Beauty over usability. Oppo Find X - review

There are phones that are bought because they are objectively good in everything. There are those that have a good price / quality ratio, so the reason approves the purchase. And there is Oppo Find X. A phone that no one in the world can buy with mind, but with the heart - it's different.

I do not remember when I last used a smartphone so special. And if I had to point out, it would be Oppo N3 , which I tested years ago and which also captivated with its extraordinary character.

Oppo Find X is a device in which you can easily fall in love.

From the first removal from the box, this phone simply enchants with its beauty. And I can not tell which side is more - whether from the screen, surrounded by a thin frame, without indentation, holes and other peculiarities, or from the side of the glass casing, sparkling with colors depending on the angle of incidence of light.

In my hands I got this "uglier" (in my opinion), blue-aquamarine variant, but even it lit by the rays of the sun makes a stunning impression. Additionally enhanced by the biggest Oppo Find X distinguishing feature - slide out of the slider housing, hiding cameras.

I admit that after the foreign premiere of Find X I considered this slider unnecessary bajer. Being completely honest ... I still think so. However, I can not refuse the device of innovation and uniqueness, which this slider gives it. There is no second phone from which the camera would slide with the graceful (and delicate buzzing of the motor) from the case. There is no second phone in which the camera can not be seen at first glance. There is no other phone that has equally "clean" backs. There is no other phone like that, just. And even if the slider is not an indispensable element of the phone, even if it were art for art, it is a beautiful art.

Slider has forced the manufacturer a few compromises, which I will come back to, but in comparison with the uniqueness of this solution, these are completely swallowing issues.

Let's go back to the front.

Just like there is something amazing about using a phone with a retractable camera, there is something absolutely amazing about using a phone that is all screened. We will not find notch here, notches in the shape of a tear or a strange opening in the screen. The front is entirely covered by a glass sheet Gorilla Glass 5, under which there is a beautiful 6.4 "AMOLED display with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 px.

For my taste, its colors are a little saturated, but thanks to this content literally "spills out" from the screen. No other phone guarantees such immersion in the displayed content. Movies, games, even text in the reading application - everything looks amazing on Oppo Find X.

It looks and ... works.

Oppo Find X not only presents itself beautifully, but also does not disappoint from the parameters. The heart of this mobile art work is Snapdragon 845, supported by 8 GB RAM and as much as 256 GB of memory for data.

As you can guess, this configuration makes everything you see on the Oppo Find X screen is perfectly smooth and beautiful. The mobile games look great, and I did not get half cut during the whole test.

As for the "Chinese", however, Oppo Find X is characterized by quite aggressive RAM management and energy saving parameters. If you want to make sure that applications in the background will not be "whipped", and the power saving mode will not slow down the phone, it's better to spend a few minutes to adjust the settings right away.

Communing with Oppo Find X is a pleasure every day. With one rasp.

I had a lot of worries about using the top Oppo, especially when it comes to unlocking the device. Well, yes, there is no fingerprint reader, so you can unlock the screen only with password / PIN / pattern or three-dimensional face scan. Entering a password / PIN / pattern is annoying, so I gave the device to scan my face, expecting that the slider with the camera will not be pushed out on time.

I was wrong. The Oppo Find X slider slides out instantly as soon as you release the lock screen with your finger. The camera slides out, immediately scans the face and hides back in the housing. For almost three weeks of tests, the camera only once did not recognize me when I was wearing a hood. In addition, he was flawless and reliable, even in the dark.

I was not disappointed with the time of work. The battery with a capacity of 3730 mAh easily coped even on the most intense days; never once did I have to top up the phone before the end of the day, and as a rule I had over 30 percent. stock. For this, when it comes to recharging, we have the fastest in the world charging SuperVOOC, which will complement the battery from 0 to 100 percent. in just 35 minutes.

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of stereo speakers, the more so because the built-in loudspeaker at the bottom of the casing does not knock down either the volume or clarity of the sound. I was not bothered by the lack of a headphone connector, because once the set comes with a USB-C adapter for a 3.5 mm jack, and two that we have here Bluetooth 5.0, so the wireless audio quality is at the highest level.

In everyday use, I had only one problem - no NFC. And the lack of NFC is the lack of Google Pay. Lack of Google Pay is a necessity to remember about your wallet. And I do not like it.

For a long time now I have taken my wallet with me to my car, because I have a registration document and a driving license in it. I usually go out shopping with just the phone, paying by contactlessly via Android Pay. Oppo Find X unfortunately does not give this opportunity.

Some probably this lack will not bother me, but for me it is a very big minus.

Remaining at the minuses: Oppo Find X software is not fitting for its beautiful housing.

How to put it mildly ... Color OS 5.1, which manages the Oppo smartphone, is, oh, COLOR. Colorful in an absolutely unacceptable way for reason and human dignity on this side of the globe. The icons are ugly, variegated, inconsistent, brrr. With the Oppo overlay, even EMUI, MIUI or the LG overlay look thoughtful and aesthetic.

Fortunately, apart from the main screens (and the awesome application switching menu) it is quite nice, so it is enough to substitute the launcher for another one to be able to use Oppo Find X without compromising nystagmus.

Changing the launcher will not change the fact that Color OS 5.1 works on Android 8.1, not the latest 9.0. And even if Oppo Find X quickly receives an update, the experience with Chinese manufacturers teaches you that the question of software updates can not be taken for granted.

The camera impresses during the day. He disappoints at night.

Let me put it straight: I was hoping it would be better. During the day, Oppo Find X really charmed me with the quality of the photos. Maybe it is not yet Samsung Galaxy S or iPhone level, but there is plenty of missing.

The automaton has a tendency to set a bit too cold for my taste of white balance, but the colors are vivid, the focus is very good, and the autofocus operation is essentially flawless.

Oppo Find X has two main sensors - wide-angle with a resolution of 20 megapixels and tele with a resolution of 16 megapixels. Both have f / 2.0 brightness and, fortunately, there is no drastic difference in optical quality between them. At least during the day:

The portrait mode is also surprisingly good. I am surprised only by the fact that he uses a wide-angle lens instead of tele. The latter would allow you to get shots with much more natural proportions:

The front camera with a resolution of 25 megapixels is also great, although ... there is one "but". When taking a selfie, you have to be very careful about the angle at which you are facing lighting. The picture can go completely fine ...

... or with a strange, longitudinal flare, caused by the reflection of light from the edge of the casing. This is a design flaw - the front camera lens is just too close to the case.

Unfortunately, after dark Oppo Find X does not knock down.

Night shots from Oppo Find X, taken from the hand, look so bad that even in "sociale" I would not throw them in:

However, as long as we have enough light, Oppo Find X produces really beautiful shots. And after dark, it allows you to enjoy a social life, because the camera has no reason to pull it out of your pocket anyway.

Beauty over usability.

Oppo Find X is a smartphone with a unique universe, but for equipment costing PLN 3699, it is also a device full of compromises.

I've mentioned the absence of NFC and flint in the pictures taken with the front camera. Well, to the list of compromises you must also add a lack of waterproofness, filigree structure and the fact that in the slider gathering impossibly amounts of pollen and dirt. I have never had to clean the lens on my smartphone so often.

While slider did not cause any problems during a few weeks of testing, I would be worried about its longevity by buying such a phone. Slider is a movable element. And movable elements tend to fail, even if (as seen in the pictures of a transparent copy) it is a relatively simple mechanism.

There are those for whom all these compromises will not matter.

With Oppo Find X is a bit like with Alfa Romeo cars. They are no better than the competitors and they are going to break down quickly, but the buyers would not change them for anything else. Because Alpha has a "soul". A unique character.

The top Oppo smartphone is just like that. Unusual. Other than all smartphones. This is a remarkable show of innovation at a time when the formula of a smartphone was in fact unified, and therefore it heavily became commonplace. The Chinese were not afraid to break this common pattern.

Would I buy Oppo Find X myself? No. For PLN 3799, you can buy a much better device, however beautiful and uncompromising.

But if someone cares about the phone like no other, it's hard to find an equally unconventional choice as Oppo Find X. Although I would wait with the purchase anyway, until the price will slightly go down. At least up to two at the front.

Beauty over usability. Oppo Find X - review