Jalen Sigh Tech

Verdict

The Oppo Find X8 Pro is a largely triumphant return to the UK and EU market for Oppo, offering a great all-round flagship with a unique, if slightly minimalistic, design. That’s paired with a great display and a powerful quad-camera system with rarely-seen dual periscope cameras that can capture some impressively detailed shots.

Throw in Dimensity 9400 power, impressively long battery life and 80W fast charging and there’s not a lot to dislike – except maybe its £1049 price tag.

Introduction

After a bit of an absence from the UK and EU markets, Oppo’s flagship smartphone range has returned in the form of the Oppo Find X8 Pro – and there’s a lot to like.

It’s not only a good-looking phone, but it’s capable in most areas, be that photography with its quad-50MP camera setup including not one but two periscope lenses or raw performance using MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity 9400 chipset. It also boasts exceptional battery life thanks to the whopping 5910mAh cell found inside, and with 80W fast charging, it’ll hit the 100% mark in under an hour. 

The only potential issue is the price, starting at a not-insignificant £1049 in the UK (no US release is currently planned). Given Oppo’s absence from the UK market for the past few years, it might struggle to tempt users away from more established premium phones like the iPhone 16 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra at that price – even with a boosted 512GB of storage.

So, is the Oppo Find X8 Pro going to be your next smartphone? Let’s delve in. 

Design

• Minimalistic look with curved edges
• IP68/69 protection
• 40% thinner camera bump

The Oppo Find X8 Pro is the latest step in the evolution of Oppo’s camera-focused flagship, and it represents quite a big change in the overall look and feel compared to the previous-gen Find X7 and Find X7 Ultra.

Gone is the two-tone design of glass and vegan leather, replaced by a more minimalistic rear complete with either a matte, frosted glass finish if you opt for the Space Black variant or an interesting multi-layered textured Pearl White finish – the latter was supplied for review. 

I’m quite a fan of the new finish; its textured pattern is subtle, giving the impression of marble, though I’m fairly certain it’s actually glass. Interestingly, due to the way that the material is manufactured, no two patterns are exactly alike, giving each unit a unique look.  

The large circular Hasselblad-branded camera bump is back, though it doesn’t protrude from the rear nearly as much as the Find X7 Ultra did, measuring in at just over 3mm thick. It’s also completely symmetrical for the first time, with four lenses dotted around its circumference.

Despite the regular Find X8 sporting a flat-edged design like that of the iPhone 16 and Samsung Galaxy S24, the Find X8 Pro still features a fairly curvy body, with rounded edges and corners that help the phone slip nicely into the hand. 

There’s a curved screen to match, but it’s nothing like the cascading waterfall of pixels found on phones in the late 2010s. Instead, it’s an incredibly subtle curve that really serves no other purpose than to provide a nicer feeling when swiping in from the side of the screen – and that’s the kind of curvature I can get behind.

It feels delicate in the hand, but in reality, it’s probably one of the toughest flagship phones around right now. It not only offers the increasingly standard IP68 dust and water resistance, but it goes a step further with IP69 resistance, essentially protecting it from heated jets of water. I’m not sure what scenario that’s protecting it from in the real world, but still, it’s nice to have. 

That’s paired with a hard aluminium alloy frame with apparent shock-absorbing properties and reinforced glass protection, providing some peace of mind that it won’t simply shatter on its first (inevitable) drop. There’s also a case provided in the box to boost protection further, though it does mean you miss out on that stunning Pearl White finish. 

Another new addition to the Find X8 Pro that you won’t find on the regular Find X8 is what Oppo calls the Quick Button – essentially a competitor to Apple’s Camera Control on the iPhone 16 collection. 

It’s not the exact same, using a touch-capacitive surface rather than a physical button to take photos, but it does mean that like Apple’s option, you can use the Quick Button to not only launch the camera app and trigger the shutter but swipe to zoom – though you won’t find the ability to switch between modes and tweak shooting settings. 

I do find myself using this interpretation more than when I was reviewing the iPhone 16 Pro Max, simply because it doesn’t require nearly as much force to activate the shutter. I would’ve preferred the button to be a little closer to the bottom edge, like the Sony Xperia 1 VI, for easier reach, but that’s a relatively minor complaint. 

Other notable features include the return of the Alert Slider that was once exclusive to OnePlus phones, allowing you to switch between ring, vibrate and silent with the flip of a switch. I also continue to be a fan of the IR blaster, a staple of many Chinese manufacturers, allowing me to control my TV and other tech from my phone. 

Screen

• 6.78-inch 120Hz AMOLED screen
• Packed with premium tech
• Thicker bezels than the regular Find X8

The Find X8 Pro is a premium smartphone, and the display tech on offer largely reflects this, sporting a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen with a pixel-packed 1.2K (2780×1264) resolution that strikes a nice balance between FHD+ and the WQHD+ of the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra with better battery efficiency while still offering a respectable 450ppi. 

That experience is further boosted by an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate that lets the screen drop to as little as 1Hz to further improve efficiency, and with a peak brightness of 4500nits, it’s easily bright enough for use in direct sunlight – though there isn’t much of that in the UK at this time of year. 

That brightness also lends itself to video-watching, especially when combined with support for Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG, delivering bright highlights and dark, but still detailed, shadows in HDR content found on the likes of Netflix that make this screen an absolute treat for binging shows on the go. 

It also offers a more natural colour tone by default, though this can easily be changed to a more vivid alternative in the Settings app. You’ve also got the option of using the Pro D65 colour temperature mode if you plan on using the smartphone for photo editing and the like. 

But while the Find X8 Pro provides an undoubtedly high-end viewing experience, I can’t help but feel that some of the best features are, rather oddly, exclusive to the regular Find X8. That includes much thinner bezels – 1.45mm compared to 1.9mm – and faster 3840Hz PWM dimming that essentially helps reduce flicker when using the screen at lower brightness. 

The thinner bezels, in particular, really help add to the Find X8’s premium look, and while the 1.9mm alternatives on the Pro aren’t exactly chunky, it does make the screen look a little dated in comparison. Still, that’s a rather minor complaint about a screen that’s otherwise a joy to use for watching movies, gaming and doom-scrolling on social media. 

Cameras

• Four 50MP lenses on the rear
• Impressive camera performance across the board
• Plenty of Hasselblad modes & AI editing tools to use

Despite a much slimmer camera bump than much of the competition, only protruding by 3mm, the Find X8 Pro is still an absolute beast when it comes to camera tech, sporting four lenses including two periscope lenses – and you won’t find that on many alternatives.

While the main 50MP snapper doesn’t have the same 1-inch sensor as the Find X7 Ultra, it comes close with a 1/1.4in sensor, alongside an impressively wide f/1.6 aperture and OIS. 

That’s paired with a 50MP ultrawide with an f/2.0 aperture and autofocus capabilities that allow it to double up as a macro lens, alongside a 50MP 3x triple-prism periscope lens and a 50MP 6x periscope, both with OIS capabilities for sharper zoomed images. 

It’s safe to say that the camera collection can take some pretty impressive images, with a great colour consistency across the board that allows for added freedom when choosing which lens to shoot with.

Regardless, it’s likely the main camera you’ll be using most often, and shooting images from that camera is an absolute treat. 

The phone uses Oppo’s HyperTone Image Engine which essentially combines 9 RAW frames to create the final JPEG you use for sharing, and with that comes added detail, especially in the bright and dark spots in the image. Despite this, there’s basically zero shutter lag, with a separate burst mode that can take up to 200 images in a row for particularly fast-moving subjects, complete with the aforementioned processing. 

The results are impressively detailed shots, packed with detail and the ability to handle challenging light conditions exceptionally well, and with the f/1.6 aperture, there’s a nice natural bokeh to close-up images too.

The dual 50MP periscope lenses also offer a similar level of quality overall. With OIS, it’s easy to capture great portrait-style photography, be that people or pets, and it really helps close the gap when shooting something far away too. Results are usable up until the 35-40x mark, though it stretches to 120x for shots of the moon if you really need it to.

The 50MP ultrawide can also hold its own, thanks partly to the inclusion of autofocus tech that negates the need to find the lenses ‘sweet spot’ as with other ultrawide sensors, and it takes a pretty decent close-up image from as little as 3.5cm away. 

It’s also surprisingly capable in low-light conditions, delivering more detail and light than the comparatively muddy results from the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s upgraded 48MP ultrawide. 

In fact, that’s also true of the main and even 3x periscope lenses, with plenty of light able to be captured by the lenses. It’s only with the 6x sensor that low-light imagery starts to take a bit of a nose-dive.  

The 32MP selfie camera isn’t quite as capable, offering a basic fixed focus that can sometimes struggle to get everyone in group selfies in focus, but for single-person selfies for sharing on your Instagram Stories and video calls on WhatsApp, it should be more than enough. 

What’s more, you can capture 4K@60fps Dolby Atmos video from any of the lenses, including both periscope lenses and even the selfie camera, with four microphones for more immersive audio capture.

There’s also a range of Hasselblad-inspired shooting modes to take advantage of, including  Portrait mode with a new Soft Lighting Portrait that simulates a white mist filter for a more dreamy look to your shots, as well as XPAN for 21:9-style shots and Film Simulation filters. The latter is exclusive to the Find X8 Pro, offering three filters – CC Film, NC Film and NH Film – to help recreate the analogue film look for a more retro look in photos and videos. 

You’ll also find a handful of AI-powered photo editing features including the usual suspects like AI eraser and AI unblur, along with more interesting options in the form of AI-powered photo enhancement and AI-powered reflection removal. 

The reflection removal is undoubtedly the highlight of the AI-powered editing tools, however; the AI unblur is hit-and-miss, often leaving large sections of the image blurred, while the AI Eraser struggles with removing larger elements in photos without it looking pretty obvious. The AI upscaling tech works well enough for low-res images, but it does seem a little niche. 

Performance

• Dimensity 9400 power
• Extremely capable in everyday use
• Can get hot, despite dedicated cooling tech

Oppo’s flagship smartphones have generally utilised Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon chipsets, but that has changed with the Find X8 Pro and the inclusion of the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 alongside a healthy dose of 16GB of RAM and 512GB of non-expandable storage. 

Some may lament the loss of a Snapdragon chipset, especially in such a revolutionary year for Qualcomm’s flagship chipset with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, but that’s not to say that the Find X8 Pro is a slouch. 

It can readily compete with the Snapdragon 8 Elite-equipped ROG Phone 9 Pro Edition in CPU benchmarks like Geekbench 6, though there is an apparent gap when it comes to GPU performance. That’s likely down in part to the gaming-first focus of the ROG Phone, but with such a big gap, it’s also down to the chipset on offer.

That said, it beats other 2024 flagships including the top-end iPhone 16 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra in many of our benchmark tests, so there’s little to be disappointed with in general.

That’s especially true when it comes to the all-important real-world use; this phone is absolutely rapid. Opening and switching between apps is instantaneous, especially if you change the animation speed to fast in the Settings app, the Camera app opens instantly and it can power any game on Google Play with high-level graphics.

The catch is that, even with a dedicated cooling system consisting of a vapour chamber, graphite layer and a thermal gel, the phone does get noticeably hot when powering more demanding games, and according to a 3DMark Wildlife Extreme Stress test I ran, the chipset performance drops by 45% as things get hot. That’s pretty extreme. 

Elsewhere, expect top-level connectivity including Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC and dual-SIM connectivity, as well as a triple-antenna Wi-Fi setup for more reliable connectivity and a whopping 20 cellular antennas for improved performance, particularly in cellular-congested environments like concerts. 

Software & AI

• Usual suite of AI tools and features
• ColorOS 15 feels fast and responsive
• Can send photos and videos to iPhone users

2024 is the year of AI and that, of course, means the Find X8 Pro comes with a bunch of GenAI-powered features. That comes mainly in the form of Oppo’s AI Toolbox, a feature we saw earlier this year on the mid-range Oppo Reno 12 Pro 5G, with the same tools present and accounted for. 

That includes AI Summary, which lets you generate summaries from a page, AI Speak which reads content aloud and AI Writer which helps you write or rewrite text. What’s important here is that these features can be used in any app, first- or third-party, accessible via the sidebar. 

There are also new enhancements to first-party apps, with the Recorder app now able to transcribe and generate summaries of recordings, while the Notes app offers a new AI formatting assistant that lets you restructure your notes with a tap. And, like a growing number of smartphones, there’s also support for Google’s excellent Circle to Seach. 

Combined with the photo editing tools outlined earlier, these are all very handy additions that allow the Find X8 Pro to compete with the likes of the AI-powered Pixel 9 Pro XL and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Are they going to completely revolutionise how you use your smartphone? Probably not, but they do come in handy more often than you might think.  

Elsewhere, ColorOS 15 has been given a visual refresh with over 800 new animations, new first-party icons and much more. A personal favourite is the new Flux theme, which provides something akin to the iPhone’s stylised lock screen templates, though without the handy addition of widgets. 

It’s clear to see the iOS inspiration here, from the split control centre and notification menu and the Dynamic Island dupe, but it goes a step further than competing Chinese skins with an iPhone-inspired flare by trying to play nicely with Cupertino’s smartphone. 

That comes in the form of Touch to Share, which allows you to send photos and videos to an iPhone by tapping the two phones together. This doesn’t require an internet connection as it’s sent peer-to-peer, though it does require iPhone owners to have the O+ app installed beforehand. 

Still, that’s a massive step forward when it comes to iPhones and Androids playing nicely together, and I hope we see more of this in the future. 

Battery Life

• 5910mAh silicon-carbon battery
• Potential for two-day usage
• Full charge in 50 minutes

Thanks to the transition to a silicon-carbon battery, which allows for higher density batteries in slimmer form factors than the traditional lithium-ion alternative, the Find X8 Pro packs a whopping 5910mAh cell within its relatively slim body – and combined with the 40% boost to efficiency with the Dimensity 9400, the phone just keeps on going. 

We’re finally reaching a point where most smartphones last all day without a charge, so it comes as no surprise that the Find X8 Pro can offer this and then some, lasting well into a second day of charge with average use. 

On one occasion, that included six hours of screen time including taking photos, gaming and scrolling through TikTok, as well as four hours of music playback and making a few calls. It only ran flat by late afternoon on day two because I purposely ran the battery dry by running high-level GPU benchmarks on a loop to perform my charge tests.

That’s also with additional battery-draining features active, including both a high refresh rate and the top resolution on offer, so it could potentially perform better with a change to these features. 

Charging is equally a pleasant experience with support for 80W SuperVooc charging as well as 55W PD charging for those in Europe, alongside 50W AirVooc wireless charging and, with a special Mag Charge case, it’ll play nice with Apple’s MagSafe tech too. 

Charging using an 80W SuperVooc charger – which comes in the box, a pleasant surprise in 2024 – offers the speediest recharge experience, managing 50% in 20 minutes, with a full charge taking 50 minutes. That’s not the fastest around, likely due to the use of silicon-carbon batteries, but it’s a worthy trade-off in my opinion, and you’ll still get a full charge in under an hour regardless. 

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