademark bombastic orchestral themes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe during the Loki trailer. 

While you can find other phones at this price with display features you may prefer— take the Galaxy S20 FE and its 120Hz screen — the Reno4’s combination of sound and visuals ought to please most people.

Oppo Reno4 Pro review: Cameras

The Reno4 Pro gives you the sensors you expect from a flagship. On the back, there's a 48MP main camera, as well as a 13MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom, and a 12MP ultrawide shooter. As a bonus, there's also a laser autofocus sensor to help out the other cameras.

I took the Reno4 Pro out with my trusty iPhone 12 Pro to see how well Oppo's phone could compete with Apple's best. The first test was this view from a bridge over the Regents Canal. Although it’s capable of capturing 48MP pictures, the Oppo takes pictures at 12MP by default using pixel-binning to save space and improve low-light performance.

For this comparison, I give the iPhone the edge. I much prefer the more vivid colors that its image offers compared to the more muted ones from the Reno4.

I tried an alternative view of the canal at Browning's Pool once night had fallen to test low-light shooting. This seems to be the Reno4's biggest weakness in photography, with its picture turning out muddy in color and far less sharp than the iPhone's image.

Comparing the two cameras' ultrawide capabilities is difficult, since they use very different magnifications. Setting aside the extra stuff you can see in the iPhone's image, the other notable change is how much brighter the sky is in comparison to the Reno4's photo. The buildings still look similar though, so I haven't got much of a preference between the two.

I tried out the two phones' 2x optical telephoto zoom cameras on this plaque commemorating Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. The Oppo has a slight resolution advantage with a 13MP sensor, compared to the iPhone's 12MP sensor, but strangely the iPhone's image is far brighter. While there is some charm to the darker image produced by the Reno4, the extra brightness helps the iPhone show off the finer details in the plaque's stonework.

To assess the Reno4's laser autofocus, I tried taking a bokeh shot of these flowers, a photo effect that requires both well-written software and the help of either a laser or optical sensor to judge the distances of objects.

I like the Reno4's image. The flowers pop out from the background, and the image is nice and bright because of its big 48MP camera. However, I prefer the iPhone's image, with its far more vivid colors. Plus, there's less of an unwanted halo effect around certain portions of the flowers in the iPhone image.

For selfies, the Reno4 Pro provides a 32MP camera, a fairly high resolution for a front camera. In contrast, the iPhone 12 Pro has a 12MP camera aided by a depth sensor. 

Like we saw with the previous bokeh shot, the iPhone produces a more saturated image compared to the Reno4. In addition, it deals with the background better, actually showing off the tree and building behind me rather than overexposing it to almost pure white in some places. Once more, while there's not a huge amount wrong with the Reno4's picture, it's the iPhone's shot I'd pick to go on Instagram.

Perhaps it's not a surprise that the top phone on our best camera phones list beat the Oppo Reno4 Pro. However the fact that the Reno4 was able to hold its own at all should be celebrated. Since the Reno is sold in the U.K. for exactly the same price as the cheapest iPhone 12 Mini, and £100 less than the iPhone 12, phone, you can expect photography in the same ballpark as Apple’s best-in-class phones while not spending as much money.

Oppo Reno4 Pro review: Performance

Inside the Reno4 Pro, there's a curious mix of parts. The chipset is a Snapdragon 765G, a mid-range processor with built-in 5G, which suits the Reno4's position as Oppo's mid-range phone option, between the phone maker’s A-series and the Find series. However we still get 12GB of RAM, which is just as much as you'd find in a much more expensive Android phone like the Galaxy S20. 

I played a few rounds of Shadow Fight Arena to test out how the Reno4 Pro handled gaming. This 2D fighter proved to be no challenge for the Reno4, which ably kept up with the action without the phone's chassis heating up excessively or the game losing stability or resolution. Even though I know playing this game on a Snapdragon 865-equipped phone would be a better experience, I didn't feel I was missing out by using the still mighty 765G within the Oppo.

To get some more specific performance information, we ran the Geekbench 5 benchmark on the Reno4, which scored 603 on the single-core portion of the test, and 1759 on the multi-score portion. It's quite a lot lower than the OnePlus 8T's scores, which managed 887 and 3,203 with its Snapdragon 865 chip and 12GB RAM. It's not surprising given how Snapdragon 8-series chips are the best that Qualcomm offers to smartphone manufacturers, while 7-series chips like the 765G are designed to offer more everyday levels of performance.

The Pixel 5, which uses the same Snapdragon 765G chipset as the Reno4, scored 1,615 on the multi-core part of the test, a lower score potentially due to it only having 8GB RAM to play with. The original OnePlus Nord which also uses a 765G but with the same 12GB of RAM, scored 602 and 1,948 on the same test. While that's obviously a higher multi-core score, it shouldn't mean too big a difference in real-world performance.

Expect plenty of power for everyday use with the Oppo Reno4 Pro, but you aren't getting leading performance for the price. Plus, spending a little more will let you get another step higher on the Qualcomm ladder and acquire the most powerful hardware on the market while keeping the premium phone trappings.

Oppo Reno4 Pro review: Battery and charging

The 4,000 mAh battery inside the Reno4 Pro isn't particularly large, but it still means there's a decent capacity on offer within the phone's slim frame. We didn't run our normal LTE web browsing-based rundown test to check how long the battery lasts, but as a more casual test of watching an hour of YouTube revealed, the fully-charged Oppo used just 5% of its capacity during that period of time. Since video streaming is quite power-intensive, you shouldn't have any trouble with the Reno4 running out on you in the middle of the day if you're using it for less strenuous tasks like internet browsing or answering your emails and messages.

While the Reno4 battery seems somewhat average, what instead stands out on the Reno4 is its 65W wired charging. That’s the same super-fast charging introduced by the OnePlus 8T earlier in the year. The chunky charging brick and extra-thick cable you get in the box offers some of the best charging speeds you can get on a phone right now. You can fill the phone to 63% full in just 15 minutes, and in 35 minutes you can top off the phone's battery completely. Why bother plugging your phone in overnight when you can power up that fast?

For comparison, the Galaxy S20 FE comes with a 25W charger, while the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G feature an 18W charger. Even the more expensive iPhone 12 maxes out at 20W (and there’s no charger in the box with Apple’s phone).

Oppo Reno4 Pro review: Software and user experience

Disappointingly for a late 2020 phone, you don't get Android 11 out of the box. Instead, you have Android 10 served up as Oppo's ColorOS 7.

Android 10 is not a bad operating system, and Oppo promises the Reno4 will get its Android 11 upgrade over the air sometime in 2021. But it certainly would have been nice for Android 11 to come installed already.

You get some pre-installed apps on the Reno4, but not enough to really be a problem. This includes Game Space to manage and launch all your mobile games from, an Oppo Relax app for meditation, the Soloop video editing app, Oppo's Phone Clone data transfer app as well as a couple of third party apps — namely Facebook, and WPS Office. 

Typing on the Reno4 with default settings is extremely unpleasant. The haptic feedback turns every tap of the keyboard into a long buzz, making typing long passages of texts at speed feel horribly mushy. The rest of the phone's haptics are fine, but you will almost certainly want to turn off typing vibrations if you're a quick typer.

For security, your main option is an under-display fingerprint sensor. However you can use a less secure but surprisingly quick face unlock feature, too. This is common on many modern Android phones, but unlike the famous Face ID you find on iPhones, it’s not as secure since it works with just an image, rather than infra-red dot projection. Since face recognition works so smoothly and reliably on the Reno4, it doesn't hurt to have it set up, but make sure your fingerprint and PIN are also enabled to fully secure your phone.

Oppo Reno4 Pro review: Verdict

The best parts of the Reno4 Pro are its most practical ones. The rapid charging and mid-sized design makes this a sensible phone to buy, while its good quality display and audio means you can still enjoy movies and games. Even the areas we found wanting are still not that bad, such as the photography or its computing performance. And with any luck, the issue of older software will disappear in a few months once Oppo sends an OTA update for Android 11.

It's unfortunate that the Reno4 didn't hit the U.K. market earlier in the year. If it had arrived shortly after the OnePlus 8, and before we had a summer and fall of strong midrange phones like the OnePlus Nord and Pixel 4a 5G, then Oppo’s phone would have been a standout. Arriving now, though, with the Nord, Pixel 4a and now the OnePlus 8T now available, the Reno4 feels like a phone that missed its time to shine.

Oppo is still a new name in phones for people outside of Asia, even though it's been around for almost 20 years and developed quite a following in and around its home market of China. Oppo's RX17 launched in the United Kingdom earlier this year, but that device had launched in China in August of last year. The Reno, the company's new, photography-focused smartphone, is the first (roughly) simultaneous product launch the make has had, with the debut coming just two months after the Chinese launch.

In the last 12 months, we've seen both the Huawei P30 Pro and the Google Pixel 3 dominate the market for best camera phones, and the OnePlus 7 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10 have upped the ante for flagship features. The Oppo Reno 10x Zoom, the high-end version of Oppo's latest smartphone product line, doesn't initially look like it could compete with those handsets. But with some neat ideas of its own and a few more cribbed from rivals and stablemates, Oppo has shipped a convincing competitor to the established brands, adding a few features that will really turn heads.

Oppo Reno 10x Zoom Cheat Sheet

• The Reno's cameras are excellent, especially the 10x hybrid zoom lens, which is the best telephoto lens we've seen. Some of the images can turn out a little dark, though.
• The phone's 6.6-inch screen has no notches or cutouts, thanks to the device's pop-up camera, but the display isn't super bright or colorful, and it's flat rather than curved.
• Oppo's ColorOS 6 is a good take on Android Pie: not much bloatware, a clean interface and a few useful unique features.
• The Snapdragon 855 processor plus 8GB of RAM provide decent but not class-leading performance.
• The phone's battery lasts for over half a day's constant use and fills up in minutes. You'll never want for power with this phone.
• The body of the phone isn't very exciting, but it still manages to stand out. 

Oppo Reno 10x Zoom price and availability

You can buy the Oppo Reno 10x Zoom and the standard Reno from a handful of online retailers, including Amazon, from £545 (roughly $660 when converted) for the lowest-spec version (6GB/128GB). You can also buy the 5G version on an EE contract in the U.K., in case you like the sound of this phone and want a handset that's ready for the new mobile-data standard.

For our U.S. readers, no normal cell carriers offer the Reno. This means that online retailers like Amazon or Newegg are the best places for importing the device. However, the version of the phone you get may not work with all U.S. cellular networks and you're unlikely to get support from your wireless carrier.

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Oppo also sells the two other versions of the Reno in the U.K. There's the standard Reno, which starts at £450 and behaves the same as this version but lacks the zoom lens. The budget Reno Z starts at $300 and also cuts out the pop-up camera in favor of a water-drop notch, while lowering the power of some of the interior components. We've yet to get our hands on these versions for a test, though.

Oppo Reno 10x Zoom specs

Design: Details hidden in plain sight

With the Reno, Oppo has mastered the art of looking inconspicuous. There's no notch or punch-hole, because the Reno 10x Zoom features a pop-up front camera. Instead, you get a clean display, aside from a small chin bezel and a smaller forehead, which also features a small slot for the top speaker.

The Reno's most distinct feature is the phone's pop-up mechanism. When you activate the selfie camera, the Reno deploys the module (which houses the camera and top speaker on the front side and a flash/flashlight on the rear side). This happens via a quiet and fast-pivoting mechanism, rather than via the standard, rising module we've seen on phones like the OnePlus 7 Pro. The Reno’s "shark fin" style module is a lot more obtrusive than the 7 Pro's take on the pop up, but the fin is still smaller than the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3's slider mechanism or the Asus ZenFone 6's flipping camera.

On the back of the Reno, there's a darker, central vertical stripe that bears the Oppo logo and the three rear cameras. This is the most distinct part of the phone, and while I'm not wild about it, it's at least unique to the Reno. You'll also see that the phone's body completely houses the rear cameras, a design that looks a lot tidier than the "camera bump" approach many manufacturers are pursuing, even if Oppo's choice does mean extra width.

The only thing that does extend from the phone's back surface is the O-Dot, a rounded, metal point located a few inches down from the top of the phone. Oppo added this to keep the device slightly raised even when placed flat on its back, protecting it from scratches and dirt. I'm always terrified of damaging phones whenever they're not safely tucked into a case, so I appreciate this gesture toward addressing my very specific neurosis.

A black case comes with the phone to keep the device safe. The case is smooth on the sides and rough on the back, for a good combination of comfort and grip. But the case is open at the top, allowing the pop-up camera to do its work but creating an odd feel when you hold the phone in landscape.

The Reno's something of a heavyweight in smartphone terms, tipping the scales at 215 grams (7.58 ounces). For reference, the OnePlus 7 and iPhone XS Max — both large, 6-inch-plus phones, too — are a shade lighter, at 206 grams. The Mi Mix 3, at 218 grams, is the only comparable phone I can think of that's heavier. Fortunately for the Reno, it doesn't have a slider mechanism, which the Mi Mix 3 does have, so the Oppo phone's mass remains well balanced in your hand.

Display: A little dim, but still colorful

Unlike many other top-tier flagships these days, the Reno lacks a curved screen. Initially, I liked being able to easily find the edge of the phone, so I could draw navigational gestures from there, but over time, I did miss the ergonomics of a curved display. The back of the Reno is curved, so the device at least sits nicely in your palm, even if the edges feel surprisingly sharp in comparison to other phones. 

The display itself is a 6.6-inch OLED panel. Sadly, OnePlus kept its 90-Hz screen technology to itself, so scrolling through web pages and apps on the Reno feels normal rather than beautifully smooth, as it does on the OnePlus 7 Pro.

In our testing, the Reno's display managed 171% of the sRGB color gamut, a reasonably high score, but lower than the results from the P30 Pro and OnePlus 7 Pro, which both reached 180%. Oppo's phone also achieved a Delta-E score for color accuracy of 0.16 (lower scores are better), plus an average peak brightness of 416 nits. That's not as bright as the results from either the P30 Pro (444 nits) or the Galaxy S10+ (625 nits). 

The lab testing backs up my own experience with the Reno. Watching HBO's horrifying but compelling Chernobyl miniseries often had me turning up the screen's brightness so I could spot the grim details hidden within dimly lit scenes. But outdoors or in fully lit rooms, the drama was engrossing on the phone's display, uninterrupted by notch or punch hole.

When I watched the vivid, but emotionally wrenching anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, the display did much better. With more color around, the screen gets into its stride and I enjoyed watching the show on the Reno, as much as is possible considering Eva's dour themes.

Oppo Reno 10x Zoom cameras

The Reno's cameras are a big deal, so much so that this model is named after its defining feature, a 10x hybrid zoom.

The last phone to make a splash with its zoom abilities was the Huawei P30 Pro, which also promised up to a 10x hybrid zoom. However, the P30 Pro has an 8MP telephoto sensor, while the Reno boasts a 13MP sensor, which theoretically allows for greater quality when pushing the phones to the limits of their magnification. The Reno also has a slightly higher max zoom of 60x, as opposed to the 50x the P30 Pro offers. However, I don't recommend taking pictures at these magnifications, since at that point, both phones are using digital zoom only, so the results won't look as good.

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In a face-off taking pictures of St. Mary's church in central London, I compared the P30 Pro and the Reno at 1x and 10x magnification. At 1x, the ability of the Huawei Super Spectrum sensor to capture extra light compared to other sensors makes for a brighter shot, helping show off the stonework better than the Reno did.

But when we crank up the zoom to 10x, it reverses the story. The larger sensor on the Reno's telephoto lens makes that phone's image brighter, with higher resolution than the P30. Considering the near £300 price difference between the two phones, the Reno's better image at 10x zoom is impressive, even if it comes at the expense of the main lens's performance.

The OnePlus 7 Pro and the Reno, both part of parent company BBK, have the same Sony IMX586 48MP main camera. So is there any difference between the two? It turns out there is.

The Reno's image is once again quite dark, while the 7 Pro's shows off the colors of this tasty apple much more honestly. The image quality is identically excellent, but there are obviously some software-tuning differences between the two manufacturers. This is an easily fixable problem in a photo editor or via an update to the photo app, but the Reno shows a disappointing tendency of failing to make the most of the available light. 

The final lens on the back of the Rno is the ultrawide 8MP lens, which is a step down from the 7 Pro's 16MP and the P30 Pro's 20MP lenses. In this comparison with the 7 Pro, using a view over Hyde Park's Italian Gardens, we see far better contrast in the 7 Pro's image — for example, in the marks on the lawn in the foreground or the clouds at the back. The Reno's image is surprisingly brighter than the P30's, but the Oppo phone's lower resolution costs it dearly in overall quality.

Making the 10x zoom a lead selling point for the Oppo Reno is smart, as this is the most unique part of the phone and works very well indeed. The other two lenses are still competitive, but they're not as good as the top-performing rivals I tested, due to what look to be software instead of hardware problems.

Switching to the front camera, the Reno's sensor matches the 7 Pro's 16MP, but again loses to the P30 Pro's 32MP. Comparing the Reno and P30 Pro shows that the Oppo's fin-mounted camera produces a brighter but slightly lower-quality shot than the Huawei's camera, although I can't find major fault with either phone's shooter. 

The Oppo selfie camera is slightly slower to deploy than the OnePlus 7 Pro's, but this is probably nothing to worry about. The difference between the Oppo's 0.8 seconds and the OnePlus' 0.64 seconds is minute. However, we can't guarantee that 0.16 seconds won't make a difference if some kind of rare butterfly lands on your shoulder and you want to capture the occasion before the visitor flies away.

Like the 7 Pro, the Reno's internal gyroscopes will detect if the phone's falling, automatically pulling the camera back in to prevent damage. This is particularly important with the Reno, given how much extra hardware is built in to the pop-up mechanism, as was mentioned above.

Software

The Oppo Reno uses Android 9.0 Pie, like all flagship smartphones in 2019 (that aren’t iPhones, of course). Oppo's twist on the theme is the company's ColorOS 6 launcher, which is worth bringing up, because it does a good job of interpreting Google's basic operating system.

The icons and text around the phone are all smartly drawn and easy to understand. You can swap between having an app drawer and not having one depending on your preference, and you can choose between two different grid sizes for your pages of apps and between using virtual buttons or gestures for your basic navigation needs.

As for more unique features, swiping left on the home screen gets you a series of widgets like OnePlus' OxygenOS, rather than Google News. You can also label your notifications as important or not important, keeping the less interesting ones hidden behind a button tap within the notification drawer, also removing them from the status bar.

If you want to keep your apps really safe, you can use the App Lock function to secure them behind a second PIN, which can be different from the one you use to open the phone. It seems unnecessary for me, but perhaps people storing sensitive data or sharing their phones with other people will appreciate this feature.

Finally, without even pressing the power button, you can do things with just a swipe using lock-screen gestures. These are handy, but I found that I managed to turn on the flashlight in my pocket by accident multiple times, somehow performing the V motion with my leg while walking. Maybe it's best to keep these settings off, or to unbind the V motion and use the others.

Oppo Reno 10x Zoom Performance

All versions of the Reno use the Snapdragon 855, with the max-spec version I reviewed featuring 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space, a model that costs £650. It's not a huge amount of memory, but it's more than enough for the average user. The other, £545 version comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage; that model no doubt functions adequately, but it certainly isn't going to top benchmark leaderboards.

The 8GB Reno had a multicore score of 11,027 on the Geekbench 4 general-performance benchmark. That's a little lower than the result from the 12GB version of the OnePlus 7 Pro (11,227), but it beats out the showing from the Kirin 980-powered P30 Pro (9,724), which uses the same amount of RAM. The Reno's result is also ahead of the 8GB Galaxy S10's score of 10,813. 

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While more processing power is desirable, the less-welcome side effect is heat. I used the Reno with the included case during my time with the phone and still found that it became noticeably hot to the touch when I played games like Hitman Sniper or made video calls via Skype. The heat's not uncomfortable, but the gel/graphite/copper cooling-method combination could definitely be more effective. The heat wasn't in vain, at least, as I saw no processing problems while using the Reno under these circumstances.

Sound

The Dolby Atmos-tuned speaker is low down on the list of features Oppo is promoting for the Reno. But for me, this was one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises of the phone. The sound is not only clear, but also very loud, overpowering the noise of the extractor fan over my kitchen stove while I cooked, something that even my laptop struggles to do. 

There's no headphone jack available, so you can't add your own old-fashioned, wired headphones. But Oppo provides its own earbuds, with a spare set of gels in case you need something to tide you over until you buy an adaptor or some wireless headphones.

Security

The Oppo Reno's optical fingerprint scanner, hidden beneath the display, is pretty reliable and fast enough in comparison with rivals. I never had any trouble using it; the worst performance moments came when it was slow to unlock, but it never completely failed to register, which I've experienced on other phones, like the Huawei P30.

There's also a face-unlock feature. This uses only the Reno's selfie camera, rather than a complex array of cameras and other sensors, like Apple's Face ID employs. That means that while the Oppo's unlock feature is convenient, it's not as secure as Apple's. At least Oppo's approach isn't slow, which is always a concern with pop-up camera phones, as the fin deploys rapidly when you want to unlock the phone.

Battery Life

You get 4,065 mAh of battery capacity with the Reno. As a result, the battery's life is as long as you'd hope. I was able to take the phone away from an outlet for more than 24 hours 

In our official test, which consists of browsing the web over LTE data until the phone dies, the Reno's battery lasted 12 hours and 31 minutes. That's far better than the OnePlus 7's time of 9 hours and 31 minutes and just a little behind the 12 hours and 53 minutes the P30 Pro achieved. 

Once the battery dwindles, the phone charges rapidly with Oppo's 30-watt VOOC charging system. Oppo makes no specific promises about the speed the phone can charge, but my own casual test showed that you can go from empty to 25% in 15 minutes, 50% in just under half an hour and 100% in around 70 minutes. That's plenty fast enough, but it is a little slower than Huawei's 40-watt SuperCharge system, which you get on the P30 Pro. The Reno's showing is almost equal to the OnePlus 7 Pro's charging times, and that's unsurprising, because OnePlus' Warp Charge 30 is based on VOOC.

Bottom Line

At £700, the Oppo Reno 10x is on the lower end of what you'd pay for a flagship phone, but it still fits comfortably among more-expensive rivals. The Huawei P30 Pro does almost the same thing as the Reno, but until the U.S. government is satisfied that Huawei as a whole doesn't pose a danger to national security, that phone's not going to be an option for most U.S. consumers, and that's not even considering the extra £300/$360 it costs. That said, until Oppo makes an official launch in the U.S., the two phones are nearly equally difficult to buy and equally expensive due to the troubles of importing the international versions.

The most widely available rival to the Oppo Reno is the OnePlus 7 Pro. Much of the technology and specs are the same (or can be, depending on which version you buy). In the end, this all comes down to whether you value zoom-lens power and extra battery life over a fancier screen, better standard and wide-angle photography, and the unique features in OnePlus' OxygenOS. I believe the 7 Pro is still a better choice for Android flagship value, but the Oppo Reno 10x Zoom is one of the best phones I've tested this year, balancing its few minor shortfalls with some excellent features.