OPPO Find X5 Pro review: Excellent Hasselblad camera and fast charging

There’s a new phone on the market that’s putting Apple and Samsung to the test — and one photo shows it’s up to the challenge.

OPPO’s much-anticipated Find X5 Series of phones has been released.

The flagship Find X5 Pro is a major competitor for the title of best phone on the market, battling it out with Apple’s 13 Pro Max and Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra.

The series includes the Find X5 Pro, Find X5 and Find X5 Lite.

OPPO shipped me out a Find X5 Pro for review so I put it through its paces.

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The Oppo Find X5 Pro has true glass lenses rather than the more common plastic alternative.

Best feature on the Find X5 Pro

The best thing about the family of phones – by a long shot – is the camera array.

The Find X5 series was co-developed with Hasselblad, a Swedish manufacturer renowned for making quality and stylish cameras.

The phone’s camera array is frankly incredible.

The Pro has 4K ultra night video and ultra HDR photography capabilities.

There’s a 50PM wide-angle camera, 50MP ultra wide-angle camera, 13MP telephoto camera and 32MP front camera.

All this is powered by the MariSilicon X neural processing unit — a chip dedicated to imaging developed in-house by OPPO.

Widely known across South-East Asia through its “Selfie Expert” advertisements, the OPPO can intelligently switch angles depending on whether you’re taking a selfie by yourself or with a group.

Photo shows OPPO is outright winner

Tech writer Ben Geskin ran an interesting experiment on Twitter.

He posted four photos of the same spot using different phones — and asked people to pick the best image (it was a blind test).

He was using the Oppo Find X5 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, Galaxy S22 Ultra and Xiaomi 12 Pro — and the results were stark.

Photos taken on (A) Oppo Find X5 Pro, (B) iPhone 13 Pro, (C) Galaxy S22 Ultra and (D) Xiaomi 12 Pro. Picture: Ben Geskin/Twitter

The Oppo Find X5 Pro was the winner, followed by the Xiaomi 12 Pro.

I took some shots of the Sydney CBD just after dusk and the results impressed me (as a point and shoot photographer).

The Sydney CBD taken on the OPPO Find X5 Pro. Picture: Andrew Backhouse

Display with a billion colours

The phone has a billion colour bionic display.

That means you get ultra-vivid colours while watching videos and gaming.

It’s also just a fun phone to use.

The lock screen image keeps changing to cool landscape images and the animated wallpaper looks like the remnants of a supernova.

These settings can all be customised of course, but having it set as default is a plus.

One of the rotating landscape images on the lock screen, and the starburst-style animated wallpaper, on the OPPO Find X5 Pro.

Specifications

Display: 6.7” AMOLED display (HDR10+)

Chip: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform

Operating system: ColorOS 12.1 (Android 12)

Cameras: 50MP wide-angle and ultra wide-angle, 13MP telephoto, 32MP selfie

Image processing: MariSilicon X NPU

Photography: 4K ultra night video, ultra HDR photography

Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass Victus

Colours: Ceramic white and glaze black

Charging: Supervooc Flash charge up to 80W

Wireless charging: Airvooc Wireless flash charge up to 50W

Battery: 5000mAH dual-cell battery (1600 charging cycles)

Memory: 12GB RAM + 256GB ROM

Audio: Dolby Atmos dual stereo speakers

Weight: 218g

Gaming

The phone has a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120 Hz.

The touch sampling on the device can reach up to 1000 Hz (this is the number of times a display refreshes to register a user touch input).

I’ve been playing League of Legends: Wild Rift and it did look and play incredibly well on the Pro.

I also tried out Stickman Archer and PUBG Mobile, with the high touch sampling rate making the game-play top-notch.

I got my first win on League of Legends: Wild Rift, which I’m crediting to the Find X5 Pro (and my superior game-play).

Stickman Archer runs smoothly on the Pro.

Charging and battery

The battery can last about 42 hours between charging on the 5000mAH dual-cell battery.

I fully-charged the phone and it lasted a full two days.

The battery itself will last a lot longer than other brands, with OPPO boosting to 1600 charging cycles – about double the industry standard.

But it’s the charging speed that really perked my attention.

The Pro supports Supervooc flash charging of up to 80W, meaning you can charge the phone from 0-50% in 12 minutes.

Using the Airvooc Wireless, you can fully charge a flat phone in about 50 minutes.

My overall thoughts

The OPPO Find X5 Pro is a real contender for the best phone on the market.

It’s fast, responsive and has stunning video and photo capabilities.

The super-fast charging and long battery life are also highlights.

It’s a buy from me.

The wireless charging capabilities on the Oppo Find X5 Pro is a real selling point.

Pricing

OPPO Find X5 Pro: $1799

OPPO Find X5: $1399

Find X5 Lite: $799

Launch details and special offer

The entire series will be available for pre-order from April 4, with the premium handsets hitting Australian shelves on April 19.

OPPO is running special pre-order promotions across Australia.

When pre-ordering the Find X5 Pro at selected retailers, Aussies will get a range of high-end accessories including OPPO Enco X earphones, an OPPO Watch Free, an AIRVOOC 50W wireless charger, and a Find X5 Pro Kevlar case, valued at $686.

With the pre-order of the OPPO Find X5, you will receive a gift pack valued at $557, which includes a Find X5 Kevlar case, OPPO Enco X earphones and an OPPO Watch Free.

Finally, the Find X5 Lite will be going on pre-order with a “Gift with Purchase” promotion that will see bonus OPPO Enco X earphones, valued at $299, gifted with each order through redemption.