Oppo Find X – Battery life

Despite how it feels in the hand, the Oppo Find X sounds surprisingly bulky on paper due to a 9.3mm waistline. This isn’t really noticeable in real-world use, and that thickness has at least allowed Oppo to fit in a sizeable 3730mAh battery.

I consistently experienced a comfortable day and a half of use before needing to plug in the Find X. Plus, once there I was never waiting long before the device had enough power to get up and go again. The phone also proved fairly restrained on consumption when streaming Netflix in HD at 55% brightness for 30 minutes, with a drain of only 6%.

There also seems to some heavy-handed background process submission going on, which at one point actually caused issues with the WearOS app being able to maintain a connection with my Fossil Q Explorist HR smartwatch.

Thanks to Oppo’s VOOC Flash Charge 5V, 4A, 20W fast-charging technology (the foundation for OnePlus’ excellent Fast Charge tech), you can juice that big power pack back up rapidly. My Find X was able to reach 50% charge in just 30 minutes and the phone was fully topped up again in under 90.

Those lucky enough to get their hands on the exclusive €1699 Find X Lamborghini Edition will also be among the first in the world to get a taste of Oppo’s insane SuperVOOC 5V, 10A, 50W fast-charging technology. This promises to fill the compatible 3400mAh battery inside the Lambo Find X from empty to full in just 35 minutes flat.

Related: What is fast charging?

Longevity appears to be on a par with the OnePlus 6‘s 3300mAh battery, and considering its similar screen size and performance, it seems fair to assume that the extra milliamp hours that Oppo has included in the Find X’s cells are its way of negating the extra drain caused by the motorised components.

Oppo Find X – Camera

The Oppo Find X camera arrangement is an interesting inclusion – and not only because of the unique mechanism to which it’s attached. On the front, there’s a sizeable 25-megapixel sensor, while on the rear you’ll find a duo of 16 and 20-megapixel sensors (both with f/2.0 apertures) that work together to add depth and detail to your shots.

Despite the different resolutions at work, Oppo makes no mention of optical zoom. However, it does big up the camera’s ‘AI’ capabilities with Huawei-style automated scene detection that can apparently distinguish between 800 different scenes and, in Oppo’s words, “become your photography technique consultant”.

The camera experience is clean and well-versed in the most popular features of the moment, too. There’s slow motion and time-lapse video recording, and a portrait mode that works with both the front and back cameras. There’s also an AR sticker mode, a panorama mode, and a manual mode called ‘Expert’.

Related: Oppo Reno 10x Zoom review

The beefy hardware means HDR capture is available for stills by default, and you can add filters and beauty effects in real-time. There’s even Google Lens integration from the viewfinder.

As for image quality, it’s a decent overall shooting arrangement, although it can’t quite compete with the likes of the Google Pixel 2 or Huawei P20 Pro. Grain is evident across the board, attacking fine detail, especially in low-light scenarios. What’s more, colour depth and dynamic range seem a little lacking, too.

The Find X supposedly benefits from OIS (optical image stabilisation), and whilst it’s evidently doing a great job in videos, it’s a little less present when trying to shoot in low light. Photos become far more prone to blur and shake than rival flagships when the lights go down.

OIS let me down in artificial lighting

Portrait mode with ‘natural light’ virtual lighting (above) and bi-colour lighting (below)

One novel inclusion, also apparent in the Vivo Nex S, is the option to add fun sound effects to the camera pop-up arrangement whenever it rises up or slides back down.

Why buy the Oppo Find X?

If you want to pick up one of the most interesting smartphones to date, then the Oppo Find X is the device for you. For the most part, Oppo plays by the book with the internals, but that’s resulted in solid flagship-class performance that will hopefully stand the test of time.

The beautiful industrial design and the unique pop-up element, meanwhile, should grant you the power to turn heads time and again.

This phone takes risks and Oppo is to be commended for producing such an impressive and competitive device. Depending on who you ask, though, those risks might not be worth it.

The lack of water resistance, NFC, dust and dirt in the mechanism and the risk of it physically breaking, rendering the cameras inoperable, are all realities worth keeping in mind.

There’s also the matter of price. Originally launching at around €999, the Oppo Find X takes no prisoners. Prices have begun to drop fairly quickly, and in markets such as the UK the Find X can be had as a grey import for around €920. Nevertheless, that still means it’s up against the best and brightest devices out there like the iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy Note and upcoming iPhone XS.

Verdict

One of the nicest-looking smartphones to date, but the ramifications of have a truly notch-free design mean this flagship makes too many sacrifices to compete against the top players.

Trusted Score