OPPO Find X2 Pro Review – Going Pro

OPPO is angling for the big time in the premium segment with an increasingly sophisticated array of flagship phones in recent years though the new Find X2 Pro represents their most best looking and most technically advanced effort to date.

Prior to this they debuted the original Find X phone which had a motorised pop-up camera mechanism that was gorgeous to behold but which was also overly elaborate in execution. The Find X2 fortunately backtracks from complicated and flashy setups and instead defaults for a time-tested form factor embellished with an understated yet very classy design and impressive hardware under the hood.

OPPO Find X2 Pro Design, Specifications and What’s In the Box

Externally, the phone has looks that can match any of the premium flagships in the market. Our test unit came with a vegan leather backplate in a shade of burnt orange complemented by metallic copper trim on the sides and bezels.

You can also get it with a more conventional ceramic finish. The tactility of the backplate is exquisite indeed and feels somewhat akin to the Mate30 Pro 5G that we field tested awhile back with an equally premium feel. It’s also amazingly smudge resistant which is a bonus. The best part? It’s also rated for IP68 water resistance which is a fantastic bonus.

Here’s the specifications at a glance –

Specifications

Price RM4,599
Display 6.7-inch AMOLED, 1,440 x 3,168 pixels 513ppi/ 120Hz refresh rate
Processor Snapdragon 865
Memory 12GB LPDDR5 RAM, 512GB UFS 3.0
Camera 48-MP F/2.7 w/ OIS, 13-MP F/3.0 telephoto camera w/5x zoom & OIS, 48-MP F/2.2 ultra wide angle camera (rear) / 32-MP F/2.4 (front)
Battery 4,260mAh w/ 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging
Size/Weight 165.2×74.4×8.8mm / 200g

 

Our test unit is a local Malaysian version with a UK-style three-pin Super VOOC 2.0 65W Flash Charger, the obligatory USB charging cable, a soft TPU casing to protect the phone and a USB-Type C pair of wired earbuds. The provision of a Super VOOC flash charger that allows it to fast charge the built-in 4,260mAh battery at its fullest potential out of the box and a pair of wired earbuds is a pleasant bonus that salves its somewhat high asking price.

One thing to note though is that the Super VOOC flash charger and the USB cable that comes with it is proprietary OPPO tech so it’ll only work at maximum capacity when used in tandem with the Find X2 Pro. It’ll charge other phones of course but it’s capped at 10W.

Button placement is fairly standard with a power button on the right, a volume rocker on the left, a dual SIM card tray and a USB Type-C port at the base of the phone.

The biggest calling card on the Find X2 Pro is its massive 6.7-inch 3K QHD+ AMOLED Ultra VIsion display that also has a swift 120Hz refresh rate and a 240Hz touch sample rate, something that very few phones can match in the market. Of note is that it is capable of 100% reproduction of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and has an impressive 800 nits peak brightness. In keeping with many other flagships, the phone also has an under-display fingerprint reader.

The display itself sports curved edges on the side and slim bezels top and bottom bezels with the top hiding one of a matching pair of stereo speakers in a tiny slit with the other speaker at the base of the phone. Interestingly enough, OPPO has opted for the punch hole for the 32-MP 5P lens selfie camera to be integrated in the upper left corner of the display rather than the traditional centre-mounted location which makes for a far less obstructed view.

In terms of hardware, the OPPO Find X2 is among the current best in the market with a powerful Snapdragon 865 octacore processor. Of particular note is the Snapdragon 865 SoC integrates the Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System that ensures 5G connectivity on mmWave, sub-6 GHz as well as 5G standalone (SA)  and non-standalone (NSA) modes so you’re effectively futureproof when 5G rolls around.

This beefy processor is paired with 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and a generous 512GB UFS 3.0 storage. The biggest quibble though is the lack of expandable storage as the phone only has a dual SIM card tray. At any rate, it’ll take quite a while to fill up what you already have on hand.

The rear triple camera array is built around a primary 48-MP camera that uses a Sony IMX586 sensor with an F/1.7 aperture as well as optical image stabilisation. This is paired with a 12-MP ultra wide angle camera and a 13-MP telephoto camera with 5x optical zoom via a periscope-style lens  and up to 20x digital zoom that is also optically stabilised like the primary camera.

This rear camera is of sufficient quality that even DxOMark have awarded it an impressive score of 124 points which makes it one of the best camera phones currently available though to be fair, not all of the latest flagship phones are represented on the list at the time of publication.

Right out of the starting gate, the OPPO Find X2 Pro has a lot going for it and on paper, it looks very promising indeed with 5G support, a luscious AMOLED display, one of the most powerful processors in the market and a triple camera lauded by DxOMark. They haven’t skimped on the bonuses either and they’ve thrown in a full powered VOOC flash charger, Type-C earbuds and a case to go with the phone too.

OPPO Find X2 Pro Performance and Benchmarks

The OPPO Find X2 Pro runs Android 10.0 overlaid with OPPO’s own Color OS 7.1 user interface on top on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 octacore processor. The processor comes with a single 2.84GHz Kryo 585 chip, a trio of GHz Kryo 585 chips clocked at 2.42GHz and a quartet Kryo 585 chips clocked at 1.8GHz along with an Adreno 640GPU.

These specifications mean that it can go toe to toe with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and the Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G, all of which have 5G capabilities.

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks, the Find X2 Pro did not disappoint. Here’s the scores:

Geekbench 5.1 single-core score 910 / Multi-core score 3,148

PCMark 2.0 Performance score 10,208

3DMark Sling Shot Extreme – OpenGL ES 3.1 7,096 

Antutu 3D 557,932

These benchmarks are exceptional and are among the best in any smartphone currently in service. Under more practical field conditions, the Find X2 Pro proved to be incredibly swift on the draw on account of its swift 512GB UFS 3.0 storage and liberal amounts of 12GB LPDDR5 RAM. Even under heavy workloads including extensive sessions of Call of Duty Mobile on its highest settings and extended 4K video capture, the phone managed to barely register little more than the a slightly warm sensation which denotes superb heat management.

On closer inspection, the Find X2 Pro’s AMOLED display manages to beat all comers as it’s able to offer a full 120Hz refresh rate at its full 1,440 x 3,168 pixel resolution unlike recent competing examples that either force you to select one option or the other.

By default it’s set to auto but you’re able to force it to maximum and it’s something you ought to do straight out of the box. Animations are silky smooth at 120Hz with superb clarity under daylight conditions. Colour rendition is rated for 100% of the DCI-P3 colour space with the phone offering best results when set to Cinematic mode with the default Vivid mode a bit on the vibrant side of things.

The display also offers HDR10 and, surprisingly, HDR10+ support which is a Samsung-supported standard that is capable of reading per-scene metadata for better HDR. There’s still a dearth of HDR10+ content but it works perfectly fine for HDR10 movies of which there are plenty.

The fact that they’ve plonked the usual punch hole into the corner of the screen also makes it far less distracting when watching movies; something that we’re enjoying viscerally in light of the ongoing Movement Control Order.

Of particular note is what OPPO calls the Ultra Vision Engine chip that can upscale whatever footage you’re viewing up to 60Hz or 120Hz though your mileage will vary depending on the quality of your source footage.

Quality sound is often a neglected feature that gets dropped by the wayside but the Find X2 Pro’s stereo speakers did not disappoint with good clarity and sound staging.

The biggest quibble here though is that Color OS is still replete with a ton of bloatware of dubious functionality. On a fresh install, you’re getting unwanted add-ons like the SoLoop video editor, a bizarre Music Party sync function to play the same song on multiple phones, the Lazada app preinstalled and more.

Oddly enough, they’ve also added their own App Market solution, which sideloads APKs onto your phone as an alternative of sorts to the existing Google Play Store.

Presumably, this would be the option in regions lacking Google Play like China. They’ve also crammed in their own browser too alongside Chrome. All of this takes up quite a bit of space but the phone fortunately has plenty to spare.

OPPO Find X2 Pro Camera Performance

The OPPO Find X2 packs a triple camera system that eschews cramming in more specialised cameras in favour of making each of its existing ones count. The primary 48-MP camera uses a powerful Sony IMX689 sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a bright F/1.7 aperture to tackle most of the grunt work to capture pixel-binned 12-MP stills.

This is matched by a similarly sized 48-MP ultra wide angle camera using a Sony IMX586 sensor that has a 120-degree angle field of view. The third camera uses a 13-MP sensor with a periscope-style zoom lens capable of 5X optical zoom, up to 10x hybrid zoom and 60x digital zoom, also with OIS like the primary camera.

The front sports a 32-MP selfie camera with shots pixel-binned down to 8-MP. This setup also enables you to capture 4K@60 fps video from the rear camera array and up to 1080P@30 fps from the front.

Getting about OPPO’s camera user interface is fairly easy as it has a relatively straightforward layout though more advanced functions seem to be obtusely nested deep in the menus. Most of the main modes are reachable via a slider on the right while zoom can be set to 0.5X, 1X, 2X , 5X,10X and 60X increments or you can finetune your zoom via a dial. The obligatory Expert mode is available nested deeper inside the menus. 

General performance overall is excellent with good detail and great dynamic range across both daylight and low light scenarios. Daylight shots are a bit on the muted side for the wide angle camera though they are more accurate to what the human eyeball sees though the primary one looks more saturated in keeping with contemporary tastes.

Zoomed in shots are excellent at up to 5x lossless optical zoom. Beyond that, you get a bit of noise here and there but it’s not a major deal breaker. Shots beyond that at maximum 60x zoom are more of a novelty as they’re very grainy but still viewable. 

Under low light, the cameras did very well though they aren’t the pinnacle of their class, capturing detail and hues that would otherwise have been unviewable on lesser cameras though swaths of uniform colour tend to lose a bit of texture if you pixel peep.

Of note is that the phone has exceptionally fast autofocus, locking onto subjects in mere seconds without error. Videos on the Find X2 Pro’s rear cameras are otherwise pretty excellent with footage under dim conditions at dusk looking surprisingly good.

The front facing selfie camera also proved to be competent though details seem a bit soft, presumably on account of the default aggressive beautification modes that are the norm for most phones these days.

OPPO Find X2 Pro Battery Life, Price and Verdict

Rather than one large battery, the OPPO Find X2 Pro splits the load into two separate cells with a combined total of 4,260mAh that is rated for over a full day of use. Your mileage will vary of course depending on your usage patterns, screen brightness and what resolution and refresh rate you set it to.

 

We went all the way in and set the screen to auto with a 120Hz refresh rate and the highest possible resolution possible at this refresh rate of 1,440p with an average workload that included social media, WiFi and 4G LTE data, an hour worth of calls and both gaming as well as some YouTube throughout the day. This was more than sufficient for a day’s worth of usage with just under 9 hours of active screen time.

When charging, the Find X2 Pro with its bundled VOOC 65W 2.0 Flash Charger managed to go from dry to a nearly 90% charge in just 30 minutes which is quite a feat. Just don’t lose the proprietary charger and cable as you need both to charge at this speed.

The OPPO Find X2 Pro is a gem of a phone. Rather than opting for bizarre gimmicks, the Find X2 Pro is a well-reasoned blend of contemporary design and enhancements in areas that matter – a world-class 120Hz display, an excellent rear camera and blazing fast VOOC charging tech though all this comes at a substantial premium. The main quibbles – a lack of expandable storage, no wireless charging and no audio jack fortunately aren’t deal breakers. This is a stunner of a flagship phone and arguably OPPO’s best phone ever made.

What we liked Excellent cameras, IP68 water resistance, excellent performance, superb 120Hz 1440P display, 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging
What we didn’t Not cheap, chunky rear camera array, no wireless charging, no expandable storage
We say OPPO’s finest phone yet, the Find X2 Pro is a flagship smartphone in every sense of the word with cutting edge hardware, a brilliant 120Hz display, 5G connectivity and an excellent rear camera.

Review unit courtesy of OPPO Malaysia. Check out the OPPO Find X2 Pro here.

For more visually oriented chaps, check out Adam Lobo’s unboxing and review of the Find X2 Pro here: