Oppo Find X2 Pro REVIEW

In the beginning, Oppo said ‘Let there be light!’ and it unleashed the Find X2 and X2 Light smartphones on a world seemingly hungry for shiny new things to play with. But there’s more! Now Oppo has squeezed out a flashy premium version of the phone called (no kidding) the Find X2 Pro.

A more muscled-up version of its near-relatives, the Find X2 Pro only really has one drawback: it’s price. At a shade under $2000, the phone might give many who have long thought of Oppo as a budget player pause for thought. Regardless, more competition for the other premium machines has to be a good thing!

Size-wise, the Find X2 Pro is no shrinking violet. At 165.2 x 74.4 x 8.8mm, it’s both long and thin. Thankfully, it is also pocketable. The Find X2 Pro comes in several finishes including a faux leather back and ceramic back (the version I tested). The ceramic version of the phone has a black rear, whereas the faux leather model has an orange back and gold trim. It looks great and is comfy to hold.

Around the back, there’s a small camera bump. Along its right-hand side are volume controls and a power button. There’s also a USB-C port on its bottom. About the only thing missing is a 3.5mm headphone jack, but that’s part of the par with most flagship phones nowadays.

A smart design decision was to place the volume and power buttons low down on its side, which means those with smaller hands will still find it useable.

“The Find X2 Pro comes in several finishes including a faux leather back and ceramic back”

The most noticeable thing when powering up the Find X2 Pro for the first time is its display. It’s not only big but also sports a crispy resolution along with fast refresh rates. This results in super-smooth scrolling and gameplay and adds up to one of the better smartphone screen experiences around.

Specs-wise, the display is 6.78-inches and sports a 3168 x 1440 UltraHD resolution. It displays 10-bit colour and has a 120Hz refresh rate which keeps everything silky smooth. It is also able to crank out 800 nits of brightness, so everything is readable outdoors.

That’s just the beginning. Oppo has also baked in what they called the “O1 Ultra Vision Engine” chipset. It automatically tweaks video to 120fps (to match the screen refresh rate) when it detects streaming video. Equally useful, colour and brightness levels get tweaked in real-time based on ambient lighting conditions. If you’re into streaming video or gaming on your phone, the X2 Pro’s screen is bound to impress.

Under the hood, there’s plenty to give the Find X2 Pro its premium chops. The CPU and chipset are the latest Snapdragon 865, which packs more grunt than a piggery. It has been paired with a generous 12GB RAM which makes multitasking and running demanding apps lag-free. All this processing oomph has been paired with a 5G modem. While a growing number of phones now come with 5G, going with a 5G flagship adds in a measure of futureproofing.

On the software front, you’ll find Android 10 and Oppo’s ColorOS launcher. Oppo has come a long way from the early days when they aped the iPhone. As a UI, ColorOS is intuitive, attractive and customisable. The other positive is a lack of bloatware, which is something that other phone makers should emulate.

The X2 Pro has dual stereo speakers. One channel is on the bottom of the phone and the other atop of its screen. The audio won’t blow your mind, but it offers a convincing stereo sound field.

On the camera front, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Find X2 Pro had a weaker camera offering than Samsung or Apple. Still, the reality is that the shooters are quite capable.

The rear primary shooter only packs a 48MP f/1.7 image sensor, which might sound paltry, but the devil is in the detail. The sensor is a Sony IMX689. It is physically the largest 48 MP sensor available. The upside of this is that the individual sensor elements have more surface area, which means it can capture more light, accurate colour and detail. Because of this, photos shot in optimal daylight conditions impressed. Night photos are also good, although Huawei’s P30 Pro still has a slight edge.

The second shooter sports a 13MP f/3.0 periscope telephoto zoom configuration. It can provide 5x optical, 10x hybrid and 60x digital zoom. In practice, zoomed photos were not as noisy or as pixelated as on competing phones.  Hybrid zoom photos from the Find X2 looked decent.

“This means it can capture more light, accurate colour and detail”

The third snapper also impressed. It has a 48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide sensor, which is a step up compared to what is typically used by competitors for ultra-wide shooters. Ultra-wide photos had almost no noticeable edge distortion. I struggled to tell the difference between an ultra-wide-angle shot and a snap from the primary camera.

The X2 Pro also supports 4K, at 30fps or 60fps video. While there’s no 8K support, so few of us have 8K capable TVs that this isn’t a showstopper. Video quality is excellent. It is helped along by industrial-strength image stabilisation.

There’s also a 32MP f/2.4 camera around the front with plenty of resolution, and Its selfies were both bright and vivid. That said, Portrait mode image processing over-saturated things a tad too much.

While the Find X2 Pro has a massive 4,260mAh battery, its 120hz screen puts a dent in battery life. I found that with light use, I got a day’s battery life. More substantial use saw it needing a charger by the evening. This isn’t an issue; the charging is astonishing. The 65W VOOC charging system can take the Find X2 Pro from flat to 75 percent charged in just 40 minutes.

While the ultra-super-fast VOOC charging is perhaps the best around now, there is no wireless charging, which strikes me as odd given the fact that most flagships offer this. While wireless charging isn’t quick or efficient, it is convenient and is a gap in the X2 Pro’s otherwise impeccable specs.

If you’re looking for a flagship phone with a stunning display, capable camera and elegant design, the Find X2 Pro is a solid choice. For anyone who watches streamed media, plays games or scrolls through a lot of social media, the Find X2 Pro’s display and excellent specs make it a worthwhile investment.