Coming down from the 2018 season of Game of Phones, there's been a lot of oohs, aahs and uhhs thrown around in the wake of tech reveals that haven't left much of a collective impression on the minds of consumers.
Sure, we've got a fresh copy (+ paste + paste) of one flagship and a coloured stylus with another - but what's new?
Swept up among the annual tooth and chin battle of tech's heavy hitters, Chinese-owned Oppo dropped the Find X in June and it's now finally available in New Zealand. I took a day or two to run it through its paces.
Charging
Packing a 3720 mAh battery that easily lasts an entire day and then some, Oppo's new SuperVOOC technology is marketed to tote Ferrari-fast levels of charging that can take the phone from 0 - 100 percent in 35 minutes. What's more is that it actually delivers, with my five charges (I purposefully drained it, took bl**dy ages) averaging a reasonable 36 minutes each.
Display
While shrinking bezels aren't exactly a new concept, the Find X takes it a step further with a mammoth phone to screen ratio of 93.8 percent, which when combined with Gorilla Glass front and back faces, makes it look huge.
Camera
The apex of the Find X is by far its camera design. In a bid to move away from the solid state candy bar look we’ve seen for nearly a decade (and retain its level of aesthetic), you won’t find any camera lenses or chins on either side of the phone. Instead, the top of the device mechanically rises and falls to reveal a dual lens set up on the back (16MP / 20MP) and a 25MP selfie camera on the front.
Packing the usual slow-mo (1080p, 240fps), time-lapse and video modes (4K, 30fps), the Find X also rocks its own portrait and beauty modes that despite not offering the same amount of aperture control seen on some of its competitors, still does a good job at ironing out my 24 year-old wrinkles.
While a neat little novelty you cant help but get a nostalgic kick out of, the camera does also feel like it could be the Find X's weakest structural point. Oppo rate it for 300,000+ actuations, which would last the average user around nine full years but I couldn’t shake the thought that the lack of moisture/dust protection could potentially leave me with a lens-less brick if I wasn't careful.
Bits and pieces
Under the hood the Find X is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, packs 8GB of ram and houses a whopping 256GB of internal storage.
Headphone users will also be disappointed to not find a headphone jack, though the phone does come with a USB to 3.5mm dongle.
Is the Oppo Find X different? Yes. Is it perfect? No, but no phone is ever going to be.
For NZ$1500 and delivering on specs that would otherwise cost $1000 more, there's a lot that can be forgiven.
Even though it may not be enough to get Oppo up to fruit status, it's certainly put them on the map as a serious contender.
Newshub
