You don’t have to spend big bucks to get a decent smartphone these days but if you have your sights set on the best possible Android device out there, the Oppo Find X3 Pro is it.
It boasts a superlative display, versatile cameras, and whip-fast performance but it does come with a price to match.
Apple accounted for 43% of smartphones sold in New Zealand in Q4 2020 according to IDC, leaving 57% to the Android players. But Apple’s expensive devices tend to clog the premium end of the market while much of the low and mid-tier priced phones being sold are Android devices.
At $1,899, the Find X3 Pro bullishly bucks this trend with an all-singing slab of a high-end smartphone. If you can afford it and are looking for something other than a model from the iPhone 12 or Samsung Galaxy S21 ranges, look no further.
Oppo is a Chinese manufacturer that recently overtook Huawei as the bestselling phone maker in its home country.
Having officially sold phones in New Zealand over the last couple of years, Oppo means business here too.
No holds barred
The Find X3 Pro has the best display I have ever used on a smartphone, better handling colour and scrolling to my eyes than the $2,199 Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Samsung’s Ultra is also more unwieldy and top-heavy.
The X3 Pro has a bright, bold OLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate that makes animations and scrolling appear twice as smooth as the 60Hz panels of any iPhone to date.
The 6.7in screen is the same size as that of the $2,099 iPhone 12 Pro Max, but the Oppo phone is considerably easier to hold thanks to its slim design and weighs 193g – 35g lighter than the iPhone.
The back of the Find X3 Pro is stunning too, with my ‘gloss black’ review sample more a silver mirror finish, so beware of fingerprints (there’s a decent black case in the box).
But Oppo has gone for a design that moulds the glass back into the camera module, meaning a smooth look where rival products have a stuck-on look to their flashy cameras.
Unusually for a phone, the main and ultrawide angle cameras use the exact same camera sensor, in this case, a 50MP one from Sony. This is great because it means no change in colour science between the lenses – other phones struggle to keep colours between lenses consistent.
The ultrawide lens is as fun as ever, allowing you to capture more of what’s in front of you. If your current phone doesn’t have one, you’re missing out. The front-facing camera is perfectly good for selfies and all those video calls you have to do these days.
Photo colours are abundant thanks to the phone’s 10-bit image and video processing. 10-bit tech means the screen can display one billion colours and Oppo claims this is a smartphone first based on how the phone can take, process, and display images and videos at 10-bit with better dynamic range.
While it may be very cool to carry that level of capability and technology in your pocket, the reality is the human eye can only differentiate colours in the millions, so you literally won’t be able to fully appreciate a billion of them.
With 2x telephoto, ultra-wide, main, and a microscope camera, the Find X3 Pro is a very versatile shooter. The latter camera is an actual microscope, allowing close-up images, unlike any smartphone I’ve ever tested. Check out what my navy coat sleeve looks like under inspection below.
Powerhouse
Luckily when you’re spending this much on a phone there’s no need to worry about performance. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip is the most advanced yet for Android phones and it's incredibly snappy in the Find X3 Pro.
I bounced around apps without any hint of slowdown or lag. This is also down to the generous 12GB RAM and Oppo’s much-improved ColorOS software skin that it layers over Google’s Android 11.
Just three years ago, ColorOS was a jumbled mess trying too hard to look like an iPhone. Today, it’s a slick, performant interpretation of Android that gives the Find X3 Pro a bit of character.
Half the fun of Android is being able to fully customise the look and feel of your phone so that it’s truly yours, and Oppo lets you do it here, with granular control over settings, icon sizes, Wi-Fi options, widgets, dark mode, and basically anything you can think of.
When you stuff so much into a phone, something’s gotta give, and in this case, it’s the battery life. Even though this is a phone that will last you from dusk till dawn, I frequently hit below 20% around 7pm.
This is in stark contrast to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which I pushed just as hard when I reviewed it and it barely ever dipped below 40% by bedtime.
Oppo’s party trick is its superfast charging. With the 65W charger in the box – an accessory no longer included by Apple or Samsung – you can charge the phone from dead to practically full in about half an hour.
It is insanely good and has meant I no longer charge my phone overnight, a positive for battery longevity. A quick plug in while I get ready for work and the phone is back up to 100%.
Oppo also lent me a 30W wireless charger, which math dictates charges at around half the wired pace. You can even set your regular bedtime hours on the phone’s wireless charging settings to charge it in a low power mode that means the internal fan doesn’t run as loud and keep you awake.
I found that switching off 5G noticeably improved battery life, which isn’t ideal when the feature has pushed the price of phones up. I get a 5G signal on Vodafone in the Auckland CBD while jumping between that, 4G, and Wi-Fi takes its toll. Again, this is something I didn’t see affect the iPhone 12 range as much.
Top contender
But to critique the Find X3 Pro beyond these minor battery niggles – it lasts a full day – is to take away the joy of using a great premium phone from a company that isn’t Apple or Samsung.
With Huawei’s lack of Google Play Store damaging its products in the West and Xiaomi only recently entering the Kiwi market, Oppo has a real opportunity to establish itself as a force in New Zealand.
This is a great phone to kick on and achieve that with, and it’s available at Vodafone, Spark, and 2degrees on contract if you don’t want to fork out the asking price.
Oppo is even promising ringtones composed by Hans Zimmer for the phone in a future software update. It’s clearly hoping for a success story worthy of Hollywood.
