Introduction:
This is the first time that Oppo has included the word “Ultra” in a top-end flagship, and I have to say it’s been worth the wait because the Find X7 Ultra is the most ultimate smartphone I have ever tested.
Inside its premium box, you’ll find the device itself, a rubberized case which unfortunately doesn’t match the look of the actual phone, a very thick 10 amp charging cable, and a very fast 100W Super VOOC charging block. The Oppo X7 Ultra recently launched in China with a starting price of 5999 Chinese Yuan, which works out to roughly $840. Prices are exactly the same as its predecessor’s launch prices, which is quite insane considering so much has been upgraded. Its biggest drawback, however, is that just like the Find X6 Pro before it, there is no word on its future global availability. It is, for now, a China-exclusive only.
Camera & Specification:
Well, if you love technology as much as I do, then you’re going to want to stick around for the remainder of this blog because this is the world’s first smartphone to house two Periscope telephoto cameras, which explains the ginormous camera module on the back. The cosmos ring is largely similar to last year’s, aside from the flash, which now sits outside the lens. The Hasselblad logo is no longer fully spelled out, and there’s now a straight track on the rim to mimic aperture rings of professional lenses.
The next-gen hypertone imaging engine has been improved to prevent unnatural HDR effects, overexposure, and oversharpening, which results in more true-to-life photography. Lens reflection has now been reduced by an extra 50% thanks to the new customized glass lens, which sits on top of four flagship-leading 50-megapixel sensors, and three of them offer optical image stabilization. The only camera that hasn’t changed here is the three times optically zoomed Periscope telephoto camera, which is the same Sony IMX 890 sensor. There’s a second Periscope as well, which is the Sony IMX 858 sensor that can zoom in optically by six times. The main camera is backed by the new second-generation 1-inch type Sony LYT 900 stacked sensor, and the ultrawide camera is another new Sony sensor, that being an LYT 600 sensor with a 123° field of view. Not only does the ultrawide take great macro shots, but the two Periscope cameras offer macro modes too, thanks to low minimum focusing distances, which leads to natural background blur.
The ultrawide itself takes phenomenal photos, whether in high-res or binned-down mode, and results in images that are main camera-worthy, which is why the main camera only appears to be slightly better than the ultrawide but produces arguably the best one-time shot I have ever seen. Just like last year, at three times optical zoom, things look crisp, but it’s insane how detailed things come out at six times optical zoom thanks to the second Periscope sensor. Detail, color, and exposure are very matched between both Periscopes, and 12 times less zoom is on another level compared to the competition. We now also have AI Zoom at a 30 times level, which has genuinely taken my breath away, and even when zooming in further to 60 or even 120 times, detail is still very much intact. Portrait mode can be used with the main and both Periscopes, and the fact that the main camera can take such a good full-body portrait is mind-blowing to say the least. Portrait video is not quite as good as I had hoped and is limited to 1080p across the sensors, but it’s not really needed since they can all shoot at 4K 60 FPS, and both Periscopes produce fantastic natural depth. Dolby Vision video can be used with all the cameras, but the main camera can shoot it at 4K 60 FPS. While slow motion is decent, it’s still not quite as good as the competition. As with most flagships, the Oppo Find X7 Ultra can also shoot continuous 4K 30fps video, which lets you seamlessly switch from the ultrawide to the main, to the three times Periscope, to the six times Periscope, all the way up to 18 times digital zoom in one single video. Unfortunately, this cannot be done at 60 FPS. Ultra steady video is still limited to the ultrawide and main cameras at 1080p 60fps, and it comes out more than stable even while running. Both sensors produce very stable regular 4K 60fps video anyway, and while the ultrawide looks incredible, the main camera produces very realistic dynamic range. Unfortunately, there is no 8K video. The two Periscopes can also record 4K 60 FPS video, and I was actually pretty surprised at how stable they came out while walking around. When considering the competition, they are not quite as stable when recording at night, but things come out more than bright enough, which is quite unheard of when recording video with Periscope cameras at night. Of course, the ultrawide and main cameras come out swinging when recording video at night, especially the main camera footage thanks to that massive 1-inch type sensor.
Even with a warm light hitting my face, recording main and Periscope video of me came out looking more than decent in such a low-lit environment, and even portrait video came out acceptable at night, actually more so than when recording portrait video during the day. Portrait photos looked just as good at night as they did during the day, and the main camera impressed me once again with full-body edge detection and phenomenal exposure. Night mode photos of me also look great, but this benefits the three times Periscope the most, and once again the tone between the ultrawide and main sensors are so well matched it’s insane. Light noise is also very well controlled here. Three times optical zoom has a tad bit of ghosting but still comes out with plenty of detail. Light noise is handled quite well with both Periscopes, and the second Periscope retains decent detail as well. 30 times AI Zoom still comes out picture perfect, and it’s honestly crazy how much detail is still shown at night when zooming all the way in by 120 times. Oppo has always impressed me when it comes to cameras, but the Find X7 Ultra has seriously taken things up a notch, and it’s very unique to see all four sensors produce similar results.
Design & Built:
Now it’s time to shift our focus to its overall design. This time, all three color options have a leather and glass dual-tone design. You can pick it up in tailored black, which is the only one with stitching on its leather, CPA brown, or ocean blue. I have the ocean blue variant, and it looks amazing. The silver tone of the camera module flows into the glossy white Gorilla Glass at the top, which flows down onto the soft vegan leather bottom half, which takes up most of the space. The glossy aluminum side rails are slightly curved. It’s the same thickness as last year at 9.5 mm. It’s a tad heavy at 221 g, and it still has an IP68 dust and water-resistant certification. The display is still protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2, and the bezels wrapping around are fairly thin and quite symmetrical. There’s still a punch-hole notch at the top center of the screen, but the selfie camera inside of it has been upgraded to a new 32 MP Sony LYT 506 sensor with autofocus. It takes incredible photos and portrait photos when cropped in at 25 mm, and things look even better when taking native 21 mm focal length pics. Detail is booming, and edge detection is very near perfect.
They finally added in 4K to a flagship device, and not only just 4K, but 60 FPS as well. Let me know your thoughts on the audio as well as the video quality when recording with the selfie cam.”
4K 60fps selfie video is a huge deal for Oppo’s flagship lineup, and there is also an option for portrait video, but it’s capped at 1080p 30fps. Selfie video comes out quite decently at 2, and selfie photos produce some of the best results I have ever seen in a dimly lit situation, which pop even more when enabling the on-screen flash. A lot of Chinese brands are pushing 4K selfie video to their flagships this year, but Oppo have taken things a step further by including 4K 60fps selfie video, and I couldn’t be happier.
Display & Features:
Well, now it’s time to check out that refined display. It’s the exact same panel we see on the recently released OnePlus 12, that being a 6.82-inch Pro XDR 10-bit AMOLED display, which boasts a QHD+ resolution, covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color space, and supports Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and Widevine L1 content. It still uses LTPO tech for a 1 to 120 Hz refresh rate and has the same 240 Hz touch sampling rate, but PWM dimming has now increased to 2160 Hz. However, the biggest upgrade here is arguably found in screen brightness, as it can now go all the way up to a whopping 4,500 nits of local peak brightness, which is extremely ultra to say the least.
In terms of software, the Oppo Find X7 Ultra uses their custom ColorOS 14 skin, which is layered over Android 14. It’s, of course, a Chinese ROM since the device will likely remain a Chinese exclusive, but you’ll be happy to hear that this time the Google Play Store comes pre-installed. Unfortunately, there’s no Google Discover but rather Oppo’s own Quick Glance panel, which is quite Chinese looking. The side panel is connected to Brino, which is linked to Andes GPT, which offers some useful AI features such as removing a subject from a background in the gallery app, erasing an object from the background in a photo (but it’s not perfect), and even allows you to summarize articles on the internet. Though it’s limited to certain browsers and cannot do it in English, I would have loved to have seen the global take on this. But these aren’t exactly brand new features in the smartphone world.
Otherwise, ColorOS 14 looks identical to 13, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing since it’s already one of my favorite software skins and is very aesthetically appealing overall, with features such as large folders and offering a clean and fluid user experience. A big change this year, however, is that Oppo have now incorporated the alert slider from OnePlus, but it works slightly differently. The lower level is for ring, the middle is for silence, but sliding it all the way to the top activates VIP mode, which is a glorified privacy mode.
Battery & Charging:
At all though is battery and charging we still have the same 5,000 mAh battery 100 W wide 50 W Wireless and 10 W reverse wireless charging.
Other Hardware features:
Now incorporates the latest flagship chipset from Qualcomm, that being the new Snapdragon HN3 CPU, which when paired with up to 16 gigs of LPDDR5X RAM, 512 gigs of UFS 4.0 storage, and Oppo’s high-performance mode found within settings, produces some serious benchmark scores across multiple different heavy-hitting benchmark apps. This, of course, means that the Oppo Find X7 Ultra will be hitting peak performance regardless of what tasks you throw at it.
So, of course, I had to test out some games. But before we get into it, it’s worth mentioning that there is a game hub overlay which allows you to play around with multiple different features, including certain performance modes. The first game I opened was, of course, Genshin Impact, which is extremely demanding when setting all of its graphical settings to the max. The Find X7 Ultra managed an average of 60 frames per second the entire time playing, which is, of course, the frame rate limit for this specific game. We then moved on to a high frame rate game, that being Call of Duty Mobile, and while set to ultra FPS mode in the game, the device pushed 120 FPS without any frame drops or stutters and it barely broke a sweat.
This is a flagship, after all, so it’s not shy of features, namely Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, dual SIM 5G, and Wi-Fi 7, as well as a USB 3.2 Type-C port, an IR blaster, immersive and customizable haptic feedback thanks to O-Haptics, and, of course, dual stereo speakers with spatial audio and Dolby Atmos support. So let’s go ahead.
Final Thoughts:
The latest flagship from Oppo is certainly worthy of the name Ultra. It is packed with all the hardware to make it ultra in terms of performance. Its new display is ultra vivid and ultra bright. Its selfie camera has been upgraded and is ultra in the sense of quality and 4K 60fps selfie video. But the most ultra-worthy part of the Find X7 Ultra is no doubt the new quad-camera setup on its back. If you’re a sucker for photography like me, then it doesn’t really get much more ultra than this. If you ask me, the camera alone is enough to want to import one and just make do with the Chinese ROM. Let me know your thoughts on what is possibly the most ultimate device of 2024.
Well that’s for today… See you in the next topic…