Oppo Find X2 Pro review: Finally, an Oppo phone that performs as well as it looks

Oppo Find X2 Pro is the fastest-feeling Android phone we have ever used (Image: Express Newspapers)

It’s been a long time coming, but Oppo Find X2 Pro is finally here. The device is the latest effort from the Shenzhen-based firm to ape Apple and Samsung. And how does Oppo plan to stand out from the crowd? Previous handsets from the Chinese tech giant have been masterfully crafted – the original Find X is certainly the finest example of this thanks to its truly all-screen design that came at a time rival devices were content with notches or hole punches. But although they looked the part, previous Oppo phones have been pretty messy when it comes to software and performance.

However, Oppo has clearly learned a thing or two in the last year or so. The Find X2 Pro doesn’t just rely on the firm’s proven design chops, it also includes a superb software experience and a spec sheet powerful enough to make its closest rivals panic.

The Find X2 Pro is the first phone from Oppo that performs as well as it looks. Safe to say, this phone has set the bar for 2020 flagships going forward. Here’s everything you need to know about it…

Oppo Find X2 Pro review: Design and Display

Where do we start? Oppo Find X2 Pro not only oozes class in its orange vegan leather finish, but the handset also has arguably the best display on a smartphone. Ever.

The Find X2 Pro is the first phone since the original Find X that actually turns heads. Friends and family have actively stopped me from chatting to find out more about it – if that’s not the sign of a truly stunning smartphone design, we don’t know what is.

Oppo gave us the vegan leather version of the Find X2 Pro to review that comes in a bright orange, albeit not quite as flamboyant as McLaren’s signature papaya orange you’ll find on its luxurious sports cars.

Of course, Oppo has gone above and beyond to make the Find X2 Pro look like a luxurious device deserving of its £1,099 price tag. The Chinese firm has coloured the phone’s aluminium chassis gold and has put its branding on a gold accent on the phone’s rear, too.

And then there’s the screen. And boy, is it something special.

Oppo Find X2 Pro review

The Find X2 Pro has arguably the best display on a smartphone. Ever. (Image: Express Newspapers)

The Oppo Find X2 Pro is the best smartphone of 2020 so far

The Oppo Find X2 Pro comes with a 6.7-inch OLED display that not only has a pixel-packed resolution of 1440p, but also a super-smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Best of all, the phone doesn’t force you to choose between a high refresh rate or resolution like Samsung’s more expensive Galaxy S20 Ultra, either. You can have both enabled at once if you want to take full advantage of the best smartphone display around.

There’s so much to love about the Find X2 Pro’s screen. The 120Hz refresh rate and the 240Hz touch sampling rate make navigating across the phone’s user interface feel like butter. If you’ve never used a high refresh rate screen before, you won’t be able to go back to 60Hz after using Oppo’s latest handset.

Better still, the phone has its own vision engine that can be used to increase the frame rate of online videos to 60-frames-per-second. This means everything will look that much smoother when you’re binging on the likes of YouTube.

One of the most underrated aspects of the new display is just how bright it can get. The touchscreen maxes-out at 1,200 nits which means you’ll never struggle to see content when using the phone, even in bright sunlight.

Oppo Find X2 Pro review

Oppo Find X2 Pro only oozes class in its orange vegan leather finish (Image: Express Newspapers)

Our biggest disappointment with Oppo Find X2 Pro’s display is that it doesn’t offer a truly all-screen experience because of its hole punch housing a single 32-megapixel selfie camera. While the cutout itself is tiny and unobtrusive, it doesn’t feel like Oppo has truly pushed the boundaries of smartphone design forward with the Find X2 Pro like it did with the original Find X back in 2018.

The original Find X was something special because it offered Android fans a vision of Oppo’s smartphone future. The Find X2 Pro is an incredible looking device, but it’s certainly more content with conforming to smartphone norms than its predecessor.

We were expecting big things from the Find X2 series with regard to design, and to its credit, Oppo hasn’t really disappointed. But if you were hoping to see something truly futuristic, the Find X2 doesn’t really deliver.

ALTERNATIVES TO THE OPPO FIND X2 PRO:

Oppo Find X2 Pro review: Performance

Simply put, Oppo Find X2 Pro is the fastest-feeling Android phone we have ever used, and that’s not just down to its brawny spec sheet, either.

Sure, the Oppo Find X2 Pro comes fitted with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 865 chipset, 12GB of RAM and 512GB of fast UFS 3.0 storage, but it’s ColorOS 7.1 that really steals the show. Oppo appears to have come to the realisation it needs to up its game when it comes to software to prevent users from slapping a third-party launcher on their device the moment they boot it up for the first time.

And the Chinese tech giant has done exactly that.

ColorOS 7.1 not only gives users a wave of different customisation tools, but it also throws out much of the bloatware that made previous software builds from Oppo a pain to use. From the get-go, you’ll find that Google’s Gboard keyboard is installed and Chrome is the default browser – these are two of the wide-ranging software tweaks made that elevate the entire user experience.

Oppo Find X2 Pro review

The Oppo Find X2 Pro comes with a 6.7-inch, 1440p, 120Hz, OLED display (Image: Express Newspapers)

You can really tell Oppo worked on refining the performance of ColorOS as a whole. The operating system is fast, fluid, and incredibly responsive. All in all, the software reminds us of OnePlus’ OxygenOS, right down to the app drawer that highlights programmes based on which letter you have scrolled down to. That’s certainly no bad thing – OxygenOS is this writer’s favourite Android skin, after all.

Although the Find X2 Pro’s specs all combine to deliver a blisteringly fast smartphone, there’s one in particular we couldn’t help but notice come into its own during our usage. The phone’s 12GB of RAM may sound like a big gimmick, but it’s anything but.

Oppo has introduced a smart sidebar in ColorOS 7.1 that incites multitasking. The tool allows you to quickly pop open windows from a variety of supported apps like WhatsApp that run over other programmes flawlessly. Additionally, Oppo also lets you “lock” apps in the multitasking menu that essentially means they’ll be kept open in the background until you dictate otherwise.

You don’t usually notice a substantial benefit when a smartphone has copious amounts of RAM, but Oppo has done things different with the Find X2 Pro. For once, we’re finally seeing the benefit of having as much RAM as a laptop in your pocket.

Another standout of the Find X2 Pro is its dual-speakers that output extraordinary sound, even at high volumes. The phone supports Dolby Atmos and it really shows – binging films or TV shows on the device is an absolute treat.

The Find X2 Pro has set the standard for smartphone performance in 2020, to the point where we really can’t imagine going back to a phone without a beefy spec sheet and slick software to boot. Oppo has really done an outstanding job here.

Oppo Find X2 Pro review: Camera

Oppo has already proven its photography prowess with the release of the Reno 10x Zoom – one of the first of its kind to come with a periscope-style zoom lens offering 5x optical zoom. The tech firm has upped the ante with the Find X2 Pro, to the point this phone stands toe-to-toe with the likes of the iPhone 11 Pro, Galaxy S20 series and even Google’s mighty Pixel 4.

The Find X2 Pro comes with a trio of sensors on its rear: a 48-megapixel primary, a 48-megapixel ultra wide-angle and a 13-megapixel periscope-style telephoto offering a 5x optical zoom.

Oppo’s newest flagship not only takes exceptional photos with each lens, but the array on offer is supremely diverse. In addition to offering standard, wide-angle and variable zoom ranges, the phone also totes a macro photography mode that can be used to get up to 3cm from a subject while still retaining glorious amounts of detail.

Photos on the Find X2 Pro are defined by a few distinct characteristics: good levels of sharpness, great HDR and slightly saturated colours.

The phone also delivers a great natural bokeh thanks to its larger sensor size. However unlike the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 series that suffer from focus issues if you try and get up close, the Find X2 Pro’s macro mode ensures the whole of your subject is in focus.

Oppo’s night mode is also great. The Find X2 Pro is able to shoot in almost complete darkness and even offers a tripod mode that’ll capture light for even longer if you’re really intent on getting the best picture possible.

Shooting buildings or any other subject that isn’t a person for that matter works a treat. That said, we did notice the phone had the tendency to smooth skin when shooting in very low-light situations.

We don’t quite think the Find X2 Pro has the photo processing wizardry to match the Pixel 4, but it easily trounces Google when it comes to camera diversity.

Video on the Find X2 Pro is also superb, albeit still not quite as good as Apple’s iPhone 11 series in terms of pure quality and colour science. The Chinese handset is able to record in up to 4K at 60-frames-per-second, however, this is exclusive to the phone’s primary lens. That means you can’t seamlessly transition from the phone’s ultra wide-angle to primary to 5x telephoto, which is pretty disappointing. It’s possible this could be amended in a software update, but we wouldn’t hold our breath for that.

But, safe to say, Oppo has put together an extremely capable camera system in the Find X2 Pro and you certainly won’t be disappointed with it when shooting in practically all scenarios.

Oppo Find X2 Pro review

The Find X2 Pro comes with a trio of sensors on its rear (Image: Express Newspapers)

Oppo Find X2 Pro review: Battery

Here’s where things get interesting. The Oppo Find X2 Pro boasts a 6.7-inch 1440p, 120Hz, display that absolutely gorges on the phone’s 4,260mAh battery, to the point where you’ll have to be pretty military with your usage to get through a full day on one charge.

Of course, you can always turn down the resolution or refresh rate of the device and you’ll see a pretty substantial increase in longevity. In our testing, we were easily able to make it through an entire day of usage with the phone set to 60Hz and 1080p.

But if you’re anything like us, you’ll want to use the phone’s display in all its pixel-packed, buttery smooth, glory. And for that, Oppo has the perfect ace in the hole.

The Oppo Find X2 Pro supports 65W wired charging that can refill the phone from empty to 100 percent in just 38 minutes. That easily makes it one of the fastest charging handsets in the world, only really competing with the Oppo Reno Ace at the top of the podium.

But it’s not bringing the phone from dead that really matters. In our testing, we found ourselves refilling the Find X2 Pro in quick bursts – five minutes here, ten minutes there. Because the wired charging is so fast, you really don’t notice the phone can barely make it through an entire day on a single charge with its screen maxed out.

Believe it or not, having such fast charging actually changed how we used the Find X2 Pro. Instead of plugging the phone in every night, we opted to charge the phone every morning while we went through the motions of our daily routine. During that time, the phone would easily amass enough juice to get us through enough of the day before needing a little boost later on.

The biggest omission from the Find X2 Pro is the fact it doesn’t come with support for wireless charging. That’s a real shame, especially as more and more cafés and restaurants build the technology into tables – so you can top-up your handset in a pinch without needing to carry your cables. But hey, with wired charging this fast, we can’t really complain that much.

Oppo Find X2 Pro review

The Oppo Find X2 Pro comes in ceramic black and vegan leather variants (Image: Oppo)

Oppo Find X2 Pro review: Price

The Oppo Find X2 Pro is the Chinese firm’s first truly premium handset in almost two years, and its price reflects the fact. The phone comes in a single model with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage that costs £1,099.

At a glance, that can seem a bit steep. But when you take a closer look you realise Oppo are actually giving you the best smartphone of 2020 so far at a pretty reasonable rate. If you want an iPhone 11 Pro Max with the same amount of storage, you’ll need to hand over an eye-watering £1,499.

Similarly, if you want a maxed-out Galaxy S20 Ultra with 512GB of memory, you’ll be set back £1,399. So if you compare Oppo to the rivals it’s pitting itself against, the Find X2 Pro is actually a bit of a steal.

Of course, the biggest question you’ll need to ask yourself is whether you should commit to an Oppo phone for your next two year contract, or plonk down £1,099 all at once for that matter. If you’re an Android enthusiast that wants the latest and greatest money can buy, then the simple answer is yes.

Oppo may be a relatively new player in Western markets, but it’s been making brilliant phones in its domestic market of China for years now. It might be more of an unknown in Europe, but the Find X2 Pro is a brilliant smartphone that you’d be foolish to ignore.

Oppo Find X2 Pro review

DX (Image: DX)

Oppo Find X2 Pro review: Verdict

  • FOR: Best-in-class display, incredibly diverse camera system, the fastest wired charging you’ve ever used, a design that oozes class and style, the fastest performance on Android
  • AGAINST: Screen can be a real drain on battery life, no wireless charging

The Oppo Find X2 Pro is the best smartphone of 2020 so far and it’s set a very high bar for everything else that follows it.

Oppo isn’t joking around when it says it wants to fiercely compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple in Western markets. The Oppo Find X2 Pro’s best-in-class display, classy design, rapid performance and great camera system are the biggest proof of that.

Simply put, the Find X2 Pro is the first Oppo phone you should actually buy.

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