The flagship smartphone market is fiercely competitive, and OPPO is making it clear it's here to play with the Find X8 Pro.
The X8 Pro isn’t just an alternative, it’s a bold statement. With standout features like a stunning quad-camera system, a blazing-fast MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chipset, and a host of innovative AI tools, OPPO is showing that it can deliver cutting-edge technology at the highest level.
For consumers in New Zealand, this phone makes a strong case for choosing something different, without compromising on premium quality.
Competition
The Find X8 Pro is OPPO’s latest flagship device, going head-to-head with the iPhone 16 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Design
The first thing you’ll notice on the X8 Pro is the camera bump. OPPO calls this the Cosmos Ring and you’ll either love it or hate it. I’m not a huge fan. I like camera bumps that aim for subtlety, blending into the back of the phone as much as possible. That’s certainly not the case here.
It's circular, has a chrome finish that makes it stand out and it’s massive. But, it is packed with some of the best cameras I’ve ever used on a phone. So, if you’re like me and don’t mind the camera bump in exchange for top-notch photo quality, it’s not too bad.
If you’re looking for a small phone this isn’t it. It’s a large device, almost exactly the same height and width as the flagships it's competing with, measuring 162.3mm (H) x 76.7mm (W) x 8.2mm (thick) and weighing 215 grams. It’s fine. The only issue I had is the camera bump makes it a tad top-heavy.
It has an aluminium frame, a Corning Gorilla Glass 7i screen, and a glass back panel. All pretty standard stuff. There’s a slider that allows you to quickly switch between silent, vibrate and ring modes on the left, and on the right hand side there’s a volume rocker and a single button for turning on the screen and activating Google Gemini.
There’s also a touch-sensitive strip, used for quickly accessing the camera, precision zoom control and burst photography. I wasn't a fan of this. It isn’t as responsive as I would’ve liked and it doesn’t make things easier. I found opening the camera normally, zooming using the predefined ranges on the screen, and holding the shutter button for burst photography, what OPPO calls Lightning Snap, much more responsive and accessible.
The X8 Pro comes in two colours, Pearl White and Space Black. My review device featured the Pearl White colour and it’s ok. This will all come down to personal preference, but it just isn’t for me. You can get cases for the X8 Pro and it supports Magnetic charging as well.
It has both an IP68 and an IP69 resistance rating, which means it's completely sealed against dust and sand, you can dunk it in water up to 1.5 meters deep for up to 30 minutes and it can handle being blasted with high-pressure, high-temperature water jets.
Display
The X8 Pro is equipped with a 6.78-inch, 2780 x 1264 resolution AMOLED display. It’s very good. Most of the features here are standard for a flagship phone, but that doesn’t make them any less impressive. Navigation is seamless, responsiveness is top-notch, and the display gets very bright. Using the phone in direct sunlight isn't a problem.
It boasts 450 pixels per inch and a max brightness of 4,500 nits which is massive. As a comparison, the iPhone 16 Pro has a max brightness of 2,000 nits.
It has a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate that can drop down to 1Hz, depending on how you’re using the phone, and it also has adaptive dimming and colour correction, meaning the screen adapts to the light and colour of your environment.
Cameras
The cameras are where the X8 Pro truly shines. These are some of the best cameras I’ve ever used on a phone. It supports ProXDR photography which enhances the dynamic range of photos, recording the brightness levels of up to 12 million pixels, offering what OPPO claims is 8x more dynamic range on screen.
It’s equipped with a quad-camera system boasting:
- 50MP, 1/1.4-inch sensor, f/1.6, 23mm focal length main camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS)
- 50MP, 1/2.75-inch sensor, f/2.0, 15mm focal length ultra-wide camera
- 50MP, 1/1.95-inch sensor, f/2.6, 73mm focal length 3x periscope telephoto camera with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS)
- 50MP, 1/2.51-inch sensor, f/4.3, 135mm focal length 6x periscope telephoto camera with Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS)
If most of that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t worry. All you need to know is this phone takes amazing photos.
The standout is zoomed photography. Because the X8 Pro has both a 3x and a 6x periscope telephoto lens, it utilises dedicated hardware for zoomed shots. Including both lenses ensures optimal image quality at different zoom levels, as each lens is specifically designed for its range. This avoids the compromises of digital cropping, offering sharper images, and faster autofocus across various distances.
The results are impressive. Zoomed photos are very sharp and incredibly detailed. I was blown away by the quality I could get when standing a good 30-40 meters away from my subject.
You can zoom in further than 6x, up to a maximum of 120x, but anything beyond 6x requires software to digitally correct pixels and colours. It works relatively well but you can almost always see the image is lower quality, you’re better off sticking with 6x for crisp and clean zoomed photos.
With OIS, camera shake isn’t a concern, even when zoomed in. You can also use telephoto lenses for capturing video content, achieving smooth, stable footage at 6x zoom, which is great.
I did find that the X8 Pro produced oversaturated images. Greens were significantly more green than they were in real life, meaning the images weren’t always an accurate portrayal of the scene. Personally, I don’t mind the oversaturated look, it makes everything look more colourful and lush, but if you’re looking for realism in your photos, especially when it comes to colours, you may get frustrated with this.
Portrait photography works well, with options to customise the style and use multi-focal lengths to capture clear shots of your subject while blurring the background, even in busier scenes. Live Photo support provides a short video preview before taking the picture, and Lightning Snap offers burst photography at 7 frames per second.
The front camera is a 32MP selfie cam which is more than capable, and you can film in 4K 60fps as well. Everything you’d want is here.
AI
We’ve well and truly entered the age of AI and like most companies, OPPO has jumped on the bandwagon, pumping the X8 Pro with AI features. Some of them are more useful than others and as always, don’t expect miracles, but I was pleasantly surprised at how useful I found some of these features.
There are a number of AI features for photography, including AI Clarity Enhancer which brings more details into photos, AI Reflection Remover which removes reflections, AI Unblur which makes blurry images non-blurry and AI Eraser which allows you to remove unwanted objects from your photos. I found the Clarity Enhancer was very good, but the others were a bit hit-and-miss. As mentioned earlier, don’t expect miracles, if a photo is really blurry it will still look blurry after using Unblur, similarly, if there isn’t good separation of something you want to remove, the results aren’t going to be perfect when using AI Eraser.
There are also a number of “toolbox” AI features that are more workflow and productivity-oriented. AI Writer will correct, rewrite and continue your writing, AI Reply helps you reply to emails and texts, and my favourite, AI Summary, will scan a webpage you’re on and summarise the key points in bullet form, no more scrolling through webpages littered with obtrusive ads, just drag the sidebar, click AI Summarise and you’ll know exactly what the article says in seconds. It’s brilliant.
There are also a number of niche tools like AI Translate, AI Assistant for cleaning up notes and AI Reimagine allowing you to change your photos into an animation or a hand drawing.
It all works well and most importantly it's quick, there’s a lot on offer here.
Performance
The X8 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chipset. It's an 8-core processor combined with OPPO’s Trinity Engine, which aims to optimise system performance via CPU, ROM and RAM Vitalization. This balances performance and power consumption, enhances memory management to allow more apps to be open simultaneously without slowdowns, and compresses app and file data to save storage space. The results were very good, the X8 Pro is a performance powerhouse.
To test the device we ran it through two tests. We used Geekbench 6’s CPU benchmark test where it achieved a single-core score of 2828 and a multi-core score of 8533, which shows the phone is fast at handling everyday tasks like app launching and web browsing, and it’s also excellent at handling demanding, multitasking workloads, such as video editing or gaming. Essentially it's a top-tier performer.
We tested the GPU by running a 3DMark Wildlife GPU Extreme test where it achieved a score of 6445 at 38.60 average FPS. This is a very good result. It’s better than the results we achieved with the Samsung Tab S10 Ultra.
We also ran a game of PUBG and came across no hiccups or stuttering even after prolonged use.
Battery
The X8 Pro has a 5,910mAh battery which will allow you to get eight hours of screentime with heavy usage like gaming, and you can get two full days of light usage and a day and a half of moderate usage. It’s very good.
It supports 80W SuperVOOC wired charging which will charge the phone from 0% to 100% in just under 50 minutes and 50W AirVOOC wireless charging which charges the phone from 0 to 100% in 90 minutes. It’s brilliant.
To add to this, the X8 Pro comes with a charger in the box, hallelujah. Unfortunately, it’s a USB-A to USB-C charger but it supports 80W charging, so not a problem.
Verdict
The OPPO Find X8 Pro firmly establishes itself as a flagship contender that goes toe-to-toe with heavyweights like the iPhone 16 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, making it a compelling choice in New Zealand. With its stunning display, cutting-edge AI features, and top-notch performance powered by the Dimensity 9400 chipset, the X8 Pro offers a premium experience that rivals the best in the market.
The standout quad-camera system, especially its zoom capabilities, sets a new standard for smartphone photography. While the design, particularly the Cosmos Ring camera bump, might not appeal to everyone, it’s a trade-off for the exceptional imaging hardware. Battery life and charging speeds are another highlight, ensuring you’re never out of juice for long.
For those looking for a premium device that challenges the status quo, the OPPO Find X8 Pro delivers on nearly every front. OPPO is no longer just an alternative - it’s a serious player in the flagship space, offering one of the most compelling options for Kiwi consumers.
