The Oppo Find X has been revealed and it provides a unique all-screen design without the compromise of an iPhone X like notch. It seems that 2018 has been a year of the notch as almost all of the manufacturers are trying to move to a future of smartphones with all-screen design. However, almost all of them, including Apple, have not been able to achieve this dream as the front facing selfie camera and other sensors are difficult hide. We have already seen Vivo Nex with a pop up selfie camera but it ended up looking awkward and nothing like the future. With the introduction of the Oppo Find X, the wait is finally over!
The Oppo Find X is way different than other smartphones available on the market. It comes with a brand new design which Oppo claims to be a fusion of Technology and Art.
The Design
The Find X has a very unique and unified design with no holes visible on the screen and thanks to a screen to body ratio that no other phone has achieved. To solve the notch issue, Oppo has found somewhere else to place the selfie camera. The approach was to implement an innovative motorized pop-up mechanism, not just a tiny camera module but the entire top of the phone which slides out to reveal the stealth 3D cameras. This entire section houses the selfie camera and sensors (dot projector, infrared) upfront and also includes the dual cameras on the back. It is clear that very thoughtful design went into the design of the Find X as the motorized pop-up mechanism integrates the entire camera module inside the phone. The phone doesn’t include a fingerprint sensor. Instead, the Oppo Find X uses face recognition technology to unlock the phone, which means that the camera module has to pop up every time you want to unlock the device. You might think that it will take a long time to unlock the device this way but in our testing it felt fairly quick as the camera was able to unlock the device within 0.5 sec of pressing the button.
The power/lock button is on the right side and volume buttons are on the left. Both buttons are very easy to use and I have always preferred to have the buttons arranged this way. At the bottom of the device, there is a speaker grill, USB C port, and SIM card tray. There is no headphone jack with this phone. With the camera module hidden away, the phone looks just like a Samsung Galaxy S9 with curved display on both sides and almost no bezels on the top and bottom. The earpiece speaker is hidden away at the top of the screen, instead of using an under glass solution. The Phone still has a very small bottom chin. The bezel-less screen is being marketed by Oppo as “Panoramic Arc Screen”. As a result, the Oppo Find X has a screen-to-body ratio of 93.8%, which beats all of the competitors. The phone’s back is also curved glass with glossy design that provides a gradient color design. The phone does look very futuristic and premium with the the way it fades the color.
The Display
The “Panoramic Arc Screen” is AMOLED with 2320 x 1080 px resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio, which gives a 401 pixel per inch screen density. The 6.42 inch display is very vibrant with colors that are slightly saturated, which results in a very eye-catching display. The display covers almost entire front of the device with 93.8% screen to body ratio.
The Camera
The selfie camera module integrates a 25 MP front camera with a bunch of camera tech including 3D beautifying mode that uses a smart face scanning technology to analyse facial features and 3D beautify your face. The same technology is used in the face unlock feature and Oppo’s version of Apple’s enomoji but it is called 3D Omoji, which let’s you export cartoon avatars as videos or gif images. The phone also has 2 rear cameras with 16 MP and 20 MP sensors as part of the same camera sensor that houses the front camera. The dual-lens camera module has Optical Image Stabilization that can produce excellent depth-of-field effects. All three cameras have an aperture of f/2.0 and low light performance is not as great as Samsung Galaxy S9.
The one great thing about the motorized camera module is that it is hidden so you don’t need to worry about someone spying on you as the phone is physically hidden away inside the top portion of the phone. Oppo Find X uses 3D structured light face detection technology to unlock the device using 15000 facial dot recognition and intelligent analysis. Oppo claims that “3D Face Recognition is 20 times safer than fingerprint recognition for unlocking the phone”. During our testing, we found that face unlocking was quite reliable but the security of this technology still not clear.
The Software
The Oppo Find X runs Android 8.1 Oreo with Color OS 5.1 skin, which has been redesigned for the Panoramic Arc Screen to achieve a more user-friendly interface and interaction. The software is a hybrid version of Apple’s iOS and Samsung’s Touchwiz. This is where it might turn off users that prefer the look of stock Android. Oppo has done a great job with the phone’s design but they now have to move away from the sigma of copying competitors like Apple and Samsung. The replacement of the color OS would definitely help Oppo establish a unique position in the smartphone industry but we have a feeling that color OS is here to stay.
The Performance
The Oppo Find X is powered by top of the line Snapdragon 845 processor, which keeps it running smoothly without any issues. The super fast processor is paired with Adreno 630 graphics chip. The Find X has 8 GB of RAM and up to 256 GB of storage. The battery is non-removable with 3730 mAh capacity that supports VOOC Flash Charge, which will fully charge the phone in 35 minutes. For a full details, check out the Technical Specification table below.
The Reliability
As this phone doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor, the camera module will be heavily used every time you unlock the device, take a selfie/picture using the front/rear cameras. When there are motorized moving parts in the phone, you have to think about the reliability of such a design. The motorized parts have tendency to break over prolonged use. There is also no waterproofing as a result of the motorized camera module. The other issue that will plague the Find X is sand and dirt because it might get inside the moving parts cause it to break. Oppo says that they have done testing on the motorized module and it is expected to last for five years with durability tests that lasted 300,000+ times.
Pricing and Availability
The Oppo Find X will be available starting from August 2018 in Europe (including Spain, France, Netherland, and Italy). Oppo Find X will be available for €999 Euros or $1,155. Oppo has shown intention of releasing the smartphone in North America but there are no details available for pricing and availability. The details around UK release dates are also not known at this time. The Oppo Find X will be available in two gradient color combinations including Bordeaux Red or Glacier Blue.
In addition, Lamborghini is partnering up with Oppo to make a luxurious device that will be marked as the Lamborghini Oppo Find X and it is expected to cost €1699 or $1965.
Technical Specifications
| Features | Oppo Find X |
|---|---|
| Screen Size | 6.42" AMOLED |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2340 px (~401 ppi) |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 845 |
| CPU | Octa-core 4x2.8 GHz & 4x1.7 GHz |
| GPU | Adreno 630 |
| Memory | 256 GB, 8 GB RAM |
| Storage Option | No |
| Battery | Non-removable Li-Po 3730 mAh |
| Rear Camera | 16 MP (f/2.0, OIS) 20 MP (f/2.0), PDAF |
| Video Recording | 2160p@30fps, 1080p@240fps, 720p@480fps |
| Front Camera | 8 MP (f/2.0) |
| Dimentions | 156.7 x 74.2 x 9.4 mm |
| Weight | 186 g |
| Security | No |
| Wireless Charging | No |
| Waterproof | No |
| 3.5mm jack | No |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | No |
| USB | 2.0, Type-C 1.0 |
| Cost | $1150 |
Source: Oppo
I am officially a tech addict and enjoy providing my views on matters related to this industry. I am always interested in trying out new tech gadgets and I have owned multiple smartphones including the legendary HTC One, SGS2, Nexus 4, iPhone 4, 5S, 6S, XR, Note 9. You can ask me any tech related questions in the comment section or on twitter @hookedNav