It's been a couple of years since I last reviewed a Huawei Y-series handset. At the time I was incredibly impressed with the high level of performance being offered by such a low-priced device. This year's Y7 Pro is still budget friendly and still worth every penny...
At $349, the Huawei Y7 Pro 2019 isn't the cheapest phone in town... but I'm pretty sure most phones a hundred dollars cheaper are about two-hundred dollars worse. They're likely to have sub-standard cameras, slow, clumsy performance and an inferior build quality. Oh - and probably pretty bad battery life too.
The Y7 Pro is nothing like those phones.
For starters, it's very big. The 6.26" display puts it right up there with the flagship Pro and Plus models from most leading manufacturers. Just as we began to see from a few devices at the end of 2018, wide slot-like notches at the top of the screen are now old fashioned - the Y7 Pro has only a tiny "Dewdrop" bite from around the front facing camera - barely noticeable in most circumstances and leaving plenty of room for on-screen notifications on either side.
While other lower priced handsets will stick with a metal or even plastic casing, the Y7 Pro sports a very classy, ceramic-feel, curved back which is certainly extremely comfortable in the hand and looks amazing in Midnight Black. It's not as slippery as some other glass-covered devices which is good, because the size of the Y7 Pro makes one-handed operation slightly challenging.
Luckily, there is a one handed U.I. mode, which is easily activated with a diagonal swipe from whichever corner your thumb is reaching from (ie: right or left-handed).
In fact, there are plenty of settings and tweaks like that built into the EMUI 8.2 operating system which are often left off handsets at this end of the price range.
It's also unusual for a sub-$400 phone to offer a face unlock option - but the Y7 Pro does and like other Huawei devices with this feature, you can set it to recognise you automatically, as soon as you raise the phone to your face, unlocking straight to your home screen without touching a button.
That's fantastic... except it doesn't work quite as well as it does on some of Huawei's upper level devices. It's not particularly fast and I found it struggled in poor light. This sluggish performance is exacerbated by the lack of a fingerprint sensor, so the only backup if your face isn't recognised is a good old 6 figure pin, which seems annoyingly slow and cumbersome by comparison. Sadly, the Y7 Pro's facial recognition is just not reliable enough or fast enough to be the only unlock option, but without a fingerprint sensor, you're stuck with it.
On the bright side, the camera performance is a real standout. As I've mentioned, usually cameras are the first big compromise to get the price down on a phone, but I found the selfies in particular to be clear and colourful, with plenty of effects and customisations available. Shots taken with the dual-lens rear-facing camera were also very sharp, although I found the interface a little unusual. I'm used to using "portrait mode" or "live focus" to achieve the blurred background or bokeh effect. On the Y7 Pro that setting is called, "aperture" - which is strange because that usually means how much light you're letting into the shot, not how blurry you want the background to be. The important thing is, it worked a treat and there was quite a wide range of blur to be adjusted.
While I was extremely satisfied with the pictures I took, I did have an issue with how fast the cameras worked. For some reason Huawei uses Qualcomm Snapdragon processors in its Y-series phones instead of its own Kirin chips. This is a shame because I've found the Kirin CPU's generally provide a much faster, smoother performance. The Y7 Pro also runs just 3GB of RAM, which is definitely starting to lean towards the low side these days. Don't get me wrong, in most circumstances I had no performance issues whatsoever - downloading, browsing, streaming all functioned seamlessly. Even bluetooth connectivity was a breeze compared to issues I've had with other devices in the past. But certainly the camera was rather slow to open, to focus and then to shoot. Probably not the best option to capture a split-second crossing of a finish line.
One other little quibble is storage space. The Y7 Pro has 32GB of internal storage, but an extremely large chunk of that is taken up with the operating system, leaving less than 20GB to play with. A couple of years ago, that would have seemed like a lot, but not so much these days. However, the sim tray is also a microSD tray - two sim slots and space for more memory.
Perhaps the Y7 Pro's niftiest trick is its massive battery life. The 4000mAh battery isn't the biggest out there, but it's close. I've reviewed a few phones with a two-day charge life lately, but most of them do it by closing down a lot of the apps you want to keep running in the background. I didn't have that issue with the Y7 Pro - notifications from my home security app, my exercise app... everything kept chugging along nicely.
In short, unless you're a high-end gamer, or you're dependent on flagship features like wireless charging, water resistance or tri-lens cameras, there's really no reason to spend more than $349. The Y7 Pro doesn't feel like a price-tag compromise - instead it's a genuine pleasure to use.
Click here for more information on the Huawei Y7 Pro 2019.
From not even selling phones in New Zealand just a couple of years ago, OPPO now seems to be releasing a new handset every 5 minutes.
2018 saw an unprecedented selection of models catering to every price bracket. Where does the first OPPO device for 2019 fit in?...
As you can see from the picture above, there's absolutely nothing "budget" about the way the OPPO AX7 looks. Available in Glaze Blue and the slightly unfortunately named, Glaring Gold, OPPO describes the finish as a "sheet and grating" pattern. I have no idea what that means, other than it gives it an almost woodgrain-like appearance from certain angles. It's pretty cool, anyway. For some reason, there's an unusual copper/gold surround to the rear-facing dual lens camera and flash module. It's unusual, but quite classy. The handset has a premium feel to it all round.
The AX7 is certainly at the larger end of the scale - mostly because of its 6.2inch screen size. I was surprised to discover the screen-to-body ratio is as low as 88.4% - really, it seems like the front of the phone is all screen - especially when you take into account the very small waterdrop notch for the forward-facing camera. These tiny not-notches started appearing on some flagship devices at the end of last year and is a clear sign the short-lived days of the much more intrusive iPhone-style notch are pretty much over.
The advantage of a massive phone, other than heaps of display real estate for browsing, streaming and gaming, is you can bung an equally massive battery inside. The AX7 sports a 4230mAh battery. This is actually more battery than I know what to do with. As you can imagine, I'm a moderately heavy user of my devices, especially given I get up at 3AM to go to work. That's a lot to expect from a smartphone battery and yet by the time I get to bed, most days I've struggled to get through one third of the available charge. Very impressive.
Unfortunately, as we've seen with previous OPPO devices, part of the reason they can achieve such incredible power savings is due to some overly-aggressive software optimisation. OPPO isn't the only manufacturer out there guilty of turning off too many background apps without asking, but that doesn't mean it's necessary. Annoyingly, even when you manage to find the magic setting that tells the AX7 not to turn a particular app off, a lot of the time, it still does.
Most frustratingly of all, the AX7 still uses a microUSB charging cable instead of the much more user-friendly USB Type-C. Now that other phones in this price range have switched, it's time OPPO did too.
Back on the plus side, the AX7 packs in a surprising amount of processing power for a $399 phone. You get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 chip, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board storage. These are by no means high-end specs by 2019 standards, but those numbers are still plenty impressive for the price. What's more, you get a dual-sim tray as well as a microSD compartment to expand your memory.
Certainly I found the AX7's performance to be very smooth and reasonably quick. I'm not a huge fan of the ColorOS 5.2 interface, but it's based on the very recent Android 8.1 O.S. and I didn't come across any major glitches or problems.
Ultimately, any OPPO phone lives or dies by its camera quality and once again, the AX7 stacks up pretty well. While the full range of A.I. settings offered by more expensive devices aren't included here, I found images from both front and rear cameras to be very clear and crisp. Colours tended towards the dull side, but that's preferable to the unrealistic over-saturation you often find on other phones. There is some A.I. built into the beauty settings - and this comes into play not just with the 16MP selfie cam, but also when you set the dual-lens rear camera to Portrait Mode. The split focus bokeh effect for both these options is pretty full-on, but I have to admit, it looks great more often than not.
There are a couple of cute tricks thrown in too; plenty of AR stickers to make your pics look as silly as possible and a very efficient face unlock which works reliably and quickly - even in the dark.
At $399, the AX7 definitely delivers. It looks great, feels solid, has better-than-average camera capabilities but most significantly, if you're looking for incredible battery life, there aren't many other phones out there as long-lasting as this one.
Click here for more information on the OPPO AX7.
Recently, Xiaomi opened its first Mi Store in the Oceania region, right here in New Zealand.
There was a lot of publicity around the Mi Home electric scooter - which does look pretty amazing - and as a result they sold out almost straight away.
But the other big impact of Mi opening its bright orange doors at Sylvia Park is now we have access to a whole new range of phones...
The Redmi Note 5 is full of surprises, even for a phone junkie like me.
At first it's hard to know what to expect from the Note 5, especially since I haven't reviewed a Xiaomi-manufactured device before. Also available in a powder blue, the black version I have takes minimalist design almost to an extreme. From the matte-finish metal back cover to the reinforced shock-absorbing corners of the device, this phone is really black. Even the transparent case included in the box is tinted black. The Redmi Note 5 is almost the complete opposite of some of the gaudy, multicoloured devices we've seen on show throughout the year.
It's a solid piece of kit, quite weighty in the hand. Unusually, the seams, joins and edges are all slightly raised - almost as if to create a tactile experience that suggests industrial usability rather than something that'll slip out of your hand onto the floor.
The large, 5.99inch display seems even bigger than it is, due to sizable bezels top and bottom. The top bezel holds a speaker, the selfie camera and a selfie-light - the bottom one doesn't hold anything so I guess it's just for aesthetic balance.
The bottom edge of the Note 5 is the main physical clue about which part of the phone market it slots into; just the single downward-firing speaker, a real live, physical earphone jack (soon to be extinct I think) and most telling of all, a microUSB port - very old-fashioned at this end of 2018.
So it might not scream style and elegance, but once you fire the Note 5 up, functionality rules supreme. The Snapdragon 636 octacore processor, combined with a respectable 4GB of RAM really keeps this phone flying along with very few pauses, jumps or stutters.
As this was my first experience with the MIUI 9 operating system, I decided to jump in head first, get rid of the buttons off the display and learn the Redmi range of gestures. I actually found this to be very intuitive on the whole, my only real frustration coming when scrolling through photos; the go-back gesture is a swipe from the side of the screen - easily confused with a swipe to the next picture. It's a muscle memory thing, I guess.
Not every phone handles split screen functionality well, if it offers it at all. The Redmi Note 5 makes it easy. It's stable and the screen is certainly big enough to handle it. In fact, the screen is great for all kinds of content - browsing, video whatever.
The cameras were the other big surprise for me. A 15MP + 5MP dual camera on the back combined with a 13MP selfie-cam. No, theses won't win any photography awards up against the big brand flagships, but the low light performance was actually not too shabby - especially from the front-facing camera due to its own built-in selfie light. There are a good selection of beauty settings too, quite customisable compared to many other phones I've tried. I'm still not actually beautiful at the end of it, but a bit closer than usual.
Battery life is the hero feature of this phone. There aren't too many others around with a massive 4000mAh battery like this. Yes the charging cable is old-fashioned, but you'll get a couple of days use out of this phone easy.
At just $398.99, the Redmi Note 5 is priced at the lower end of the mid-range market, but it has the features and performance of a handset at the upper end of that same market. I think that makes it a very good buy.
Click here for more information and pricing on the Redmi Note 5.
If 2018 taught us anything about the New Zealand smart phone market, it was there's always room for one more.
After a relatively low-key kick-off last year, OPPO seems to be going from strength to strength, even if most kiwis have still never heard of them.
Now there's another premium OPPO phone available, at a less than premium price...
When you review a lot of phones, you get picky. Most of them are pretty good these days but there are some that really stand out. I often ask myself the question, "Would I be happy to keep using this phone post-review, as my every-day handset?"
The OPPO R17 Pro is definitely one of those phones.
This year OPPO has released quite a few models in various price brackets and clearly the Chinese based manufacturer has shrugged off its tendency to produce Android devices that look like iPhones in favour of a more unique design ethic.
Nowhere was this more evident than with September's unprecedented Find X - the phone that boldly removed the cameras from both the front and rear panels and put them inside the phone, physically popping up when required.
Combined with other innovations like SuperVOOC Flash charging, OPPO is really starting to stand out from the crowd. Still, how many people would really be prepared to fork out almost $1500 for the Find X from OPPO, a brand with very little reputation in this country?
Well, there's a reason OPPO hovers around fourth or fifth in world phone sales; they do a lot right.
The R17 Pro is available in Emerald Green and a very eye-catching Radiant Mist - which isn't pink or purple or blue but a flowing combination of all those hues and more. Both models feature a glass encased back panel with a slightly matte finish that improves grip and helps prevent too many fingerprints.
Like the Find X before it, the R17 Pro has nicely rounded edges but is uniquely concave top and bottom, which is where you'll find the dual sim tray.
There's no earphone socket, which seems to be standard for most new high-end phones these days, as is the USB Type-C charging port. Using the included SuperVOOC Flash charger, OPPO claims you can reach 40% in just ten minutes. I tested this myself and that claim isn't quite accurate - it's better. I actually achieved 43% charge in ten minutes. Somehow the charger safely generates a massive 50watts to boost the R17 Pro in no time. This is why they've yet to change to wireless; I've been told until OPPO can make wireless charging somewhere near as fast as SuperVOOC, we'll just have to wait.
Apparently OPPO is using some new dual-cell battery technology which keeps everything safer and more efficient than ever before - certainly battery life was excellent (without being completely off the charts). As I've found with many phones these days, that's due in part to some very persistent battery optimisation shutting down apps working in the background. This usually wasn't too hard to solve from the settings menu though.
The other, almost unique physical feature of the R17 Pro is the sheer amount of screen real estate due in part to the tiny, "water drop" notch - just big enough for the selfie lens - and partly due to the in-screen fingerprint sensor. I'm sure we'll see a lot more of these in-screen sensors on next year's phones, but there aren't many around at the moment. The one on the R17 Pro worked fairly consistently - not quite as fast as a more traditional, physical sensor - but almost. It seemed a bit unreliable if my thumb was sweaty or greasy. Mind you, who wants to be poked with a sweaty, greasy thumb?
The fingerprint tech is almost redundant though, because the 3D facial recognition is so efficient. Not only will it take you instantly to your home screen, as soon as the phone comes out of your pocket - but it will do it an any lighting conditions - even pitch black, using the illumination from the R17 Pro's own screen to recognise you in the dark.
In fact, darkness really poses few problems at all for the R17 Pro - especially when it comes to photography. The tri-lens rear camera configuration has produced some of the best low light shots I've ever taken with a phone - and not just when I select Night Mode, which combines several images from each lens, then filters out any over exposure and noise. Even in auto mode, the R17 Pro's impressive AI skills kick in, combined with OPPO's OIS Optical Stabiliser Technology and produce consistently great nighttime pics.
In fact, most of the photos I've taken with this phone are pretty stellar and as usual for an OPPO device, the selfies are particularly standout.
They've tried to future-proof the R17 Pro by building in as much 3D tech as they could muster - it's fun to play around with creating 3D portraits. These render nice and quickly too - good processor speed on this phone; another mark of a high-end product.
With a 6.4inch display, this is quite a large phone, but its so slim, it remains easy to hold in one hand - especially if you use the cover included in the box, which in my case was tinted green to match the phone itself - nice touch. The screen is fashioned from the latest Corning Gorilla Glass 6 - so it should withstand a few knocks. I've found it very watchable and sensitive to touches and gestures. Color OS is certainly not my favourite operating system, but I do like some of the new features in version 5.2 like the Smart Bar you can swipe over from the side of the screen to access your favourite apps and settings.
There's no doubt about it, there's not much missing from the R17 Pro. There's no IP (water resistance rating) which seems a bit strange these days, but other than no wireless charging, I can't find much to complain about - and I can't really complain about that when you have a phone that charges in a blink of an eye and takes some of the best after-dark shots I've ever seen.
Priced under $1000, you must at least consider the R17 Pro next time you're upgrading your phone. You might not have heard of OPPO yet, but it won't be long now...
Click here for more information and pricing on the OPPO R17 Pro.
Good old trusty old brand new Nokia.
Still New Zealand's sole supplier of androidone devices.
Still dependable as ever... up to a point...
Nokia's newest is the 7.1 - which is a bit confusing because from what I can tell this device is not really a direct evolution from the Nokia 7 plus, but rather a step forward from the Nokia 6.1. Why can't they just give these phones names instead of numbers? It'd be far less confusing.
As you can see from the image above, Nokia has stuck to the unique copper highlights around the edges of the device, but unlike previous models the back is now covered in glass to show off the new "steel" colour. It's actually quite striking and will certainly stand out among other more boringly coloured phones. I really like the way this phone looks. One drawback is the glass is obviously a bit more slippery - and perhaps won't take the knocks quite as well as those previous phones either. In saying that, I have accidentally dropped it out of my pocket onto a hard wood floor with no noticeable damage done, so maybe I'm wrong. The glass does give a more premium feel - even though at $599 the Nokia 7.1 is slap bang in the middle of the now crowded mid-range market.
Like its immediate predecessors, the 7.1 features the androidone O.S., which definitely casts a magic spell over average hardware and makes it perform like the latest and greatest... for the most part.
When you look at the numbers alone, it'd be easy to pass by the 7.1 - just 3GB of RAM seems pretty low these days, especially combined with a mere 32GB of internal storage. Normally I'd shy away from any handset with less than 64GB of space, but at least you can expand up to 400GB with a microSD. Something to bear in mind because I found I was left with less than 8GB to play with once I'd installed all my favourite apps and taken just a few pics.
3GB of RAM seems risky too - but that's where androidone steps in and takes over a lot of the heavy lifting. Apps still launch fairly quickly and smoothly - video plays with no issues and the screen, while comparatively small at 5.84", is extremely clear and I watched the entire sixth season of House of Cards on a recent plane trip with no trouble at all.
Multi-tasking starts to take its toll on the underpowered processor though and I certainly struggled to keep some apps running in the background. This seems to be a common theme with many midrange devices and I find it a bit confusing because some uber-popular apps like Instagram and Messenger keep on keeping on no matter what - never missing a notification. Meanwhile, other apps just go to sleep, no matter how many times I tell the phone not to optimise them. I guess the onus is on the app developers themselves to keep their programs up to date with the latest devices - but it remains a frustration for me, anyway.
What I found even more frustrating was the camera on the 7.1. It's great - or rather, they're great - both the front and dual-lens rear-facing configurations. I actually took some very good, clear photos, in a range of lighting conditions. Only problem is, every time I use the camera, it just about crashes the phone. The camera app is painfully slow to launch, swapping between front and rear views even worse and swapping between the photos you've taken and the live view even worse. It's so confusing to be able to take great pictures, but only once the phone has thought long and hard about it.
It's a bit like making Beauden Barrett play for a high school first XV again - sure he'd be capable of some amazing rugby, but only if the rest of the team can actually give him the ball.
As much as I like the stripped-back, efficient performance of androidone, it obviously has its limits and on the Nokia 7.1., that limit is the camera app. Maybe this is something that can be sorted out with a software update down the track. That's the real advantage of androidone of course, plenty of regular updates, guaranteed.
Pleasingly, there are quite a few hardware compromises that haven't been made to fit the 7.1 into this price range. There's a fast and reliable fingerprint sensor below the camera on the back. It has a pretty good battery life and charges quickly enough. Best of all, the charging cable is USB Type-C - just like all the fancy phones. There's a notch - which seems to be almost standard by now - but it's not overbearing and it's worth it for the extra screen space at the top, especially given there's quite a lot of blank real estate at the bottom - more than enough for a Nokia logo anyway.
Perhaps the most welcome feature of all is NFC. This means, unlike many of its competitors in this price bracket, the 7.1 can tap and pay - or connect to speakers and the like with one touch. Very convenient.
At $599, I'd suggest this device is priced at the top of its market value - not because it doesn't have plenty of premium features but just because there's not always the processing power available to run them.
Click here for more information and pricing on the Nokia 7.1
Mate time is an exciting time.
For the last two years at least, Huawei has managed to surprise and delight with the Spring launch of its "power user" device, the Mate. Most of that surprise is usually centred around the impressive speed gains offered by Huawei's latest Kirin processor technology, coupled with breakthroughs in camera configuration.
This year, there's more than ever to talk about...
Let's start with the expected; it's called the Mate 20 Pro. Yes, it has the latest, most powerful Kirin processor and yes that means it's very fast.
Yes, like the Huawei P20 Pro from earlier in the year, it sports a Leica triple-lens configuration. The way this looks on the Mate 20 Pro is less predictable - arranged into a square in the same position as previous Mates instead of a single line of lenses in one corner. Of course, the real surprise about this is how few of Huawei's competitors have come out with a three-lens camera this year, even though many hinted at it along the way.
In New Zealand, the Mate 20 Pro is available in black and a unique Emerald Green, coupled with a slightly corrugated surface which not only reflects the light in an unusual way, but also keeps the glass back more fingerprint-free and less slippery.
Then, as we start to use the Mate 20 Pro, the surprises really start to flow. It's one of the first handsets in this market to feature an in-screen fingerprint sensor. Not only does this mean an improvement to the aesthetics, but it's also in a much more practical position, towards the middle of the screen which makes a lot more sense for one-handed operation than a sensor in the home button like other phones. It takes a little bit of muscle-memory training to get used to this new unlocking method - and I simply don't believe Huawei's claims the in-screen sensor is as fast as the previous external ones. It worked very well - but not as lighting quick or as consistently as the old way.
This is all kind of irrelevant though because the Mate 20 Pro's 3D face unlock is so incredible, I hardly have to use the fingerprint sensor at all. In almost any light and from almost any angle - even in sunglasses, the device unlocks straight to the home screen in an instant. It's brilliant.
This is all part of the industry-leading tech Huawei has packed in under the hood. Without getting too nerdy, the processor is divided into eight cores of three different sizes. This means not only can different parts of the Mate 20 Pro's brain work on different tasks at the same time - if it's only a little task, like displaying an email, it'll only use a little core. That means less heat and less power too.
Not that there isn't plenty of power to burn. At 4,200mAh, The Mate 20 Pro is pretty much all battery. In fact, I've never seen battery life like it. Not only can an average user crank out two full days usage out of this thing, it charges extremely quickly as well. I've found even when I'm not using the 40watt SuperCharger included in the box, the Mate 20 Pro seems to charge amazingly quickly for such a big battery. And the best news of all; wireless. Yes, at long last Huawei has joined the wireless charging club - what's more, they've turned it on it's head. You can reverse charge other wireless charging devices from the Mate 20 Pro itself. You have to activate the reverse charging in the settings menu, then the the back of the phone works just like any other wireless charger. I put another phone back to back in my pocket and it went from 75% to 100% in about an hour. Bear in mind, this is one thing that will chew through your battery more than anything else. Handy trick though.
Unfortunately, Huawei seems so obsessed with preserving battery life, the Mate 20 Pro is super-aggressive when it comes to shutting down apps running in the background. This is something I've always struggled with on Huawei devices and the Mate 20 Pro is still no exception. Don't worry - basic, essential apps like email and messaging are still super reliable. It's just certain lesser-known apps that get forgotten about after a while - things like smart watch interfaces, podcast players and security camera notifications. They'd all work well for a while then I'd have to restart the app itself to get the notifications running again. Just a little niggle that's definitely worth the pay-off of near-infinite battery life.
Another club Huawei has finally joined is the IP68 club. That's right, this phone is now toilet-proof too. Just one more little bonus to give you that extra piece of mind now that beachside photo opportunities are coming up fast.
In terms of photo features, it'd be hard to ask for much more. The P20 Pro was already about the best camera phone out there, so it's not like they've made this one worse. Not only has the A.I. functionality been stepped up several more notches, but there are some new gimmicks to try as well. There's now a library of live lighting effects you can apply to your portraits as you shoot them, from either forward or rear-facing cameras. My favourite is the venetian blind shadow that makes me look like a cool private eye in every location. Thanks to the the Mate 20 Pro's high-powered 3D functionality, you can even scan in your kid's favourite toy and turn it into a virtual pet. Crazy.
As you would expect from a Huawei flagship, zooming, low-light and even macro options are quite simply first-rate.
To be honest, I'm struggling to come up with something another phone does that this one doesn't. From wireless charging to unbelievable battery life to the in-screen fingerprint sensor, it really does have every feature going and here's the clincher; in the cut-throat battle for market share, Huawei has priced the Mate 20 Pro lower in New Zealand than just about anywhere in the world. At under $1500 (including bundled accessories from most retailers) it's such a good buy, it's almost an international tourist attraction.
Click here for more information and pricing on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro.
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
