OPPO Find X3 Pro Review

OPPO has been expanding not just its product portfolio and international partners but also its presence in the global smartphone market. No longer just a brand associated with a Chinese company, OPPO's rise to the world's top five, racing against Huawei and Xiaomi, has not gone unnoticed by discerning consumers and market watchers. That progress didn't come easily as OPPO took calculated risks in developing new technologies and designs. Those risks and investments may have finally paid off with the OPPO Find X3 Pro.

If there's one thing that best describes the Find X3 Pro is that it's an outlier. Its uniqueness is proclaimed many times in the company's marketing material but one only needs to look at the phone to see how different it is. While there is nothing that OPPO can do to undo the damage of large camera bumps and sensors, it seems to have found a way to at least soften the blow and make the most conspicuous part of the phone look a little gentler.

The back of the Find X3 Pro is made from a single piece of glass, including the "mound" that softly rises to accommodate the four cameras. Easier to design than it is to manufacture, the unique design also makes the phone sturdier and tougher as there are no structural compromises speak of.

The dual-tone finish on the Blue option and the Gloss Black color make it stand out even more, guiding your eyes playful around the contours of the rising curves.

The design also plays into the ergonomics of the phone, letting it fit more perfectly into the hand. At only 8.26 mm thick and 193 g light, you'll definitely want to have some confidence when holding such a beauty. That said, this unique design will admittedly be polarizing and jarring, just like anything new that comes across our attention.

OPPO calls the Find X3 Pro its Billion Color Phone and it isn't talking about splashes of colors on its back. It refers to the phone's ability to capture, store, and display images in 10-bit format, resulting in over a billion colors available for your eyes. Admittedly, some of that may be lost on most users but the good news is that it all contributes to an amazingly beautiful screen.

The Find X3 Pro boasts of a 6.7-inch 3216x1440 screen with a peak brightness of 1300 nits, which is plenty bright even outside. The vibrant colors it is capable of displaying not only means that the 10-bit photos you take are shown as they truly are, it also nicely balances with the soft beauty of the phone's rear. Front or back, the Find X3 Pro will always have something interesting to catch your eyes.

That beautiful screen is no fragile snowflake, mind. With a max refresh rate of 120 Hz, it can take any mobile game you want to throw at it and then some. It can even go as slow as 5 Hz to stretch out the already long battery life, something that OPPO's ColorOS 11.2 takes care of in a cinch.

The Find X3 Pro's elegant looks and attractive screen belies all the muscle that hides beneath. That comes via the latest Snapdragon 888 processor, bringing thirteen 5G bands, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, and even Dual SIM 5G support. The 12GB of RAM admittedly sounds modest among high-end smartphones these days but you will still be able to get by with that much.

One important metric of performance for OPPO has always been charging, having been one of the first to break free from the de facto Qualcomm Quick Charge. With its latest 65W SuperVOOC 2.0, we were able to get the dual-cell 4,500 mAh battery from 10% to 60% in just 12 minutes. The phone also supports 30W AirVOOC wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging for compatible accessories like earbuds cases and smartwatches.

Performance, however, isn't just a one-man show and software is equally responsible as hardware for keeping things running smoothly. OPPO has made great strides in making ColorOS 11.2, already based on Android 11, walk closer to the stock Android experience while still providing the features that its users want that Android itself doesn't provide.

From quick launching apps right from the in-screen fingerprint sensor to a Private System to protect your confidential data to sounds that now boast of the talent of famed composer Hans Zimmer, OPPO's ColorOS offers an experience that can be as unique and personal as possible while still remaining undeniably Android.

Part of OPPO's rise to fame in the market can perhaps be attributed to its increasing focus on one of the most important aspects of smartphones, its cameras. The company has been steadily increasing its mobile photography chops and it seems it may have been able to check all the boxes with the Find X3 Pro.

The phone addresses one of the most common yet often unexplained discrepancies in smartphones, where manufacturers put different sensors in the wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle cameras, treating them as distinctly different units. LG tried to address this before and OPPO is taking another stab at it by using the same 50MP Sony IMX766 sensors for both cameras. The result, at least in theory, is that you get the same high-quality photos and videos whichever of the two you use.

In practice, these two cameras definitely work as advertised and you get images with vibrant and accurate colors, no matter how wide the field of view. In addition, the Find X3 Pro finally takes portrait mode photos, a.k.a. bokeh simulation, that are softer and more natural-looking than previous Find X series generations.

That said, it seems that OPPO has decided to skimp out a bit on the 13MP telephoto camera that can only do 5x hybrid, not pure, optical zoom. It's by no means terrible but falls a bit short of what the competition normally boasts of.

The OPPO Find X3 Pro does have one camera feature that has honestly left us both impressed yet also conflicted at the same time. The 3MP microlens (not macro) camera can achieve 60x magnification that really puts the world into a whole new perspective, quite literally too. It can let you zoom in on the natural wonders of the microcosm, at least to some extent, or meticulously inspect cracks on your non-smart wristwatch but, beyond being entertaining, its practical use is probably best left to the judgment of the user.

The OPPO Find X3 Pro is undoubtedly one of if not the best phones we've reviewed from the brand and we have reviewed a lot. It comes close to being perfect, with its elegant design, gorgeous display, impressive cameras, and microlens fun, that we're hard-pressed to actually find a fault.

There will definitely be comparisons to the likes of Samsung, Huawei, and, of course, the iPhone, but, on its own, the Find X3 Pro can definitely stand tall among its rivals.

If there is one fault we can list, it would be its availability, especially in markets where consumers still have to settle for the bigger and more expensive brands. But in markets where OPPO does have a presence, the Find X3 Pro's back for buck value, which includes not one but three cases in the box, will definitely give those brands a run for their money.

The final pricing for OPPO Find X3 Pro will be announced next week, and we will update this review with its availability details.