The OPPO Find X8 Pro is an Ultra Android flagship in all but name

OPPO has been entering Europe for some time. The brand is responsible for some best android phone recent years. Now, the OPPO Find X8 Pro has landed, but you might be more familiar with the phone than you think, especially if you’re an iPhone user. It’s unmistakably an Android phone, but it takes a lot of inspiration from Apple’s flagships.

The design of OPPO Find X8 Pro is similar to that of the X7 series, but the rear camera arrangement is more unified. Gone is the awkward center lens on the Find X7 Ultra, replaced by four equidistant circular voids placed within a larger circular camera bump – a pleasing symmetry. The X8 Pro also sports a single color scheme on the back, which looks much cleaner than its predecessor.

The specs of the OPPO Find X8 Pro also stand out. On the front is a 6.78-inch OLED with a peak brightness of 4,500 nits. It was burning brightly. It is paired with the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 SoC, which is an excellent gaming processor. exist our benchmarkthe chipset surpassed the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra in both multi-core and single-core Geekbench scores, barely falling behind Snapdragon 8 Elite– The power-packed ASUS Op Phone 9 Pro — a proven gaming contender. I haven’t spent much time gaming on this unit, but knowing that these credentials exist brings me some welcome comfort.

The 5,910mAh battery provided me with excellent battery life, which rounded out the experience. No matter what I was doing, whether it was watching content or taking photos and videos using the quad cameras, I just couldn’t kill it. Can be charged to 65% in 30 minutes.

Also worth mentioning is ColorOS. Like iOS, it’s fast and responsive, and I like that you can find what you’re looking for in the settings without having to scroll through every menu. There are also some really nice AI features this year. You get Circle to Search and all these benefits with Gemini. There’s AI Summary, which summarizes web pages for you and works in almost all browsers, and there’s AI Speak, which can be a little moody but does a good job of reading web pages to you.

OPPO said there will be another five years Operating system updates For that matter, I think it’s really good, but it’s not quite up to par with what Google and Samsung are promising.

The first thing I noticed about the Find X8 Pro was the new quick camera control button on the side of the phone. I know Android phones have had this method before iphone 16 were introduced (Sony phones have had them for years too). However, Sony does not have touch function buttons like the iPhone and Find X8 Pro. But is there any benefit? In short, no. It’s not easy to use and is probably worse than Apple’s implementation.

You double-tap it to open the camera, then slide your finger back and forth to change the zoom, which is difficult. I could never get the zoom I wanted without going over it or falling short of it. I either had to go really slow or try about five times to get it to stop where I actually wanted it to get. I’d rather just use the buttons on the screen.

Currently, the quick buttons don’t let you do anything other than zoom, and you can’t change any other functions in the camera app. You can click to take a photo or press Burst, but that’s about it. Now, OPPO does say that an update is coming that will let you do more with this feature, but I’m not sure any number of updates will make me want to use the quick button.

Other aspects of the device also lack a certain degree of refinement. OPPO has launched an almost AirDrop-like feature called O Plus Connect that’s designed to make sharing photos and videos with your iPhone easier (in theory). For me, this app doesn’t always work. You need to download the O Plus Connect app on your iPhone and open it, then connect to the OPPO phone’s hotspot to receive files. I did try a few times, but every time I succeeded, I failed, which made me not want to try again.

As much as I love Color OS, its skin has some flaws and annoyances that you can’t find on the Pixel. I don’t like the number of random apps you download on your phone or highly recommend downloading through popular apps. Then there’s the split quick controls and notification bar, which I actually don’t like. Fortunately, you have the opportunity to turn this feature off during setup.

Which brings me to the biggest selling point here, which is camera. Since the Find X8 series doesn’t have an Ultra yet (at least not yet at the time of writing), we’ll consider it the best that OPPO can give us.

While the camera is actually a slight step down from the Find X7 Ultra, with the main camera offering a smaller sensor than the one-inch example on the Ultra, it can still take some great photos. Check out the YouTube video at the top of this review to see all my swatches.

All four lenses are 50MP, and the main camera can still take some impressive photos. The detail you get is fantastic. Maybe the details aren’t that great in the shadows, but overall I actually have no complaints.

For telephoto needs, you can choose from 3x or 6x zoom levels, both of which allow for some great photos. In fact, I really like having the option of both because it covers you for almost everything. You get AI telescope zoom that starts working after 10x, and the AI ​​here helps enhance photos. It performs very well at lower zoom levels, and does well at 60x zoom if the photo is clear. But if you zoom in on something blurry, no amount of artificial intelligence can save the image.

Video capabilities peak at 4K 60fps, which is okay, but I noticed a bit of jitter when moving. While the video wasn’t that bad, I had a hard time getting over that nervousness when I was walking around with my phone.

The OPPO Find X8 Pro is a compelling flagship contender with a large battery, a great gaming chipset, and four powerful main cameras. A fair update support period and solid build quality make it a smart choice for those who like to stay ahead of the larger competition.

However, the most important factor when considering buying the OPPO Find X8 Pro is the price, and the price is sky-high. It costs £1,049 in the UK and about $1,300 in the US. This puts the device ahead of 2024 flagships from Google and Samsung. While I had a lot of fun using OPPO’s latest flagship, it’s definitely a niche option at this price point. But if you don’t mind paying, it’s the perfect device for those looking for something different from the usual suspects.