Oppo Find X8 Pro review: impressive cameras, disappointing battery life
28-3-2025
Translation: Katherine Martin
Pictures: Jan Johannsen
The Oppo Find X8 Pro impresses with its four very good cameras, and brings back memories of OnePlus devices. But the battery life holds me back from recommending it unequivocally.
One German sales ban and [one Swiss distribution mess](/page/oppo-switzerland-gibt-auf-keine-neuen-handys-mehr-29917 later, Oppo is back with the Find X8 Pro. Although sales haven’t officially started yet, the phone is still available to buy. And it’s an attractive device. Unless battery life happens to be your be-all and end-all, that is.
A display for wet fingers
Oppo has kitted out the Find X8 Pro with a 6.78-inch AMOLED display. The unique thing about it is that it’s equipped with Splash Touch technology. This improves the detection of damp fingers and, as a result, makes the display easier to use. I feel like the touchscreen really is more responsive than those of other smartphones when I’m tapping or scrolling on it with wet hands. I’m not worried about water damaging the phone. The device’s IP68 certification means it’s waterproof for 30 minutes at a depth of 1.5 metres. This considered, a few droplets from your hands is no big deal. The phone also has an IP69 certification, meaning it’s even designed to withstand water jets from an angle of up to 80 degrees.
Even putting all that aside, I’m really happy with the screen. As is typically the case with AMOLED displays, the colours are excellent. Meanwhile, the 2780 × 1264 pixel resolution creates a sharp picture. On top of that, the display has a high refresh rate of 120 hertz and a brightness of 1,600 nits. At its peak, it can rise as high as 4,500 nits when displaying HDR content. Gorilla Glass 7i is charged with protecting the display. Manufacturer Corning says its protective glass, designed for smartphones in the mid-price range, can survive being dropped from one metre.
I was also pleased to see Oppo bring back the Alert Slider on the side of the Find X8 Pro. The company took on the feature from OnePlus after the BBK group [merged the two brands more closely](/page/die-abschaffung-von-oneplus-ein-tablet-zeigt-die-richtung-an-26976. You can use it to quickly switch between activating the ringer, vibration or silent mode.
Four very good cameras
For the Find X8 Pro, Oppo’s continuing its collaboration with camera manufacturer Hasselblad. Its most evident role is in reproducing colours captured by the camera, but it’s also provided details such as the orange shutter release and Xpan mode.
All four of the Find X8 Pro’s cameras have a 50-megapixel resolution, but they differ when it comes to aperture, sensor size and focal length:
- Main camera: 23 mm, 1/1.4 inch, f/1.6
- Periscope telephoto camera: 73 mm, 1/1.95 inch, f/2.6
- Periscope telephoto camera: 135 mm, 1/2.51 inch, f/4.3
- Ultra wide-angle camera: 15 mm, 1/2.75 inch, f/2.0
According to Oppo’s specs, the telephoto cameras come with a 3x and a 6x zoom respectively. The front camera has 32 megapixels at 21 mm, f/2.4 and 1/2.74 inch.
When playing around with the cameras, two special features caught my attention: Lightning Snap and AI Telescope. Lightning Snap takes up to seven pictures per second when you hold down the shutter button, apparently without impairing image processing. This is true to the extent that I don’t notice any lag when viewing the shots I’ve captured. However, the feature doesn’t consistently deliver seven images per second. Even so, it’s a good way to photograph something like pets frolicking around.
The AI Telescope feature supposedly improves image quality when using the digital zoom. Depending on what you’re photographing, the feature works fairly well. It makes a cow in a paddock look like an oil painting. The lettering on a sign at 120x zoom doesn’t look razor sharp either, but it does look more like a photo.
No quality differences between the cameras
All in all, the Oppo Find X8 Pro impressed me with its high level of detail and natural colour reproduction (the colours aren’t as garish as on other smartphones).
That verdict, by the way, explicitly goes for all four cameras. Since they all have the same resolution, there are no major differences in quality between them (unlike on many other smartphones). The varying apertures and sensor sizes make less of an impact than I expected. Either that, or the software levels them out in post-processing.
Night mode worth its salt
Even aside from the camera, the night mode is worth its salt. It slightly brightens up the shots, but still retains that nighttime atmosphere. What it’s especially good at is compensating for overexposed areas, such as lamplit spots.
Dimensity on a par with Snapdragon
The Find X8 Pro has a different chipset to most other high-end smartphones released in 2025. Oppo has fitted it with the [Dimensity 9400](/page/dimensity-9400-mediateks-neuer-chipsatz-ist-bereit-fuer-noch-mehr-ki-35093 from Mediatek. Most of its competitors, on the other hand, use Qualcomm’s [Snapdragon 8 Elite](/page/snapdragon-8-elite-vorgestellt-mehr-ki-fuer-gaming-fotos-und-videos-35279 in their devices.
If benchmark tests are to be believed, this isn’t a disadvantage. The Dimensity 9400 trumps last year’s chipsets from both Mediatek and Qualcomm. In terms of CPU performance, the Find X8 Pro has a slight edge over the [Honor Magic7 Pro](/page/honor-magic7-pro-im-test-kleine-verbesserungen-und-weniger-akku-37273 equipped with the Snapdragon. The only handset to outdo it is the [Galaxy S25 Ultra](/page/galaxy-s25-ultra-im-test-wo-die-ki-hilft-und-wo-nicht-36943. However, Samsung also has a version of the chipset with two computing cores that are clocked higher.
When it comes to graphics calculations, the Dimensity actually gets a higher overall score. Mind you, its advantage is only slight, and doesn’t come out in every single test. Even so, these figures suggest the chipset is just as good as Qualcomm’s.
Mediatek and Qualcomm use different frameworks for AI computing, so those particular benchmarks aren’t comparable. However, Snapdragon does seem to provide more AI tools. I’ll come on to the Find X8 Pro’s AI tools later.
The Dimensity 9400 provides the Oppo smartphone with Wi-Fi 7. It’s worth mentioning that the Find X8 Pro has three Wi-Fi antennas. Until now, it’s been typical for smartphones to have two. My colleague Martin Jud is always hammering home [the importance of antenna number](/page/was-bringt-eigentlich-wi-fi-7-26236 when it comes to exploiting a router’s transmission speed.
Large battery, short runtime
The Find X8 Pro has a large battery with a capacity of 5,910 mAh. Based on silicon-carbon technology, it requires less volume for the same energy density as lithium-ion batteries.
That may sound good on paper, but the actual measured battery life is poor. In the PC Mark Work 3.0 battery test, the phone runs out of juice after just 7:48 hours. This puts the Find X8 Pro’s battery life on a par with the [Honor Magic7 Pro](/page/honor-magic7-pro-im-test-kleine-verbesserungen-und-weniger-akku-37273, but it lags far behind the [Galaxy S25 Ultra](/page/galaxy-s25-ultra-im-test-wo-die-ki-hilft-und-wo-nicht-36943. Despite these meagre measurements, the battery generally holds out until the evening under everyday use.
In a pinch, the Find X8 Pro will charge quickly if you can briefly hook it up to a charger at some point during the day. Provided your adapter supports the necessary fast-charging technology, that is. Up to 80 watts are possible via cable and Supervooc. Via Airvooc, the smartphone receives up to 50 watts wirelessly.
Some AI tools are handy, others don’t work
Android 15 comes installed by default on the Find X8 Pro. Oppo has given the operating system its ColorOS 15 user interface. However, this «minimalist aesthetic» doesn’t look hugely different to other smartphones. The navigation was smooth and seamless even before the «refined effects» touted by the manufacturer. The Find X8 Pro is set to receive six years of security updates. Operating system updates will be available for the next four years.
The device’s AI features include Google’s [Circle to Search](/page/circle-to-search-so-funktioniert-das-beste-software-feature-fuers-samsung-galaxy-s24-31508tool and the Gemini assistant. Gemini will reportedly be integrated even more deeply into the system in future.
There are other tools installed for photo editing. The AI eraser is now better at object recognition, and there are three tools you can use to make things disappear. Unwanted objects in a photo can be circled with an intelligent lasso or painted over, and people can be recognised automatically. All three tools work really well.
The other AI image processing tools are designed to remove blurring, boost the resolution of low-res images and get rid of reflections. Personally, I haven’t yet seen clear improvements to my own pictures when using the blur or resolution tools. Though the reflection removal tool isn’t perfect yet, it does work pretty well – especially with simple reflections. This example photo consisting of several panes of glass in a row pushes the tool to its limit. Nevertheless, the result achieved at the touch of a button is still pretty impressive.
AI tools relevant to the content displayed on screen appear in the Smart Sidebar. If you’re on a web page with a lot of text, for instance, you’ll be displayed AI Speak and AI summary. When I try to get the phone to read out my article, however, I’m confronted with a «service error». My attempt to get a summary of the text proves equally fruitless. German currently isn’t one of the supported languages.
In contrast, the translation tools, which you can assign a permanent place in your Smart Sidebar, work better.
Oppo’s AI Studio app gives you the opportunity to generate and edit images. You do, however, need an account to do it. Plus, each AI image you create costs five or ten stars of credit, which you have to buy with real money.
Although the Find X8 Pro comes with one or two useful AI tools, the whole package hasn’t quite won me over yet. They’re either flat-out poor or not yet working as promised.
By creating the Touch to Share feature, Oppo’s aiming to make sharing files with Apple devices easier. To use it, the O+ Connect app has to be installed on the iPhone or iPad you want to share files with. Once that’s done, Apple and Android devices will be able to exchange files via Oppo Share, just like with AirDrop.
In a nutshell
The battery life has curbed my enthusiasm
With its stylish display, serious computing power and four very good cameras, the Oppo Find X8 Pro is undoubtedly one of the top smartphones out there. Its camera setup is a prime example of how much it has to offer compared to other phones with a premium chipset.
The battery life, however, is just average. This stands out all the more when you consider Samsung has broken new ground in this area by releasing the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which lasts almost twice as long. Although the battery has curbed my enthusiasm, it doesn’t take away the smartphone’s appeal.
I’m not overly bothered about the fact that the AI tools don’t all work as promised. I’m seeing the same thing from other manufacturers at the moment.
Pro
- Four very good cameras, all of equally high quality
- Excellent display
- Enormous computing power
Contra
- Comparatively short battery life
- AI tools not yet fully functional
- Gorilla Glass 7i only
Header image: Jan Johannsen
As a primary school pupil, I used to sit in a friend's living room with many of my classmates to play the Super NES. Now I get my hands on the latest technology and test it for you. In recent years at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, now at Digitec and Galaxus.
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