Oppo Find X7 Ultra review

Best Prices Today: Oppo Find X7 Ultra

The Find X7 Ultra is Oppo’s top-of-the-line flagship smartphone for 2024, standing out with a beastly camera system and a striking design. It launched in early January but it’s currently only on sale in China, and at the moment, it seems that’s where it’s destined to stay. Oppo is the parent company of OnePlus, and if a OnePlus 12 Ultra were to exist, it would probably look just like this.

With such a stacked spec sheet, you might consider importing this phone. Be warned, though, that doing so comes with some frustrations. There are plenty of system elements that are untranslated and there are some settings to tweak to get Google services enabled.

That said, I was very excited to see if it’d be worth the hassle. It’s the first phone to come with dual periscope telephoto lenses, and by all accounts, it should give camera-focused flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Vivo X100 Pro a run for their money. After living with the Find X7 Ultra in my pocket for a week, here’s what I learned.

Design & Build

• Beautiful two-tone finish
• Curved edges front and back
• IP68 certified

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra has a unique two-tone finish, and I absolutely love the way it looks. I was sent the Ocean Blue option for testing, which has navy blue vegan leather covering the lower portion of the rear, and a contrasting high-gloss white finish on the top.

The camera module and the frame come in a shiny metallic silver finish, it’s very classy and a bit nautical. It’s the perfect phone to whip out at the Yacht club, not that I’ve ever been anywhere near one of those.

If you prefer something more subtle, there’s also a Tailored Black colourway, which shifts everything to a monochromatic black and dark grey tone. Or, there’s Sepia Brown, which is essentially the same as the Ocean Blue option, but the leather-effect material is brown.

There’s no denying that the camera bump is verging on ridiculous, but personally, I think it looks quite cool. The edge of the massive circular camera housing also serves as a comfortable place to rest your forefinger when using the phone one-handed.

It’s quite a large phone and it’s not especially light either, weighing 221g. Despite its size, though, it’s very comfortable to hold, thanks to a curved edge display and matching curves on the rear panel. The result is a phone that feels slimmer than it actually is.

if you’re brave enough, you could happily use it without a case

With a vegan leather rear, the phone is very grippy and resistant to fingerprint smudges. So, if you’re brave enough, you could happily use it without a case. However, you don’t need to, as there’s a matte navy blue TPU case included in the box. It’s nothing too special, but it protects the phone well and looks a lot better than the transparent ones that you usually see.

There’s a three-position alert slider on the left-hand side, much like the one on the OnePlus 12. This allows you to quickly switch between silent, noisy and VIP modes. The latter disables the camera and microphone to ensure privacy, which is not something I’ve ever felt that I needed, but could be useful for people who do something more secretive than writing about phones all day.

The haptic feedback is impressive, and it feels like there’s a genuine mechanical clunk when you hit the camera shutter, for example. It’s great for typing, too, feeling precise and powerful, but I had to tweak some settings to get it enabled on the keyboard, as it was off by default.

The phone has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, so you can confidently use it on trips to the beach, or for sea-faring adventures. The closest I got was some rain showers, though.

Screen & Speakers

• 6.82-inch AMOLED display
• Quad HD+ resolution
• 120Hz adaptive refresh rate
• Dual stereo speakers

The display has an ample 1440×3168 resolution and a dynamic refresh rate that can boost up to 120Hz. It’s a spacious screen and it’s very sharp and vibrant.

One of the standout features is its brightness output, which is said to deliver up to 4500 nits at peak. In normal use, you won’t be coming close to these eye-melting brightness levels, but it means that you can rest assured that this display will compete with even the most intense summer sunlight. 

the phone feels slimmer in your hand and gesture controls feel smooth thanks to the rounded edges.

As mentioned, the Oppo Find X7 Ultra has a curved-edge display, which I’m not always the biggest fan of, but it works well here. For starters, the curve seems tighter than it is on other phones, so the areas that you actually touch are essentially flat. You sort of get the best of both worlds, as it feels like a flat display for the most part, but the phone feels slimmer in your hand and gesture controls feel smooth thanks to the rounded edges.

HDR content looks fantastic on this display, with the deep inky blacks that OLED panels are known for, contrasting with dazzling highlights. I should note, however, that Netflix refused to play in HDR due to DRM certification issues, which isn’t ideal, and hopefully is something that gets addressed in future updates. YouTube HDR content worked fine, at least.

The display supports Dolby Vision, but with Netflix not playing ball, you might struggle to find Dolby Vision content to watch. On the other hand, you can record videos in Dolby Vision using the native camera app, so there’s still some utility here.

There are plenty of customisation options in the OS if you’d like to tweak the way colours are displayed. You get three main profiles, Natural, Pro and Vivid, and each one has its own colour wheel that allows you to shift the colour temperature and tint. There’s also the option to use the phone’s media processing engine to sharpen low-resolution images, or even convert SDR content to HDR.

If you suffer from eye strain you’ll be pleased to know that the Oppo Find X7 Ultra boasts a 2160Hz PWM dimming rate, ensuring low flicker at all brightness levels. There are also low blue light options available in the OS, as you’ll find with most devices these days.

The phone has dual stereo speakers and they’re quite capable. There’s more bass than you’ll find on most phones, and great clarity, too. They can get very loud, but they do start to distort at maximum volume.

Overall, I was very impressed with the speakers, but one thing bothered me; if you’re holding the phone horizontally, it’s almost impossible not to muffle one of the speakers, due to their positioning. At least they always sound their best when held vertically.

Specs & Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• 12/16GB RAM
• 256/512GB storage

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra runs on Qualcomm’s most powerful SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. We’ve already witnessed this chip’s blazing-fast performance in handsets like the OnePlus 12 and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, so it’s not too surprising to see it performing well here, too.

My test unit came with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, but the phone is also available with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage. In any case, it has plenty of memory for multitasking, and it can be virtually expanded if you feel you need more.

You can run almost any game in the Play Store at maximum settings

In use, the phone feels speedy and responsive in all situations, animations are smooth and apps open in a flash. You can run almost any game in the Play Store at maximum settings, and the phone stays reasonably cool in the process. 

There’s a built-in game overlay which gives you access to the usual goodies like performance modes, notification blocking and network optimisation. It’s more feature-packed than you’ll find on most phones, but not quite on the level of gaming-focused handsets like the RedMagic 9 Pro. Well, as far as I can tell, some elements in these menus are displayed in Chinese, so it might be more capable than I realise.

I noticed the phone start to heat up after a lengthy Genshin Impact session with “Gaming mode” active, but it never became uncomfortable to hold, and the performance stayed rock solid throughout.

You can see all our usual benchmark tests below compared to key rivals. Note that GFXBench would not go over 60fps despite the phone being capable of higher framerates.

Oppo Find X7 Ultra Benchmarks

the camera system here might just be the most capable of any smartphone on the market right now.

Cameras

• 50Mp 1-inch main sensor
• 50Mp ultrawide
• 50Mp dual periscope zooms
• 32Mp selfie camera with autofocus

It’s clear from the outset that this phone is largely about camera performance, with such a massive camera array on the rear, it almost looks more like a camera than a phone.

Thankfully, this design is justified, as the camera system here might just be the most capable of any smartphone on the market right now.

There are four cameras on the back. The main camera has Sony’s second-generation 1-inch sensor, which should give it an advantage over the 1-inch sensor in the Oppo Find X6 Pro and Xiaomi 13 Ultra. It’s a stacked sensor, which should mean that it’s more sensitive to light, while also drawing less power in use.

This meaty main sensor is joined by an ultrawide camera and dual periscope zooms, one with a 2x focal length and another with a 6x. All of the rear cameras are 50Mp and have colours and image processing that closely match, so it doesn’t look jarring when you switch between cameras while shooting video, for example.

The selfie camera has a 32Mp resolution and comes with autofocus, which is still something of a rarity. Now that both the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Pixel 8 Pro have adopted it, though, I have a feeling it’ll become more common. It essentially means that your selfie snaps are always sharp and detailed, no matter if you’re up close, or at arm’s length for a group shot.

The results from this fully stacked camera lineup are wonderful. The large main sensor allows for excellent low-light capture and can create some lovely natural bokeh without needing to fake it in portrait mode. To be completely honest, I didn’t notice a huge generational difference compared to the 1-inch snapper of the Vivo X90 Pro, but that already performed incredibly well, so it’s no bad thing.

The other standout lens is the 3x periscope zoom, which has one of the largest sensors that I’ve seen on a smartphone telephoto camera, at 1/1.56-inch. When combined with the compression of the longer focal length, it allows for a very shallow depth of field, and you can snap photos that look like they came from a DSLR rather than a smartphone.

The ultrawide is a little more run-of-the-mill, but it’s still very useful, and the high resolution ensures that there’s plenty of detail. The same can be said for the 6x telephoto, but it’s good enough to trade blows with the 5x zoom of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and that’s no mean feat.

The image processing, which was tuned in collaboration with Hasselblad, makes for some very realistic colour rendition, and there’s less exaggeration and oversaturation than you’ll find with some competing brands. Images come out looking sharp and detailed, even with moving subjects and in dim lighting. Dynamic range is impressive, too, and depending on your shooting mode, you can capture ProXDR shots that will display in HDR in the gallery.

The portrait mode is very reliable, and I even managed to get good results with fast-moving animals, though as usual, it works best with people. There are some very nice-looking filters to accompany the effect, and I was continually surprised at how well the phone managed to isolate stray strands of hair.

At night, the large sensors of the main camera and the 3x will allow you to reduce the exposure time and avoid motion blur, but with night mode activated, you can achieve excellent shots with all of the lenses. There were some instances where night mode was able to pick out details that I could barely see with my own eyes, what more could you ask for?

When it comes to shooting videos, all cameras support up to 4K/60fps. I was a little surprised to see a lack of 8K recording, but in fairness, I never use it when it is there. The stabilisation is solid and the microphones sound good, so long as there’s not too much wind hitting them. 

Battery Life & Charging

• 5000mAh battery
• 100W wired fast charging
• 50W wireless charging

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra has a 5000mAh battery, which is about typical for a modern flagship phone.

It supports up to 100W wired charging and this incredibly speedy charger is included in the box. You can also charge the phone wirelessly at up to 50W, but you’ll need a very specific charger to achieve these speeds.

In my experience, the battery life was good, if unremarkable. It saw me through an average day’s use with ease, and if I was doing something a little more battery-intensive like shooting lots of photos and videos or gaming, then it’d still make it to the end of the day, just about.

In fact, it’s faster than a lot of flagships will charge with a cable inserted.

Still, that’s all you really need, and when you have such speedy charging capabilities, it becomes less of a concern. The included charger will zap the phone from completely dead to 50% charged in just over 10 minutes, while a full charge takes less than half an hour.

I just so happened to have Oppo’s AirVooc 50W wireless charger on hand, too, and I chose to charge with that most of the time. It’s incredibly convenient, you just stick the phone on the stand while you’re at your desk and it’ll charge super fast.

In fact, it’s faster than a lot of flagships will charge with a cable inserted.

Software & Apps

• ColorOS 14
• Based on Android 14
• Designed for the Chinese market

Thus far, the Oppo Find X7 Ultra has impressed on all fronts, but it’s with the software that things get a little complicated. This phone has only been officially launched in China, and that means that the software isn’t very Westernised. 

To begin with, it doesn’t come with Google Mobile Services enabled, and you have to sideload the Play Store to get access to your usual app library. It’s not a difficult process, but it does mean that things aren’t quite guaranteed to work as you’d expect.

I didn’t run into any massive issues during my testing, but there were a few strange things like I wouldn’t always get my Gmail notifications. However, this could just be related to Oppo’s overly-enthusiastic battery optimisation measures. You need to go into the settings menu and disable optimisation for all of your important apps if you want to get notifications in a timely manner.

When you first boot up the phone, you’ll be greeted with a lot of bloatware, and with the exception of TikTok, it’s pretty much all aimed at Chinese customers. So you probably won’t be able to use any of it. Thankfully, it’s easy to uninstall the lot, but it’s a bit of a tedious process to go through on such a high-end phone.

If you selected English during the setup process, most of the OS will be in English, but I frequently found areas and features that hadn’t been translated. For example, the AI assistant, Breeno, is all in Chinese, and there’s no way to switch it to English or swap it to Google Assistant. A lot of the search functionality appears in Chinese, too.

Otherwise, ColorOS has some nice features, and probably plenty more that I can’t access due to the language barrier. There’s lots of customisation, and it’s quick and easy to navigate. These small frustrations add up, though, and for most people, it won’t be worth the hassle.

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra is an absolute beast of a smartphone.

Price & Availability

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra is only available in China, where it retails for CNY 5,999. However, you can also find it available for import through sites like Wonda Mobile, Giztop and AliExpress. Pricing varies, but you can expect to pay around £800/$1000 for an imported model.

Oppo has not announced any plans to bring the Find X7 Ultra to other regions, but I’d love to see that change. The Find X6 Pro never got an international launch, and at MWC 2024, although the firm announced its return to Europe, it also said it won’t be until the next generation that we’ll see a Find series arrive.

Since it’s not available in the UK, you won’t find any contract options, so the best alternative is to find a good SIM-only deal. However, you’ll likely have a better overall experience with a device that has been officially launched in Europe. 

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is another top-tier photographic performer, but it’ll cost you more, starting at £1,249/$1299. The Pixel 8 Pro is also amazing in the camera department, but you won’t get quite the same processing performance if that matters. That phone carries an MSRP of £999/$999, and can often be found discounted.

Otherwise, see our chart of the best smartphones and best camera phones for more options.

Should you buy the Oppo Find X7 Ultra?

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra is an absolute beast of a smartphone.

It impresses in almost all areas, with a gorgeous design, speedy performance, a stunning display and some of the most capable cameras that you’ll find in a smartphone today. I genuinely think it could be one of the best phones of the year, but there’s a problem.

Since the phone won’t launch internationally, the only way to get one in the UK, US or Europe is to import. This means you’re stuck with software that’s not optimised for Western customers, and the quirks and untranslated features are sure to cause irritation – not to mention sideloading Google Services.

As much as I love this phone, ultimately, it was a relief when I popped my SIM back into a phone with better localisation. That said, if you’re a bit of a tinkerer, you could definitely live with this as your main device.

There’s even a case to be made for using it as a replacement for a compact camera, because the photos are really that impressive.

Specs

• ColorOS 14, based on Android 14
• 6.82in, 3168×1440, AMOLED, 120Hz, curved display
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• 12GB / 16GB RAM
• 256GB / 512GB storage
• Cameras:
  • 50Mp, f/1.8 main camera (1-inch)
  • 50Mp f/2.0 ultra-wide
  • 50Mp f/2.6 3x telephoto
  • 50Mp f/4.3 6x telephoto
  • 32Mp front-facing camera with autofocus
• Up to 4K @ 60fps rear video
• Stereo speakers
• Dual-SIM
• Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be), Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), 802.11a/b/g/n/
• Bluetooth 5.4
• 5000mAh battery
• 100W wired charging
• 50W wireless charging
• 164.3 x 76.2 x 9.5 mm
• IP68 certified
• 221g
• Colours: Tailored Black, Ocean Blue, Sepia Brown

Best Prices Today: Oppo Find X7 Ultra