Having launched the stunning Find X with its retractable selfie camera back in 2018, OPPO took a while to launch a successor and instead concentrated its efforts on phones such as the Reno 10x Zoom Edition and the Reno 2Z. After being delayed by the cancellation of MWC 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, OPPO held an online launch event on March 6th to announce its Find X2 and Find X2 Pro flagship smartphones. And let me tell you, it was worth the wait. Long story short, we like it, we like it a lot.
Complete with a vibrant QHD+ AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate, a ton of RAM and built-in storage, insanely quick charging, and a set of rear cameras fit to challenge the big boys, the Find X2 Pro is a sign that OPPO has become a smartphone brand to take seriously. In the void caused by Huawei's ongoing difficulty in staying relevant in the western market, OPPO is showing that it is ready to step into the breach and take up the mantle.
Join us after the break to read the rest of our OPPO Find X2 Pro review.
Design
Our review unit has the Orange Vegan Leather finish on the rear panel that enables the OPPO Find X2 Pro to stand out from the crowd of shiny glass panels seen on other handsets. The ‘Vegan Leather' is tactile to the touch, warm, and grippy, unlike phones such as Huawei's P30 Pro. You can confidently put the Find X2 Pro on a flat surface with every expectation that it will stay there until you need it again. Despite initial misgivings about the orange ‘Vegan Leather' finish, it definitely grew on me as time wore on and is much, much more comfortable to the touch than the usual hard-glass finish. Reminiscent of LG's G4 from yesteryear, the Vegan Leather brings a touch of personality to the current crop of shiny glass phones.
The camera housing sits on the top left side of the rear panel, with a gold OPPO badge present on the lower left. The gold badge is unusual, and likely a polarizing feature for some but I quite like it, despite not being a particular fan of gold myself.
A particularly neat touch is the green inlay on the power button that sits on the right-hand side of the phone while the individual volume buttons are located on the left edge.
The curved edges of the AMOLED display meet the gold metal frame seamlessly, with the top and bottom edges sporting a neat dimple that houses the charging port, speaker, and SIM tray.
Hardware
| OPPO Find X2 Pro | |
|---|---|
| Announced | March 6, 2020 |
| Released | May, 2020 |
| Software | Android 10, ColorOS 7.1 |
| Display | 6.7-Inch AMOLED, QHD+ resolution (3168 x 1440), 120Hz Refresh Rate, O1 Ultra Vision Engine, HDR10+, Touch Sampling rate upto 240Hz, 513ppi, Gorilla Glass 6 |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Octa-core, 64-bit, Adreno 650 GPU, X55 5G Modem |
| Memory | 12GB RAM, LPDDR5 |
| Storage | 512GB, UFS 3.0 |
| MicroSD Support | No |
| Rear Cameras | Rear: Ultra Vision Camera System 48MP Wide Angle Camera Sony IMX689 sensor, 1/1.4" sensor size, f/1.7 aperture, 7P lens, All Pixel Omni-Directional PDAF, Dual Native ISO, 12-bit True Capture, Ultra Night Mode 3.0, Live HDR Video 48MP Ultra Wide Angle Camera Sony IMX586 sensor, 1/2" sensor size, f/2.2 aperture, 6P lens, 120° field of view, 3cm ultra macro shooting, Ultra Night Mode 3.0, Ultra Steady Video Pro 13MP Periscope Telephoto Lens, 10X Hybrid Zoom, F/3.0 aperture, 5P lens, second-generation 10x hybrid zoom, up to 60x digital zoom, Ultra Night Mode 3.0 |
| Front Camera | 32MP Selfie Camera (IMX616), F/2.4 aperture, 5P lens, AI beautification, intelligent fill light mode, support night mode |
| Security | In-Display Fingerprint Sensor |
| IP Rating | IP68 |
| Audio | Dual Stereo Speakers, Dolby Atmos |
| Audio Jack | No |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.1, WLAN: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, WiFi 6, 2x2 MIMO, OTG, |
| Battery | 4,260mAh (2 x 2130mAh) |
| Charging | SuperVOOC 2.0 Flash Charge, 65W Charging |
| Wireless Charging | No |
| Dual SIM | Nano-SIM/Nano-USIM |
| Network | 5G (NSA): n1/n3/n5/n7/n28A/n40/n41/ n77/n78/n79 5G (SA): n41/n78/n79 GSM: 850/900/1800/1900MHz WCDMA: B1/B2/B4/B5/B6/B8/B19 FDD-LTE: B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/B12/B13/ B17/B18/B19/B 20/B25/B26/B28/B29/B32/B66 TD-LTE: B34/B38/B39/B40/B41/B42 |
| GPS | A-GPS, Baidou, GLONASS, Galileo |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.1, NFC, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, WiFi 6, OTG |
| Dimensions | 165.2 x 74.4 x 8.8mm (Ceramic)/ 9.5mm (Vegan Leather) |
| Weight | 207g (Ceramic)/ 200g (Vegan Leather) |
| Colors | Black (Ceramic), Orange (Vegan Leather) |
| Price | €1199/£1099 |
Performance
Unlike Samsung's Galaxy S20 range, you can decide whether to run the display in 120Hz or 60Hz modes at QHD+ and FHD+ resolutions, and the 01 Ultra Vision Engine upscales supported content to 60fps as well as widening the color gamut. Gaming is an extremely enjoyable experience thanks to the combination of the display's 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate that enables more accurate touches, which is useful on fast-paced games like Call of Duty Mobile where a split second could make a difference.
Featuring the Snapdragon 865 processor and 12GB of RAM, the OPPO Find X2 Pro positively screams through every task with power to spare. Multi-tasking is a dream and the 512GB of built-in storage removes any anxiety you might have about downloading or storing content to the device. We've included the results from benchmarking apps such as Antutu, 3D Mark, and GeekBench 5 for those interested.
The haptic motor is much improved over the Reno 10x Zoom Edition and feels remarkably smooth, while the in-display fingerprint sensor is accurate and fast, unlike those experienced on Samsung's Galaxy S20 range. Facial Unlock is available, and while the Find X2 Pro doesn't have 3D sensors, the screen does unlock after a split-second or so and proves a handy back-up to the fingerprint reader.
Battery
Let me tell you that the speed at which the OPPO Find X2 Pro recharges its battery is simply ludicrous. Charging the 4,260mAh battery from 0-100% takes just 38 minutes thanks to the 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 Flash Charge technology, making a mockery of the idea that you need to charge your phone overnight. In my everyday usage with the phone as my one-and-only device, sending and receiving messages, checking emails and social media, taking pics of the cat and other interesting things, and even making calls, the Find X2 Pro has averaged around seven hours of screen-on-time with some juice left in the tank.
And just in case you need to eek more life from the battery, you can enable the Intelligent Power Saver option or the most draconian Power Saver feature that pauses background sync, kills apps that run in the background and lowers screen brightness. Oh, and did I say that you can charge the battery from 0-100% in just 38 minutes?
Software
When we reviewed the Reno 10x Zoom Edition in 2019, we came to the Software section with the conclusion that the ColorOS overlay was a bit of a mixed bag with the glaring omission of a dark mode option despite the presence of an AMOLED display and some weird menu placements. Happily, the Find X2 Pro comes with ColorOS 7.1 installed that is based on Android 10, featuring the much-missed dark mode and a whole range of added features and customizability options. Just as importantly, the whole software experience is fast and fluid with nary a glitch, as you might expect from a phone with 12GB RAM and the Snapdragon 865 processor under the hood. Those familiar with OnePlus' OxygenOS software will appreciate the similarities between the two takes on the Android experience.
How many times have we seen comments in the software section of reviews lament about the shape or size of the app icons on the home screen? Well, there's no need to delve into the world of third-party icon packs because you can choose the style of the icon from within ColorOS 7.1. You can make the icons and foregrounds smaller or larger, how rounded or square the icon should be, and there are even a few custom shapes to choose from, as you can see from the image above. It's a neat feature that really makes it easier to make your home screen your own.
You can choose to use and customize the legacy three-button navigation system or gestures, and there is a floating Smart Sidebar that sits on the left or right edge of the display offering access to quick tools such as screenshot and Screen Recorder and apps such as Messages and Calculator. You can, of course, edit the line-up of apps to suit your needs, or you can turn the floating sidebar off altogether.
Always-On-Display is present and you can customize the design to a large extent thanks to the number of Digital and Analog Clock templates included in ColorOS 7.1. Another great feature is the Screen Light Effect that lights up the left, right, and bottom edges of the display when a notification is received, you can set it to show a different color (Neon Purple/Ocean Blue/Amber Orange) depending on whether its a call or lock screen notification.
Overall, ColorOS has come a long way in a short time and version 7.1 shows that OPPO is serious about improving it to meet the needs of the western market, which will hopefully also involve a speedier update schedule.
Camera
When it comes to cameras, Samsung and Huawei have dominated the Android landscape in recent years with phones such as the Galaxy S10+ and the P30 Pro. The Find X2 Pro has the best camera line-up that OPPO has had on a smartphone, and it's able to compete with the big boys.
With its unusual trio of rear cameras that includes the 12-bit IMX689 camera from Sony sporting a huge 1/1.4″ sensor, 48 mega-pixels and a pixel binning feature that produces incredible shots in low-light conditions, the Find X2 Pro is on a different level to anything OPPO has produced before. There is a second 48MP sensor (Sony IMX586) with an ultra-wide-angle lens that doubles up as the Macro camera while the third rear camera has 13-mega-pixels and a periscope lens capable of 5x optical zoom, 10x Hybrid zoom, and 60x digital zoom. Unlike most other smartphone cameras, the Find X2 Pro's cameras feature something called All Pixel Omni-directional PDA that utilizes 100% of the pixels.
The camera app includes shooting modes such as Video, Photo, Portrait on the bottom bar with other options such as Night, Pano, Expert, Time-lapse, Slo-Mo, and Text Scanner hiding in the expanded menu. The AI Dazzle Colour function produces more vibrant colors in images and is easily turned off from the top of the screen in the Camera app, as is the HDR and Filter options. All-in-all, it's an accomplished app that helps the user produce great images without the need to dig around in the camera settings, although there are in-depth options available in Expert Mode for those who like to fiddle. Macro mode produces clear, concise images with tons of detail of the entire subject from as close as 3cm.
We've included a large number of sample pics below but if that isn't quite enough, you can check out even more pictures of Max the cat and other things taken by the OPPO Find X2 Pro in this Google Photos album.
Conclusion
With Huawei's P40 Series being hobbled by the lack of GMS and all that it entails, OPPO is uniquely positioned to eat their lunch fill the void in the European market thanks to a mix of access to Google apps and services and compatibility with mobile payment apps. Of course, when it finally becomes available in May there will be the added competition of the OnePlus 8 Pro to consider.
With the Find X2 Pro's clean design, high-performance, much-improved ColorOS software, a trio of excellent rear cameras, and a simply gorgeous OLED display, it competes with Samsung's Galaxy S20 Ultra in almost every department with the exception of wireless charging.
The lack of wireless charging isn't a dealbreaker per se, but it's something to consider if you are used to the convenience. It is, however, mostly offset by the superior 65W SuperVOOC 2 Flash Charge technology that charges the battery from 0-100% in just 38 minutes.
The AMOLED display with its 120Hz refresh rate and QHD+ resolution is entirely pleasing to the eyes, the vibrancy of the colors and slick performance make viewing content on the device a wholly enjoyable experience.
With oodles of power and performance, a unique design (If you choose the Orange Vegan Leather variant), and camera chops aplenty, the Find X2 Pro is both OPPO's most accomplished phone so far and, in my opinion, the best phone of 2020 so far.
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