Oppo Find X8 Pro Review – Powerhouse flagship with Hasselblad cameras tested

Oppo has finally introduced a successor to their prior flagship Find X7 series with notable improvements revolving around its Hasselblad-tuned cameras, better performance via the spanking new MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chipset and enhanced endurance thanks to a beefier 5,910mAh silicon carbon battery. It also has a slew of rather unique additions to its design to gain an edge over the competition.

 

We managed to get our hands on a review sample fresh after its global debut in Bali and after taking it for a quick spin around the block, here’s our Oppo Find X8 Pro review where we sum up our findings of their most powerful flagship for the year.

Oppo Find X8 Pro Review – Build and Design

Oppo has opted to fill out their Find X8 series roster for 2024 with a standard Find X8 and Find X8 Pro model with the key differences being that the Pro version has a slightly larger, higher quality LTPO AMOLED display, an improved quad 50MP camera setup and a larger battery. 

Both the Pro and standard models both run on the same Dimensity 9400 chipset, have an identical front-facing camera and also have 50W wireless charging too. For the Malaysia market, both the standard and Pro variants also feature the same 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of non-expandable storage.

Our Oppo Find X8 Pro review unit comes in a shade they’ve officially referred to as Space Black though it can also come in a shade of Pearl White for Malaysia. On closer inspection, the finish is a satin dark grey that repels fingerprints nicely but is also unfortunately rather slippery and a firm grip is needed lest the phone slide off into the wild blue yonder.

Fortunately, the Oppo Find X8 Pro has an IP69 rating which means that on top of surviving dust and water immersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for 30 minutes, the phone can also resist jets of water at scalding 80 degrees Celsius.

The backplate is dominated by the prominent rear camera housing that takes up almost a full third of the backplate that is done up in what Oppo refers to as their Cosmos Ring aesthetic. The housing features a quad-camera array with a 50MP camera emplaced at each cardinal point and the Hasselblad logogram taking pride of place in the centre. The sides of the camera housing feature subtle knurling to lend it aesthetics akin to a traditional camera while the upper left corner of the backplate packs an LED flash.

Unlike many other competing Android phones, our Oppo Find X8 Pro review unit has a selectable alert slider on the left side that lets you easily select ring, vibrate or silent modes without having to fiddle about the menus while the right side hosts a power button, a volume rocker and a unique haptic Quick Button intended for use in landscape mode to access the camera with just a double tap and even adjust zoom. The top portion hosts an IR blaster to control other devices like air conditioners and other appliances.

Up front, our Oppo Find X8 Pro review unit has a 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display that offers improved energy efficiency as it can dial its refresh rate down to as low as 1Hz all the way up to 120Hz depending on what’s happening onscreen while featuring a quoted 4,500 nits peak brightness and a 1,600 nits high brightness mode for selected scenarios. The top edge of the display hosts a tiny slit for the earpiece which doubles as a speaker along with a single 32MP selfie camera.

In terms of overall polish and aesthetics, our Oppo Find X8 Pro review looks the business with tactility and a heft that makes it look especially premium, befitting its role as a flagship phone.

As accessories and extras go, our Oppo Find X8 Pro review unit came with a relatively generous assortment that include a UK-style 80W charger for Malaysia wall outlets, a USB-C cable, a black grippy rubber casing, a pre-applied screen protector as well as the obligatory SIM eject pin and warranty manuals. All this goes quite a long way to justifying its substantial price tag.

Oppo Find X8 Pro review – Performance and benchmarks

Our Oppo Find X8 Pro review sample comes with the latest MediaTek Dimensity 9400 processor, one of the first phones on the planet to feature this flagship chipset. Built using TSMC’s 3nm process and utilising a second-generation All Big Core design, the Dimensity 9400 chipset offers 35% faster CPU performance, 41% faster GPU performance and significant gains in power efficiency across the board with 40% better CPU efficiency, 44% better GPU efficiency and 35% improved AI efficiency compared to its immediate predecessor, the Dimensity 9300 processor.

To ensure sustained high performance, the chipset also employs a vapour chamber, a layer of graphite and a conductive thermal gel placed within the dual-layer motherboard to vent heat from critical components.

Other notable key features include Oppo’s AI LinkBoost which combines 20 antennas within the chassis to reduce gaming latency and improve uplink and downlink speeds in weak network conditions while offering additional standby time on paper by about 2-3 hours. The phone also has not one but three WiFi antennas on the top, side and bottom to ensure that it will still get a solid connection regardless of how you hold it.

Our Oppo Find X8 Pro review unit also runs the latest Android 15 overlaid with ColorOS 15 and features five years of OS updates all the way to Android 20 and six years of security updates all the way to 2030 which is a fair length of time though it is hardly the longest duration in the industry. 

Much like many other phones of recent vintage, the phone has Google Gemini, Circle to Search as well as AI Eraser capabilities baked in. The Oppo Find X8 also has an AI Clarity Enhance mode that upscales low resolution images into something sharper, has an AI Unblur mode that helps restore fine details in a photo and an AI Reflection Remover to remove glare and reflections if you’re shooting through a window.

Interestingly, beyond the standard QuickShare across other Android phones, the Oppo Find X8 Pro also has a special Share-to-iOS feature that can share content to an iPhone via WiFi though this also needs the recipient iPhone to have their app installed. Here’s how the Oppo Find X8 Pro looks like on paper:

 

Price	RM,4999
Display	6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED, 1,265 x 2,780 pixels, 120Hz refresh rate, 4,500 nits peak brightness, HDR10+, Dolby Vision
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 9400
OS	Android 15 w/ Color OS 15
Memory	16GB LPDDR5X RAM/ 512GB UFS 4.0
Cameras	50MP F?1.6 w/ PDAF and OIS, 50MP F/2.6 periscope telephoto w/ 3x optical zoom, PDAF and OIS, 50MP F/4.3 periscope telephoto w/ 6x optical zoom and dual pixel PDAF and OIS, 50MP F/2.0 ultra wide angle w/ PDAF [rear] / 32MP F/2.4 [front]
Battery	5,910mAh silicon carbon battery w/ 80W Oppo SuperVOOC, 50W AirVOOC wireless charging
Size/Weight	162.3 x 76.7 x 8.24mm / 215g

Another feature of note is that the Oppo Find X8 Pro also has the ability to assign virtual RAM in 4GB increments off the onboard 512GB storage with up to 12GB of virtual RAM available on demand though this can be dialled down to 4GB. If the feature does not appeal, the virtual RAM can be disabled entirely. When subjected to the default 4GB virtual RAM, here’s how our Oppo Find X8 Pro review unit stacks up synthetic benchmarks:

3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	2,426
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	2,425
3D Mark Solar Bay	9,599
3D Mark Solar Bay Unlimited	9,742
3D Mark WIld Life Extreme	6,418
3D Mark WIld Life Extreme Unlimited	6,220
Geekbench 6 Single Core	2,176
Geekbench 6 Multi Core	8,069
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	31,471
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	25,157
Geekbench AI CPU Quantised	2,172
Geekbench AI GPU Quantised	1,061
PC Mark Work Performance	13,981
PC Mark Battery Life	19 hours 51 mins

In terms of overall performance, the MediaTek 9400 processor powering our Oppo Find X8 Pro review sample performed in a stellar fashion with excellent single, multicore and graphics performance across the board that outpaces the prior Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and which can give the Snapdragon 8 Elite a run for its money.

Where the Dimensity 9400 excels is in keeping the heat under control with its cooling solution helping to ensure temperatures were kept within 33°C to 40°C in the looping Steel Nomad Light Stress Test with the best loop score kept at a lofty 2,426 and the worst at 1,506 points while retaining a fair 62.1% stability in tests.

When compared to a testbed design using the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the Dimensity 9400 runs cooler and has a higher best loop score but lower stability in tests though these numbers don’t reflect day to day performance in the field which are smooth befitting its pedigree status as their premier flagship.

In normal usage scenarios, the Oppo Find X8 Pro handles everything asked of it from high-end gaming like Genshin Impact to the usual tasks like web browsing and video editing on CapCut befitting a flagship phone.

The front 6.78-inch LTPO AMOLED display has a 19.8:9 aspect ratio, 2,780 x 1,264 pixel resolution and also has an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate with up to a quoted 1,600 nits in high brightness mode.

In field tests, the display offers great brightness and vibrant colour rendition along with good clarity under daylight conditions though it isn’t the brightest we’ve seen. The 120Hz dynamic refresh rate offers battery life savings as it dials down the refresh rate when viewing static content like an ebook or webpage and ensures visuals look silky smooth.

The provided speakers are pleasantly loud with a good amount of detail which lends it excellent utility for movie watching and gaming duties in tandem with the vibrant display that also has support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision content.

While it remains slim as flagship smartphones go, our Oppo Find X8 Pro packs a substantial 5,910mAh silicon-carbon battery that is denser and with greater capacity too while also featuring 80W SuperVOOC fast charging. This works out to an impressive flagship with all-day endurance that can comfortably last a day and a half of moderate usage with texting, social media and a bit of calls and video watching on the side with light gaming. 

In PCMark’s battery life test, it managed a respectable 19 hours and 51 minutes shy of a full 20 hours which is impressive. With the provided proprietary charger, our Oppo Find X8 Pro was able to get a full charge from dead zero in just past 55 minutes. It also supports wireless charging though the large, bulky rear camera housing makes it somewhat of a challenge as you’ll need to hold the other device sideways to fit.

Oppo Find X8 Pro Review – Cameras

The Oppo Find X8 Pro has a quad camera array of unusual design with equal emphasis on all focal lengths as all of its four cameras have 50MP sensors while two actually integrate periscope cameras, an unusual feat of engineering that requires significant technical prowess to achieve.

The primary 50MP F/1.6 sensor has optical image stabilisation (OIS) as well as its two telephoto cameras, each of which has its own set of periscope lenses but optimised for different zoom distances. One 50MP F/2.6 has 3x optical zoom while the other 50MP F/4.3 camera has a longer 6x optical zoom.

While it is typically added on as an afterthought, the 50MP F/2.0 ultra wide angle camera here has one of the largest ultra wide angle cameras seen in a phone but unfortunately lacks OIS though it does have PDAF.

Combined, this rear quad camera setup is capable of capturing up to 4K@60fps video with up to 18x digital zoom while stills can be captured at up to 120x digital zoom.

The front 32MP camera is also capable of up to 4K@60fps video capture. All cameras also support Dolby Vision HDR video capture which is a feat for an Android phone while also featuring the HyperTone image engine which makes for impressive looking images as it combines up to nine RAW stills into one image for rich detail and superior dynamic range. 

Another feature of note is the inclusion of a Hasselblad Portrait mode which offers six portrait focal lengths – 23mm, 35mm, 48mm, 73mm, 85mm and 135mm for diverse portraiture options.

The phone also has a notable Stage Mode to capture steady, crisp stills at up to 30x zoom even in challenging light conditions while an AI Telescope zoom leverages AI for steady snaps kicks in after 10x and aims to keep shots crisp at up to 60X zoom.

What makes the phone more practical and accessible as a camera is its inclusion of its novel Quick Button on the side. A double tap immediately gets you into the camera interface for quick shots while sliding a finger along its length lets you adjust zoom.

This offers an immensely powerful and versatile toybox of photography options to play with. By and large, our Oppo Find X8 Pro review unit did not disappoint with excellent image results with crisp sharpness, excellent detail, well saturated colours and markedly better dynamic range than much of the competition from the ultrawide angle camera all the way to 6x zoom.

Beyond that, shots are still quite good with the AI Telescope zoom feature which sharpens and salvages images out to 60x. It’s even able to capture 120x zoom shots though results are understandably soft though the fact that a phone can achieve these levels of digital zoom is still an impressive feat. 

In low light scenarios, the rear camera offers equally good results with good dynamic range and great retention of detail from the shadows out to 6x zoom. Beyond that, shots get somewhat soft though they’re still legible enough for social media.

 

While none of the Oppo Find X8 Pro’s cameras are capable of 8K video capture, it’s more than able to get excellent 4K@60fps video which is a more practical resolution in line current TVs in the market and most editing hardware with smooth footage and good detail and colour rendition even in dim light out to 6X zoom. 

The front selfie camera is above par with good skin tones and detail on account of its large 32MP sensor though the rear cameras remain the most attractive aspect of the Find X8 Pro. As it stands, the Oppo Find X8 Pro has an immensely capable set of rear cameras that is more than capable of holding its own amongst other flagship phones in the market.

Should you buy the Oppo Find X8 Pro?

On its own merits, the Oppo Find X8 Pro is an excellent flagship phone for 2024, offering a quality display, superb performance, good battery life and excellent cameras though it falls short of greatness with five years of OS and six years of security updates which are a bit less than the seven years of OS and security updates offered by incumbent leaders in the field.

Even so, the Find X8 Pro still offers great value as it bundles in a free charger and casing in the box along with several unique tweaks the competition haven’t implemented yet like an alert slider and action button as well as the novel Share with iPhone option. If you’re looking for an unorthodox choice for a  flagship phone, this is well worth a look.

Oppo Find X8 Pro review unit courtesy of Oppo Malaysia. For more details please visit https://www.oppo.com/my/smartphones/series-find-x/find-x8-pro/