Oppo Find X5 Pro Review: One of the best Android smartphones that you cannot buy

Design and display

Oppo Find X5 Pro is the second smartphone after the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra (Review) that I have used with a ceramic back. I have the Glaze Black colour here with me for my Oppo Find X5 Pro review. While the colour looks stunning, the mirror finish will leave a lot of visible fingerprint smudges on the back. Want something that is cleaner and looks classy? Then I would recommend getting the Ceramic White colour option.

The choice of material means that the Oppo Find X5 Pro is more resistant to scratches and accidental drops compared to glass. It also feels quite dense and premium in hand with the curved back. And one might wonder that the phone must be quite heavy given the choice of material and its on-paper weight of 218 grams. However, trust me when I say this, the Oppo Find X5 Pro does not feel as heavy. The weight distribution of this device is excellent and my hands did not feel tired, even while binge-watching shows on Netflix.

I spent most of the time watching Inventing Anna on the Oppo Find X5 Pro’s 6.7-inch display. During my review period, I was content with the Full HD+ resolution. There is an option to watch shows in QHD+ resolution. However, I believe a 1080p screen is more than enough for multimedia consumption on a smartphone. Plus, a Full HD+ display will consume slightly less battery compared to a QHD+ setting. The screen has it all that one wants from a flagship display. HDR10+ certification, 10-bit colour, 1300 nits of peak brightness, a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus for added protection against drops, etc.

The screen on the Find X5 Pro is curved but the curvature isn’t as aggressive as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Review). In fact, the screen curves just enough to offer a bezel-less design. With minimal bezels and the hole-punch cutout at the top left corner, the Oppo Find X5 Pro has a 92.7 percent screen-to-body ratio. What adds to the immersive experience is the dual speaker setup that is pretty loud and clear.

Of course, there is a 120Hz refresh rate display on the Oppo Find X5 Pro for a buttery smooth experience. The LTPO 2.0 tech also allows the screen to switch between 1Hz and 120Hz depending on the on-screen content. This also means that the phone will save some more battery when you are consuming content that does not require a high refresh rate. What contributes to the great user experience is Oppo’s ColorOS 12 which has smooth animations that do not feel rushed or forced. While we are at it, let’s get to the overall performance and software experience.

Performance and Software

Oppo Find X5 Pro boots Android 12-based Color OS 12 out of the box. ColorOS, since its revamp after ColorOS 7 has been among my favourite Android skins. It might not be the same for you but this one sits below the One UI 4.1 that I recently experienced on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Review). The Oppo custom skin is loaded with many features, just like it always has. Oppo has added some of the new Android 12 features to the list. For instance, a tiny indicator pops up at the top right corner whenever an app uses the camera or microphone. ColorOS 12 lets users disable access directly from the control centre in case they want to. There is also a Privacy Dashboard that is a one-stop location to see which apps have access to location, camera, microphone, etc.

You also get features like a sidebar, which lets you create a list of apps to launch in split-screen. Alternatively, you can also use the app as a Floating Window widget, which comes in handy while watching a cricket match and scrolling through social media on the side. Oppo’s custom Android skin has been offering customisation options for font, fingerprint animation, icon shapes, and sizes. The same can be found in ColorOS 12. Oh, by the way, the in-display fingerprint scanner is located slightly higher compared to what you get on other Oppo phones like the Oppo Reno 7 Pro (Review).

Coming to the performance bit, Oppo Find X5 Pro has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC at heart. We have seen the same chipset on flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy S22 (First Impressions), Samsung Galaxy S22+ (First Impressions), Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Review) and the iQOO 9 Pro (Review). In our initial impressions of all three Galaxy S22 series phones, we did mention that the phone gets slightly warmer. The iQOO 9 Pro, on the other hand, feels more optimised with regards to thermal management. The same is the case with the Oppo Find X5 Pro. I played many matches of BGMI on the trot and the phone did not break a sweat. Performance on this phone is butter smooth and the phone did not get warm even after an hour of BGMI gameplay with HD graphics and Extreme frame rate. This one time though when the game settings were set to HDR Graphics and Extreme frame rate, the phone got slightly warm to the touch. However, despite that, I did not experience any major performance issues while playing games on this one.

All this might be possible due to the multi-tier cooling system which has a large vapour chamber, a 3D graphene film and an ultra-thin graphene film that covers the screen and display IC. The cooling system ensures that the surface temperature remains low and does not hamper performance due to heating.

With regards to battery life, it is pretty solid for a flagship. The Oppo Find X5 Pro packs a 5000 mAh battery, which can last a day based on use case. For instance, if you watch some videos for an hour or so, scroll through your Instagram or Twitter feed, play games for like 30 minutes, etc., the device will offer around 6 hours of screen-on time (SoT). Bump the resolution further to QHD+ and the battery will die slightly faster. 

The Oppo Find X5 Pro also comes with an 80W fast charger in the box. During our Oppo Find X5 Pro review period, the phone charged completely in about 35 minutes, which is quite impressive. There is support for Oppo’s proprietary 50W AirVOOC wireless charging as well. 

Camera

One of the headline features of the Oppo Find X5 Pro is its camera setup. The phone has a triple-camera module that is curved into the rear panel for that unibody design. The Oppo Find X5 Pro camera module has two 50MP Sony IMX766 camera sensors. The ultrawide camera is not the widest at 110-degrees field of view but you get sharp images and good colours. The main camera also shoots vibrant pictures with ample detail in both day and lowlight. Sometimes though, the software oversaturated the images, which might make it Instagram-ready but that does not read right when you get to know about the company partnering with Hasselblad for a “Natural Colour Calibration”. This is not always the case but sometimes the sky does get slightly bluer than what it looks like in real. The camera also tends to boost the green colour sometimes. Those who love poppy colours might not complain at all. 

While we are at the Hasselblad tuning bit, Oppo has added some elements of Hasselblad’s camera experience in the Find X5 Pro camera app. For instance, the shutter is orange in colour and so are some of the text options. You also get the leaf shutter sound that one hears while clicking an image on Hasselblad cameras. There is also an X-Pan mode, which has a 65:24 wide aspect ratio.

The camera also features a five-axis optical image stabilisation setup that aids in shooting stable videos and handheld lowlight shots. Oppo has also introduced its custom-developed MariSilicon X NPU on the Find X5 Pro. The 6nm chip helps shoot better videos in lowlight and brings out better details in the shadows. I did shoot a couple of videos and the results are visible. Details in the darker areas were better and slightly more exposed. There will be noise but it is quite acceptable, especially for videos shot in the night. You also get an 8MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom, which is good enough for portrait shots. Oppo needs to get close to Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, especially when it has already introduced 60x hybrid zoom in the past. 

Selfies are good on the 32MP front camera once you turn off the beauty mode. While the details and dynamic range are good, the skin tone accuracy is hit or miss depending on the lighting situation. It isn’t very drastic but noticeable at times. Click here to check some of the sample images we shot during our Oppo Find X5 Pro review.

Verdict

Oppo Find X5 Pro packs everything that you would want from a premium flagship smartphone in 2022. It gets an excellent display, a powerful processor, a capable camera system and good battery life. It is also among the few flagship smartphones to come with a charging adapter in the box. I really liked the design on this one but in terms of colour preferences, if I could, I would opt for the White over mirror Black. I say if I could because the phone is not officially available for sale in India, which is kind of a bummer.

The phone has a standout design that many might appreciate. It also has all the bells and whistles for a true flagship experience on a premium smartphone. However, for reasons unknown to us, Oppo is refraining from making the Find X5 Pro available in the second-largest smartphone market in the world. Hopefully, the company considers bringing this to India soon. If not this, we would like to see Oppo experiment and make its presence felt in the ultra-premium segment.

Those looking for premium Android smartphones can check our iQOO 9 Pro review. There is also the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra for those who want the best of what Samsung has to offer.