FINALLY, SOMETHING NEW

The peak phone debate rages on.

How good can these devices get anyway? They make them faster. Bigger. Smaller. But these days they're all pretty much the same.

Which certainly makes you question why anyone in their right mind would pay $2800 for one?

Well wouldn't you just know it... there's another new phone in town.

But this time, it's actually different...

I've been reading about the OPPO Find X for a while now - it's been available in other countries but I wasn't sure if it was coming to New Zealand. I really wanted it to, because I simply couldn't believe what I was reading about it and I had a desperate urge to find out if it was all true.

Although OPPO hasn't been selling phones in this country for very long, it's actually a successful and established brand in many markets around the world. Until now, the only OPPO handsets we've seen here have been more entry-level and mid-range devices. Nevertheless, I've been consistently impressed by their bang for back, especially in terms of camera performance. I'd never taken a selfie I liked till I took one with an OPPO phone.

The Find X is OPPO's flagship device and they're pretty proud of it. They should be - it's perhaps the most unique phone I've ever used.

You see, it has a pop-up camera.

This is such a revolutionary concept, it's actually kind of hard to describe exactly what I mean.

Let's start with how the Find X looks, straight out of the box; it's a stunner. Available in Bordeaux Red and Glacier Blue, the gradient effect on the class-covered rear casing is so subtle, it's almost breath-taking. This is not some gaudy, mirror-like blast of pink or sky-blue... it's elegant, soft, shimmering highlighted edges that hint how classy this phone really is.

Turn it over and you'll discover the Find X is pretty much all screen - well, 93.8% to be precise. No physical buttons, no fingerprint sensor and only the tiniest ear speaker right at the very top edge. Oh and that's right... no camera to be seen.

The display curves sensuously around the sides, reminiscent of a high end Samsung device. OPPO calls this its Panoramic Arc Screen and it looks and feels superb.

So where are the cameras?

Just wait.

Unusually, both top and bottom edges of the Find X are concave, not round. The bottom edge is where you'll find the main speaker and the charging port which, unlike the other mid-range and entry level OPPOs I've reviewed in the past, thankfully is USB Type-C. This accommodates the SuperVOOC charging cable, OPPO's own fast charging system. 

If you thought VOOC charging was quick, try 0-100 in just 35 minutes - that's what SuperVOOC is capable of. When I tested it, it took 42 minutes because I couldn't help myself checking the screen every few minutes to see the battery percentage tick up before my eyes. It really is that quick. Alas, no wireless charging option, although the OPPO team tell me they've been researching wireless for years. They claim until they can make it work as speedily as their miraculous SuperVOOC, they'll stick with the wall charger.

No headphone jack by the way - face facts people, these days it's more likely to be bluetooth or Type-C connector earbuds like the ones included in the box. 

There's one other oddity on the bottom of the Find X; the sim tray. Too ugly to blemish the slim, smooth edges of the phone and you can't bung it on the top because...

Yes, alright. That camera.

OPPO's "Stealth" 3D cameras are lying in wait, inside the phone and pop up instantly when required. The engineering behind this is so precise, the seam is practically invisible. The mechanism makes a slight noise when the cameras emerge, but it's really only noticeable in an absolutely silent room. The rear dual-camera setup sports 20MP and 16MP lenses while the selfie camera is an impressive (as always) 25MP. Once again, OPPO really delivers with its camera performance, packing a powerful A.I. punch which works mostly behind the scenes to produce consistently high quality shots, inside and out, in just about all lighting conditions.

That A.I. performance comes courtesy of a very high-spec Snapdragon 845 processor, paired up with a PC level 8GB of RAM. That kind of processing power makes this one of the fastest phones on the market and my user experience has been silky smooth, whether gaming, multi-tasking, filming or streaming. There's also a very healthy 256GB of internal storage, which is a genuinely high-end number.

The Find X's big brain means faultless 3D abilities, including facial recognition. There's no fingerprint sensor but OPPO claims their face unlock is so accurate, it's 20 times more secure than a fingerprint. I can confirm it works very well, even with my weird face. It also works in both landscape and profile which is a bonus for those of us who mount their phones sideways in their car cradles. Oh, if you thought the camera having to pop up to unlock your phone might slow things down, it doesn't. It's just really cool.

It's not just a gimmick either - there are genuine advantages to keeping your camera tucked away inside your phone when you're not using it; it's a great way to keep your lenses scratch, dust and fingerprint-free.

The obvious concern is reliability. How long can mechanical moving parts like these last? OPPO has an answer for that. They've tested these things rigorously and assure me the cameras can whiz up and down at least 300 000 times, no worries. That's about 8 years worth if you unlock your phone 100 times a day.

That's probably enough.

I've certainly yet to experience any hiccups with the slider mechanism, other than when I forget it's there and accidentally hold my finger over it. Obviously, the Find X is so clever, it doesn't try to fight my fat finger and waits till the coast is clear.

Some things can't be designed away though. While a transparent case is included with the phone, it goes without saying it doesn't fit over the top of the device to allow for the camera slider to do its thing. While OPPO says it's all been drop tested, glass covered phones can only withstand so much rough treatment. So I guess, don't treat it roughly?

While ColorOS is not my favourite Android-based operating system, I do like how stripped back it is and somehow, because of the sheer speed of the Find X's impressive processing power, I didn't find navigating around the phone as cumbersome as I have on some of OPPO's lower spec devices.

The OPPO Find X is selling for $1499. This is an interesting price point because I think that's probably about what it's worth in terms of features and performance. The questions is, can OPPO convince users to give it a go over other more well-known brands in this price bracket. Certainly, if you want a truly unique piece of hardware, Find X is the one.

Did I mention the limited edition Lamborghini version? Even more unique with more storage and a body constructed of carbon fibre, all bundled with some pretty swanky wireless ear buds. More unique means more expensive of course - but $2399 doesn't make OPPO's Lamborghini Find X the most expensive phone on the market. Not even close.


Click here for more information on the OPPO Find X

Click here for more information on the OPPO Find X Lamborghini Edition

PRETTY IN PINK

What a golden age we're living in.

Who would have guessed, even 18 months ago you'd be able to purchase a phone for $2799?

Truly eye-watering. I've bought cars for less than that.

Presumably, unless you're one of the brainwashed Apple acolytes, like most normal people, you think nearly three-thousand bucks for one little phone is bordering on criminal.

But what's available at the other end of the scale? Some clunky old brick? Not these days...

There are some things you just don't expect from a sub-$400 phone.

You won't get a big display. You won't get much on-board storage. The camera will be average. The processor will be slow. The O.S. will be out of date. Battery life will be terrible. Oh... and it'll look cheap too.

The OPPO AX5 turns most of those preconceptions on their heads.

As you can see from the picture, I've been sent the Diamond Pink version (not sure it's my colour, but I could be wrong) The AX5 is also available in Diamond Blue - both have unique back covers with individual cut-glass sections that catch the light from different angles; a cool effect I haven't seen on any phone before, let alone one in this price bracket. The metal edge is coloured to match the back cover which is another eye-catching premium feature.

The screen is a very respectable 6.2inches, although the device itself still fits easily in one hand as there are no physical home or navigation buttons on the front so it's basically all screen. This impressive screen-to-body ratio is further enhanced with the use of a notch around the top speaker and front-facing camera. Don't worry, if you're not into notches, you can blank out the whole notification bar to disguise it (unlike some other notchy phones that seem happy to cut out the left side of your display when you're gaming in landscape mode) 

There are other surprisingly large and respectable numbers built into the AX5 - like 64GB of on-board storage - which can be added to with a microSD in the hybrid dual-sim+SD tray. That's right, dual sim and memory expansion on a $399 phone.

3GB isn't a massive number, but when you're talking processing power on a phone, it's not too shabby. While the AX5 isn't lightning fast, it's certainly smooth to operate. As I've remarked when reviewing other OPPO devices, I'm no fan of the stripped-down Color O.S. home-screen. I need a nice, tidy app drawer and preferably the ability to rotate from portrait to landscape - all easily fixed with a third-party launcher of course. What I am a fan of is a lack of pre-installed bloatware, which is certainly what you get (or don't get) with the AX5. I still find it weird OPPO doesn't have a native email app though, instead relying on the standard Gmail app.

Every time I try a new OPPO phone, Color O.S. gets a little more user-friendly, but I did struggle to access some settings I wanted to change - particularly in terms of keeping apps running in the background.

That brings me to battery life which, quite frankly, is astounding. OPPO has packed a whopping 4230mAh battery into the AX5 and it simply never runs out. I can't emphasise this enough; if battery life is your major bugbear with your current phone, throw it away and get one of these. I've been using this phone for a while and most days I struggle to go below 70% by the time I go to bed. That includes streaming and bluetooth connectivity with my earbuds and smart watch. There is a "however" here though... As I just mentioned, the AX5 seems to have a particularly aggressive hunt-and-kill policy when it comes to background apps. No matter how hard I tried, there were some apps I couldn't persuade the phone to receive push notifications from (like my home security system) even though other messages like emails and Instagram posts arrived with no problems. This seems to be an issue with less well-known apps so maybe it's something OPPO will address with software updates over time.

Weirdly, the thing I was least impressed with was camera performance. That's not to say the pictures I've taken with the AX5 have all been fails, it's just that I'm used to OPPO making it all about the camera and the photo quality is usually the feature that outshines everything else on the phone. At least it's a dual-lens configuration for the rear-facing camera so you can still achieve some nice mixed-focus portrait effects and the 8MP selfie cam is pretty much up to OPPO's usual high standards. However, shots taken from long distance or in low light were pretty average, even for a photographic know-nothing like me.

On the other hand, the selfie-cam does facial recognition very well, opening straight to your home screen pretty much as soon as you take the device out of you pocket and glance at it. That's right; facial recognition - yet another premium feature for only $399.

Don't misunderstand me, the AX5 is not in the same league as the $1000+ (or even $2000+) superphones out there, it certainly has its limitations. No wireless charging, no IP water-resistance rating, no NFC for contactless payments. But added-extras like those are definitely nice-to-haves rather than must-haves.

Other than my slight camera disappointment, the AX5 is a solid performer especially in terms of battery life where I think it'd probably beat just about any phone in any price range.

It looks good too... although maybe the blue one would've been a slightly better match for my wardrobe.


Click here for more information on the OPPO AX5