Oppo Find X2 Pro Review

This content has not been updated since March 2020. For more recent tech advice for your business, check out this roundup of 2021's best mobile phones. 

Oppo isn’t the biggest name in the phone world. However, it is one of the fastest-growing brands in the industry, and has been expanding rapidly since its 2004 launch in China. Oppo phones are now on sale everywhere from Shanghai to Switzerland, but sadly, the brand hasn’t yet expanded to the US.

The Find X2 Pro is the follow-up to 2018’s Oppo Find X, the first phone to feature a pop-up motorized selfie camera. However, while that phone was considered a bit gimmicky, the Find X2 Pro is deadly serious.

The Find X2 Pro has a killer spec sheet, including a 5G-enabled Snapdragon 865 chipset, 512GB of internal storage, and a 48Mp 5x optical zoom telescoping rear camera. Everything you’d want in a flagship phone is here, but it isn’t quite perfect, and there are some quirks that Oppo needs to iron out – quite literally, in the case of the rear camera bump.

We should also note at this point that the review sample we received, along with most other media outlets, isn’t quite the finished article. Oppo told us that our sample “is a premature release, and although it is intended to reflect the final device, both the device and the software may differ from the final devices.” Still, at this stage, we shouldn’t see too much change to the hardware, though there might be a bit more variation with the software.

In this review:

• Oppo Find X2 Pro screen and design – An exceptional screen and classy design
• Oppo Find X2 Pro performance – Brilliant battery life and speedy performance
• Oppo Find X2 Pro cameras – The Find X2 Pro has some of the best on the market
• Oppo Find X2 Pro ease of use – The phone might be too large for some but ColorOS 7 is an improved Android skin
• Oppo Find X2 Pro price – At over $1,300, it is a very expensive phone
• Oppo Find X2 Pro review verdict – A fantastic, if pricey phone

Oppo Find X2 Pro Screen and Design

Let’s start with the screen. The Find X2 Pro’s 6.7-inch display is a delight. With a 1440×3168 resolution, it’s incredibly sharp – perhaps not quite as crisp as the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus’ display, but there’s not a lot in it.

The colors on screen are sharp and bright, and have excellent contrast. Plus, Oppo’s Nature Tone Display feature – which automatically adjusts the screen color temperature based on ambient light – is brilliant. It really helps to take some of the strain off your eyes when you’re in a bright environment.

The Find X2 Pro’s screen also has a 120Hz refresh rate, like the most recent Samsung Galaxy S-line of phones, and it is nothing short of remarkable. If you haven’t used a phone with a 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rate before, it can be difficult to envisage the benefits of a screen that flickers faster, but the faster refresh rate makes every interaction with your phone better. There’s less screen-tearing when you scroll through social media, for example. The games you play and videos you watch will appear silky smooth – sometimes we’ve found ourselves scrolling up-and-down through the app drawer for the sake of it, the screen is just that smooth.

At the top of the display, you’ll find the Find X2 Pro’s small and unobtrusive punch hole selfie camera. While this might seem like a step back from its predecessors’ motorized slider, we think that it’s a better long term decision. Sure, it’s not as eye-catching, and every company under the sun is making punch holes these days, but there’s less chance of malfunction. When we tried Oppo’s Reno 2 and 10x Zoom, for example, we found that dust and debris would readily make their way under the camera sliders. We experienced no malfunctions, but the fear of one remained ever-present.

Find X2 Pro owners will have a choice of two rear cases: a black ceramic rear panel, or a very orange vegan leather case. We’ve had hands-on time with both and, while the vegan leather case is eye-catching, we’d rather choose the ceramic case. The leather case is slightly lighter than its ceramic counterpart, but we preferred the feel of the latter – perhaps because it was more orthodox. What’s more, the leather case adds 7mm of depth to the phone, making it a seriously chunky device.

Regardless of which rear case you go for, however, you will have to contend with the Find X2 Pro’s enormous camera bump. It’s probably the biggest camera bump we’ve ever seen on a phone and, when you place it down on a flat surface, it makes it feel like a wonky table. It’s not a very premium experience on what is a decidedly premium phone. The situation is made even worse given that Oppo proudly proclaimed that the lesser Oppo Reno 2 had no camera bump when it launched.

Oppo Find X2 Pro Performance

The Find X2 Pro is an incredibly powerful phone. It has the latest, top-of-the-line Snapdragon 865 processor, paired with 12 (yes, 12) GB of RAM. If you’re after a new gaming phone, you’d struggle to do better than the Find X2 Pro – we were able to comfortably run PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile at their highest settings without stuttering or slowdowns.

You also won’t be left wanting for storage for all your games, either. The Find X2 Pro has 512GB of internal storage – that is more than most laptops, and eight times as much as Google’s latest Pixel 4 series of phones.

The Find X2 Pro also has impressive battery life. Its battery is large, at 4,260 mAh, so this shouldn’t be that surprising. However, thanks to that heavyweight processor and faster refresh rate screen, it isn’t quite as long lasting as phones with similarly sized batteries. You can turn the refresh rate down to 60Hz to eke out some extra hours, but we wouldn’t bother. You’ll typically get a day-and-a-half of fairly intermittent use from the Find X2 Pro, but start playing some games and you’ll see that drop pretty quickly.

Oppo Find X2 Pro Cameras

The Find X2 Pro’s cameras are just as impressive as its performance stats. It has three rear cameras: A 48Mp wide angle main lens, a 48Mp ultra wide angle lens, and a 13Mp periscope telephoto lens.

The images these cameras take are packed with detail, thanks to all those megapixels. You’ll be able to pick out individual leaves and strands of grass in photos, while also maintaining a good depth-of-field. We did find that some of the images we took appeared slightly darker than we’d expected, but these can be fixed with some Google Photos effects.

However, the phone’s party piece is its remarkable zooming capabilities. The 13Mp lens will give you up to a 5x optical zoom, with excellent detail retention and minimal shaking. You’ll also be able to get up to a 10x combined optical and digital zoom, which is ok but not brilliant – especially since there’s some smudging between colors. You’ll be able to extend the digital zoom all the way to 60x, which is great for creeping out friends, but not really meant for any practical use.

Video quality from the rear cameras is also impressive. Even when zoomed-in, the pictures are very detailed and color-accurate. While the phone does have optical image stabilization, it’s not quite perfect, but still very impressive.

Images from the 32Mp selfie camera are pretty strong. Again, there’s a good amount of detail in the photos, but they also suffer from the same slightly darker hue as the rear cameras.

Oppo Find X2 Pro Ease of Use

The Find X2 Pro isn’t the easiest of phones to use, but once you get used to the device’s quirks, it’s not so bad.

Our biggest gripe comes with the phone’s setup process. Oppo’s Android skin, ColorOS, requires you to download a separate app, called Clone Phone, to move the data from your old phone to your new one. It’s a bit of a rigamarole, and it shouldn’t be so much of a fuss to set up a new phone.

With that being said, ColorOS 7 is a vast improvement over ColorOS 6. The interface is cleaner, less confusing, and feels closer to stock Android – which, as far as we’re concerned, is a good thing. There is still a fair amount of app duplication, and Oppo’s alternative messages app is quite irritating. For the most part, though, you don’t really notice it.

Our other big gripe with the Find X2 Pro is that it can feel very big in your hand. That shouldn’t really come as a surprise given that the phone has a 6.7-inch screen, and is relatively thick. It isn’t the easiest to use one-handed – reaching the corners, for example, is a real challenge. Itcan also be a bit difficult to find a comfortable position to hold the phone when you’re making a phone call (ask your parents if you’re not familiar) – with a bit of practice, though, you get used to it.

Oppo Find X2 Pro Price and Value for Money

This is where the Find X2 Pro falls down most of all. In Europe, it costs €1,199, which equates to about $1,350. That’s a lot of money.

Admittedly, you do get a lot of phone for that price. What’s more, it’s cheaper than a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G with 128GB of internal storage, let alone 512GB.

Is it worth it, though? It’s very difficult for any phone to be truly worth over $1,000, especially when there are excellent phones for less than half the price, such as the Google Pixel 3a XL.

Of course, there’s also the issue of the phone’s availability around the world. If we were in Europe, and needed a top-of-the-line phone with no consideration for cash, we’d be very taken by the Find X2 Pro. If we were in the US and wouldn’t receive access to warranties, and might have to pay a premium to import the phone, we wouldn’t bother.

Oppo Find X2 Pro Review Verdict

The Find X2 Pro is a fantastic phone. It has exceptional performance, brilliant cameras, an attractive design, and impressive battery life. However, it doesn’t offer anything particularly new. It does lots of stuff well, and a lot of stuff better than similar phones, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of genuine innovation.

Still, the Find X2 Pro is excellent. If you can buy the Find X2 Pro in your region – and, more importantly, can afford to buy it – the phone comes highly recommended from us.