OPPO Find X5 Review: Serious Quality With Serious Cameras

Design and functionality

• Matte finish on the back is really sleek and premium-feeling
• Really user-friendly design and good size

OPPO doesn’t shy away from making its phones big: the OPPO Find X5 includes a 6.55 inch AMOLED display. This is a bit smaller than the 6.7 inch display you get with the OPPO Find X5 Pro, but it’s still larger than its biggest competitor, the Samsung Galaxy S22 (6.1 inches).

I felt that the OPPO Find X5 was the perfect-sized phone — large enough to optimise your experience, especially watching videos, but not as awkward to hold as larger phones can be.

OPPO has kept things pretty simple, offering choices between white and black. If you like neutral options you’ll probably be happy, but if you prefer a bit more interest or colour to your phone, you’ll probably be disappointed in the choices. As you do get an included clear jelly case, the white or black will be on display unless you find another phone case. However, the finish on the back of the Find X5 makes these neutral colours look sleek and classy.

I was given the white version of the Find X5, and the matte white finish does look and feel really sleek. I’m generally not a fan of white finishes, but this one almost feels like a matte ceramic tile thanks to its smoothness. While my first instinct was that it was a boring choice, looking at it and holding it did change my opinion. And I actually really like what OPPO has done with this design. Not only does it look nice, but if you dislike fingerprints and smudges, you won’t see any of that showing on the white matte back.

The screen also has a nice curve around the edges, which can sometimes be more of a hindrance during usage with other phones. But here I found it made the screen feel much more premium.

The camera bump features on the top left of the phone — like most phone camera set-ups — but OPPO has essentially come up with its own signature style. The brand has opted for an angled, not quite square, set-up. The camera bump sort of melts into the back of the phone, rather than the more defined bumps that Apple, Google and Samsung feature. I really like this choice OPPO has made. And it feels very much like the company’s signature style, helping the Find X5 series to stand out from its competitors.

Using the phone

One thing you do notice when holding the Find X5 is just how solid it is, and it is a rather heavy-feeling phone. It comes in at 196g, which is the same weight as the larger Motorola Edge 30 Pro, but heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S22 (167g).

Looking at the phone’s screen, the lock button is positioned on the right of the phone, while the volume buttons are on the left. I found the placement of these buttons to be very user friendly. The in-display fingerprint scanner is also positioned in the perfect spot. If you’re unlocking with your thumbprint, you don’t need to do any weird positioning or stretching to reach it. Ultimately, I feel like OPPO really paid attention to how people use their phones, and managed to place everything in just the right position for ultimate usability and comfort.

You have both fingerprint and facial unlocking to choose from, in addition to PIN. And the in-display fingerprint scanner is really quick and seamless to use. I didn’t find any instances when I needed to reposition my thumb and try again to get it to unlock, which was a problem I experienced frequently with the Google Pixel 6. Facial recognition unlocking was also really quick, and I didn’t encounter any issues or delays in unlocking.

Overall, OPPO has managed to pull off a surprisingly nice-looking phone. While I initially felt it to be a bit boring and bland, it definitely looks much nicer in reality than I had expected. And I feel that’s a lot to do with the material they used for the back. It’s one of those phones that you really need to see and hold in order to appreciate its look, feel and functionality.

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Performance

• 80W fast charger included in the box makes for a fast battery charging experience
• Built-in speakers lack a little depth and richness to the sound

As you would expect from a phone at this price point, OPPO has delivered a speedy device that can easily keep up with your day-to-day needs. The Find X5 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, which was also featured in the OPPO Find X3 Pro, released in early 2021 (the latest Snapdragon processor is found in the OPPO Find X5 Pro). So while it is last year’s processor, it’s still last year’s premium processor. For the average user, not having the latest chipset is unlikely to be a big issue.

With that in mind, the OPPO Find X5 is a zippy phone that makes scrolling through social media, web browsing, gaming and watching videos a breeze. It feels fast and doesn’t struggle to handle intensive apps, such as Instagram and games. The fast fingerprint and facial unlocking also means that going from a locked phone to opening your app is seamless. Add in the 120Hz refresh rate, and you’ve got a phone that does feel like the premium experience you’d expect for the price tag.

Backing up the zippy performance is of course 5G connectivity. And while not yet widespread in New Zealand, for those in areas with 5G connectivity, it’s a plus. It also helps future-proof the device for the next few years, as 5G becomes the standard network.

Viewing experience

The OPPO Find X5 has a gorgeous screen with a nice curve on the sides. The colours also look natural and clear, thanks to the 1 Billion Colour Bionic Display. The adaptive brightness is rather intuitive, however. I found it struggled to switch from the ‘high consumption’ super-brightness to a duller brightness. It would jump straight down to the lowest brightness, even if that setting wasn’t right for the environment, and then took some time to rectify.

The built-in speakers give a great overall listening experience if you’re without headphones. However, I felt it needed a little bit of a bass boost to improve the sound of both music and speech. I found that videos with mostly speaking sounded a little flat, and could have benefited from some more depth to the sound. However, it’s not really something you notice too much. And it certainly doesn’t take away from the clear and immersive listening experience the speakers give you.

The screen quality and speakers make for a nice video watching experience, as well as for scrolling through social media. You’ll also get an excellent gaming experience, too. OPPO includes its version of game mode, where you can block out distractions, such as notifications, to keep your head in the game. The Find X5 handles gaming like a pro, and I found after around an hour of gameplay, the phone didn’t feel particularly hot and certainly didn’t struggle to keep up.

Battery and charging

When it comes to battery life, the 4500mAh battery definitely does the job. I found it burned only around 4% of battery after 30 minutes of Disney+ streaming, while 20 minutes of HD YouTube streaming used around 3% of battery. I didn’t particularly find gaming to be more of a huge battery drain than video. Around an hour and 20 minutes of solid gaming drained about 9% of the battery.

The battery did keep up with my day-to-day moderate usage needs. However a more intense phone user might find they need a boost later in the day. The good news is that OPPO includes an 80W SUPERVOOC Flash Charge in the box. Using the supplied charger, I was able to charge the Find X5 from 0% to 100% in just under 50 minutes. If you’re disappointed in the lack of included chargers from other phone manufacturers, this could be a big selling point for OPPO. And it’s especially generous to include an 80W charger in the box.

Overall, for the price tag of the OPPO Find X5, you should expect a solid performance and quality phone, which is exactly what you get. While I felt that a stronger built-in speaker performance could have really boosted my experience with the phone, it’s still not a huge issue, and doesn’t detract from the Find X5 experience.

Cameras

• Excellent photos in all conditions, with natural colours
• Night/low-light photos and videos a stand out

OPPO has put an emphasis on its cameras being able to handle your video and photo-taking needs — no matter the lighting conditions. OPPO has partnered with camera brand Hasselblad to co-develop its cameras. And MariSilicon X AI is used to improve night and low-light video. At this price point for an Android phone, the OPPO Find X5 is up against some serious competition in Samsung’s Galaxy S22 phone — so how does it hold up?

The Hasselblad collaboration has also included Hasselblad Natural Colour Calibration technology for more accurate and natural-looking colours. I’ve found that OPPO phones, in general, tend to be on the more saturated side, but the Find X5 produces very natural-looking photos, perhaps with a bit more vibrancy.

Outdoor photos are excellent. The Find X5 does a terrific job of producing natural-looking shots — even with a bit of saturation to the colours at times — and there’s a lot of depth to photos. Although, I did find that it struggled to pick up the depth of the sky at times, lacking some definition on a cloudy day and tending towards flaring in the sky.

Indoor photos are just as excellent as outdoor shots — even in low light. One thing that really stands out is the depth you get to your photos. Adding in the excellent dynamics of colours and shading, the Find X5 easily produces some seriously stunning photos.

Zoom

The 20x zoom of the Find X5 is surprisingly impressive. I found the results when zoomed-in to be rather clear. Usually, the results on a full zoom are grainy. I was surprised by the detail and clarity it was able to pick up, although this did seem to be dependent on the lighting conditions. When zooming in, a little guide appears on the top right of the screen, showing the overall area with a little square indicating the part that you’re currently zoomed in on, which is really handy.

Night/low light

One thing OPPO has focused on with the Find X5 is the improvement to night/low light photography and video. I tested this out a fair bit and compared the results to other devices I had on hand. And you can definitely notice a difference. When trying out low-light 4K video, you can really notice the results when you turn AI Highlight Video mode off and on. Having the mode turned off has some very dark results, and you don’t see much detail at all. But by turning the mode on, you can really tell the difference. You can actually see details rather well and the results are surprisingly light.

Low-light photography is trickier to test out, mostly because the Find X5 is just really, really good at showing detail and brightening low-light/night photos without even needing night mode. Taking photos in standard photo mode with AI scene enhancement off and on did little to change the quality, and it was the same for switching to night mode. The Find X5 just does an excellent job at picking up detail and colour in photos, and making photos lighter when taken in dark/low-light settings, all with minimal noise.

Other modes

Macro mode does a good job, but you’re not actually able to select the mode. Instead, when you get in close to a subject, it will automatically switch to macro. This is something that I experienced with the iPhone 13 Pro, although Apple had decided that it would change this and allow you to be able to switch to macro mode with a software update. OPPO could benefit from introducing the option to switch macro off or on, as it’s a bit annoying to be in close proximity to a subject and for it to switch to macro — and then needing to move the phone to switch out of macro mode.

Portrait mode is — as you would expect in a phone at this price point — excellent. You get really nice depth to your photos, and the background blur is subtle and looks natural. The subject tends to be a bit softer than what you might get from portrait modes on other phones (such as the Motorola Edge 30 Pro), but photos look stunning overall.

Video recording is excellent and, as previously mentioned, the experience is improved even further by the integrated AI to boost colour and clarity in night/low light situations. I also found the audio to be excellent. So, if you like filming more than photo taking, the Find X5 does produce great quality video that stands up rather well to the competition around this price.

Overall, there isn’t anything that the OPPO Find X5 can’t do when it comes to producing a quality photo and video experience. There’s no doubt that the partnership with Hasselblad has had a big impact on the overall quality of the cameras. The really great thing I found with the Find X5 is the fact that OPPO promotes its night/low-light photo and video as being the big camera feature, and actually delivers. It’s always good to see when a phone brand promotes a certain feature, that the feature’s quality is noticeable and essentially worth the promotion.

Note: Images taken on the OPPO Find X5 have been digitally compressed for web.

Should I buy the OPPO Find X5?

If you’re looking to buy a new OPPO phone, you really can’t go wrong with the OPPO Find X5. However, as great as the Find X5 is as a phone — a ‘pro’ phone in look and feel without the ‘pro’ name — the price is where this device falls short.

Considering its main competition is the Samsung Galaxy S22, the Find X5 is a little bit more expensive than the Samsung counterpart. Not only that, but the Find X5 includes the processor that was featured in the OPPO Find X3 Pro from 2021 — meaning that it’s carrying last year’s tech in a 2022 phone. While there’s nothing wrong with using what is clearly a fantastic processor, the decision to package ‘old’ tech into a phone at this price is an odd choice. This is where the Samsung Galaxy S22 might be a better, and slightly more affordable, option for some.

The stand out for the Find X5 is its cameras and performance in low-light situations. OPPO has really promoted this and its partnership with Hasselblad, and luckily it all paid off. It’s very, very rare to come across a phone where you technically don’t even need to use night mode when taking photos in low light, so it’s easy to see why this was a stand out feature for OPPO to promote.

Ultimately, if you’re after a premium OPPO phone, but you don’t want to pay even more for the Find X5 Pro (but still want a phone that feels ‘pro’) — the Find X5 won’t disappoint. It does everything you need it to: it looks great, feels great to use and keeps up with your day-to-day, all with some spectacular cameras to back it up.

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About the reviewer of this page

This report was reviewed by Canstar Content Producer, Andrew Broadley. Andrew is an experienced writer with a wide range of industry experience. Starting out, he cut his teeth working as a writer for print and online magazines, and he has worked in both journalism and editorial roles. His content has covered lifestyle and culture, marketing and, more recently, finance for Canstar.