Oppo Find X Review: Undeniable Wow Factor Makes It Worth The Risks
Oppo Find X is almost truly bezel-less.Ben Sin
I often call the smartphone industry the most competitive and cut-throat in all of consumer space. New phones are launched just about two or three weeks, each topping the previous in specs, design, power. Few, if any, other industry moves at this pace: a 2016 Honda Civic probably isn't much less powerful or lacking in features than a 2018 Civic, and a 2008 Chanel handbag may not be inferior to the 2018 version in any way. In smartphones? A week could make the difference between buzzworthy and old news.
In June I reviewed the Vivo Nex, an almost truly bezel-less phone that utilized a bunch of cutting-edge tech to skip the notch that Apple and others deemed as a necessary compromise. I ended the review with: "... if you're a gadget geek who's dreamed of a device that's all screen, then the Nex is the closet thing yet."
That "yet" lasted a week. The Nex was introduced on June 12; on June 19 Oppo introduced the Find X, which uses similar ideas as the Nex but in a more radical, eye-catching way. It's also a tiny bit more "bezel-less," with a screen-to-body ratio of 93.8% compared to the Nex's 92%.
Just like that, the Nex lost most of its buzz to the Find X on internet forums and tech sites. It's worth noting that Oppo and Vivo are owned by the same parent company -- this is how cut-throat the industry is.
I've been testing the Find X on and off over the past couple of weeks, and while I can't recommend it to the average consumer, I think it will likely go down as the most ambitious and attention-grabbing phone this year. And that alone makes it one of the standout handsets of the year.
Like the Nex, but next level
The Find X has a 6.3-inch OLED curved panel.Ben Sin
I've written often and in-depth about the bezel-shaving trend in mobile devices, so I'll keep it simple here: every mobile device maker wants to eliminate bezels as much as possible for reasons both superficial (it looks futuristic) and practical (it makes the device smaller, thus easier to hold).
But there are crucial smartphone components such as the proximity sensor and selfie camera that need bezel space. Apple decided on the compromise of the notch, a cut-out at the middle top part of the screen to house the required components, while leaving the rest of the screen almost bezel-free and borderless. Many Android manufacturers have since copied that idea (although Huawei claims it thought of the concept first).
Vivo's Nex fought against the idea by putting the selfie camera in a small pop-up module while hiding the proximity sensor, fingerprint reader and earpiece speaker underneath the display.
The Oppo Find X takes that pop-up idea further: instead of a small elevating mechanism like the Nex, the entire top portion of the Find X rises, and the pop-up module houses not just the selfie camera, rear-facing dual cameras, and a front-facing 3D face scanning sensor to boot. The latter is used to unlock the phone in a secure manner like the iPhone X. Oppo is so confident in its 3D face scanning system, it has eliminated the fingerprint reader completely.
The entire top portion of the phone elevates anytime you need to use the camera or unlock the Find X.Ben Sin
The Find X's back has a gradient color scheme that's either in this purple hue dubbed "Bordeaux red"...Ben Sin
...or "Glacier blue."Ben Sin
It's a radical, unique design. The earpiece has been shrunken to a tiny sliver, and the proximity sensor has been removed entirely in favor of new software that can do the same things. When the pop-up module is "closed," the Find X's front and back look completely smooth, without buttons, lenses, and indentations. With curved sides front and back and a shimmery, smooth glass back with either purple or blue gradient shades, the Find X feels and looks like a gemstone.
It's a design that certainly catches the eye, but there are the obvious concerns: Oppo has made the pop-up module crucial to our basic phone use. Users need to pop the module up every single time they unlock the phone, take a photo, or use QR-code based payment apps. It's entirely reasonable for a normal user to pop that module up and down 150 times a day or more. Use the Find X for two months, and the mechanism will have gone up and down close to 10,000 times. That's a lot of strain on a mechanical device.
Oppo promises the mechanism has been tested at least 300,000 times without issues, and so far I have not encountered problems at all, but ultimately a mechanical moving part has a higher chance of malfunction than non-moving parts.
At least the face-scanning system is a legitimate 3D scan à la Apple's Face ID and not the simplistic 2D version found in other Android phones right now. The time it takes for the module to rise up, scan my face, and unlock the phone is also fast, at about half a second, but not faster than the best fingerprint readers out there (on Huawei and OnePlus handsets).
Elsewhere, the Find X's hardware specs are top notch: Snapdragon 845 with 8GB of RAM; a gorgeous 6.4-inch OLED panel with curved sides, sourced directly from Samsung; a large 3,730 mAh battery. Even that pop-up camera module is surprisingly fast and powerful: a Sony IMX 519 main 16-megapixel lens paired with a 20-megapixel telephoto shooter. For selfies, it boasts a whopping 25-megapixel sensor. The only features the Find X lacks are wireless charging and water-proofing.
Software: get the international version if you can
The Find X runs Android 8.1 with Oppo's custom skin, ColorOS 5.2, on top. I tested both the China version and international version, and the latter is significantly better. It's not just because I'm a biased westerner to whom Google apps are crucial, the international ROM fixes many of the bugs that were present in the China version, such as overly aggressive battery management that breaks push notifications and the missing music player widget on lockscreen.
I found ColorOS to be aesthetically pleasing, with lovely animations. It has some useful gestures, too, such as swiping navigation and screen edge gestures to start split-screen mode. That clever hidden shortcuts menu that was found on the Oppo R15 Pro made its way here, too.
No app drawer on the Find X.Ben Sin
As mentioned earlier, the Chinese ROM unit tends to break push notifications, because it has an overzealous battery optimization algorithm that kills background app processes. It's not just an Oppo thing, this was an issue with older Huawei phones and still is an issue with China ROM versions of Xiaomi devices. There is a workaround to fix the issue on the China device, and it requires digging into settings and turning battery optimization off.
Here's the great news: even when you do turn battery optimization off, or even on the international version of the Find X without the heavy battery watchdog, the Find X's battery life is still superb. The main reason is because the 3,730 cell is large to begin with. On average, the phone almost always made it through an entire day without running out of juice.
Overall, Oppo's ColorOS is more enjoyable to use than Huawei's garish EMUI and Vivo's FunTouch OS. I'd still rank Xiaomi's MIUI ahead though.
Pop-up camera impresses
The dual cameras on the back are surprisingly good.Ben Sin
Considering the pop-up nature of the camera, even a slow response time could ruin the camera experience, but I've been pleasantly surprised Find X over and over during testing. It took on average half a second from tapping the camera icon to the module fully extended and ready to shoot. I launched the Find X's camera side-by-side with several other phones and the Find X camera was ready faster than the Samsung Galaxy S9+; about the same as the iPhone X; but slower than the Huawei P20 Pro.
Once elevated, the phone's main camera can produce balanced, clean images. The secondary camera seems to be mostly used as a depth sensor for bokeh shots, which turn out well, with a natural depth of field blur and on-point edge detection.
A bokeh portrait of my friend.Ben Sin
I'm most impressed by the Find X's low light capabilities, because previous phones by the company had suffered in that area. The Find X's relatively large 1.22µm pixel size seems to help. Images at night are well-detailed and low in noise.
A shot in Shenzhen with the Oppo Find X.Ben Sin
Here's the Find X holding its own against the Samsung Galaxy S9+.
Find X (left); Galaxy S9+ (right).Ben Sin
Of course, the Find X doesn't quite beat the S9+ (or Huawei P2o Pro) in low light photography. The above image looked comparable on a smaller screen, but once I viewed both at 100% size and zoomed in, the Galaxy S9's shot was more detailed with fewer soft edges.
The Find X's camera can also identify objects and recognize scenes, a trick first introduced by the Huawei Mate 1o Pro, but the Find X's A.I. scene detection didn't result in any noticeable improvements during my testing.
Shot with manual controls with slow shutter speed to capture the rain drops.Ben Sin
The Find X can recognize scenes and objects, correctly identifying this cat.Ben Sin
There's also an "A.I. beauty mode" that uses the phone's 3D facial scanning system to first create a realistic (but creepy) 3D model of your head, then apply cosmetic changes accordingly to your liking, such as a slimmer nose.
Below are two screenshots of the beauty mode in action. Notice the 3D model is photo-realistic, but makes me look like a soulless zombie. From there, I can give my chin more of a V shape or enlarge my eyes.
The 3D model of my face is on the right.Ben Sin
The cool factor
I'd be lying if I said that I didn't encounter concerns during my days testing the Find X. On one rainy night, I was walking down a dark alley and had to turn on the flashlight. It was then I realized that the flashlight sensor was also located in the elevating module, which meant I had to keep the pop-up module raised while walking in the rain, leaving me concerned that raindrops would hit the exposed area and find its way through gaps into the phone's guts.
The Find X survived that experience just fine, but the fact I even worried about it highlights the problem with the Find X for the average consumer: it ultimately feels like a fragile phone. It's almost completely shiny, smooth, slippery glass, and it has a moving part that slides up and down 150 times a day. Few, if any, cases will be available that can cover the entire phone too.
To the average person, that's probably a risky proposition, considering that a OnePlus 6 or the Vivo Nex offers similar power and large-screen feel at a lower price tag and with fewer risks.
But with that said, I often found myself marveling at the Find X throughout my testing period. The curved, borderless OLED screen; the shimmery gradient purple/blue tints; it's a stunner of a device.
The Find X is the most bezel-less phone yet.Ben Sin
And one night, at dinner, I took the phone out for a photo, only for the man sitting next table to exclaim, "Whoa! What phone is that? That looks so cool."
That Find X's "wow factor" is undeniable. And to tech geeks, that may be worth all the trouble.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bensin/2018/08/13/oppo-find-x-review-undeniable-wow-factor-makes-it-worth-the-risks/
Post a Comment