Oppo’s latest mobile packs more camera chops than most phones, but it may not matter. We missed out on the Find X6, and we’ll probably miss out on the X7, too.
CES may well dominate the technology news cycle for the next week, but not every bit of news has to do with new tech specifically launching that’ll likely see release in Australia. Some of the news has nothing to do with CES and won’t likely see release locally, which is a shame given how neat some of it is.
Oppo has chimed in with news of its latest phone this week, beating Samsung’s announcement expected next week for what would essentially be the first phone of 2024, which now Oppo has managed to lay claim to.
There is a catch, however.
While Oppo’s phone announcement makes it the first phone of 2024, it’s also a model that we may not even see. Last year’s flagship Find X6, the follow-up to the lovely Hasselblad-connected Find X5, was nowhere to be found in Australia due to it not being released locally, even if the foldable models did rock up here.
The same lack of a release could very well be true for the new model, the Find X7 Ultra, which is a shame given how intriguing it looks.
The new phone sports. 6.82 inch QHD+ screen with a variable refresh rate, support for HDR, and runs on Qualcomm’s latest high-end chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, plus boasts some solid charging tech with support for a 100W Supervooc charger that can hit 100 percent in less than half an hour.
But the real excitement is on the back, as Oppo builds the first camera with two periscope cameras inside.
You can find one periscope camera on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, getting that 5X zoom nicely, and Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra also has a periscope camera for its 10x zoom. Each of these phones only has one of these special camera modules, and that’s where the Find X7 Ultra is different, incorporating two to let you get closer and offer a wider range of zoom.
As such, the Find X7 Ultra uses a periscope camera for 3X and 6X, while also using 50 megapixel sensors for each of the four cameras on the back, covering 0.6X, 1X, 3X, and 6X with 50 megapixels.
That combination of cameras not only means high-res imagery for every focal length, but a zoom range Oppo says is equivalent to 14mm to 270mm, with artificial intelligence working out the difference as you zoom between the fixed focal lengths on offer.
There are some technologies helping iron out the details, too, with an image engine Oppo calls “HyperTone” balancing colour and details to provide a look that isn’t washed out, plus a portrait mode tuned by Hasselblad and a “master mode” that offers RAW photography with up to 13 stops of dynamic range, both of which has come out of the partnership the two brands have right now.
Sadly, as exciting as the camera technology looks to be in the Find X7 Ultra, Australians may not ever get to experience it. We missed out on the launch of the Find X6 range, and the same may happen with the X7.
We’ll check with Oppo on whether there’s a chance it will arrive, but right now, the Find X7 is strictly a China release. Here’s hoping Oppo changes its mind and releases in our neck of the woods, as well.
