Oppo Find X quick review: Phone with innovative design and flagship specs
Despite being an innovation-driven field, the smartphone industry quite honestly doesn't see much of it. Apart from a few smartphones, the majority of the devices available in the market do not bring much in the name of features that truly set them apart from the crowd.
What's worse is that for most smartphone makers it doesn't even appear to be a big deal anymore. For them, the key to cracking the code has become imitation rather than innovation. Copying a notch here, bringing across dual cameras from there, so on and so forth.
However, once in a while there is that device which makes you take a step back, and truly appreciate the value of out of the box thinking. The latest one in the list is the Find X, from Chinese smartphone maker, Oppo.
Launched at a price of Rs 59,990, the device announced for the Indian market today will be available for purchase starting August 3. However, for those looking to purchase it through Flipkart, they can pre-order it from the e-commerce website starting July 25.
Though we haven't reviewed the device yet, we did manage to get a decent amount of time with it at the event. Here's our first impression of the Oppo Find X.
All about the design and cameras
Manufactured using sheets of curved glass at the front and back that sandwich the phone's aluminum frame, the Find X has a very minimalistic design that is a treat to look at. The device is available in two colours – Glacier Blue and Bordeaux Red. Oppo has used an interesting pattern at the back which sees the basic colour remain true at the edges and but grow dark in the middle as you change the angle you view the device from.
Though all glass bezel-less fronts have become the new marketing term for smartphones these days, the Find X is one phone that lives up to the description. At the front, the device has a beautiful all-glass design whose curves will remind you very much of the Samsung Galaxy S9. This results in the phone sporting an all display front with very minimal bezel and chin helping it achieve an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 93.8 per cent.
However, unlike Samsung's flagship, what you'll not find is small cutout for the phone's front camera and earpiece – or even an iPhone X style notch. And it is for this that Oppo Find X has widely been described by many in the industry as "futuristic". But, in all reality, it is no such thing. If anything, the device tackles this big design problem in the most basic – yet refreshing – of ways.
The phone uses a motorised slide that holds these essential components and only surfaces when you summon the Oppo Find X's camera for clicking pictures, recognising your face for unlocking the phone or any other task where you'd need the device's optics to kick in.
All cameras of the smartphone are housed on this slide. At the front is a 25-Megapixel, f/2.0 Sony sensor working in tandem with an infrared camera and dot projector capable of using what Oppo calls 3D Structured Light facial recognition technology for mapping a user's face to unlock the device even in low light scenarios.
The process though fast, for obvious reasons, is not as swift as you'd find on competing devices. The motorosied slide takes about a second to slide out which doesn't feel much when you're unlocking the phone for the first time, but we imagine the process to get a little taxing for the user as the charm of the motorised slide wanes off.
The rear of the slide features a 16-Megapixel+ 20-Megapixel f/2.0+f/(F2.2) sensors that in the limited pictures we clicked drew an adequate amount of light to churn out shots with good detail. The camera app provides users with a number of modes to choose from along with AI backed beautification features.
Specs, display and performance
The panel fitted on the device is 6.42-inch 1080p+ OLED display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. In our limited interaction with the device, the OLED panel really impressed with its vibrant yet accurate colour reproduction and good viewing angles.
Under the hood, the Find X brings with it flagship level hardware including a Snapdragon 845 chipset, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The company has also announced a special Lamborghini edition model of the phone with 512GB of storage.
The Find X performed quite well during our hands-on with it. The phone booted up quick and so did the applications which took very little time to fire up. Oppo claims that the machine learning based features built into the company's own Color OS will help the device load apps even faster over time.
But even if such claims do not hold true, the hardware on offer here should make the device one of the fastest in the market.
Keeping the lights on the device is a 3,730 mAh battery with support for VOOC fast charging. Oppo's VOOC fast charging is particularly interesting as it promises two hours of talk time with just 5 minutes of charge.
Looks like a hit, but will it be one?
So can the phone's minimal, clean yet innovative design backed by a gorgeous display and industry-leading specs, make the device a hit? Well, ideally it should. But for those that are still not sold, the aggressive price tag that Oppo has slapped on the device should make this an interesting option.
With its specs, design and the price, the Oppo Find X is really pushing the boundaries of not just innovation, but also market realities. The price point, though seemingly premium is still one that helps it look favourable when compared to the competition it faces.
However, at the end of the day, more than the price, or its innovative design, what will define the success of the Oppo Find X will be how it performs in day to day use. The motorosied slide, though an interesting idea, will have to prove itself against daily wear and tear and that will be the design's, and the phone's biggest test.