OPPO Find X8 Pro review: One photo that absolutely blew me away
On a family trip in the city for the Christmas markets, I tried a little experiment. And it proved that this is the best phone on the market.
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You should sell your iPhone and buy the new OPPO. I’m serious.
There are two simple reasons why: the OPPO Find X8 Pro has the best camera system and battery.
The OPPO Find X8 Pro, which launched in Australia in November, marks the return of the Find X series globally (the past two models were launched in China only).
I’ve been running the new OPPO Find X8 Pro through its paces over the past week, and one particular moment blew me away.
Photo in the park that changed my mind
An eye-catching feature on the Find X8 Pro is the quad-camera system. It’s housed in a Cosmos Ring design and features the large H logo of Swedish camera company Hasselblad.
Inside there are four 50MP cameras, including two telephoto cameras. The selfie camera is also a respectable 32MP.
It’s an incredible photographic arsenal to have in a phone, and will hopefully set the standard for manufacturers across the board.
This hardware, along with some smart software and AI, unleashes a range of capabilities. You can take super-close photos with incredible detail. In terms of mid-range pics, it’s the best camera that I’ve seen among my friends and family. But it was the ultra-zoom that really made up my mind.
You see, I was on a mission on Saturday. My daughter is in kindy and has been tasked by her teacher to chronicle adventures with a teddy bear known as Harry Huggles.
We went to the Christmas markets at Martin Place in Sydney, and I knew it was the perfect time to test out the new Find X8 Pro.
We visited Town Hall, St Mary’s Cathedral and Hyde Park, which is where I came up with a cunning plan to try out the Find X8 Pro’s legendary zoom.
First, I took a photo of Harry Huggles, sitting on a park bench, at 1x zoom.
Mr Huggles could hardly be seen.
Then, I cranked it up to 60x zoom and took another snap. There he was, in his full teddy bear glory. Keep in mind I took this photo at dusk and without a tripod.
The result absolutely blew me away. I could clearly see Mr Huggles, despite him being about 50m away.
The clarity of the image was in large part thanks to the phone’s AI Telescope Zoom, which uses AI and computational photography to significantly improve zoom quality. An on-device AI model helps enhance detail and supplements loss of detail.
There are a raft of other cool photography features on the phone including Concert Mode (designed for live shows), and Zero Shutter Lag (the shutter lag is virtually non-existent, meaning you get the photo exactly when you click).
If you want more info on the phone’s photo stats, check out my report on the phone from the launch in Bali in November.
Also, for the video nerds, I should note there is 4K 60fps Dolby Vision HDR video recording across all cameras, including the selfie camera, and four microphones.
It has all the specs needed for an entry in the Mobile Film Festival.
AI tech
The other thing that comes in handy during a busy night out in the CBD is the suite of AI technology.
When you open up an image in the Photos app, you can access the AI Editor.
For example there are things like AI Clarity Enhance (transforms low-res images to high-res), AI Unblur (restores natural details in things like skin and hair), and AI Reflection Remover (gets rid of glare and reflection in glass).
However, one of the most useful things is AI Eraser, which gets rid of unwanted people from your photo. You simply use the smart lasso and it detects which people to remove, replacing them with what the AI predicts the background should be.
It came in very useful at the Christmas markets and the fireworks at Darling Harbour as pesky people kept photobombing my shots (to be fair I was probably in the way of other people too).
I found the app was an easy way to touch up a photo without having to resort to Photoshop.
I have previously outlined the phone’s full gamut of AI features, which you can read here.
Battery you can literally see charging
When the OPPO Find X8 Pro launched, I wrote that it probably had the best battery in the world.
Having the chance to use it has only confirmed my belief that it is indeed has best battery in any smartphone on the market.
It’s packing a monstrous 5910mAh silicon-carbon battery (thanks to new silicon-carbon battery tech the phone is still very thin).
Compare that to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which has a battery size of 4685mAh.
But it’s actually the speed of charging that seals the deal for me.
The phone uses 80W SUPERVOOC charging, which tops up the phone faster than any other flagship I’ve come across.
When plugged in, you can literally watch the phone battery increase before your eyes, meaning you can get hours of power in minutes.
I used the phone heavily on a work day, searching Google and sending emails during the day, and watching YouTube and Netflix at night, and the battery life was still above 85%.
Having a phone that can last that well is a game changer. And the fast-charging gives you more freedom to stay away from a power point, or from being tethered to a portable charger.
New look and new buttons
The phone has a flagship feel thanks to the quad-curved glass and aluminium frame.
The camera bump is smaller and it feels light in the hand, weighing just 215g and being 8.24mm thin.
It’s also extremely sturdy. For example you can dunk it under 1.5m of water for 30 minutes or blast it with jets of water at up to 80C, without causing any damage (I could not bring myself to try this).
It comes in Space Black, which has a frosty look, or Pearl White. OPPO used a new multi-layer texture technique which means every white phone is unique.
The other major change to the look of the phone is the new alert slider.
OPPO introduced this feature last year on the Find N3 Flip, and it’s no surprise it made an appearance on the new flagship after the recent merger with OnePlus.
It offers a handy and discreet way to quickly switch between silent, vibrate and ring. When you change it, the mode-type flashes at the top of the screen near the selfie camera.
Also on the Find X8 Pro is the new Quick Button. Located below the power and volume buttons, your index finger naturally rests on it when taking horizontal photos or video.
A double squeeze on the button brings up the camera in just 0.4 seconds, and you can zoom in and out by sliding a finger along it.
You can take a photo by tapping it again, or activate Lightning Snap for a burst of images.
A burst of photos is perfect for when a family member starts acting the fool at Christmas lunch.
A new feature is expected soon that will enable instant capture with a double tap.
The brains powering the phone
The Find X8 Pro marks the first time the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 processor has been made available globally.
OPPO revealed it was made with a TSMC 3nm process which comes with the following benefits: 35% faster CPU, 41% faster GPU, as well as substantial efficiency increases for the CPU, GPU and AI.
The phone uses a vapour chamber cooling system, dissipating the heat with a graphite layer and conductive thermal gel around the motherboard.
The operating system is the new ColorOS 15, the main features of which are AI photo editing, more than 800 new animations, Circle to Search and Touch to Share.
Other noteworthy functions are the AI Studio, which allows you to transform photos, and AI Toolbox, a suite of productivity tools including summarisation and drafting assistants.
Google Gemini runs on the phone natively as the AI assistant. A swipe from the lower left or right corner of the screen towards the centre is the easiest way to bring up the digital helper.
The device runs Trinity Engine software, which is designed to make the phone operate games and videos with less power consumption.
Graphics rendering is done with the phone’s Luminous Rendering Engine, which gives the phone 18% better touch response and 40% better stability. This impacts things like unlocking the phone, changing volume and opening apps.
All that runs on 16GB of RAM, which you can expand by up to 12GB by utilising any spare storage space you have on the phone.
I loaded the phone up with a few power hungry apps, ran a bunch of them, and still found it to be extremely responsive.
Look, I understand the Apple fanboys will want to stick with what they know.
And whether it’s an iPhone 16 Pro Max, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or Google Pixel 9 Pro, all the flagships these days are extremely good.
However for me, the OPPO Find X8 Pro is the best phone on the market, and that’s simply because of the superior camera system and battery.
Originally published as OPPO Find X8 Pro review: One photo that absolutely blew me away
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