OPPO Find X3 Pro review: The Verdict
The Find X3 Pro builds on OPPO's recently found camera prowess delivering an excellent photography experience augmented by a fascinating microscope lens. You also get top-tier performance and a gorgeous display, but the overall package is let down by a subpar battery life and a few missing features that hurt the Find X3 Pro's overall value proposition. It's still a great device, but it's hard not to question some of OPPO's decisions.
What we love
- Excellent cameras
- Microscope lens is very cool
- Lovely display
What could be improved
- Subpar battery
- Missing features from last year's model, while costing more
The essentials
- Performance: Top-tier.
- Battery: Not great. Between three and four hours of screen time with 5G switched on, which is barely a full day. Turning off 5G can extend this to around five hours.
- Screen: Lovely, no complaints.
- Camera: Excellent. Arguably the best primary camera on any Android smartphone, paired with a great ultra-wide lens and innovative microscope lens. It's a shame the zoom lens is a step back from last year, however.
75/100
My OPPO Find X3 Pro sure has gone on a journey.
In my time with the device, it has wound up in a spider's web, been pressed against a wet leaf in the rain, sniffed highlighters, ate dirt, got lost in my hair, gotten too close to Twisties, investigated every textile I own, and that's just the start.
These aren't unusual torture tests. There's nothing extraordinary about the Find X3 Pro's durability. Rather, I've been on the hunt for weird photos. OPPO's latest flagship has a one-of-a-kind camera lens - one that's essentially a 3MP microscope. It will magnify a subject next to the phone by either 30x or 60x, capturing images unlike any I've seen on a device.
I've found a certain joy in seeing the world through this perspective. There have been countless moments where I've walked past something, say, a brick fence, and asked myself, "ohh, I wonder what that would look like through the microscope lens".
Never has technology made me so curious about the world around me.
Before we start, here's how the Find X3 Pro compares to the other devices in the Find X3 family:
OPPO Find X3 family specifications
| Find X3 Pro | Find X3 Neo | Find X3 Lite | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 6.7-inch AMOLED | 6.55-inch OLED | 6.4-inch OLED |
| Resolution | Quad HD+ | 1080p+ | 1080p+ |
| Refresh Rate | 120Hz | 90Hz | 90Hz |
| Rear Cameras | 50MP + 50MP + 13MP + 3MP | 50MP + 16MP + 13MP + 2MP | 64MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP |
| Front Camera | 32MP | 32MP | 32MP |
| Processor | Snapdragon 888 | Snapdragon 865 | Snapdragon 765G |
| RAM | 12GB | 12GB | 8GB |
| Storage | 256GB | 256GB | 128GB |
| Battery | 4,500mAh | 4,500mAh | 4,300mAh |
| Water-Resistance | IP68 | N/A | N/A |
| Back | Glass | Glass | Plastic |
| 5G | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Price | $1,699 | $1,199 | $749 |
A microscope and more
The Find X3 Pro's microscope lens is easily its most interesting camera feature, and the best way to highlight it is with camera samples.
Here's my backpack:
This is wet bark:
Here's a guitar string:
This is my iPhone:
And here's an Ethernet cable:
It's kind of magical.
On one hand, the microscope lens is a bit of a gimmick. It's not a feature people were crying out for, and it's not always practical. It's also quite possible there'll come a time where I get bored of taking extreme close ups of random objects, but it's also such a unique way to look at the world. I've captured shots you just can't get on any other phone, and I love it.
The microscope lens isn't without its quirks though. Framing up photos can be really tricky; you need to be between 1mm and 3mm from your subject to get sharp focus, which is a very small margin of error. Tapping the phone to take the photo can be enough to lose focus if you're not careful.
At the same time, there's still something fascinating about photos that don't quite turn out. They're not always photos I'd want to share (especially given it's only 3MP), but they're fascinating nonetheless. In the same vein, I'm not necessarily taking photos with the microscope lens to pop up on my gram, I'm taking them out a desire to see the unseen.
The rest of the Find X3 Pro's camera configuration is a lot more in line with what you'd expect from a flagship phone. There's a 50MP primary lens, a 50MP ultra-wide lens, and a 13MP 2x optical zoom lens that can extend to 5x hybrid zoom. The 2x zoom lens is a curious downgrade for OPPO, as it's last two flagship devices - the Find X2 Pro and Reno 5G - both featured a 5x optical zoom lens.
Here's how the lenses compare across zoom factors:
The Find X3 Pro's primary lens is one of the best you can get on any smartphone; it will take great looking photos in any condition. It does an impressive job of handling dynamic range, which means it can capture both shadows and highlights without compromising either. For example, compare these two shots from the Find X3 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Here's the image from the Find X3 Pro:
And here's the Galaxy S21 Ultra image:
At first glance, these photos might both look kinda similar. The Samsung image is a tad brighter, but the OPPO has done a better job of preserving highlights. If you look at the lightbulbs and rear windows in the OPPO photo, you'll see more colour. In the Samsung, they're closer to white.
The Find X3 Pro also does rather well at night, even without relying on its night mode. Once again, images have a lovely dynamic range to them. Night mode does however add a nice touch of brightness, but in a natural way. It doesn't rob the images of contrast.
Here's a shot without night mode:
And here's a shot with night mode on:
The ultra-wide lens on the Find X3 Pro is quite unique in that it's backed by the same sensor as the primary lens. Most other smartphones use a lesser sensor for ultra-wide lenses when compared to the primary camera. This also results in better photos.
Lowlight performance is the biggest beneficiary from the flagship grade sensor backing the ultra-wide lens. It's not quite as good as what you'll get on the primary lens, but here's a shot from the Find X3 Pro ultra-wide lens:
And here's the same image from the Galaxy S21 Ultra:
This pair of images was taken in a dark hallway without night mode. Neither is great, but the OPPO ultra-wide lens was able to capture a lot more light than the Samsung.
Lastly, the Find X3 Pro zoom lens sure is a zoom lens. 5x hybrid zoom can be pretty decent, but it's a shame that OPPO moved away from the 5x optical zoom telephoto lens featured in its past few flagships.
Despite the step back in zoom, the Find X3 Pro has an excellent all round camera configuration. No matter the environment or lighting conditions, it's hard to be disappointed with the images it takes.
5G claims yet another battery
Like the Find X2 Pro before it, the Find X3 Pro is let down by subpar battery life. With 5G and the 120Hz display switched on, I found I could only get between three and four hours of screen time per charge. That might still be enough to get through a full day for some, but it won't be enough for moderate to heavy users. If I was going out in the evening, the Find X3 Pro was already low enough that it needed a top up. Even with lighter usage, I found myself ending the day in the danger zone: under 5%.
Disabling 5G does extend the battery life, and oddly, the Find X3 Pro even describes the next generation network as an "issue" under its battery saving measures. With 5G switched off, I found I was getting around an extra hour of screen time, coming to about four to five hours per day. That's better, but still not outstanding - especially when it requires switching off a core feature. For comparison, I could achieve similar on the Galaxy S21 Ultra with 5G on, and six to seven hours on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
I tried dialing the Find X3 Pro's display back down to 60Hz to get a bit more life per charge, but it didn't make a significant difference. 5G is clearly the culprit in this situation. On the plus side, the Find X3 Pro is better than last year's Find X2 Pro, which could get as little as two hours of screen time per charge with 5G switched on. It would have been great to see OPPO use a larger battery to mitigate how much more demanding 5G is, however.
The one silver lining is the Find X3 Pro features freakishly fast charging. 10 or so minutes will take you from flat to 40%, and you should be able to get a full charge in 40 minutes. These charging speeds are however reliant on OPPO's bundled charger. Fast chargers from other brands won't get you the same kind of juice. Fast charging doesn't balance out subpar battery life, but it can make it less of a deal breaker.
One step forward, one step back
While the battery isn't quite up to snuff, the Find X3 Pro delivers when it comes to display and performance. While the curved edges won't be for everyone, it's hard to fault the Find X3 Pro screen. It's gorgeous. And thanks to the top-tier Snapdragon 888 processor you'll find inside, the Find X3 Pro is one of the fastest phones on the market.
Despite this, the Find X3 Pro doesn't quite measure up to its predecessor across the board. In addition to the missing 5x telephoto lens, the Find X3 Pro features a few other curious steps back. The phone only ships with 256GB of non-expandable storage, rather than 512GB like last year's model. And instead of using a combination of Gorilla Glass 6 and either vegan leather or ceramic for protection, the Find X3 Pro uses the slightly less drop-resistant Gorilla Glass 5. Gorilla Glass 6 is said to be two times more drop-resistant than Gorilla Glass 5. Despite this, the Find X3 Pro is more expensive than the Find X2 Pro was at launch, priced at $1,699 outright. The Find X2 Pro initially sold for $1,599.
These changes aren't a huge detriment to the phone, but they betray OPPO's value driven legacy. Last year, the Find X2 Pro clearly offered excellent bang-for-buck. At $1,599, it was a very attractive alternative to the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which started at $1,999 for a 128GB model.
This year, the Galaxy S21 Ultra starts at $1,849 for a 128GB model. That's only $150 mode than the Find X3 Pro. While the Find X3 Pro has twice as much storage, the Galaxy S21 Ultra has much better zoom lenses and uses Gorilla Glass Victus for its build, which improves on drop resistance when compared to Gorilla Glass 6, and is said to also be two times as scratch resistant. In addition, you don't need to disable 5G on the Galaxy S21 Ultra to get decent battery life.
None of this is to say the Find X3 Pro isn't still worth considering, it just isn’t the same sort of value home run as OPPO's past devices.
OPPO Find X3 Pro - Final Thoughts
For the most part, the Find X3 Pro is an exciting new flagship phone from OPPO. I'm a little in love with the microscope lens, the rest of the camera setup fantastic, and the overall package is rather polished. At the same time, there are a few caveats worth considering.
With 5G switched on, the Find X3 Pro battery isn't great. It's certainly not what you'd expect from a $1,699 phone. And despite the year-on-year increase in price, OPPO has taken steps backwards in zoom, storage, and durability. Battery life could be a deal breaker for some, but at least fast charging can help. The latter three aren't necessarily major issues, but it's nonetheless disappointing to see OPPO not even stay on par with last year's model - especially for a company that prides itself on innovation.
While the battery life should be better, the Find X3 Pro is still a lovely flagship phone. It's a great alternative to the Galaxy S21 Ultra for those after a high-end Android device, but it's just a shame it doesn't represent the same kind of bang-for-buck as its predecessor.
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OPPO Find X3 Pro camera samples
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