OPPO Find X camera review: Elevating experience, average photos

At a glance, the OPPO Find X might leave you thinking it doesn’t have cameras, but there is truly more than meets the eye with this design. The handset’s shooters are hidden away, only appearing when needed, thanks to a mechanical elevating system.

Fancy stuff, but it takes more to impress a true photo enthusiast. The photos need to be more elevating than the technology itself. Today we are here to judge whether these hidden cameras can take a good shot or not. I have taken this phone on my daily adventures and am ready to tell you all about its photographic prowess. Stick around to learn all the details!

OPPO Find X camera specs

Rear cameras: 

• 20 MP camera
  • f/2.0 aperture
  • 1/2.8 inch sensor
  • 1.0µm pixel size
• 16 MP camera
  • f/2.0 aperture
  • 1/2.6 inch sensor
  • 1.22µm pixel size
• Dual LED flash
• Optical Image Stabilization
• Phase-detection autofocus
• Video: 4K, 1080p, 720p
• Features: Time-lapse, Slo-mo, Portrait, HDR, Sticker, Panorama, Expert mode, Timer, AI beautification, filters.

Front camera:

• 25 MP camera
  • f/2.0 aperture
• Video: 1080p, 720p.
• Features: Time-lapse, Portrait, Auto-HDR, Sticker, Panorama, Timer, AI beautification, filters.

OPPO Find X camera app

The OPPO Find X camera app is seriously the simplest I have ever used. In fact, it is too simple. On a positive note, this helps with ease of use and intuitiveness, as you get nothing but a simple mode carousel with alternating settings on the top. You will learn the app in a second and navigate through it effortlessly. But you will notice some stuff is missing.

The first issue is the lack of a settings menu, which means you can’t customize the experience much. If there are any grid options, I could not for the life of me find them.

• Ease of use: 9/10
• Intuitiveness: 10/10
• Features: 7/10
• Advanced Settings: 4/10

Score: 7.5/10

Daylight

Most cameras shine in daylight conditions, when the ISO can be brought low and reduce digital noise. Shutter speed can be shortened, which better freezes the image and reduces blur. There are certainly some things to look out for, though.

More light also means stronger shadows, which puts dynamic range to the test. HDR is set to auto by default, and the system seems to be pretty good at identifying when the feature is necessary. Dynamic range does pretty well in the shadows, which hold quite a bit of detail, despite being a bit darker in some areas. In addition, the sky is usually as well exposed as the ground, except in the second image.

Images are well exposed and colors are vibrant, including the blue skies. That is a hard feat to accomplish, given skies are usually much brighter than ground elements. Detail is also abundant, and we like that softening is nearly unnoticeable. OPPO didn’t go crazy with the post-processing, which makes images look more natural, but stand out less.

Score: 8/10

Color

AI saturates hues adequately when it gets the chance, and colors here look vibrant and well-saturated, all without stepping into heavy processing territory. Images two and three are just a tiny bit under-exposed, though.

The camera tends to make colors deeper, but not in an unrealistic manner. This is good news for those of us who prefer to get more natural results.

Score: 7.5/10

Detail

We have been talking about modest post-processing throughout this review, which should forecast good things to come in the detail department. Less softening and editing usually means more detail, and we are quite pleased with what we see coming from the OPPO Find X.

While this phone is no detail virtuoso, it hardly destroys what it captures. Zooming into the animals will reveal good detail in the hair. Likewise, looking into wood will reveal texture even between creases.

Image three has more softening, but that is likely because it was shot in a significantly darker area. Software probably softened the image more to kill the noise. It’s still not as bad as with other phones, though.

Score: 8.5/10

Landscape

Landscape photos take all Photography aspects into account, given that they cover so much ground, light levels, colors, textures, and other aspects in a single frame. Truth is landscape shots seem to be a tossup with the OPPO Find X. When AI could identify it needed to activate HDR, things were fine, but that seems to have happened only half the time.

The first and second images are good, with even exposures across the frame, vibrant colors, and good detail in the shadows. The third and fourth images completely obliterate detail in the shades. Plus they are under-exposed and colors are more muted.

Score: 6.5/10

Portrait mode

Portrait mode simulates the bokeh effect. DSLR cameras often produce this using lenses with a wide aperture and shallow depth of field. Phones can’t do this naturally, so they use multiple lenses to figure out distance between the foreground and background in relation to the subject and artificially add blur behind your subject.

The OPPO Find X portrait mode shows smooth blur, good exposure, and interesting colors. Zoom in and you will find errors in outlining, but they aren’t huge most of the time. You really have to look around to find them most of the time. Which means results might be good enough to the untrained eye.

You can especially see faults in the geese photo. Parts of the tree are out of focus while others aren’t, and the goose in the back has a blurred out head with the body in focus. The other images are better, but they still show outlining issues when you zoom in close enough.

Score: 8/10

HDR

High dynamic range (HDR) is used to more evenly expose a frame with multiple levels of light. Traditionally it accomplishes this by mixing a number of photos taken at different exposure levels. The end result is an image with reduced highlights, increased shadows, and more even lighting.

The OPPO Find X’s HDR is not very intense, but that’s not necessarily bad. Excessive HDR can have hideous effects on images, and we often see it in phone HDR, as it is created artificially. The OPPO Find X keeps things looking natural, with slightly more detail from the shadows and highlights.

For example, we can see good detail under both ferris wheels seats, as well as the area under the tree in image four. Even image three shows average detail in the palm trees, which is a feat considering they are fighting against sunlight.

Score: 8/10

Low-light

Low-light performance can make or break any smartphone camera for a lot of people. This is when sensors and software are really put to the test, and OPPO is trying to rely on Night Mode for the Find X.

You can’t access it manually, but when AI decides it’s time for Night Mode, the camera will ask you to keep the device steady for a few seconds when shooting. The camera is further exposing the frame during this time, in a process similar to HDR, but focused on exposure.

All of these images were captured in a near pitch dark environment. It definitely captures more than a camera without Night Mode would, but we aren’t exactly impressed with the OPPO Find X in this department. Photos look way too softened, and not enough detail is pulled in image three. Not to mention you can’t exactly be holding a phone steady for that long for most shots in real life.

Score: 7/10

Selfie

The OPPO Find X’s selfie camera has a 25MP sensor, which should make many of you social media lovers excited. When not sharing your latest meals, you can take nice selfies.

There’s also a selfie Portrait Mode, and it works much better, as you can see in the first image above. The floor is nicely out of focus and I am nicely outlined.

Colors are well enhanced and exposure seems to be on point. It’s a great selfie camera, and would have gotten a higher score if the HDR was more accurate.

Score: 8/10

Video

A walk in the park isn’t always as peaceful as it may seem. This silly goose tried to attack me multiple times. Exposure, audio, and color are fairly good, but I wish OIS did a better job when in 4K. You can clearly notice the jumping in my steps. It’s not horrible, but many other cameras do much better.

Score: 7/10

Conclusion

OPPO Find X camera review overall score: 7.6/10

The OPPO Find X has an innovative design. Its camera elevating mechanism will definitely get some fun conversations going. However, it is no game-changer when it comes to taking great photos.

This camera phone does everything averagely. The software doesn’t try to compensate with heavy post-processing, which many photo enthusiasts will actually appreciate.

Recent camera reviews: 

• vivo Nex S camera review: Can it really rise above?
• HONOR View 20 camera review: A very high score, and for good reason
• HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro camera review

Overall, the average user will find its level of detail, tastefully enhanced colors, and selfie prowess nice. Those who want more head-turning photos will want something else.