OPPO Find X3 Pro Australian review: small things and party tricks

OPPO has magnified the fun factor with its flagship Find X3 Pro 5G phone which boasts an innovative camera line-up, superb design and a beautiful 1 billion colour screen. But one microscopic feature has everyone talking.

Mark Furler

@furlernator

3 min read

April 23, 2021 - 10:30AM

Business

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OPPO has magnified the fun factor with its flagship Find X3 Pro 5G phone which boasts an innovative camera line-up, superb design and a beautiful 1 billion colour screen.

After years of reviewing phones, sometimes a new device can be a little 'ho-hum' - there's no standout feature, it's better yes, but not that much. That's not the case with this phone.

There are some very cool new innovations, some of which may intrigue rather than delight some users, while others will love them.

OPPO Find X3 Pro

The phone features four cameras including a 'microscope' feature which allows you to see incredible detail, like the inside of a leaf, the thread of your clothes, hair particles and sand texture to name a few.

It's the sort of camera that will become the talking point at your next party as people try out the 60x magnification on the 3MP microlens.

OPPO Find X3 Pro microscope camera could have your friends guessing 'What is this?". This is inside of a Oppo earbud.

But a word of warning. The thing can be very hard to use.

OPPO Find X3 Pro camera makes art out of some common objects, like this leaf.

You need to have the right camera about 1mm to 3mm from the subject.

OPPO Find X3 Pro microscope camera makes art out of a leaf.

Hovering over something like a flower or leaf, in its natural state, is virtually impossible.

So you soon learn you need to take a sample, as a budding young scientist would, put it on a flat surface, like a table, and then line up your shot.

OPPO Find X3 Pro camera captures Australian paperbark.

You can also shoot video, which might make for some particularly freaky Tiktok executions, as you zoom in a friend's eyeball, for example.

Unless you have a steady hand, and a stable subject, you're going to end up with more blur than anything.

OPPO Find X3 Pro microscope camera gives you a new view of Australian paperbark.

But when you get it right, the images can be really cool.

You could even see someone using them as customised background for their own creative projects.

OPPO Find X3 Pro has a nice macro and wide angle camera to get up close to your subject.

Of course, the OPPO Find X3 Pro comes with three 'proper' cameras, including a 50MP primary lens, a 50MP ultra wide lens and a 13 MP telephoto lens, which achieves decent 5x images and video.

OPPO Find X3 Pro microscope camera makes a walk on the beach a little more interesting.

My biggest criticism would be I probably would have liked to see more on the zoom front given the cost of the phone. You can also see there's a fair bit of noise in shots when you zoom.

It's not something you will notice on your Facebook or Instagram feed but blown up, you certainly will.

During our testing, night mode shots were also nowhere near as good as those on the flagship iPhone 12 Pro Max.

OPPO Find X3 Pro

DESIGN OF THE PHONE

The first thing you notice about the phone when you take it out of the box is its futuristic design. It's arguably one of the best-looking phones we've seen in a long while. And the fact that it comes with a decent case in the box is always a bonus.

Powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon™ 888 5G Mobile Platform, the Find X3 Pro is superfast whether you are video editing or gaming.

OPPO Find X3 Pro camera has a decent ultra wide camera which also includes an artificial intelligence feature to get the most out of your scene.

In Cinematic Mode, the Find X3 Pro comes with 4K imaging, a broad dynamic colour range and log format video recording. This offers full manual control over ISO, white balance, shutter speed and focus. For photographers, you can also shoot in RAW+

Oppo says the new ultra wide-angle camera has a free-form surface lens that helps to reduce distortion around the edges of photos and videos.

OPPO Find X3 Pro doesn't do a bad job of capturing action with its zoom lens for photos and video. It also has a nice range of in-built filters to play with. But blown up you get a lot of noise.

We used that camera a lot during our testing and found the results to be very good on the eye, something that sparked a lot of comments on our social posts.

OPPO Find X3 Pro camera captures the action well.

When it comes to the screen, the QHD+ screen resolution is among the best around, while the 120Hz refresh rate is also class leading.

The 4500mAh battery carries you through a long day, even if you're taking lots of photo and video, watching shows, using maps and hot spots as we did.

Even if you find yourself wanting (the lowest we got to was about 20% charge), a wired charge will get you to 40% in 10 minutes. The phone also has wireless charging and a reverse charging system for other devices.

OPPO Find X3 Pro camera put the to the test.

Setting up the phone was super easy while the operating system is very good.

The pop-up suggestions on everything from taking a screenshot to using the best features of the camera were helpful.

Overall, the Oppo Find X3 Pro 5G is a welcome addition to the Android phone line-up and certainly one of the top phones we've tested in the last couple of years.

OPPO Find X3 Pro camera takes a nice sunset, as you would expect for the price tag.

While it comes with a hefty price tag, there's certainly a lot of features offering bang for your buck. If you not keen to fork out that sort of money, Oppo also has new mid and budget buy phones worth looking at.