Oppo’s Find X8 Pro Wants to Be an AI Phone, But Its Camera Is the Real Star

Even before unboxing the Find X8 Pro — let alone using it, I knew Oppo wanted AI to be the main attraction of this phone. It was obvious: The name Oppo AI Phone was written in bold on the side of the device’s box, and the company had been teasing the features of the device before its launch.

After all, the Find X8 Pro is Oppo’s flagship phone List of Samsung Galaxy S24 and Apple’s Apple 16 line — both boast their fair share of useful AI features. The Galaxy S24’s AI features include live rendering on calls and photo-generating features like Sketch to Image. Meanwhile, iPhone 16 features include improved Siri and time-saving message shortcuts. The Chinese company’s ambitions are not surprising given the continued buzz and gen AI releases in smartphones and the broader consumer technology space.

On the other hand, the Find X8 Pro delivers on its promise. The company’s first “AI phone” that offers a host of features related to image production and editing, as well as AI recommendations designed to make the experience intuitive.

But the device’s 50-megapixel periscope-style telephoto cameras stood out to me during my day testing this phone. Those cameras were among the most impressive zoom cameras I’ve ever tested because of their clear images of distant objects, as well as the great flexibility and creative freedom they enable.

Apart from the cameras, the Oppo Find X8 Pro has the highest quality features it will get. It features a bright and shiny display, runs on a large silicon-carbon battery with support for super-fast wired and wireless charging, and boasts an impressive IP68 and IP69 durability rating. The latter means that the device can withstand jet water sprays, even at temperatures as high as 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit).

However, it is not perfect. The Find X8 Pro gets a shorter duration of software updates than other competing Android phones. It gets five years of Android OS updates and six years of security, which is less than the seven years offered by Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series and Google’s Pixel 9 lineup.

Oppo also loosely imitates Apple’s features. The Find X8 Pro’s so-called Quick Control buttons copy the iPhone 16’s camera control button, a hardware feature designed to give users easy access to the camera, at least for now. Oppo has had a history of borrowing Apple designs, for example: the Oppo Watch from 2020.

Finally, the Find X8 Pro is not getting a US launch. However, this is the first time since 2022 that Oppo will release its flagship Find X series globally. At the time of writing, Oppo has not shared any pricing information.

The Find X8 Pro’s duo of telescope cameras

The main feature of the Find X8 Pro’s camera module is a duo of periscope-style telephoto cameras. There are two 50-megapixel telephoto cameras capable of 3x zoom and 6x optical zoom.

Unlike digital zoom, which gradually zooms in by cropping the image, optical zoom is considered true zoom because it uses the camera lens to enlarge the image without losing image quality. However, Oppo has an AI Telescope Zoom feature that improves images taken using digital zoom. It works automatically at 10x, just beyond the optical zoom range, and takes cool photos in a variety of lighting conditions, including low-light environments.

And, thanks to its periscope-style cameras, the Find X8 Pro offers a flexible range of focal lengths to choose from, allowing for more creative freedom. It was just great, and I felt I could trust the camera to deliver detailed images without trying too hard. Telephoto lenses are already a desirable premium feature on smartphones, and this periscope-style telephoto is an even bigger step when it comes to zoom quality.

The best of AI in Find X8 Pro

I didn’t use the full extent of the AI ​​features in the Find X8 Pro as Hong Kong is uniquely disadvantaged in the AI ​​arena — most Western tech giants don’t extend their services to the city.

For example, I couldn’t use the Google Gemini app, which is natively installed on the Find X8 Pro. Additionally, the AI ​​Toolbox didn’t seem to work automatically, as I didn’t get any recommended tools based on the app running.

Most of the AI ​​features found in the Find X8 Pro are already present in competing phones. These include Circle to Search, a new recording app powered by Gemini 1.5 Pro and a text generation tool called AI Writer. Apart from this, I really appreciated having AI productivity features well integrated into apps like Oppo’s Notes app, which helped generate text. The AI ​​summarization tool in the recording app was very useful for me as a reporter who often uses a voice recorder for stories. Those features worked well enough to become go-to features in my productivity toolkit.

However, I would like to see more action-oriented features that an AI agent can bring. For example, Chinese rival Honor has implemented such features with the Magic V3 in mainland China. It helps users order coffee or groceries by learning their preferences and habits over time.

Get X8 Pro hotkey

The Find X8 Pro also has a new hardware button, similar to the Camera Control button on the iPhone 16. The Quick Button — as Oppo named it — is pressure sensitive and allows you to take photos, zoom in or out and take multiple photos. It doesn’t have as many supported features as the iPhone 16’s camera button, such as adjusting the aperture or taking videos, but I doubt I’ll want it.

In my short time with the Find X8 Pro, I didn’t naturally end up using the Quick Button because it’s not a habit. I don’t expect to use it much in the long run and would like to take photos normally. But when I tried Quick Control, I found it intuitive in terms of figuring out how to use it, even though I’ve never been in the habit of taking pictures that way. Still, I found myself wondering if Oppo could update this feature to be more multitasking for me.

Battery and performance

Oppo has jumped on the silicon-carbon battery bandwagon, which another Chinese phone maker and rival Honor pioneered in smartphones, taking a page from the electric car industry. I haven’t spent enough time with the device to test battery life, but there are potential benefits to this emerging trend over lithium-ion batteries.

That includes a lower environmental impact and a reduced risk of overheating. The long-term reliability of silicon carbon batteries is still being researched, and adoption in the smartphone industry is still in its early stages. But the fact that more smartphone makers are switching to lithium-iron is an encouraging sign.

The Find X8 Pro runs on Mediatek’s Dimensity 9400 chipset, which supports advanced AI capabilities in flagship Android phones and promises improved performance.

First thoughts on the Find X8 Pro

The Oppo Find X8 Pro is a promising phone that has all the makings of a high-end phone for 2024, from its solid and sleek design to its impressive camera system and that silicon-carbon battery. While those periscope-style cameras will always stand out from my initial impressions of this phone, I still think about the power of Oppo’s AI features. Although my limited access to these features means I haven’t fully tested them, I loved having the notepad feature in the notes app and the AI ​​summarization tool in the recording app. However, if Oppo really wants to take things to the next level, an AI agent could help turn this device into a real assistant.

Watch this: Oppo Find X5 Pro: 5 Things I Love About This Flagship Android Phone

08:05