OPPO Find X makes smartphones sexy again for 1000 euros

OPPO just announced the OPPO Find X, its first flagship in years. A lot has changed since the OPPO Find 7 (one of the Chinese brand’s last high-end phones), but this new flagship certainly stands out from the pack.

Here’s what its all about.

Read: OPPO Find X: Here’s why OPPO could make smartphones exciting again

Crazy pop-up design

The most eye-catching thing about the OPPO Find X is probably the pop-up section at the top of the device. This section serves up a 25MP selfie camera and 3D facial recognition sensors on the front and hides behind the screen when not in use. According to OPPO, it pops up for selfies and authentication in 0.5 seconds.

The pop-up mechanism also hosts the dual camera setup on the back, with a 20MP sensor at f/2.2 and a 16MP sensor at f/2.0, behind a shaded window that blends with the rest of the back.

The mechanism allowed OPPO to deliver a 6.42-inch 2,340 x 1,080 dual curved AMOLED screen (19.5:9 screen ratio) with a screen-to-body ratio of over 93 percent — all without a notch.

The phone has a glass front and back, and the popup mechanism is made out of aluminum. It’s like a metal sandwich with glass as the bread.

A contender for most powerful phone?

Looking at the core specs, the OPPO Find X makes a strong claim for being one of the most powerful devices of 2018. It’s got a Snapdragon 845 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, all juiced up by a 3,730mAh battery.

We reckon only the ASUS ROG Phone has more impressive internals, featuring a faster Snapdragon 845, 8GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and a 4,000mAh battery.

Shifting to the software department, OPPO is delivering Android 8.1 with its ColorOS 5.1 skin. In a pleasant touch, the company has also confirmed the new phone will receive the Android P developer preview. Another win for Project Treble, it seems.

Read: Full OPPO Find X specifications sheet and features

Cameras get some love

OPPO has taken the dual camera route with the Find X, delivering a 20MP f/2.2 shooter and a 16MP f/2.0 camera on the back. The 16MP camera is your main shooter here, as the company is using the 20MP camera for depth information only. The setup also features HUAWEI-inspired AI-enhanced object/scene detection (OPPO says it can identify over 800 scene combinations) to automatically tweak camera settings based on what you’re looking at.

The inspirations don’t stop at HUAWEI, as OPPO has aped Apple’s portrait mode and portrait lighting options too. These lighting effects range from natural and film lighting to shadowing and “dual color.”

The company says the camera features optical image stabilization (OIS), but it’s unclear whether that’s on both cameras or just one shooter. Given the firm’s prism-based teaser images, we also thought the company’s innovative optical zoom solution would find its way into the Find X. Unfortunately, OPPO’s marketing material says neither camera has optical zoom. What a shame.

What’s missing?

The Find X’s design and power certainly make it seem like one of the most remarkable devices of the year, but looking at any top-flight flagship will show you it lacks quite a few features.

The first big omission is the lack of a fingerprint scanner — nothing on the back, under the screen, or on the side. Instead, OPPO wants you to use its advanced 3D facial recognition solution.

Oppo’s facial recognition setup uses 15,000 dots to map your face, aided by an IR camera, flood illuminator, front-facing camera, proximity sensor and (of course) a dot projector. In fact, the company reckons it should work in low-light environments too.

It’s all well and good bringing advanced facial recognition to the table, but Android doesn’t support this form of biometric authentication yet — payments and third-party apps aren’t supported. Looks like it’ll be back to PINs and passwords for now.

True to many flagships released this year, the OPPO Find X doesn’t have a headphone jack, either. This wouldn’t be as big of a deal if it had water resistance, but unlike HTC, Huawei and several other brands, the Find X has no significant IP rating.

Another notable casualty is microSD support, though the phone comes with generous 128GB and 256GB storage options. Unless you’re going to Antarctica for winter, the base storage should work out fine.

Finally, given OPPO’s work in the area, we expected to see the company’s VOOC Super Flash Charge technology. After all, the firm claims the solution (revealed in 2016) can charge a 2,500mAh battery in 15 minutes. Unfortunately, you’ll have to make do with bog-standard VOOC Flash Charge technology, which OPPO claims charges two hours of talk time in five minutes.

OPPO Find X price and availability

The OPPO Find X will cost 999 euros (~$1,160) in Europe, and will become available from August. A special edition of the device, developed with Lamborghini, will set you back 1699 euros (~$1,970). For that money you get Lamborghini flair, but also 512GB of RAM, a slightly smaller 3,400mAh battery and Super VOOC fast charging (giving you 100 percent juice in 35 minutes).

The phone will be sold in China, North America, Europe and other regions, a sign of OPPO’s growing international ambitions.

Read next: vivo Nex hands-on: Welcome to the all-screen future

What do you think about the OPPO Find X?

OPPO Find X full coverage:

• OPPO Find X full review
• Pop-up cameras: Which does it better, the vivo Nex or OPPO Find X?
• Spec showdown: OPPO Find X vs the competition
• OPPO confirms plans to enter UK market, but will it launch the Find X there?
• Looks like the OPPO Find X isn’t coming to the US
• OPPO Find X teardown: Here’s how OPPO’s periscope design works