OPPO Find X First Impressions: Extreme Innovation at a hefty price-point

OPPO Find X, probably the most anticipated flagship smartphone from Chinese 

smartphone maker has been finally introduced to the Indian audience. The Find X is a 

one-of-its-kind handset that pushes the mobile design limits to next level by 

incorporating motorized camera modules. The sliding camera structure is not a 

gimmick but a thoughtfully engineered mechanical structure that cleverly hides the 

important sensors and cameras to get away from the in-famous notch effect. OPPO 

Find X also offers the best-in-class hardware and latest software for flagship class user 

experience 

But the price of innovation and performance can be exorbitant and not everyone can afford 

it. OPPO Find X is priced at Rs. 59,999 in the Indian market, which puts the smartphone in 

competition with the rivals from most trusted and established names- Samsung and Apple

Design: Makes smartphones interesting again

OPPO Find X is visually appealing and technologically innovative. It might start a new trend 

in the mobile phone industry where smartphones can be interesting again and something to 

look forward to. The central element here is the motorized sliding structure that allowed 

OPPO to reach the best-in-class screen-to-body ratio of 93.8 %. It also puts an end to much-

talked Apple given notch shaped displays.The sliding structure houses an infrared camera, a 

ranging sensor, a receiver, a front camera, a dot projector and the rear dual-camera. The 

motorized structure automatically stretches out when unlocked or when you fire up the 

camera. It cleverly retracts when not in use. The innovative and futuristic design element is 

achieved by using coaxial line sliding, a vortex structure, and a silent motor.During my brief 

testing, I found the sliding module to be quick in firing up the cameras and the whole 

process is quite workable in real-life situations.

Gorgeous Metal-Glass construction

And talking about the look and feel, OPPO Find X is bound to turn heads. It is a gorgeous 

piece of metal and glass that feels super premium in hands. The design reminds me of the 

Samsung's high-end Galaxy S smartphones as OPPO Find X also features gentle curves on 

front and rear. The curved edges also improve the grip when holding the smartphone. 

Importantly, the Find X is easy to use with one hand even though it sports a massive 6.42-

inch screen.You will also get Gorilla Glass 5 protection on both front and back; however, the 

smartphone is not water-dust resistant which a big disappointment. The smartphone will be 

available in Bordeaux Red and Glacier Blue color variants.

Display: No-notch edge-to-edge Full HD+ AMOLED display

OPPO Find X sports 6.42-inch panoramic arc screen with a dual-arc design. The Full HD+ 

AMOLED display is crisp and very touch responsive. The colors look vibrant and the display 

comes in 19.5:9 aspect ratio to offer a wider view. The Find X has very thin borders, 1.65mm 

on the left and right, 1.91mm on the top border, and 3.4mm on the bottom that results in an 

impressive and best-in-class screen-to-body ratio of 93.8%. It is a gorgeous display and will 

come as a delight for gaming and multimedia playback.

Camera: Motorized Camera modules

Oppo Find X steals the limelight with its one-of-its-kind motorized camera module. The 

retractable module lifts to reveal the triple-lens camera setup which looks pretty slick in 

action. Unlike Vivo Nex, which uses just one mechanical part for selfie camera, OPPO has 

engineered a complete solution for front and rear cameras. You need to see it with your own 

eyes to understand how futuristic it looks in action. The motorized camera block houses the 

dual rear camera and 3D facial recognition setup that uses an IR sensor. The IR sensor uses 

laser projection to analyze 15,000 recognition spots on the human face for secure unlocking 

of the device. As far as camera specification and performance is concerned, OPPO Find X 

sports a massive 25MP front-facing camera, which OPPO calls the 3D Stealth camera. The 

selfie camera uses Sony IMX576 sensor and works on f/2.0 aperture. The selfie camera can 

detect 296 facial feature points and also features iPhone X like portrait lighting modes. The 

selfie camera captures crisp shots and also allows you to capture bokeh images. For rear 

cameras, OPPO Find X uses 16MP+20MP camera setup with OIS (optical image 

stabilization). The camera heavily utilizes Artificial Intelligence to enhance photography 

experience. As per OPPO, the rear cameras of the Find X can intelligently recognize 21 

photography modes and automatically fine-tune the final output. We took some shots in 

daylight and were impressed by the speed and image detailing. We will test the OPPO Find 

X's camera in detail in our comprehensive review.

Hardware: High-end CPU with ample RAM

OPPO Find X packs some serious power under the hood. The smartphone is powered by the 

best-in-class Snapdragon 845 CPU and has 8GB of RAM for multitasking. There's 128GB 

internal memory which could be enough for most of the users.

Software: Android Oreo with OPPO’s ColorOS

OPPO Find X runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with OPPO's Color OS 5.1 interface. The UI runs 

smoothly on screen; however, it isn't as intuitive and clean as stock Android. If you have 

used OPPO's phones in past, you would not find any difficulty, but if you are planning to 

shift from a stock Android device,you might not find it user-friendly at first and install some 

launcher app to feel at home. Nevertheless, we will spend more time with OPPO Find X to 

find out its strength and weakness in the software department.

Futuristic design but with some big compromises

The pure bezel-less design and motorized pop-up camera architecture is achived by making 

some big compromises. OPPO Find X lacks some basic mobile design features such as 

microSD card slot, fingerprint scanner, and 3.5mm headphone jack. As there's no 

fingerprint scanner, you will have to rely on the face recognition technology. We were not 

completely able to gauge the security aspects of OPPO's face-recognition technology at the 

demo zone, and will evaluate the performance in our comprehensive review of the 

smartphone. Besides, you will only have to rely on Bluetooth headphones as there's no 

standard 3.5mm headphone jack in OPPO Find X. As far as storage is concerned, you will 

have to store all your multimedia content and apps in 128GB internal memory. You cannot 

expand the internal memory as there's no microSD card slot

Battery and Connectivity

OPPO Find X is powered by a sizable 3,730mAh battery unit.The smartphone is also packed 

with OPPO's VOOC fast charging technology that as per OPPO offers up to two-hours of 

talk-time with just five minutes of charging.It's a pretty bold claim that we are quite eager to 

test in the coming weeks. As far as connectivity is concerned, OPPO Find X offers Wi-Fi, 

Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type C port, FM, NFC, Dual VoLTE.Sadly, wireless charging is excluded 

to keep the cost down.

verdict

OPPO Find X is extremely innovative and a bold attempt to challenge the likes of Samsung 

and Apple's dominance in the premium smartphone segment. It is futuristic yet very much 

practical which makes me give 10 out of 10 to OPPO for its thoughtful engineering and 

innovative approach. But as I mentioned at the start of my first impressions of Find X, 

would you pay a hefty amount of Rs. 60,000 for a product that comes from the brand which 

is largely associated with budget and mid-range smartphones? Or you would simply go for 

an iPhone or a Samsung smartphone in the premium category that has been ruling the 

charts for quite a while. 

Let us know in comments and stay tuned for our detailed review of OPPO Find X.