Last year’s OPPO Find X3 Pro was one of my favorite smartphones, especially its ultra-wide camera that shoots impressive photos as the primary camera. A year later, OPPO announced the Find X5 Pro, which was recently launched in Malaysia. The Find X5 Pro is the first phone to feature the company’s own MariSilicon X NPU and the imaging enhancements by Hasselblad. I’ve been using the phone for weeks, and here comes the full review.
OPPO Find X5 Pro Specs
- 6.7-inch curved 10-bit WQHD+ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor
- 12GB RAM
- 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
- Camera
- Rear: 50MP Sony IMX766 main with OIS + 50MP Sony IMX766 ultra-wide + 13MP telephoto lens
- Front: 32MP Sony IMX709
- 5,000mAh battery with 80W SUPERVOOC and 50W AIRVOOC
- IP68
- ColorOS 12.1 based on Android 12
- Colors: Ceramic White, Glaze Black
Design
The front of the Find X5 Pro looks pretty much the same as its predecessor. It still has curves on both sides of the screen and the 32MP hole-punch selfie camera is located in the top left corner of the screen. The optical in-display fingerprint sensor is now positioned slightly higher, which is a great improvement over its predecessor.
If you think last year’s streamlined curved design was beautiful, wait till you see this year’s one. The Find X5 Pro still has the same design language with some minor changes, and it now has a ceramic panel. In case you didn’t know, ceramic is more durable than glass, meaning the phone is less likely to get scratches compared to glass.
The 75° slope offers the optimal curve for illuminating the body in sunlight or shadow. My review unit is the Ceramic White variant, and I think this is the better option since the fingerprints are more visible on the Glaze Black variant. The phone is still IP68 rated for water and dust resistance.
If you look closely at the back of the phone, you’ll see the MariSilicon and Hasselblad branding. This is because the Find X5 Pro is the first phone to feature the company’s own MariSilicon X NPU and the imaging enhancements by Hasselblad. By the way, all the buttons and ports are still located in the same positions.
Display
The OPPO Find X5 Pro sports a 6.7-inch curved 10-bit WQHD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate, which is quite similar to its predecessor. It has the new LTPO 2.0 panel, which is more power-efficient. The refresh rate can automatically adjust for different tasks. The refresh rate will adjust to 30Hz when you are watching Netflix, and it will even lower down to 10Hz if your screen is static.
The HDR10/HDR10+ certified screen still supports 10-bit color and it can display more than 1 billion colors. To keep it simple, the Find X5 Pro has a top-class display that shows accurate colors.
Performance
Powering the Find X5 Pro is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor with 12GB RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. Yup, it’s the same hot Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset as many flagship phones, but the phone has a customized cooling system, which has a larger vapor chamber and cutting-edge 3D graphene films to help the phone stay cool even during intensive tasks.
The phone performs just like a flagship phone and it doesn’t have the overheating issue like some flagship phones. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a pretty hot chipset, it’s up to the company to develop a cooling system to ensure the chipset can reach peak performance most of the time, and OPPO handles it quite well.
Software
The OPPO Find X5 Pro runs on ColorOS 12.1 based on Android 12. As usual, OPPO didn’t make drastic changes for the newer version of ColorOS 12.1 but kept optimizing and improving it. The overall experience is pretty much the same and I want to highlight two features.
The first one is the Super Recorder feature, which lets you take a snap of the presentation deck and insert it at the perfect point. It is a little bit like the YouTube Video Chapters, but only in audio mode.
The second one is the Multi-Screen Connect feature, it’s an OPPO version of letting your Windows laptop to connect your phone. You can edit Word or Excel documents saved on your phone from your computer. Notifications are also shared so you can focus on working and not on checking your phone. It’s not something new since Windows already has the Phone Link app for you to connect your Android phone.
Other Android 12 features are still available with ColorOS 12.1. You can see when an app is using your microphone or camera thanks to a new indicator in your phone’s status bar. And if you don’t want any apps to access your microphone or camera, you can completely disable those sensors using two new toggles in quick settings.
OPPO also mentioned before that the Find X series will receive three major Android updates and four years of security updates, not as long as some other brands but still good enough.
Camera
The OPPO Find X5 Pro packs a triple-camera setup on the back — 50MP Sony IMX766 main with OIS + 50MP Sony IMX766 ultra-wide + 13MP telephoto lens. It’s the same camera setup and OPPO has removed the 3MP microlens from the Find X3 Pro, guess it’s actually not that useful. There’s also a 32MP front-facing camera for taking selfies. The big stories here are the MariSilicon X NPU and the collaboration with Hasselblad.
MariSilicon X is the company’s self-developed imaging NPU that improves night videography. It allows you to capture videos at night that are bright, rich in detail, and awash in captivating colors. Other than that, it also helps in capturing detailed low-light photos. What the MariSilicon X NPU does is speed up the processing speed so that it can do more to optimize every photo after pressing the shutter button.
As for the Hasselblad collaboration, it is actually just enhancing the images and also bringing the Hasselblad-like experience to you. Hasselblad Natural Colour Calibration provides more natural and accurate colors. With the UI and iconic leaf shutter sound, the unique experience of Hasselblad Camera for Mobile is in the palm of your hand. It also has the classic XPan mode that lets you capture cinematic panoramas and vintage-style photos in the legendary XPan format.
Image quality generally is pretty impressive for the primary and ultra-wide cameras since they both have the same Sony IMX766 sensor. Both cameras have consistent colors with a great level of detail. As for the telephoto camera, it is still quite decent but I feel that OPPO should have opted for a better one since it is the company’s flagship.
Battery Life
The Find X5 Pro packs a 5,000mAh battery that supports 80W SUPERVOOC and 50W AIRVOOC. According to OPPO, the 80W SUPERVOOC will deliver a 50% charge in just 12 minutes. Based on my test, getting the phone fully charged took around 35 minutes, which is still quite impressive. When it comes to battery life, the phone can last through a day with around 4 hours of screen-on-time. That’s 2 hours short of its predecessor, which isn’t good, but I guess we can all agree that how inefficient the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip is.
Final Words
Retailing at RM4,999, the OPPO Find X5 Pro is priced higher than its predecessor. I believe the price hike is due to the more premium build, and also thanks to the poor exchange rate. Nevertheless, it is still a great flagship phone. It still has an impressive ultra-wide camera that shoots impressive photos as the primary camera.
Buy Here
Yay
- Impressive build
- Top-class display
- Amazing cameras
Nay
- Unimpressive telephoto camera
- Not so good battery life