I tried a new Android handset that takes some of the BEST zoomed photos I’ve seen on a phone – the battery is huge too

Before the general public saw it, I had the opportunity to test out a brand-new Android phone that is trying to attract attention.

When it comes to Android, Oppo might not be the first company that springs to mind, but in recent years, it has challenged competitors like Samsung.

The Find X8 Pro marks the return of the company’s flagship phones to the UK market, which have been missing for nearly three years.

There are many reasons to prefer Oppo phones, including their powerful batteries, stunning cameras, and elegant designs.

I have been testing the Oppo Find X8 Pro for the past week.

And this is how I proceeded.

Oppo Find X8 Pro: Look and feel

Although I’ve never been a fan of large, intimidating cameras, I can overlook them because this is a quad setup and the pictures are excellent.

For what it’s worth, Oppo has made it look sleek by packing the lenses into a circular shape.

It has an aluminum frame with quad-curved glass on the front and back. The back has a subtle texture that makes it easy to grasp.

Space Black and Pearl White, which I’m testing, are the two colors that are available.

At 4500 nits, the 6.78-inch AMOLED display is extremely bright—in fact, among the brightest you’ll find.

Oppo Find X8 Pro: Performance and features

The MediaTek Dimensity 9400, which powers the Find X8 Pro, maintained lag-free performance during gaming and app switching.

The new AI features are also powered by this.

Whether you like AI or not, Oppo has no intentions to charge for it, unlike competitors like Samsung, who are still debating whether or not to charge more for Galaxy products.

While AI Speak reads pages to you and AI Summary extracts important information from a page, many AI tricks are for photos.

It is powered by ColorOS 15, which is based on the most recent version of Android 15.

The Find X8 Pro’s equivalent of Apple’s Dynamic Island, which arranges media and other components in a pill-like form at the top of your screen, is part of ColorOS.

I truly dislike the bloatware that comes pre-installed on the Find X8 Pro, such as Temu.

• Oppo Find X8 Pro – buy now for 1049 at Oppo.com

ColorOS 15 is actually a quite good version of Android, even though I typically prefer a pure Android experience.

As our box below demonstrates, Oppo has promised to offer updates until 2030, which isn’t the longest available.

With a new sharing feature, Oppo is attempting to close the gap between different devices, especially the iPhone, in addition to AI.

Similar to AirDrop, the Find X8 Pro can share files, but the iPhone on the receiving end needs to have the O+ Connect app loaded in order to accept them.

Sharing files was a bit faster than normal, but it didn’t detract from AirDrop’s overall ease of use.

Oppo Find X8 Pro: Battery

At 5,910 mAh, the Oppo Find X8 Pro’s battery appears to be fairly large.

In contrast, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has 5000 mAh and the iPhone 16 Pro Max has 4685 mAh.

What counts, though, is how the phone uses all that battery life and whether it is long-lasting.

Fortunately, I’ve been able to make good use of it for a day and a half, doing a variety of tasks like browsing, chatting, watching movies, and using the camera.

I haven’t been able to observe the fastest possible charging speed because it doesn’t come with an 80W wired charger.

Oppo Find X8 Pro: Camera

The Find X8 Pro really shines when it comes to the camera.

Although it lacks the 200 megapixels of the Galaxy S24 Ultra, its quad camera setup’s 50 megapixels produces some truly amazing images.

Thanks to AI, which takes over when you go over 60x, the zoom may go a very long way without sacrificing quality.

In order to get finer details of things like the rows of windows, I was able to take crisp close-up images of buildings from one side of the River Thames to the other.

Unsurprisingly, zooming at night produced less than ideal images. When I tried to zoom in on Paris’s beautiful Eiffel Tower, everything turned into a blur.

Even though there were some hazy clouds visible above, the historic event looked incredibly lovely when zoomed out, capturing a very natural photo.

During a performance by The Corrs at the O2, I also tested the camera, and even though there was a lot of movement, the zoomed-in images and videos looked fantastic. But I did think that certain photos were a little too softened by the AI improvements.

A reflection elimination tool is one of the AI features, although it didn’t really make a difference.

By just moving my finger from side to side to zoom, the new Quick button, which was inspired by the iPhone 16’s Camera Control, made shooting pictures much simpler.

Oppo Find X8 Pro: Conclusion

In addition to being incredibly user-friendly, the Oppo Find X8 Pro captures some of the most stunning images I’ve ever seen on a smartphone.

It’s almost enough to overlook the hench lens zone on the back.

I can say the same for the operating system too, which is one of the best looking versions of Android I’ve seen – if only it wasn’t let down by bloatware.

The battery is another big plus with plenty of juice to keep you going.

But some of the AI tools need improving, like reflection removal.

At 1049 the handset doesn’t come cheap but it’s less than the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s launch price.

Score: 4.5 out of 5.

• Oppo Find X8 Pro – buy now for 1049 at Oppo.com

All prices in this article were correct at the time of writing, but may have since changed.

Always do your own research before making any purchase.