Oppo Find X9s Review – Sleek Budget Flagship with Hasselblad-Tuned Cameras

Prospective phone buyers in Malaysia are spoiled for choice when it comes to phones with models at almost all price points though not everyone can afford a flagship phone, which is where the likes of the Oppo Find X9s come into the picture. 

Unlike the top of the line Oppo Find X9 Ultra and the Find X9 Pro that cram in the best hardware that Oppo has to offer, the Find X9s is a flagship phone with an eye towards retaining as many of the features of the X9 Ultra and X9 Pro as possible while keeping prices modest with some concessions to its specifications.

At launch, we managed to acquire a sample for testing. After putting it through its paces, here’s our Oppo Find X9s review where we share if their compact flagship is the money.

Oppo Find X9s Review – Build and Design

Launched alongside the Oppo Find X9 Pro and the Oppo Find X9 Ultra in Malaysia, the Oppo Find X9s is the lightest and slimmest out of the three phones while retaining aesthetics closer to the Pro model and specifications that straddle the line between a premium midrange and a budget flagship.

Like other phones of recent vintage, our Oppo Find X9s review sample has rounded corners, a flat backplate and front display with straight edges along its sides. As phones go, the Find X9s has fairly compact dimensions which make it more of a compact flagship rather than the massive phablet slabs that are currently in vogue but gradually waning in appeal. 

In Malaysia the phone comes in three possible colourways – Midnight Grey, Lavender Sky and, in the case of our Oppo Find X9s review sample, a shade of Sunset Orange. What this translates to is a muted satin orange finish that has a metallic orange frame along with a backplate that has deeper shades of orange that gradually fade to paler shades of silvery-orange near the upper portion of the phone. 

The finish is eye-catching and looks classy while remaining relatively fingerprint resistant. Even better, the phone itself is also rated for IP68 and  IP69 dust and water resistance. Oppo also vouches that the phone has a robust SGS five-star certification for drop and impact resistance though we weren’t able to test this as the phone was a test sample.

The camera housing itself comes in a square-shaped housing emplaced in the upper left of the backplate and, interestingly, is sized in such a way as to eliminate wobbling if placed screen-up, though the phone is still canted at a noticeable 3-degrees off kilter when placed on a flat surface. 

In terms of overall layout, the phone doesn’t deviate significantly from most competing models with the base hosting a USB-C port, a SIM card tray and grille for one of the two speakers. The left side of the phone hosts a Snap Key, a shortcut button that lets you assign functions from a predefined list of possible actions including acting as a torchlight, camera shortcut, voice recorder and more. The right side of the phone hosts a single power button and volume rocker while the top is otherwise unremarkable save for a pair of antenna bands.

Up front,  the Oppo Find X9s comes with a 6.59-inch AMOLED display which has 1,256 x 2,780 pixels resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate, 3,600 nits peak brightness, 10-bit colour depth and 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut which will eappeal to content creators. 

A tiny slit up top hides a speaker that doubles as an earpiece along with a single punchhole for a 32MP selfie camera. The lower quadrant of the display hosts an ultrasonic fingerprint reader. The display is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 7i and the screen also has a pre-applied screen protector for added peace of mind.

Overall build quality for our Oppo Find X9s review sample is pleasantly premium with the phone offering excellent tactility and ergonomics for one-handed use. The provision of IP68 and IP69 dust and water resistance along with its SGS Premium Performance 5 Star Drop resistance rating also ensures that your investment stays intact for years to come. During our time testing it, the backplate and display remained pristine even across two weeks of heavy use as a daily driver.

Out of the box, the Oppo Find X9s does come with several extras including a charger, casing, SIM eject pin and a USB-C cable which adds a bit of extra value to the phone.

Oppo Find X9s Review – Performance and Benchmarks

Built as a more affordable, lighter and more compact flagship phone, the Oppo Find X9s uses the Dimensity 9500s, a slightly pared down version of the Dimensity 9500 processor used in the Oppo Find X9 Pro with the key chipset differences being slightly slower clocked cores compared to the Dimensity 9500. Of note is the addition of a larger vapour chamber that spans 32,052.5mm² of total dissipation area, which is approximately 21.6% larger than the one used alongside the previous generation chipset.

Paired with the Dimensity 9500s SoC is 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB UFS 4.1 storage with up to 12GB virtual RAM assignable off the onboard storage. Alternatively, it can be reduced in 4GB increments or disabled entirely.

Running under the hood is Android 16 paired with Oppo’s own ColorOS 16.0.7 firmware overlaying it. According to Oppo, the phone will enjoy 4 years of OS and 5 years of security updates which aren’t the longest duration in the market but which is a reasonable duration of time. Here’s how our Oppo Find X9s review sample stacks up on paper:

Price	RM3,699
Display	6.59-inch LTPS AMOLED, 1,256 x 2,780 pixels, 120Hz refresh rate, 3,600 nits peak brightness
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 9500s
OS	Android 16 w/ ColorOS 16.0.7
Memoru	12GB RAM / 512GB
Cameras	50MP f/1.8 w/ OIS, 50MP f/2.6 w/ 3x optical zoom + OIS, 50MP f/2.0 ultra wide camera [rear] / 32MP f/2.4 [front]
Battery	7,025mAh Silicon Carbon w/ 80W SuperVOOC charging
Size/Weight	157 x 73.9 x 7.9mm / 202g

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks with 12GB virtual RAM, our Oppo Find X9s review sample scored the following:

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	2,385
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	2,129
3D Mark WildLife Extreme	5,828
3D Mark WildLife Extreme Unlimited	5,744
Solar Bay	10,376
Solar Bay Unlimited	10,917
Solar Bay Extreme	758
Solar Bay Extreme Unlimited	635
Geekbench 6 Single Core	2,612
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	7,850
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	18,720
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	23,000
Geekbench AI (CPU quanticised)	2,470
Geekbench AI (GPU quanticised)	1,274
PCMark Work 3.0 Performance	13,285
PCMark Battery Life	25 hours

In terms of performance, our Oppo Find X9s with its Dimensity 9500s processor demonstrates scores roughly equivalent to the Dimensity 9400 processor that last saw service in the prior Oppo Find X8 Pro with a slight edge in overall benchmarks. 

In stress tests, the phone runs hotter than the prior Find X8 Pro, with temperatures spanning 37°C to 44°C while offering up a best loop score of 2,269 and 1,482 points as the lowest loop score with slightly improved 65.3% stability. The Dimensity 9400 in the older Find X8 Pro ran cooler but also had a lower stability score.

In practical field tests, the Oppo Find X9s did not disappoint and ran games like Wuthering Waves and Call of Duty Mobile smoothly without the need for significant tinkering. The phone multitasked smoothly, easily swapping between multiple open browser tabs and apps while video editing on CapCut ran without issue without significant slowdown.

In terms of AI enhancements, the phone has the usual Circle to Search with Google and Google Gemini but places special emphasis on their Mind Pilot feature that enables you to interact with  Gemini, Perplexity or GPT AI assistants via a wrapper that can suggest prompts and enable you to save prior interactions with your Oppo account.

Other unique AI features let you erase photo bombers, recompose shots and remove blur and reflections from a shot. While welcome, these features already exist in prior Oppo models and in many competing phones.

The 6.59-inch LTPS AMOLED display offered smooth refresh rates with supported apps and delivered excellent brightness and clarity even under daylight conditions. Colour rendition was excellent with 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut ensuring accurate colour reproduction when editing videos and images. For gaming and movies, the stereo speakers did an otherwise solid job with good volume and detail.

When it comes to battery life, the Oppo Find X9s offers impressive endurance with its 7,025mAh Silicon Carbon battery serving up a comfortable two full days of normal usage though your mileage will vary if you make game heavily or watch videos extensively.

In PCMark’s battery life test, our Oppo Find X9s review sample scored an impressive 25 hours of battery life which is among the best seen in flagship phones. Charging was fast as well with 80W SuperVOOC wired charging with a full charge from dead zero with the bundled charger taking an hour or so. The phone also has bypass charging, which lets you charge the CPU and bypass the battery to mitigate heat and reduce long-term battery wear and tear.

Oppo Find X9s Review – Cameras

The Oppo Find X9s has a triple 50MP camera array on the rear that almost mirrors the setup used in the pricier Oppo Find X9. Both cameras have similar ultrawide and telephoto camera setups but the Find X9s uses a more modest Sony LYT-700 sensor with an f/1.8 aperture whereas the pricier Find X9 uses a higher-end Sony LYT-808 sensor with a brighter f/1.6 aperture.

In any case, the Find X9s has  optical image stabilisation (OIS) for judder-free footage and stills on the 50MP main camera and 50MP telephoto camera.

Combined, this setup on the Oppo Find X9s allows for up to 3x optical zoom and up to 120x digital zoom for stills and up to 4K@60fps video capture with up to 16x digital zoom. The front camera of the Find X9s is also a more modest 32MP capable of stills and up to 4K@60fps video which is similar to that used on the Find X9. 

Colours and dynamic range  on the Oppo Find X9s are consistent across the ultrawide, primary and telephoto camera with good detail and dynamic range with blues and greens adhering to Hasselblad’s emphasis on a more lifelike, muted aesthetic.

Stills retain good amounts of detail and colour rendition out to about 6x hybrid zoom though zoomed in shots beyond that and out to 120x look their best in daytime conditions with low light shots looking noticeably softer.

Video capture at 4K@60fps is smooth with lifelike colour rendition and crisp detail out to 3x zoom. Captured videos beyond 3x zoom out to 18x zoom works best with static subjects like architecture.

In a test at the Oppo Find X9 series roadshow at KLCC, our Find X9s was able to capture precise details like text hidden in a series of glowing balls embedded in the ceiling at 18x zoom.

While it is the most affordable variant of the Find X9 series, the cameras on the Find X9s pull their own weight and are capable enough to tackle most scenarios encountered by normal users and short form content creators and influencers. 

Should you buy the Oppo Find X9s?

If you’re seeking a capable flagship that has superb battery life, an excellent LTPS AMOLED display and a capable set of Hasselblad-tuned cameras, the Oppo Find X9s is a highly capable choice. While it faces stiff competition among other budget flagships,

it easily outguns most midrange models and offers a premium user experience with superb build quality and performance for the vast majority of users. Those who require more powerful cameras and more capable low light performance will appreciate what the pricier X9 and X9 Ultra models have to offer.

 

Oppo Find X9s review sample courtesy of Oppo Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.oppo.com/my/product/oppo-find-x9s.P.P1100802