This time I want to start the review of theOPPO FIND X5 PRO on the contrary, anticipating that, as (I hope) you well know, in the last month I have tried practically all smartphones animated by Snap 8 Gen. 1, and none of them really impressed me. Except with the iQOO 9 Pro (review here), Qualcomm's new SoC has actually always been used in a limited way (due to temperatures) and none of the smartphones tested in this early 2022 have introduced revolutionary innovations.
Well, with theOPPO Find the X5 Pro something different comes. At least on paper. The new top of the company is the first smartphone in the world to use an NPU dedicated to the image, the Marisilicon X, an independent chip made in 6 nanometers that is used with all optics. But it doesn't stop there: OPPO Find the X5 Pro It also integrates a 5-axis hardware stabilization system, which supports 3-degree anti-vibration compensation and 0,7-degree rotational stabilization. For this, I tell you right away: technically, the camera of OPPO Find the X5 Pro it is not only the most innovative of 2022, but it becomes the new benchmark of the sector from many points of view. Oppo is the technology that other brands will have to strive to beat, not for nothing we have decided to give it the title of GizChoice.
In short, despite the fact that the company has skipped series 4 of its smartphone (because the number 4 in China brings bad luck), you will understand that my expectations on the photographic potential of theOPPO Find the X5 Pro they were sky high before trying it. But will he be able to convince me?
Index
Review OPPO Find the X5 Pro
Design and materials
Let's start immediately from an assumption: as far as I'm concerned, OPPO Find the X5 Pro has the best design among the tops of this early 2022. Unfortunately the company sent us the sample with black back cover and Gorilla Glass Victus for testing, but I am of the opinion that the ceramic version of the new Oppo smartphone is really beautiful (as well as super resistant).
If we really want to make a small note to its design, its elegance is a bit betrayed by the many writings that have been put on the back cover that are excessive, ugly and above all in some cases useless: at this point they could write a little poem to sonnets, no one would have noticed given the amount of text imprinted on the back cover.
But let's get serious, OPPO Find the X5 Pro it is one of the few smartphones that has made me appreciate the minimalist aesthetic in the last two years, and it has done so above all for the linearity of its curves, the compactness and the super premium touch and feel. The whole rear body is a monobloc that incorporates the bump chamber which, in turn, continues to protrude, but has been slightly changed compared to the previous generation.
Unlike what we find in the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (review here), those of Oppo have also been very intelligent in the matter of the positioning of the keys: on the right side the ignition one has been positioned, which is easily accessible, and on the left one. (at the same level) the volume rocker.
The fingerprint sensor has been positioned under the screen, and the stereophonic effect occurs through the use of the ear capsule, why not, there is no second speaker on the upper frame.
Display
It must be said that the top of the range of 2022 are all united by a single common thread: the high quality of the displays used. We have seen it in the Xiaomi 12 Pro (here the review), in the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and also in the OnePlus 10 Pro (here the review). And, of course, with OPPO Find the X5 Pro history does not change. The panel used in the company's new smartphone is a 120 Hz AMOLED of LTPO 2.0 type, capable of reproducing a billion colors and compatible with HDR10 + and BT-2020 certified. It's an exceptional panel, with a pixel-per-inch density of 525 ppi, which by and large can be compared to the display we've already seen in OnePlus's top-of-the-range display.
And just like in the OnePlus 10 Pro, the peak brightness is 1300 nits and the handling of the variable refresh rate is similar. Unlike what happens with the OnePlus, however, with the display of this smartphone you can really get to 1 Hz of refresh rate, a frequency only possible if you set the brightness to maximum: with an average brightness it stops around 10 Hz and with a minimum brightness it returns to 120 Hz.
Either way, there is poco to say on the screen of the OPPO Find the X5 Pro: it is bright, has deep blacks, is contrasted and has a good balance of colors and whites. The images seem almost printed on a sheet of paper. In short, it is a mr display.
Hardware and Performance
It must be said, however, that if as regards the display the new tops of Oppo and OnePlus are very similar, the management of the Snapdragon 8 Gen. 1 changes radically. In the new Oppo smartphone, Qualcomm's 4nm SoC is managed very well, both in terms of performance and in terms of temperature, and is flanked by 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 internal memory, not expandable via microSD.
That said, although there are those who praise Qualcomm's new SoC to the nth degree, actually in the In Proof group with Giz, in which we publish the backstage of our reviews before the official publication, users' questions were very clear: il OPPO Find the X5 Pro heats up because of Snap 8 Gen. 1? And, consequently, how does it handle thermal throtteling? It seems that by now the vast majority of users who understand a little, are terrified by the temperatures of the new Snap SoC and it is actually, how to blame him?
In reality, however, putting Oppo's new top of the range under pressure with the AnTuTu stress test, I realized one thing: it is possible to better manage this SoC, but also with OPPO Find the X5 Pro thermal throttling problems may occur.
Looking at the AnTuTu stress test graph, it is clear how the processor management conceived by Oppo is clear and decisive: at human temperatures, processor performance and core frequencies are constant, and almost always at maximum. Arrived at a certain point, however, when the temperature exceeds an obvious safety threshold, the system limits the cores and, consequently, the performance of the CPU is suddenly reduced.
And this is a feature that immediately made me think ill about gaming. Looking at the graph that generated the test, I immediately feared that OPPO Find the X5 Pro could suffer with long gaming sessions.
This is not quite the case. With the 3DMark stress test I came to the conclusion that even at temperatures close to 40 degrees, after a small slight initial drop, the execution framerate is always constant. Which means that yes, there is thermal throttling, but it is not as marked and disabling on the overall performance of the system.
As for raw performance, OPPO Find the X5 Pro it is not the smartphone that has achieved the best scores in the benchmarks, precisely because of its more conservative strategy between temperature control and long-term performance, but it must be said that games like CoD Mobile do well on the new smartphone, as well as the general speed of the system: it never gives a turn and there are never graphic indecisions or lag.
Cameras
And now let's talk about cameras, the most important topic mediatively of this smartphone precisely for the integration of the NPU Marisilicon X. To learn more about the technology behind this new chip dedicated to photos, I suggest you read the in-depth analysis we have. posted a while ago (you can find it here). The point, however, is another: given all the importance that the company has given to this innovation in the photographic field, my expectations were very high and (unfortunately, and only under certain conditions) were a little debunked. But first things first.
The camera sector of OPPO Find the X5 Pro It consists of a 50 megapixel main camera that uses a Sony IMX766 sensor and takes advantage of the new five-axis stabilization, an ultra-wide one that uses the same sensor as the main one and a 2 megapixel 13x telephoto lens. All cameras can take advantage of the new NPU which, in a nutshell, should improve night performance in both photos and videos.
The first thing you notice when taking photos with OPPO Find the X5 Pro it is Hasselblad's hand in color balance which, just like in the OnePlus 10 Pro, is definitely richer and at the same time more natural than the competition. In conditions of good brightness the shots taken with all the cameras are of excellent quality, they denote a wide dynamic range and a good contrast and underline how good Oppo's were in being able to recreate colors in a natural way.
In these conditions, the advantage that could be found in Oppo's smartphone, in a nutshell, is the kind of improvement that is actually noticeable especially with a very marked crop. And this is especially the case in photographs taken with the ultra wide angle, in which the optics system and the AI manage the distortions typically present along the edges of the images very well.
Cropping the images taken with the main one then, you can see how the 5-axis stabilization system tends to minimize micro-shakes a lot.
However, things change a little in the night photos, and this is where my hopes have been a little disappointed. In reality, the shots taken with the main camera are exceptional, clean, fast, sharp and with a lot of detail and practically zero micro-shakes. However, this is not the case when you go to shoot with ultra-wide optics, with which you could generate very dark images when compared with those taken with the main camera. But this only in extremely dark environments.
It was enough for me to increase the brightness of the environment in which I did my tests a little, to ensure that the whole Oppo system hunted the muscles and get much better shots even with the ultra-wide angle lens.
The photos with the 2x optical zoom are good, but I'm honest: I didn't like the choice of using a less resolute sensor than the main one and the ultra-wide one, and I would have liked a lens capable of being used. to guarantee a greater magnification factor, perhaps a 3x.
Selfies are the best on the market, and here you really notice the presence of the photographic NPU and the Sony IMX709 sensor, excellent videos that can be recorded at the maximum resolution of 4K at 60 fps and which highlight, especially with the main camera, the muscles of the new stabilization system.
As for the night videos, however, I have to postpone my considerations to a next software update: I know for sure that many journalists and YouTubers will say that they are the best night videos around, and indeed it is, but in my tests I found some indecisions above all in the framerate and in the management of the noise and these are clearly problems due to the still immature software of the sample that we received in test. So, today, I prefer not to express myself with a definitive judgment.
Software
To animate OPPO Find the X5 Pro Android 12, customized by Color OS 12.1, the now well-known graphic interface of the company which, even in this smartphone, remains the typical Color OS, takes care of it. Except for the introduction of Air Gestures, which allow you to control applications without physically touching the screen but making gestures aimed at the front camera, in reality the innovations introduced by the new version of the Oppo GUI are very few: I am not a lover of customizations super invasive, but I must say that Color OS is perhaps among the most balanced graphical interfaces in terms of customization.
It's a super customizable GUI, but that's it OPPO Find the X5 Pro was set with the animations too slow, at least in my opinion: let's be clear, it is not LAG (those are practically non-existent), but precisely the speed of the animations and the scrolling of the menus which, being slow, does not tend to transmit the real speed of the device. But these are details for psychopaths like me.
Battery and recharge
Under the body hides a 5000 mAh double cell battery, able to guarantee a good autonomy to the smartphone, even with refresh rate and resolution at the maximum. For sure, in terms of battery life, OPPO Find the X5 Pro it does much better than the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, and in practical terms a half hour session with CoD would take away about 10% of the charge. In these days of testing, but with non-definitive software, I managed to overcome the 7 hours of display on. And it is a good result.
Also excellent is the speed of fast charging at 80w which, with the charger included in the package, allows you to fully charge the battery in about 30 minutes. Then there is also the 50w wireless charging which will take about 47 minutes for a full charge.
Price and considerations
The selling price of OPPO Find the X5 Pro starts at € 1299,99, and on the occasion of the launch of the new series, users will be able to take advantage of various promotions: with the Pro version, for example, it is possible to receive Enco X, Watch Free, Wireless base 50W and a Cover, for a total commercial value of € 406. But that's not all. All those who choose to foreordain the new Find X5 range on OPPO Store from February 25 to March 17, will also receive a voucher up to a value of € 100 for a duration of 12 months, which can be spent on OPPO Store.
OPPO Find the X5 Pro it is a true ultra-premium phone, and the price is the absolute confirmation of this. The design is the most beautiful around, and the camera system has great potential. Currently I don't feel like calling it the absolute best, in terms of photos, but I am convinced that with a couple of software updates the Marisilicon X will kick the muscles.
The point is that in recent times the smartphone industry has had many difficulties in being able to find a real innovation that can turn on the bell for users and bring real benefits, and it is precisely for this reason that I appreciated. OPPO Find the X5 Pro from the first use: a NPU dedicated to photos and the collaboration with Hasselblad, are a good news. If only they had also included a periscope zoom ..
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