Oppo Find X8 Pro Review: Many Steps Forward, One Step Back

Oppo’s newest flagship phone, the Find X8 Pro, is the first phone in this series to return to the global stage after the last two models remained China-exclusive, and with the return come several noticeable quality of life improvements.

The Find X8 Pro is among the sleekest and lightest top-tier flagship phone out right now, measuring just 8.5mm and weighing 215g, and its camera bump (a part of the phone that modern manufacturers do not take into account when measuring thickness) does not protrude from the phone nearly as much as other Chinese flagship handsets.

While I personally prefer the two-tone aesthetic of the Find X6 Pro and Find X7 Ultra, I must admit those phones were bulky and top-heavy, and the Find X8 Pro is more comfortable to hold.

The Find X8 Pro also offers a flawless quad-curved OLED screen, packs the latest silicon from MediaTek, the Dimensity 9400, and features a large 5910 mAh battery with fast charging. And because this phone is launching globally (outside China), there’s native support for Google apps and Google’s suite of generative AI features. There’s a lot to like here.

But the camera system seems to have taken, if not a step back, a step sideways? On paper, it’s still an impressive setup: the main camera has four 50-megapixel shooters, including two Periscope zoom lenses. Photos snapped by the phone are generally good, look bright, punchy, and correct exposure.

But the sensors of all four cameras shrunk in size compared to previous Oppo Find X devices, and I find this a hard pill to swallow. The main camera is a 1/1.4-inch sensor, 40% smaller than the 1-inch sensor used in the Find X6 Pro and Find X7 Ultra. The ultra-wide camera sensor is tiny compared to the sensors used in the Find X3 and X5 phones from 3-4 years ago. Even the 3X Periscope zoom has a smaller sensor than last year’s phone.

I know sensor size isn’t the sole factor in determining camera quality — software image processing is important too — but when those previous Find X phones were launched, Oppo spent the bulk of the marketing talking about how those phone cameras had bigger sensors than everyone else.

I don’t think you can spend 2021 to 2023 telling us that larger sensors are better, and then give us smaller sensors across the board in 2024 and just ignore that.

Again, I want to reiterate: the Find X8 Pro cameras are capable of snapping great photos — look at the samples below.

But the smaller sensor does hold it back at times, and the camera system falls short of rival devices from Vivo or Xiaomi. The shutter speed of the 6X zoom is relatively slow in low light conditions, resulting in blurry shots more often than with, say, the Vivo X200 Pro. The smaller sensors means less light intake, so all four lenses require night mode more than usual. To be fair, I don’t think most people would notice these compromises.

That’s about the only gripe I have with the phone — everything else is top notch. The software is fluid, and has Oppo AI built-in. Oppo’s AI is partly its own innovation, and partly leveraging the powers of Google’s Gemini LLM (large language model). The Find X8 Pro can, for example, identify text on the screen and translate to another language with a tap. It can conduct a Google image search on anything showing on the phone screen. It’s got generative AI photo editing, and fun AI portrait generator.

Battery life is excellent, able to last all day on a single charge, and the 80W fast charging with charger included is much welcomed.

While I think the cameras are not as great as Vivo’s best phones, Oppo’s software is better (more optimized for a global audience), and the Find X8 Pro selling throughout Asia and parts of Europe gives it much wider appeal. In China, the Find X8 Pro is already on sale for about $750 after converting from China price. I expect the price to remain similar in Southeast Asia, and maybe an extra $150 or so in Europe. This is one of the better all-rounder phone right now.