Oppo’s latest flagships deliver a premium experience with excellent features that support it. OPPO did a clean job on the Find X5 series from the pro-model to the Find X5 lite in terms of features.
Naturally, devices in the midrange lack a spick feature or two from the pro models Oppo worked around this one by bringing out a similarity on the most important parts so we won’t give the Find X5 and the Find X5 Lite the cheaper brother tag, thanks to the excellent performance.
The Find X5 Pro definitely stole the show, but the standard versions equally stood out on their own including the same to-end price tag of an affordable flagship phone.
It’s been a minute since we had a high-end OPPO phone in Kenya since the 2019 Reno 10x that is still scaling high as a premium phone. Glad to see them back in the market with the Find X5. We’ve had the device for a while now with regular usage, battery performance and a range of features we will share in our review shortly.
Our quick pick on the Find X5 model
In the few weeks we’ve had the smartphone, this is what we had to pick.
We would say the camera performance of the unit is unmatched, it gave us a real flagship experience even in lowlight angles. The Camera was quite good and would capture some nice shots as far as a kilometre away. The selfie option for night mode wasn’t really up to the task but it still gets my vote. Very few phones even the flagship ones have it on this.
It also houses a great design, thinner bezels, and a dated design on the front adopting a unique style and an exemplary premium look.
It doesn’t come with an expandable memory card slot but you can expand storage space using the available RAM with options of 2GB, 3 GB and 5 GB which is more but what would you do with 256 GB of space on a phone anyway? we hardly fill 128GB Memory so this should be enough.
We don’t have 3.5mm a headphone jack as is the norm. Someone said blood group O’s don’t let things slide but with this one, we’ll have to adopt a USB-C mini jack adapter or much simpler adopt the Bluetooth way.
It is also power-packed with vibrant colours, excellent viewing angles and so much more features that you’d really enjoy.
Lastly, for us who are enthusiastic about phone colours or would just want to all out with a vibrant colour like Coral pink or moss, or a violet hue to evoke your energies then this is not your phone. OPPO selfishly worked out on two traditional but incredible colours, to top up the list.
Another cutting measure however is the lack of water resistance and dust proof technique, this was reserved for the pro-model but overall it gives you a super feel.
Check out our unboxing article here
Oppo Find X5 Specifications
Body: Dimensions 160.3 x 72.6 x 8.7 mm (6.31 x 2.86 x 0.34 in) Weight 196 g (6.91 oz)
Build: Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus), glass back, aluminium frame, Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
DISPLAY &Resolution: 6.55-inch LTPS curved AMOLED screen display, a Full HD+ resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate 1080 x 2400 pixels 20:9 (~402ppi density).
Size: 6.55 inches, 103.6 cm2 (~89.0% screen-to-body ratio)
Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, silicon protector
Platform: OS:Android 12, ColorOS V12.1, SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 octa-core, Marisilicon NPU Imaging, Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Cortex-X1 & 3×2.42 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A55, Adreno 660, Model: CPH2307
Memory: No Memory Card slot, ROM 256GB 8GB RAM 3.1
Camera: Triple 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS 13 MP, f/2.4, 52mm (telephoto), 1/3.4″, 2x optical zoom, PDAF 50 MP, f/2.2, 15mm, 110˚ (ultrawide), 1/1.56″,
Video: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps; gyro-EIS; HDR, 10‑bit video
Selfie camera: Single 32 MP, f/2.4, 25mm (wide), 1/2.74″
Video: 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS
Sound: Loudspeaker Yes, with stereo speakers, No headphone jack
USB: USB Type-C 3.1
Other features: Sensors Fingerprint (under display, optical), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, colour spectrum
Battery: Type Li-Po 4800 mAh, non-removable, Fast charging 80W
Colours: Colors Glaze Black and Ceramic White
Price: Ksh99,999
Price and availability
The Find X5 IS available in all Oppo shops countrywide and e-commerce retail shops including Jumia, Kilimall, Skygarden and Safaricom shops.
Design, functionality and build
The OPPO Find X5 brings out a vibrant design featuring a 6.55-inch LTPS curved AMOLED screen display and a Full HD+ resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate. The AMOLED screen also makes it brighter and much clearer and a lag-free user experience.
The phone is designed in a streamlined curve and comes in two outstanding shades of glaze black and ceramic white.
It gives a premium look and feels made out of unique frosted glass, giving it a silky, unique glossy finish, that is both scratches resistant and fingerprint-proof; not to mention splash, resistant thus always appearing newer for much longer.
The glaze black mode has a dark black eye-catching mirror finish on the rear panel that gives it a unique glow, making it an elegant accessory for the most discerning eye., it feels quite smooth and seamlessly transitions to the side frames without forming any unwanted ridges.
It also hosts a unique angled camera set-up that can’t go unnoticed.
I love the idea that it’s big enough to let you enjoy seamless browsing, enjoy your video games in Full HD and much more.
On the sides, it’s slightly curved for easy hold and navigating around the phone coupled with thinner bezels for a user-friendly experience. It’s however gives an uncountable feel with the protective phone case.
The front glass also hosts a similar smooth finish giving it a more high-end look. It comes with an almost invisible screen protector that adopts a curved Corning Gorilla Victus screen. On the upper right, we have a tiny hole-punch-designed front camera.
We have a volume button on the left panel, and a fingerprint sensor also acts as the power button on the right panel oppo went for separate buttons on either side of the phone like in most premium phones. See photos below.
The phone also packs a unique set-up on the sim tray stashed in between the USB-C charging port and the loudspeaker grille. Oppo didn’t include a MicroSD card slot but 256GM of space is more than enough. Oppo also minimized antennae openings on the phone, perhaps to enhance its looks and improve the signal quality.
OPPO Find X5 series also features 360° Smart Antenna 3.0 that keeps you connected, whichever way you hold your phone, wherever you may be. This is the kind of phone that leaves a lasting impression anywhere you go – by complementing your style and effortlessly making a statement of sophistication on your behalf.
OPPO Find X5 series is supercharged to handle even the most demanding games and applications.
Camera
The X5 is equipped with a 50-megapixel main sensor with f/1.8 aperture and 2-axis OIS for more stable videos and sharper photos. It also comes with a 50-megapixel ultra wide-angle sensor with f/2.2 aperture though no freeform lens, and there’s a 13-megapixel telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture and 2x optical zoom.
The Marislicon X enhances the performance of the sensor helps to help you capture videos with a great dynamic range of Ultra Night Video and the 4K Ultra HD Video take videography using the OPPO Find X5 series as a whole new level. It also enhances all colour, tone, sound and clarity of the moment are captured in its truest form – with no compromise on quality, regardless of the time of day.
Find X5 Night shots
The Find X5 series adopts a 32MP front camera with even much more camera options including Portrait, dual view, slow motion, and Pano. Co-developed with Hasselblad, the OPPO Find X5 camera delivers a rich and vibrant colour experience thanks to the dedicated imaging Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which will offer the user a world-class imaging experience, enabling them to magnificently capture every valued moment, no matter the lighting.
The camera houses some unique camera features, thanks to the Hasselblad’s Color Calibration (runs only when using the camera’s Pro Mode), Automatic Night mode, AI Scene Enhancement 2.0, LED flash, HDR, Auto HDR, Panorama, leaf shutter sound and an Xpan mode.
A few pieces we took with the OPPO Find X5 Camera
Battery
It’s equipped with a 4800 mAh battery capacity, and 80W fast-charging that lasts up to 48hours of normal usage.
The Find X5 offers relatively good battery performance and power efficiency. You do not have to worry about leaving your house or workplace for an impromptu engagement. We had earlier flagged it off, most mid-range phones offer a 4800mAh battery capacity and there’s no way a premium flagship should. A few weeks into it it has been an excellent performer. OPPO says Find X5 can be charged from close 50 per cent in just 12 minutes and full capacity in just 34 minutes.
We weren’t keen to pinpoint the exact charging time but it took us less than 50 minutes to charge to full capacity. Thanks to the 80W SUPERVOOC The Find X5 supports 80W flash charging and 30W AIRVOOC.
The battery drain capacity also drops by roughly 7 per cent an hour for normal usage and 12 per cent for heavy usage even with the display set to maximum brightness. (And it’s lower when eye comfort is on or when you have brightness set lower) which is quite impressive. The capacity normal weakens over time so it might not be a full guarantee with a month’s usage review.
Performance and software
OPPO Find X5 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Mobile Platform, which is believed to fuel flagship experiences on smartphones including gaming, streaming and photography making it ideal for creatives who need the best photography or when doing video games.
It also supports OPPO’s first imAging NPU, MariSilicon dual-chip imaging system that uses advanced 6nm process technology that supports advanced computing power and ultra-high energy efficiency, real-time AL calculations on the original lossless image signals. It also supports 20-bit ultra HDR Fusion technology which significantly improves computing efficiency and imaging scenes.
The device is also 5G enabled. Most parts of the city are 5G ready so I didn’t experience any lags rather the loading performance is commendable.
It also comes with 8GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. We don’t have a physical slot for the memory card option, OPPO did away with this on the flagships but you can expand storage space using the available RAM with options of 2GB, 3 GB and 5 GB. This option brings out a very modern touch on the Find X5.
OPPO Find X5 is supported by Android 12 and OPPOs ColorOS version V12.1. ColorOS is a highly customized operating system including a built-in feature that lets you upgrade your device storage and controls for a much more smooth experience.
Conclusion
This is without doubt a good flagship phone. I’d personally want to have it for my photography. However, the price factor is quite a limitation. If you have a limited budget then this is out of the range.
The OPPO Find X5 is also, not waterproof, slight altercations with water might cost you the device.
