Oppo Find X5 review: A flagship worthy of greatness

Despite what Samsung and Apple want you to believe, your flagship buying choices aren’t solely limited to the latest iPhone and Galaxy releases. There are plenty of alternatives worth considering if you take a detour off the beaten path – some, such as the Oppo Find X5, are even a bit cheaper, too.

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It’s a name that’s still a bit of an unknown in the UK, but the fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world is clearly doing something right. Oppo has gained a bit of a reputation in recent years as a company that offers almost unbeatable value with every new release.

Oppo Find X5 review: What you need to know

That’s something that hasn’t changed with the launch of the Oppo Find X5. As fully formed as any modern flagship, the Find X5 is an Android 12 smartphone with a large 6.55in AMOLED Full HD+ display with a maximum 120Hz refresh rate. It uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 for processing duties, and comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The battery has also increased in size to 4,800mAh.

There’s a triple camera array on the rear of the phone, consisting of a 50MP primary sensor, a 13MP 2x telephoto zoom lens and a 50MP 110-degree wide unit. A 32MP selfie camera is embedded in a hole-punch notch, and it comes in black or white in the UK.

Oppo Find X5 review: Price and competition

The Find X5 is a bit of a steal at just £749. Contract prices start at around £34 per month with an upfront cost of £49 and 25GB of monthly 5G data with iD Mobile – bringing the total contract cost to only £865. With those prices, you’re looking at one of the cheapest flagships you can buy right now.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 is its biggest Android rival, with the 256GB variant costing £70 more – or an extra £100 if you opt for an equivalent contract to the one listed above. On the other hand, the Xiaomi 12 might be the same price as the Oppo (£749), but it lacks a telephoto camera and has a smaller 6.28in display.

Apple’s handsets can’t match the Oppo in terms of value, either. The 256GB iPhone 13 costs £879 and, like the Xiaomi, has a smaller screen and no zoom lens – although it outperforms the lot when it comes to processing speeds, as you’ll find out later in this review.

Oppo Find X5 review: Design and key features

Don’t let its reduced cost fool you: the Find X5 is a thoughtfully designed handset. Oppo has made a bit of a name for itself with its unique smartphone designs, and the Find X5 is no different with its artfully placed, asymmetrical camera housing and frosted glass rear. It really is quite lovely.

I miss the unibody design of the Pro model, however, with its all-ceramic mirrored construction. The regular Find X5’s silver-tinted edges don’t blend in as well with the rear panel, although there’s a slight bonus here: it isn’t as likely to pick up greasy fingerprints.

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The Oppo Find X5 is available in either white or black. The front of the phone is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass Victus, although sadly the Find X5 doesn’t have any official IP-rated waterproofing. A fingerprint scanner is located underneath the screen, with the selfie camera lighting up whenever you use it for face unlocks.

Oppo Find X5 review: Display

The Oppo Find X5 has a 6.55in AMOLED display, with a resolution of 2,400 x 1,080 (FHD+). It’s certified for HDR10+ playback, with an adjustable refresh rate of 120Hz and a total pixel density of 402ppi.

And as far as phone screens go, this is among the best. There are a dizzying number of display modes to choose from, but the phone’s Natural mode is the most colour accurate, with an sRGB coverage of 92.6%, a total volume of 93.7% and an average Delta E of 1.49. Essentially, this is a display that’s as tonally perfect as it gets.

It’s vibrant, too, with infinite contrast and a measured peak luminance of 475cd/m².

Oppo Find X5 review: Performance and battery life

Let’s move on to performance. Here, the Find X5 differs slightly from its Pro sibling, employing the previous-gen Snapdragon 888 for processing duties rather than the newer Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. This is a bit of an odd move, especially when rival phones such as the Galaxy S22 share the same internals across all variants, but there’s still a lot to like in terms of performance.

In the Geekbench 5 test, the Find X5 scored 824 in single-core and 3,402 in multicore, which is only a marginal decrease on the Pro’s results. Speeds are just as rapid as any other phone in this price bracket, with only the iPhone 13 predictably pulling out a lead.

On the flip side, there’s a much wider gap in gaming speeds. The GFXBench Manhattan 3 onscreen test was locked to 60fps on both models, so you’ll want to pay attention to the off-screen scores in this instance. Here, you’ll notice that the Pro pulls ahead by a considerable distance, producing an average frame rate of 248fps compared to the Find X5’s 137fps. That’s a very good result, but it could be a bit better.

One thing the Find X5 shares with the Pro is exceptional battery life. Reaching 23hrs 44mins in our video playback test, the Find X5 is every bit an all-day smartphone, with more than enough juice to get you most of the way through a second day as well.

When you do eventually run dry, the Find X5 supports 80W wired charging, going from empty to full in roughly 40 minutes in our tests. It also comes with 30W wireless charging, with 10W reverse wireless charging capabilities.

Oppo Find X5 review: Cameras

Surprisingly, the Find X5’s camera array is identical to the Pro version, with one key difference. The five-axis stabilisation system on the main sensor – a 50MP f/1.8 affair – is absent, which in the Pro worked in a similar way to the iPhone 13’s sensor-shift OIS for rock-steady recording.

That’s about the only change, though. The primary sensor is still accompanied by a 13MP 2x optical zoom lens, 50MP 110-degree ultra-wide and a 32MP selfie camera – all of which are backed by Oppo’s dedicated imaging NPU, MariSilicon X. This basically pulls computing power away from the main Qualcomm chipset, theoretically improving any background processing after you’ve captured an image.

Oppo has also partnered with Hasselblad, although this collaboration simply adds a handful of new shooting modes and software tweaks. You can apply unique Hasselblad filters to your shots, as well as shoot in a letterbox-style XPAN mode, but that’s about it.

In better news, the Find X5’s cameras are astonishing. Image clarity was pin-sharp in a variety of lighting conditions, with good colour rendition and minimal visual grain. Pictures didn’t look as over-sharpened as the same scenes captured on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus, with neutral colours and better-judged exposures in good light.

One thing I didn’t like, however, was the tendency to over-brighten some dark scenes, adding an unnaturally warm hue while simultaneously losing some of the finer, shadowy details. This is the sort of thing that can easily be fixed by adjusting the exposure slider before capturing an image, but it’s something worth noting.

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The phone’s ultrawide shots aren’t that special, either. Landscape pictures overlooking Canary Wharf taken from the opposite side of the Thames looked a little murky. I have no complaints about the 2x telephoto zoom camera, though – just take a look at this zoomed picture of a bee, which really is quite something.

Video is recorded at a maximum 4K resolution at 60fps and I didn’t have any complaints. Footage is smooth, even during fast pans, and there was a good amount of detail.

Oppo Find X5 review: Verdict

The Oppo Find X5 is a meticulously thought-out flagship smartphone, with a keen price to match. Cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy S22 and £300 less than the Pro version, the regular Find X5 is a bit of a steal, and it’s definitely worthy of a place among the best in the business.

Hitting the same high notes as its more expensive counterpart, the Find X5 excels in practically every area, with a long-lasting (and fast-charging) battery, a stunning design and a great, colour-accurate display. Even the use of the last-gen Snapdragon 888 isn’t much of a downer, providing rapid performance in our tests.

The only real criticism is the lack of an IP rating, but if you can look past this you’ll be rewarded with a truly terrific flagship at an unbeatable price.