Oppo Find X5 Pro Review: Great Cameras Behind A Huge Paywall

Oppo Find X5 Pro
oPPO Find X5 Pro
The OPPO Find X5 Pro is a phone that exudes the very best of the brand. Premium materials, top specs and a promising camera system engineered with Hasselblad. What holds this phone’s potential are limited zoom capabilities and a huge cost of adoption.
Design
9
Display
9
Performance
9
Camera
8
Battery Life
8
Value
5
Good
Premium Materials
Very Fast Charging
Excellent Display
Hasselblad colors in photos are legendary
Amazing XPan mode
Ungood
Inconsistent Selfies
Exorbitant Price tag
So-so selfies
2x Optical Zoom is not flagship
Image sharpness is a hit and miss
8

Out of 10


Specs


CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4nm)
Memory12GB / 256GB
Display6.7’’ 1440P 120Hz LTPO2 AMOLED
Camera50 MP, f/1.7, 25mm (wide), 1/1.56″
13 MP, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto), 2x optical zoom
50 MP, f/2.2, 15mm, 110˚ (ultrawide), AF
32 MP, f/2.4, (wide-selfie)
ConnectivityBluetooth 5.2 ,USB Type-C 3.1,
Wi-Fi 6, Dual nano-sim standby, 5G
OSAndroid 12, OxygenOS 12.1
Battery5000 mAh with 80W fast charging
50W Fast Wireless Charging
Available ColorsCeramic Black, Glaze White
Retail Price12GB/256GB – RM 4,999

Design

  • Extremely Premium Ceramic Finish
  • IP 68 water/dust proof rating

I fell in love when I first laid my eyes on this I’m not going to lie. Having a ceramic housing rather than the standard glass made the Find X5 Pro feel so much more premium, and that is a must here considering its price tag.

We have the Ceramic White color which definitely brings out the ceramic part of it quite well. We know that this shiny finish would definitely attract fingerprints, but it seems alright since going with the white color does make it go slightly unnoticeable, making it incredibly easy to take photos of.

The camera module is unique too, taking a modest piece of the real estate with just enough room to label their Mari SiliconX imaging chip name in the middle. The camera module isn’t some generic protruding box, but more of a sloped out design, much like a flattened hill which makes the design look more seamless.

It’s definitely a completely different step compared to the Find X3 Pro and we’re all for it. It’s just one good looking phone this one.


Display

  • 6.7″ 120Hz QHD+ LTPO2 AMOLED Panel
  • Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protects the screen

The Find X5 Pro turns the knobs all on high when it came to the display. A 120Hz high refresh rate on a 1440P latest-generation panel paves the way for it to be a competitive flagship right now. It’s also qualified for HDR10+ content with a max 800nits brightness so viewing HDR content would be a breeze here.

It’s also one of the most color accurate panels we’ve seen, achieving an average of dE2000 of 1.2 on the Natural Mode profile. If you’re into cinematic level stuff, you can use Pro Mode which will get the phone to render in DCI-P3 colors which we found downright amazing.

Since we’re on the LTPO2 AMOLED panel, refresh rates would dynamically range from 1Hz all the way to 120Hz depending on what you’re doing. From our own use-cases we were able to see and achieve these variable framerates so Oppo did deliver on this promise.

Work & Play

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 gen 1
  • 12GB RAM & 256GB internal storage
  • 5000 mAh dual-cell battery capacity
  • 80W SuperVOOC charging

As a work phone, the Find X5 Pro would be overkill for work level needs. You can pretty much get any piece of work done on this phone, from collaborative office, Zoom calls and media editing. Lightroom was thundering fast, with some heat spots when it came to editing RAW files. Color OS is one of the more refined operating systems to come out of China, and with frequent updates it reflect Oppo’s commitment to catering to the top-shelf payers.

You would expectedly spend a lot of time using this as a camera phone, so heat build up should be a unsurprising outcome. The Find X5 Pro uses a large vapor chamber to dissipate heat, with some copper in-between those sheets to take the heat off the CPU. The heat spot is right next to the camera module, and though it can get toasty when you’re taking lots of videos and photos, it’s not hot enough to warrant a break. I do recommend using the camera for not more than 20 minutes, as it was at that time I noticed the heat being too much for the device to bear and I let it rest for a bit.

For gaming AAA titles like Genshin Impact on the highest settings surprisingly bagged about over 40 median FPS, whereas faster titles like COD Mobile obtained nearly 60 FPS consistently throughout sessions.

Seeing Find X5 Pro perform for gaming was of mainstream level, and you might find it to be a game-able device but it’s not a gaming phone. It does however suffer from high drain so you might want to keep that in mind if you have intent to buy this for full gaming commitment. Regular, non-gaming tasks however run smooth and cool most of the time).

Commendable Endurance With Really Fast Charging

BKK Electronics knows its audience well, and giving a 5000 mAh dual-cell battery was the right thing to do. We managed to get about a full days use with some change on a single charge which is on par with even some of Mediatek’s finest devices, and this includes plenty of camera and video testing. It definitely did a lot better than the OnePlus 10 Pro when it came to a really busy day.

Oppo has always been proud of their charging tech, and it’s for damn sure you’ll be getting their best charging capabilities with their 80W SuperVOOC charge. It promised a half-tank of charge in 12 minutes, but upon testing we were only able to achieve about 40% in the same timeframe. That result must’ve been conducted in ideal environments outside of normal use-cases but it’s okay, the Oppo Find X5 Pro does charge sufficiently fast enough!

A full charge takes about 40 minutes, 10 minutes slower than the Find X3 Pro . This isn’t a dealbreaker, as Oppo this time around focused on battery health over charging speed, promising 1600 charging cycles before needing to get it replaced. As a yard stick, 1600 charge cycles is at least twice the industry’s average, which, if fulfilled, means that you can definitely use the Find X5 Pro for years to come if you’re charging it once a day.


Camera System

  • 50 MP, f/1.7, 25mm (wide), 1/1.56″ (Sony IMX766)
  • 13 MP, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto), 2x optical zoom
  • 50 MP, f/2.2, 15mm, 110˚ (ultrawide), AF
  • 32 MP, f/2.4, (wide-selfie)

The Find X5 Pro uses the same Sony IMX766 sensor from the Find X3 Pro but with some changes, starting with Hasselblad colors and sensor-shift image stabilization. It’s a 5-axis stabilization system, including the lens. At the front of that lens is a glass element which claims to reduce chromatic aberrations 77%.

Today, we’re taking a look on how images turn out from the Oppo Find X5 Pro’s camera system, including the unique XPan mode that Hasselblad had the lead in to develop exclusively for the brand.

Standard Wide Angle

The main camera shoots images that are lively, wide in dynamic range but only a decent level of sharpness. A lot of work went into the Mari SiliconX imaging NPU, which in turn puts in a lot of work into post-processing. A trained eye can definitely see that images shot on Auto will have plenty of sharpening, but I’d like to say it’s just enough to make things look good. It’s definitely catered towards people who don’t prefer to edit their shots after and just upload them straight.

I did find however that in some close shots the focus refuses to lock, like in this image of a flower. The same shot has been attempted twice and I yielded the exact same outcome.

It does however fare a lot better in brighter lighting, as you can see from the plush doll where the shot was crisp, and the bokeh absolutely lovely.

2x zoom

Telephoto quality was good, with a little noise and softness. I can live with that, what I can’t live with is just a 2x of lossless zoom. Perhaps this is focused for wider portraits but competitors are able to promise between 3x-5x zooms at the same price-range.

You will also find more noise in lowlight conditions, and using Night Mode won’t be able to save you, so just use this for daytime / brightly lit shots.

2x zoom

Ultrawide Angle


The Oppo Find X5 Pro has a mighty FINE ultrawide camera, capable of handling complex vegetation mixed with architecture. There’s a nice sharpness to it that blends with a tinge of softness, which in turn was able to nearly individually distinguish leaves and shrubbery. Usually we see ultrawides fail, and get all the greens to clip on top of one another to achieve a whole blotch of green, but not here. You get a complete ultrawide experience that can even rival the likes of Samsung.

Colors compared to the main sensor were relatively similar, but set apart from differing white balances. It’s near consistent, but even an untrained eye would be able to set them apart.



XPan Brings Art To The Table

Yes, the XPan moves from OnePlus to here. Part of the Hasselblad deal anyway. It’s the coolest camera feature of the Find X5 Pro, where it simulates a film camera experience in tribute to the legendary Hasselblad 135 panorama 24 x 72mm film camera. The result is a fullscreen horizontal shot with a length ratio 72:24, something we haven’t quite experienced on any smartphone camera system before.

The image is taken using the 50MP wide-angle camera, with some mild cropping. A shot could take up to 4 seconds, so be sure to only move after the film camera animation is done.

Shots are delightfully sharp, both in color and in monochrome. You’ll definitely have some great Facebook cover photos shot out of this mode. I encourage new adopters to take it to the streets and experiment on some sick perspectives.

Selfies Are Only So-So

Selfies taken from the Find X5 Pro are 32MP in resolution, but they’re simply upscaled to that resolution. That results in loss of detail, but it manages to make up for it in colors and a very satisfying level of dynamic range. The sensor is also wider that usual, so clumping up together with a friend for a selfie would not feel like a chore.

You can also take closer, zoomed-in shots if you’re at it alone.

Portraits are downright impressive, delivering great shots with a very believable bokeh experience. It does struggle with HDR, especially when you’re outside in very sunny conditions, you might find yourself covered in a blanket of over-exposure if you’re not careful.


The Verdict

The Find X5 Pro is a great camera phone that you can use to keep your mirrorless at home. It does however require a skilled hand to fully make use of all available sensors to delivery great images. We’re definitely behind on the Hasselblad colors, the XPan mode, ultrawide sensor and a consistent Color OS, but price really sets it back.

Performance is on par with similar spec-ed competitors, and we particularly liked the screen here.

As good as it is, this feels more like an RM 4299 device than a RM 4999 one. I will not be able to stomach paying this much for just 2x optical zoom and some misses in focus. You’ll definitely need to be a fan of either Hasselblad or Oppo to be in on the price.

It’s a Hasselblad PHONE, not a Hasselblad CAMERA.

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