OPPO Find X2 Pro Review

I finally got the Find X2 Pro! I really thought that I wouldn’t have the chance to get this before the lockdown.  We’ll unbox this and give you our full review of this device.

What we got is the orange vegan leather finish. It looks and feels like leather. This is simply one of the best-looking phones by OPPO. It’s a huge deviation from the previous OPPO Find X, which we also reviewed on our site.

If you inspect closely, you would know that OPPO poured a lot of effort into designing this device. From its Ultra Vision OLED QHD+ Screen to double-curve body design, this is now at the top of our list for 2020.

OPPO’s colorway of choice reminds me of the Huawei Mate30 Pro 5G. This one, however, looks more elegant and prettier, at least in some angles. The general orientation of the device is horizontal, and unlike the Mate30 Pro 5G, the design of the camera of Find X2 Pro makes it really look like a camera.

In terms of button placements, the volume rockers are on the left, while the sleep or wake button is at the bottom. There is no headphone jack on this device just like the 1^st OPPO Find X. There’s no surprise there. SIM tray is located at the back, which can house 2 nano sims. There is no SD slot, so if you’re still looking to expand its 512GB internal storage, then you might want to rethink how you’re using your device. No judgment here though.

Display

Let’s talk about its display. There’s a bunch of things to say about this, but I don’t want to bore you with a lot of details.

The device rocks a 120Hz QHD+ Ultra Vision Screen with a 240Hz touch sampling rate. OPPO touts this as their smartphone with their best screen yet, and it may very well be the actual case. This time, it isn’t sufficient to say that the colors are just as punchy as other flagship devices. Believe me when I say this: we’re looking at a display that goes beyond anyone’s expectation.

It’s not every day you will see a smartphone with a professional and cinema-grade display. With its full coverage of full color at 100% DCI-P3 with color depth screen of 10-bit, it just gives consumers and professionals an accurate representation of color similar to professional displays, if not better. No wonder why this was given by DisplayMate the highest grade of A+.

How about the refresh rate? This device has 120Hz ultra-high refresh rate. This is similar to what the ROG Phone 2 and Samsung Galaxy Ultra S20 have. It’s adaptive that goes 60Hz-120Hz, but you can manually set it if you wish to go 120Hz all the way. If you want to save on battery, you can just stick with 60Hz or choose Auto. If you choose the latter, the software will automatically tweak the refresh rate based on what you’re doing. If you fire up a game that supports 120Hz, it will intelligently switch to let you play the game at 120fps. I tell you though – once you go 120Hz, you’ll never go back to 60Hz.

Hardware

For starters, these are core hardware specs of the OPPO Find X2 Pro. It’s flagship-level so we expected this to be as powerful as other flagship-level devices. It’s about time that you dismiss the fact that we’re talking about OPPO here – a brand that’s known for its mid-range smartphones. With OPPO Find X2 Pro, you know that they’ve gone ultra with everything!

• Processor: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 865 Mobile Platform
  • CPU Speed: up to 2.84GHz
  • CPU Type: octa-core, 64-bit
  • GPU: Adreno 650
• Capacity:
  • 12GB RAM, LPDR5
  • 512GB ROM, UFS 3.0

Obviously, OPPO did not hold back in putting all the good things on Find X2 Pro. It is cheaper by PhP5,000 than Galaxy S20 Ultra yet it packs the same specifications, albeit having only IP54 rating and seeming lower camera specs. We’ll get onto that later.

Performance

We put the device into synthetic benchmark, and it proved to be faster than all the other flagship devices we tested this year. It’s way faster than the Galaxy S20 Ultra and the ROG Phone 2 Ultimate Edition. Here are benchmark stats for your reference:

When compared to other flagship devices, here are the numbers that you need to see.

How about real-world performance?

In order to test this fully, we downloaded a bunch of games and looked at its default settings. After doing so, we played the game for 20-30 minutes or so. Here are the default settings per game:

• Call of Duty Mobile
  • Graphic Quality: Very High
  • Frame Rate: High
  • DOF: OFF
  • Bloom: OFF
  • Real-time Shadows: Enabled
  • Ragdoll: Disabled
  • Anti-Aliasing: Disabled

While the game’s default frame rate is set to high, you can tweak it to very high to push the phone’s limit. The game played very smoothly without any lags or issues on Find X2 Pro. The game played at steady 60fps with almost zero hiccups in game. The game does not support 120fps yet so to really know if it works well is something to see in the future.

• World of Dragon Nest
  • Frame Settings: 40 Frames
  • Show Other Players: 10
  • Graphic qualities: High

The game required us to download a 2.6GB content. The phone took 4 minutes to download everything using our WiFi internet connection. The game didn’t automatically maximize the settings. For the purpose of our test, we boosted all the settings to maximum and see if it will manage to run at 60fps max. Based on our reading, it managed to run at consistent 60fps without any issues or lags. The 120fps compatibility is still on the way, but this game runs perfectly on Dragon Nest.

• Black Desert Mobile
  • Effects: Balanced
  • Resolution: Medium
  • Texture: Medium
  • Frame Limit: Max 20

I don’t what’s the deal with Black Desert Mobile. Upon loading, it automatically set it to 20fps and medium settings. I had to tweak the settings to highest and it played the game without problems. In true Black Desert Mobile style on a flagship device, the game loaded pretty well and looked gorgeous although out. Loading time was fast too, and I didn’t have any problems at all. No 120fps support either.

• Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade
  • Frame Rate Limit: None

Another game that I almost forgot to include is Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade. This free-to-play game gets your Warhammer-craze up to its peak. While I’m not entirely a fan of its F2P schemes, the graphics of this game is just outstanding. It plays very well on the Find X2 Pro, whether the phone is in competitive mode via Game Space or not.

I have never been elated and happy with how the Find X2 Pro is able to deliver in terms of gaming. This may very well be the best smartphone for gaming from OPPO, and I will look back to this day when the Redmi K30 Pro arrives in the Philippines.

However, to answer the question “Did our synthetic benchmarks translate to real-world performance?”, my answer would be a resounding yes. However, to answer the question if it’s better than other smartphones that are “positioned” for gaming, then I would have to say “no”. It doesn’t have the visual flair as a “gaming” smartphone, and it doesn’t have the liquid cooling and accessories to make it as one.

Software

Color OS 7 is OPPO’s best iteration of its UI. Unlike the UI in Find X, both the overall UI and UX look so pleasing. I like the Live Wallpapers look like, which really gives users the feel of how gorgeous its display is (especially when the Vision Engine is turned on).

Game Center implementation is simple yet useful. Unlike the ROG Phone 2, everything is so simple to navigate and use. Add the games you want Game Center to manage, and voila – instant optimization. In fact, if you’re not much of a gamer, all you need to do is just install the games, and add them to Game Center and start playing.

The camera software, which I will expound later is just as good as other flagship smartphones. The UI gives an iPhone-esque vibe and everything’s available by swiping through the shooting options. My only issue is that there are some options, especially on video capture settings, that can only be accessed via another menu window, and not directly from the Camera app like setting the resolution from 1080p60 to 4k60. It’s a negligible issue.

Cameras

There’s so much to talk about here, but I’d like to explain my experience in a way that consumers (not professionals) can understand. I am not a professional photographer or videographer either, so I will talk to you about my experience in the best way I can as a consumer.

All the cameras offer the best range of flexibility and capabilities. For starters, we’re talking about the latest and probably the best mobile camera sensors in the industry right now – the Sony IMX689 for the Ultra Vision Camera System and the Sony IMX616 for its 32-megapixel selfie camera. This is a camera phone beast, but – on paper – it shouldn’t be as far out as the one on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.

Let’s first focus on the rear camera. OPPO fancy calls it Ultra Vision Camera System.  The triple camera system has 48MP wide-angle camera, 48MP Ultra Wide Angle Camera and another 13MP Periscope Telephoto camera that can go up to 10x hybrid zoom and 60x digital zoom. The lens are compatible with Ultra Night Mode 3.0.

There is only one selfie camera – a 32MP selfie camera with f/2.4 aperture and AI beautification mode, to name a few features. It has intelligent fill light mode and also supports night mode algorithms.

OPPO Find X2 Pro is OPPO’s best camera phone yet. We’re not talking about OPPO being a “Selfie Expert” here, but a “camera expert” all throughout. Despite being on lockdown, we managed to take some photos using OPPO Find X2 Pro’s Ultra Vision Camera System.  Go check it out in the Gallery section below.

Gallery

Battery Life

If you happen to be like me who uses the smartphone as a “mobile office”, Find X2 Pro’s 4260 mAh battery is just enough to make you use your device for more than 12 hours with medium to high usage rate. Based on my standard activities, I started charging the device with 28% juice left after 13 hours of usage. With the 65W SuperVOOC charger, I managed to use it again at at 100% after 22 minutes. It’s insane!

Verdict

This is OPPO’s best smartphone yet!

Honestly, when they announced this a few weeks ago, I was not as excited when the first Find X was announced. At surface level, there isn’t anything really innovative with the Find X2 Pro unlike the mechanized camera module of the Find X. However, if you pay close attention to details, you will see how this new smartphone has all the ingredients to even topple the big players in the competition like Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and the upcoming ROG Phone 3. I think, right now, the only thing that will impede people from thinking about buying this is the ongoing pressing matter that we’re all in – COVID 19.

Giancarlo Viterbo

Website

Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.