Oppo Find X7 Ultra Review: A Premium Camera Beast in Disguise
Oppo, known for its mid-range and upper mid-range smartphones, seems to be re-emerging as a contender in the premium segment after a brief hiatus. With a renewed focus on both foldable phones and ultra-premium flagship devices, Oppo is clearly looking to challenge established players like Samsung, Google, and even its sister brands OnePlus and Vivo. While the Find X7 Ultra, Oppo’s latest camera-centric flagship, isn’t officially being launched in India anytime soon, its presence in the market serves as an intriguing signal of Oppo’s ambitions. Having spent a couple of weeks with this impressive device, I can confidently say that Oppo’s Find X7 Ultra is a serious contender in the premium segment, showcasing significant advancements since the Find X2 series, particularly in its camera performance.
Oppo Find X7 Ultra Review: Price
Primarily available in China and neighbouring markets, the Find X7 Ultra comes in a 12GB RAM + 256GB storage configuration, which I received for review, and a top-end 16GB RAM + 512GB storage variant. The starting price for the base model is CNY 5,999 (roughly Rs. 70,000), while the higher-end variant is priced at CNY 6,999 (roughly Rs. 80,000). Bear in mind that importing this device into India would come with hefty customs duties.
Oppo Find X7 Ultra Review: Design
The Oppo Find X7 Ultra is a unique device that stands out from the crowd, garnering considerable attention with its distinctive design. It departs from the conventional aesthetic seen in premium smartphones like the Vivo X100 Pro, Google Pixel 8 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Oppo’s choice of a split dual-finish design not only elevates its visual appeal but also contributes to a luxurious feel. Coming in at 221 grams, it’s inherently heavy, which further contributes to its premium aesthetic. Sporting a vegan leather rear panel on the lower half, the phone comes in three striking colourways – Ocean Blue, Sepia Brown, and Tailored Black – all of which are distinctive in their use of unique materials. The Ocean Blue variant, which I had the opportunity to briefly experience, features a nautical theme with a polished white glass panel on the top half, while the brown and black colourways sport a metal panel.
The Tailored Black model boasts a unique double stitch detail running around the bottom half of the circular camera module, converging at the center and extending downwards towards the bottom, with the Oppo logo neatly placed between the stitches. This stitched detail, along with the vegan leather covering, enhances grip and creates a more tactile experience. While the vegan leather covering makes the phone easier to grip, it’s important to note that its long-term durability remains to be seen. The substantial metal camera module features a subtle, textured ring that doesn’t rotate like an aperture/focus ring. The ring also features an orange dot that recalls Hasselblad’s iconic lenses, adding a touch of elegance. The same orange accent is found on the three-stage Alert slider which, in addition to toggling between vibrate and ringer modes, includes a VIP mode that disables cameras, mics, and GPS positioning when activated.
Overall, the Find X7 Ultra’s design is compelling with its blend of charisma and practicality. The smudge-free finish, enhanced grip, and IP68 dust and water resistance make it a well-rounded device, both in aesthetics and functionality.
Oppo Find X7 Ultra Review: Specifications and Software
While the Find X7 Ultra’s feature set may not drastically differ from its predecessor, the Find X6 Pro, it boasts a potent combination of the latest hardware and software, living up to its “Ultra” moniker. It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, supported by up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and up to 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage, delivering a seamless and performance-driven user experience. Oppo has also incorporated a dedicated security chip that handles security-related data like keys, fingerprints, and more locally. The device also offers dual SIM support with dual 5G standby, NFC, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, an IR blaster, and compatibility with standard satellite positioning systems. It comes with a 5,000mAh battery and supports 100W wired and 50W wireless charging for rapid replenishing.
The software experience, however, is somewhat different. As this is a Chinese review unit, it runs on the Chinese version of Oppo’s ColorOS 14, based on Android 14. The phone comes preloaded with tons of Chinese apps, most of which are easily uninstalled. One unusual feature is that, unlike the Indian version of ColorOS 14, the Chinese version allows uninstalling virtually all native apps, leaving only the Dialer, SMS, Camera, Gallery, and Settings apps – a bold departure from the usual software landscape in Chinese smartphones.
After removing all the unnecessary apps, I was left with a minimalistic software experience, devoid of even the usual Google defaults. This required me to manually install the Google Play Store to access the familiar suite of third-party and Google apps. While this initial experience is refreshing, it comes with some downsides. Google Assistant, despite installing Google Search and Assistant, is not accessible through the lockscreen shortcut or via the power button. The only way to activate it is by tapping on its homescreen icon. Additionally, Google’s auto-fill service for passwords and other data is absent, necessitating the download of a third-party password manager or using Oppo’s native service.
Despite these shortcomings, the software boasts several AI features, although most of the related settings are in Mandarin. One highlight is the generative AI object removal tool in the Gallery app, which functions similarly to the one found on the Google Pixel 8 Pro. While it excels at generating seamless textures for simple edits, it falters with more complex scenarios. Nonetheless, the tool effectively removes objects while offering offline functionality (after downloading a 1GB AndesGPT package), although the offline results aren’t as impressive.
Oppo Find X7 Ultra Review: Performance
The Oppo Find X7 Ultra lives up to expectations for a flagship. It achieved a score of 19,85,279 in AnTuTu and 2,162 and 6,352 in Geekbench’s single and multi-core tests respectively, showcasing its processing prowess. Game performance is exceptional with Call of Duty: Mobile running smoothly at Medium graphics and Ultra frame rate (locked at 120FPS), thanks to the excellent touch sampling. The phone barely heats up even after lengthy gaming sessions. The dual speaker setup delivers impressive volume and immersive audio, adding to the overall multimedia experience.
The 6.82-inch QHD+ AMOLED display boasts accurate colours in Pro Screen colour mode and a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate (LTPO), resulting in incredibly smooth interactions. The display also features a local brightness of 1,600 nits and peak brightness of 4,500 nits, ensuring clear and vibrant visuals even in bright outdoor conditions. The ProXDR display also supports Ultra HDR photos, while Dolby Vision content looks stunningly crisp and vivid. The in-display fingerprint reader is equally responsive and reliable.
Battery life is another area where the Find X7 Ultra excels. It easily lasts a day and a half with heavy usage, exceeding a full day even with intensive camera use. In our video loop battery test, the phone lasted for 26 hours and 36 minutes, an impressive result considering the high-resolution display. Charging is rapid, reaching 50 percent charge in 15 minutes and a full charge in 38 minutes.
Oppo Find X7 Ultra Review: Cameras
The camera setup on the Find X7 Ultra is a standout feature, incorporating the Hasselblad partnership, which goes beyond mere branding. Oppo emphasizes meeting Hasselblad’s exacting standards in colour reproduction. While the Auto mode produces slightly saturated colours, informed by Hasselblad’s aesthetic, the phone offers two additional modes: Auto Master and Pro Master. The Master mode simplifies the fully manual Pro mode by providing user-friendly toggles for adjusting image parameters like saturation, contrast, sharpness, and vignette. The Pro Master mode provides more granular control, similar to the Manual mode, offering adjustments for WB, AF, EV, autofocus, ISO, and more.
The Auto Master mode incorporates presets for sharpening and vignette that, according to Oppo, replicate the output of the Hasselblad’s X2D 100C camera. While both the Auto and (Auto) Master modes produce pleasant colours and sharpness, I found the Auto mode provides a more accurate representation of the scene, offering more natural colours. The Auto Master mode, while adding drama with its contrast, tends to slightly desaturate the colours. These images work exceptionally well for Instagram uploads, requiring minimal editing.
The camera system focuses on delivering rock-solid imaging between 0.6X and 6X zoom with impressive clarity at all stops in between. It produces excellent quality photos up to 10X zoom. While there’s a slight dip in resolved detail beyond this point, the camera maintains a good level of quality up to 30X zoom. Images captured at zooms exceeding 30X appear somewhat flat and lack detailed textures. Low-light zoom performance is impressive up to 6X, the maximum optical zoom limit.
The primary camera is a marvel, capturing incredibly detailed images with outstanding colour reproduction and dynamic range across all lighting conditions. Despite the binned resolution of 12 megapixels, the camera’s excellent image sharpening provides ample detail for pixel peeping.
The 3X and 6X telephoto cameras perform exceptionally well at their native focal lengths. They deliver detailed, well-balanced images with sharp details and instantaneous autofocus, even in low-light conditions, provided the subject is relatively steady. Their periscope design also allows for shooting close-ups that capture abundant detail when needed. It’s worth noting that there’s a persistent auto-switching to 3X zoom when using the 6X camera in low-light, leading to a drop in quality. Edge detection in Portrait mode is commendable, although not flawless, but comparable to competitors. Selfies capture good details in all lighting conditions, with decent edge detection when captured in Portrait mode.
The 0.6X ultra-wide camera performs well, producing detailed images with solid textures, though limited dynamic range results in less detail in shadows. The ultra-wide camera also features autofocus, allowing for excellent macro shots.
While the camera performance is top-notch, the video recording is equally impressive. Cinematic mode still requires improvement with edge detection, but the phone can capture 4K 60fps video from all four cameras. Colour consistency across all cameras is exceptionally good, but the ultra-wide camera exhibits a slight dip in dynamic range. Overall, the video recording capabilities are remarkable, rivaling the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but there is still room for improvement, particularly while panning. Nonetheless, the video footage captured on the Find X7 Ultra is one of the best I’ve encountered on an Android smartphone, making it a leader in this domain.
Oppo Find X7 Ultra Review: Verdict
Oppo’s decision to incorporate two periscope telephoto cameras certainly pays off, making the Find X7 Ultra a compelling upgrade even for owners of the Vivo X100 Pro or Google Pixel 8 Pro, who are seeking a taste of the “Ultra” club. While I haven’t had the opportunity to compare its image quality directly, the Find X7 Ultra excels in comparison to its competitors.
It boasts a distinctive and premium design, setting it apart from the glass-clad flagships from rivals. The cameras are exceptional, delivering top-tier performance. It also offers blazing-fast wired and wireless charging, outracing Samsung and Pixel flagships. The software experience, even on our Chinese unit, is quite solid, with familiar app placement. However, the lack of regular Google integrations (like Hey Google and the auto-fill service), prevalent in most Android devices today, may be a drawback for some users. Battery life, while not quite matching the OnePlus 12 or the Vivo X100 Pro, comes incredibly close.
Despite its impressive capabilities, Oppo has chosen to hold back the Find X7 Ultra from the Indian market for this year. While purchasing a premium sub-Rs. 90,000 device from Oppo could be considered a gamble for some, the exceptional camera performance, as evidenced by the images included in the review, speaks volumes about its quality.
