At the end of last year, the OPPO Find X8 Pro released was very good in all aspects, a very perfect bucket flagship, but far from reaching the level of a "top flagship." After waiting for a full half a year, the OPPO Find X8 Ultra with the Ultra suffix finally arrived. As an Ultra-level flagship, the price of OPPO Find X8 Ultra is also very heavy: starting from 6499 yuan, the price of 16+1TB (supporting satellite communication function) has reached 7999 yuan.

OPPO Find X8 Ultra Review

The first super-large cup straight screen, both look and feel can fight
The first major change point of OPPO Find X8 Ultra is the screen form. When domestic flagship models are still insisting on four-sided micro-curved screens, OPPO finally stood out first to replace with the straight screen design with high online demand, which also makes the front visual perception of OPPO Find X8 Ultra significantly wider than the Ultra of friends and business. In actual hands-on it is indeed so, the 6.78-inch straight screen with right-angle frame, if your palm is not big enough it is difficult to achieve one-handed control, it seems that both appearance and hand feel are difficult to have on the super-large cup. About this screen, Xiao Lei simply mentions: 6.78-inch 2K high refresh screen, 510PPI, True Color ProXDR, diamond display technology, 1600nits global peak brightness, 100% DCI-P3, in line with current flagship standards.

In addition to the change of screen form, OPPO Find X8 Ultra also added a customizable multifunctional button on the upper left of the middle frame, the specific experience we will talk about later. But Xiao Lei still wants to complain, the position of this button is too high, in the normal holding posture almost need to straighten the index finger completely to barely touch the button. Of course, the volume keys and power key are the same problem, perhaps OPPO’s designers really have big palms. In other appearances, OPPO Find X8 Ultra has no obvious difference and change compared to the whole Find X8 series, which Xiao Lei is actually somewhat dissatisfied with. The so-called Ultra should open the gap with the whole series in design, function, image, and black technology, to show the difference of Ultra. If the Find X8 Ultra could make a little change in the camera Deco, it might be better.

OPPO Find X8 Ultra Review

After saying some dissatisfaction points, it must also be admitted that the overall texture of OPPO Find X8 Ultra is quite in place, whether it is the narrowing design of the middle frame, screen bezel, or the rear Deco, all are very in line with flagship standards. And although the weight of the body has come to 226g, the overall balance is relatively reasonable, holding in hand will not feel top-heavy.

"Five lenses" blessing, has imaging broken the ceiling again?

The reason why an imaging flagship can live up to this name, in addition to better picture quality, more complete focal lengths are also one of the key factors, the configuration of focal lengths determines the subjects you can shoot. For example, when you go to the park and see a bird with particularly bright feathers and want to include it in the picture, if your focal length is not long enough, you can only capture its outline, unable to see any details. OPPO Find X8 Ultra should be the first super-large cup model on the market equipped with rear "five cameras." Yes, below the 6x periscope telephoto lens there is also a very mini lens. Strictly speaking, it is not a lens, but it really participates in the camera imaging process.

OPPO named it Danxia True Color Lens. From the name, everyone can guess it is to further restore the color temperature and light captured by the sensor. But its realization principle is very interesting. Traditional mobile phones are not equipped with color temperature sensors, causing the camera sensor to stuff all the colors it "sees" into the picture when capturing images. If encountering particularly complex lighting environments such as bars, music festivals, concerts, the whole photo looks colorful, which cannot be called a finished piece.

And this independent lens can help OPPO Find X8 Ultra distinguish different colors in the picture, and through built-in partition color temperature perception technology, recognize how many color light sources there are and their positions, and how they affect the whole environment.

OPPO Find X8 Ultra Review

First talk about the shooting scene. At that time, the scene only had red indicator light source and sporadic lights from distant buildings. In the past, whether using a mobile phone or camera, two problems generally appeared when shooting portraits in this scene: one is too much noise making the whole photo look particularly dirty; another is the red light source causing the whole photo’s white balance to be seriously biased red, whether the model’s skin tone, clothes, or background would be dyed with a clear red. But OPPO Find X8 Ultra well recognized the influence of the red light source on the whole environment, and through algorithms restored the original colors of each object as much as possible.

If in an environment with simpler and cleaner light sources, OPPO Find X8 Ultra will optimize the pure black background color again, making the whole photo look more three-dimensional and layered, and pure black can also well cover noise in the picture. Very considerate is that OPPO Find X8 Ultra has built-in three preset schemes: "stage performance," "sunset silhouette," and "brilliant fireworks." Even if you are a photography novice, using these three modes in suitable scenes can improve the photo success rate. When turning on the system’s built-in Master mode, OPPO Find X8 Ultra can further utilize the sensor’s light intake advantage, achieving quite outstanding texture indoors, outdoors, or in low light. In addition, with the blessing of light and shadow, photos also look more three-dimensional with richer layers.

OPPO Find X8 Ultra Review

In Master mode, we can also customize parameter adjustments for multiple filters provided officially. More importantly, photos taken with Master mode will be conservative in HDR algorithm and sharpening marks, and with RAW format, very suitable for users who like post-color grading. Of course, as an imaging flagship, the imaging quality of Find X8 Ultra needs no more words, among which the main camera and 3x periscope telephoto performance most surprised Xiao Lei.

First talk about the main camera. It is our old friend LYT900, this sensor has already been applied in many imaging flagships, its strength is well known. The advantage of light intake brought by the super large sensor area is unmatched by ordinary sensors, while the wide dynamic range ensures that details in highlights and shadows are fully preserved, avoiding overexposure or underexposure. Therefore, in some high-contrast scenes, OPPO Find X8 Ultra can bring especially textured light and shadow transitions, giving subjects unique three-dimensional sense, and even when magnified many times details can still be clearly seen.

OPPO Find X8 Ultra Review

The 70mm three-times telephoto lens is the most frequently used lens by Xiao Lei during this period. Not only is its focal length more suitable for most subjects, but more importantly, its imaging quality is not worse than the main camera. Whether shooting scenery, objects, or pets, this lens is worth using independently. Slightly pity is that when competitors are using 200MP super telephoto lenses, OPPO Find X8 Ultra still uses a 50MP medium sensor. Although from Xiao Lei’s personal experience, its performance is not much worse than 200MP, at least in publicity, competitors have more advantage, after all, users are "digit-sensitive animals." From the hardware level alone, OPPO Find X8 Ultra made Xiao Lei a little disappointed: each lens is very strong, but not strong enough to open distance from competitors, giving Xiao Lei the feeling more like a comprehensively upgraded super bucket machine. But with the blessing of the new imaging system and algorithms, OPPO Find X8 Ultra’s ease of use is far beyond competitors’ Ultra models. But just this point is still difficult to live up to expectations. Fortunately, OPPO also brought a new trump card—night portrait.

OPPO Find X8 Ultra Review

Ultra-level night portrait, how capable is it?

Unlike other Ultras, a major publicity point of OPPO Find X8 Ultra imaging is night portrait. After all, in ordinary portrait field, OPPO has already reached industry’s top level with its own understanding of portrait. Night portrait has always been a field manufacturers dare not try easily. On one hand, night algorithms are not simply merging night and portrait algorithms, but need to adjust both, because night algorithm mainly brightens the picture, while portrait algorithm needs to preserve the model’s skin tone and overall color temperature. In principle the two are somewhat conflicting. So how does OPPO Find X8 Ultra perform? With Danxia True Color Lens, new night portrait algorithm, and large sensor triple blessing, OPPO Find X8 Ultra’s night portrait performance indeed exceeded Xiao Lei’s expectation. It not only preserved the natural transition feature between people and background in portrait algorithm, but also combined night algorithm to capture effective light sources in the scene and reasonably brightened the picture slightly, making the whole photo look particularly natural. Previously when using a certain imaging flagship, in low light scenes two classic problems appeared: obvious algorithm traces, details of model’s face and clothes smeared; slow focusing and probability of out-of-focus. But in the same scene with only one wall lamp light source, OPPO Find X8 Ultra’s performance can be described as exaggerated, not only well suppressing the wall lamp light source, but also restoring the light and dark transition on the model’s face in place.

OPPO Find X8 Ultra Review

Of course, these photos also went through some skin smoothing and whitening, but not overly, in other words very natural, almost no trace of processing. After solving blur and white balance color, OPPO Find X8 Ultra also focused on background blur. Previously portrait mode basically applied the camera’s solution, separating subject and background with blur. Some large aperture lenses in certain scenes can blur point light sources behind the subject into circular light spots. In camera industry words, "the rounder the spot, the more expensive the lens." OPPO Find X8 Ultra well understands this demand, although relying mostly on algorithm optimization, so some light spots in the picture are still "lemon-shaped," but it must be said these spots indeed make photos more atmospheric.

Of course, the live photo format photos highly praised on OPPO Find X8 series also "evolved" on Find X8 Ultra. Now photos taken under HDR mode can be uploaded to social platforms without loss. In theory, as long as other users’ phone screens support standard HDR playback, they can also see the HDR live photo effect of Find X8 Ultra. Actually, throughout the whole review, it is not difficult to find that algorithms on OPPO Find X8 Ultra are very strong in presence, even more important than hardware itself. Some readers may feel algorithm’s blessing makes photos not real enough, blatant false advertising. Personally, I think current mobile photography cannot completely abandon algorithms, or say it is algorithms that brought mobile photography to today’s height. What we dislike is those too rigid and unnatural algorithms, making photos lose real beauty. Obviously OPPO Find X8 Ultra does very well on this point.

OPPO Find X8 Ultra Review

In video, OPPO Find X8 Ultra also welcomed an epic upgrade. Now Find X8 Ultra supports brand new 4K 120fps cinematic Dolby Vision video recording, and supports 1-10X zoom shooting, filling the gap of Android phones’ previous lack of full focal length Dolby video shooting experience. In actual use, Find X8 Ultra can freely call four cameras for Dolby Vision shooting, from panorama, to half-body, to close-up, easily achieving multi-camera shooting.

Review summary: It is a super-large cup, but also a portable "novice camera"

Finally, as usual, simply use Lei Technology review template to summarize OPPO Find X8 Ultra:

Advantages:

  1. Screen quality is extremely high, ultra-narrow bezel brings stronger impact;

  2. Independent Danxia lens performance far exceeds expectations;

  3. Reached new height in hardware-software combination;

  4. Algorithm level is still industry-leading.

Disadvantages:

  1. Volume and power buttons are too high;

  2. Camera button sense of presence is not strong.

Whether as a super-large cup flagship phone, or as an imaging weapon focusing on photography, OPPO Find X8 Ultra has no obvious shortcomings. Especially in imaging, it perfectly interprets OPPO’s understanding of today’s mobile imaging, making a useful "camera" more popularized and simplified. The peripheral configuration of OPPO Find X8 Ultra also proves it is a thorough top flagship phone. Whether you need super strong imaging, flagship performance, or more professional screen, it can perfectly meet your needs. If you want to buy a flagship phone recently that does not pursue extreme single points but achieves all-round performance, OPPO Find X8 Ultra is definitely one of the most worthwhile products to buy right now.