The next flagship from Oppo is a little later than expected, but its coming with something new other phone has: a zoom lens you can attach to the phone.
A gadget of wonderful convergence and convenience, your phone can do a lot of things, but one of the biggest reasons to consider a new phone likely comes from the cameras.
Why bring a big camera with you when you can carry all the power you need in your pocket? The cameras our phones pack today may not have quite the breadth of quality or reach as a proper dedicated camera, but for many, it’s close enough for jazz.
Even on this journalist’s first holiday in ages, he simply carried a single phone, capturing everything using the assortment of three cameras that model came with.
While a phone may not rival a proper camera exactly — an iPhone isn’t likely to be as good as a Leica, for instance — the tide is changing. It’s not just that mobile makers are getting better, but rather camera companies are collaborating with phone makers, too.
Oppo kicked that off with specialist medium-format camera maker Hasselblad a few years ago, and the company’s latest effort pushes phone cameras in another direction, achieving more reach than most phone owners could ever dream of.
The latest phone range is the Find X9, a series that will offer both a standard X9 and the more impressive X9 Pro, two similar models with some key changes.
At the slightly less expensive end, there’s the $1799 Find X9, a phone sporting three main cameras covering 50 megapixels over ultra-wide, wide, and 3X telephoto, plus a neat new “True Colour” camera that works like a colour checking system using a neat spectral sensor.
To work out how to improve colour reproduction in images. You can probably thank Hasselblad’s dedication to photography for that one, but the whole camera system has been tuned for great images and video.
Only 7.99mm thick, the Find X9 is more or less the company’s “standard” sized model offering a 6.59 inch screen and giving you a little more size than the 6.1 and 6.3 inch mobiles occupying the “standard” sizes.
A little bigger, the 8.25mm Find X9 Pro manages to be the same thickness as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, offering a similarly large 6.78 inch boasting lots of brightness control, both in daylight and at night.
In fact, if you look at your phone in the dark — which is something we all do — the phone can stop its screen down to a single nit, making it easier for your eyes to adjust. Now you just need a dark mode on every website (which this one has, huzzah).
Oppo’s improvements to the screen are only one part of the package, though.
The Find X9 Pro builds upon all of this, while aiming to really impress on the camera side of things.
It’ll get the same 50 megapixel ultra-wide as its sibling, a slightly better 50 megapixel wide with a better aperture, and a really impressive 200 megapixel 70mm telephoto at F1.56, essentially providing a 3X zoom that gives a similarly low aperture, handy for portraits, macro, and low light.
You’ll be able to crop that down for improved zoom, or you can buy a lens for your phone. Yep, that’s a pretty new one.
Oppo’s Find X9 Pro supports a custom 10X telephoto converter lens Hasselblad has worked with Oppo to make exclusively for the phone, providing essentially more zoom for a phone. We’re not sure we’ve seen a real 10X zoom in a phone for ages, at least not since the Galaxy S4 Zoom models popped up years ago.
The Hasselblad zoom lens is an optional extra, and one that adds to the $2299 cost of the Find X9 Prom, asking for another $699 for the privilege.
You’ll also need to mount a special camera backing plate to the phone before you attach the lens, and good luck fitting the whole rig in your pocket for an easy carry. It’s one of those extras you’ll dedicate special time for.
However, it could be one of the most curious additions to phone cameras in a while, and it joins some other interesting features both support, such as a “Stage Mode” to improved the camera and audio processing while capturing video from a concert (provided your band still lets you do that).
Both models in the range are interesting for another reason: they include high density silicon-carbon batteries, offering either 7025mAh or 7500mAh depending on the model you choose, X9 or X9 Pro respectively.
That should get you to at least two days of battery power, while Oppo also suggests the phones should retain 80 percent capacity over five years of use. They’ll both also get strong water resistance, too.
“The Find X9 Series builds on the incredible response we saw with the Find X8 Pro in Australia,” said Michael Tran, Managing Director for Oppo Australia.
“We’re expanding our flagship line-up locally with both the Find X9 and Find X9 Pro, giving Australians more choice at the top end of the market,” he said.
“Featuring a next-gen Hasselblad Master Camera System, advanced battery technology, and ColorOS 16, this series marks the next chapter in OPPO’s commitment to not just premium innovation, but delivering what Australians want.”
It sure is a lot to pack into a phone, and Australia will actually be on the release list for the phone, arriving locally on November 6 at JB HiFi and Oppo’s online store. There are only two models in total, with the Find X9’s 12GB RAM and 512GB storage arriving for $1799, while the Find X9 Pro’s 16GB RAM and 512GB storage will arrive for $2299, alongside that special Oppo Hasselblad Teleconverter kit for $699.
