OPPO Find X2 Neo is a 5G powerhouse at an affordable $999

OPPO Find X2 Neo

I can’t’ help it – I love the OPPO Find X2 Neo 5G almost as much as I love the OPPO Find X2 Pro. It and the even lower cost Find X2 Lite complete OPPOs current 5G line-up.

In fact, if I had not reviewed the $1599 OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G first (review here 4.9/5), I would have easily been convinced the $999 OPPO Find X2 Neo was to be its affordable flagship.

Oh, and then there is an OPPO Find X2 Lite 5G as well at $749. I can tell you that you are not losing much by saving the few yuan. You can find our comparison chart for all three models here.

So, what are the OPPO Find X2 Neo good points?

  • 6.5″ AMOLED 90Hz screen
  • Qualcomm SD765G
  • 12/256GB
  • 3/4/5G Gen 2 Qualcomm modem
  • Quad 48MP rear camera
  • 32MP selfie
  • 4025mAh battery and VOOC Flash 4.0 30W – 100% in 60 minutes
  • And it is really thin at 7.7mm

What is it missing?

  • Qi charge (but not usually at this price)
  • Micro-SD expansion (OTG to 2TB fixes that)
  • IP rating (the Pro has IP68 – this is splashproof)

Yes, it is that good, although the Lite version is tempting. Its main downgrade is in the screen (60Hz) camera (lower specified quad), and 8/128GB RAM – saving $250.

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Note: Reviews use FAIL, PASS and EXCEED against the test paradigms. These paradigms vary for the class of phone, price bracket etc. So, PASS means it meets what we expect of any phone at that price or level.

Australian review – OPPO Find X2 Neo Model CPH 2009AU

  • Australian Website: here
  • Price: $999
  • Colours: Starry Blue, Moonlight Black
  • Warranty: 2-years and now includes International Warranty Service (IWS) in Asia, Europe, Africa, America and Oceania for devices purchased from OPPO Authorised retailers – not those damned grey marketers.
  • From: JB Hi-Fi (outright), Telstra (on plan), Woolworths Mobile (on plan) and Bing Lee (outright)
  • Note: 5G has extremely limited coverage, and for the majority of the time, you will get 3/4G speeds.
  • Country of Manufacture: China
  • OPPO (Est 2001) is a privately-owned Chinese consumer electronics and mobile communications company headquartered in Dongguan, Guangdong. It is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics Corporation (Est 1995) along with OnePlus, Vivo, and Realme (and other brands including VSun, XTC, and IMOO). Its executives and long-term staff own many of the shares. BBK is currently the second-largest smartphone maker in the world (Source CounterPoint February 2020). It is most definitely not part of the Huawei/ZTE/China spying debate.

Mandatory warning – dodgy online sellers

We have named and shamed the main grey market opportunists here. Note: Kogan/Dick Smith are NOT authorised resellers despite any claims to the contrary.

OPPO Find X2 Neo
This is what you see on the genuine Australian modem Regulatory page

First impressions – EXCEED

Please OPPO, stop sending me boring black (sorry Moonlight Black) after you teased me with very colourful Find X2 Pro Orange Vegan Leather! Moonlight Black is a highly polished piano black (versus Starry Blue), and a huge fingerprint magnet so use the clear bumper case provided.

It is a glass slab, left top O-hole for the selfie, very thin (7.7mm) and light (171g) with gently curved glass edges. It is almost all screen with an under-glass fingerprint sensor. This also links to NFC and Google pay – in one touch.

I love the 20:9 format – tall and slim, and it’s a delight to use one-handed. But the camera bump makes it wobble on the desk – use the clear bumper case to fix that.

BTW – the Find X2 Neo is also called Reno 3 Pro 5G in some parts of the world. Reno Z and Reno 2 Z were some of Australia’s top-selling smartphones in 2019.

Screen – EXCEED

It is 6.5″, 2400×1800, 402ppi AMOLED, 20:9, 93.4% STBR covered in Gorilla Glass 5. It has a 90Hz (auto/60/90Hz) and up to 180Hz touch sample rate. Gamers will like the 2.8ms G-Y-G response time.

We measured it at Typical/HBM (High Brightness Mode)/Max at 500/800/1100 nits (it is bright), and as AMOLED has pure black, you get infinite contrast. The screen is 97% DPI-P3 calibrated (vivid) and has 100% sRGB (web colours). You can adjust the colour temperature from warm to cold. Perfect for daylight use. It has TÜV Rheinland Eye Comfort Certification.

You can view FHD video from YouTube et al. as it is Widevine L1 certified.

Summary: As good as it gets without the over-the-top battery-draining 120Hz screens.

Processor – EXCEED

It is a Qualcomm SD765G (5G) that has become the staple of a new breed of 5G phones (either 765G or 768G). You will find it in OPPO Find X2 Neo/Lite/Reno 3/Reno 4, Motorola Edge, realme X50, vivo X50, Samsung A71, LG Velvet and about 70 more.

This is the first SD765 we have tested. I like it because it is a new 7nm Soc with 1 x 2.4GHz, 1 x 2.21GHz and 6 x 1.8GHz cores that really give it the ability to scale up or down to suit loads.

It has the X52 Gen 2 5G modem and a Gen 5 AI that is great for photography and to optimise gameplay. OPPO tend to stick fairly closely to a Qualcomm reference design.

Games – EXCEED

The G stands for gaming functions like a game ‘smoother’; and fast loader. Add that to OPPOs game boost and an Adreno 620 GPU, and it can handle even the more complex games with respectable frame rates.

Geekbench – EXCEED

The single/multi-core and compute scores are 621/1820/1260. This is similar to the 2019 SD855 flagship processor.

CPU Throttle – EXCEED

It started at 153,828GIPS and kept that up for 15 minutes at 100% Load. That reflects what I have come to expect from OPPOs terrific thermal management. Even under load, it never exceeded 37°.

By comparison, the SD865 in the Find X2 Pro is 255,658GIPS and had a 12% throttle over 15 minutes.

RAM and Storage – PASS

  • 12GB LPDDRX4 – Exceed
  • 256GB UFS 2.1 – PASS – 217GB free – it is not as fast as the latest
  • Micro-SD – no

Comms – EXCEED

  • Wi-Fi 5 AC 2×2 MU-MIMO, excellent signal strength at -52dBm and 866Mbps at 5 metres from the router.
  • BT 5.1 LE A2DP – the latest tech
  • NFC: Yes with a fingerprint confirmation link
  • GPS: Dual-band and fine for turn-by-turn navigation
  • USB-C 2.0 OTG to 2TB
  • Almost every sensor apart from a barometer/altimeter

5G – EXCEED for sub-6Ghz

OPPO has developed a 360° antenna system that means it has great signal strength.

It supports n40/n78 5G NSA sub-6Ghz. There is mention that it may receive a firmware update for other sub-6Ghz bands. In any case, the SA mmWave is not readily available in Australia.

In theory, 5G’s DL/UL speed is 3.7Gbps/1.6Gbps. OPPO is one of the few that tell the truth and state that the fastest it can go under ideal conditions is 1.9Gbps/500Mbps.

The real issue is finding 5G reception. In this case, we were able to get 240Gbps/140Gbps standing in the Telstra store in Woy Woy.

4G LTE – EXCEED

It is a single sim which is a bit of a shame given so many are using separate work and personal sims now. But it achieves -82dBm in a 3-bar area – excellent for rural use. Theoretical DL/UL is up to 1299/210Mbps. We achieved 140/40Mbps in a four-bar zone.

It supports both VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling.

Bands: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 32, 38, 39, 41, 42, 66

It has excellent call clarity.

Sound – EXCEED

No 3.5mm combo jack means that you need USB-C headphones (or an adaptor) or use BT 5.1.

Audio codecs: SBC, AAC, aptX/adaptive/HD, FLAC, OGG, and more

Dual mics for call clarity.

OPPO states that ‘The amplitude of the speaker is 4.0/4.5. The unit is 1dmm’. I have absolutely no idea what this means, and I can’t find any reference on the web.

What it does have is pretty well-matched stereo speakers – an up/out-firing earpiece and down-firing bottom speakers. In our tests, we could barely notice a difference in volume, which reached a loud 81db.

This is as good as it gets. Gold top line is bottom speaker and white line is top speaker – they are almost perfectly matched.

The sound signature is warm and sweet (bass/mid boost) and its perfect for movies and music. Mid-bass starts at an incredible low of 50Hz – almost unheard of in a phone. And then its quite flat to 12kHz – ditto. This was an absolute pleasure to listen to. Note: If you want ‘clear vocie’ (mid-centric) you can adjust the output.

Now it claims Dolby Atmos. What OPPO means is that it can decode Dolby Atmos audio metadata down-mixed to its stereo speakers. It is still 2.0 – and you really need at least 5.1.2 to play real Atmos.

I am not picking on OPPO here – Atmos is one of the most misused and abused marketing terms – you can get an Atmos toaster! Read our Dolby Atmos for Dummies here.

At least it has an Atmos decoder, and that puts it a cut above most stereo speakers on a smartphone.

In our BT headphone test, it had perfect volume and clarity on our reference Sony WH-1000XM3. It even had quite a nice hint of Dolby Atmos spatial separation.

Battery – EXCEED

  • 4025mAh
  • VOOC 4.0, 5V/2A (standard) or 5V/6A/30W (2 charging channels of 5V/3A each)

Tests

  • Typical use: 15 hours
  • Wi-Fi and web: 12 hours
  • T-Rex: 506.2 minutes and 3378 frames
  • Battery charge with VOOC 4.0 – 58 minutes
  • Discharge idle 300mA so expect 15+ days at idle

It is not a two-day battery, although you could use aggressive battery settings to get there. It made it through each day of the test with 30-50% left. Who cares with a 60minute recharge?

Build – EXCEED

  • 159.40 x 72.40 x 7.70 mm x 171g
  • Gorilla Glass 5 sandwich on a metal frame.
  • Factory fitted glass protector and clear bumper case
  • It does not have a formal IP rating but its splashproof

Android – EXCEED

  • Android 10 plus Colour OS 7.1 – Android 11 coming (in Beta). We have written about ColorOS here but in summary
  • A light touch over Google Android 10 – all Android features are accessible
  • Adds major value to the device in terms of screen, battery and sound management
  • Little bloatware
  • Full suite of Google apps including Assistant and Lens
  • Good OS and update policy for a flagship device
  • Security Patch 5 July 2020 – amazing!
  • OPPO tries to release security patches at least quarterly.

Security – EXCEED

  • Under-glass ultrasonic fingerprint – Goodix and one of the fastest and best giving 99% accuracy (similar)
  • 2D Face unlock – OK, but not as secure as 3D (similar)
  • Personal information protection that provides faux empty call history, contacts, messages, and events information to apps that request them. An elegant way to stop Facebook sucking up your data.

Teats

  • Under-glass Goodix Ultrasonic fingerprint detector – 90% reliable in 10 presses
  • 2D face recognition – 80% reliable in 10 detections

Camera – EXCEED

OPPO Find X2 Neo

OPPO is one of the best smartphone camera designers. It was the first to produce a periscope Zoom (OPPO Reno 5G) and now the Find X2 Pro 5G. I can’t fault their use of AI or their camera lens quality and sensor selection.

Primary

  • 48MP, f1.7, .8umm, 67.7° FOV, PDAF, 6P, OIS
  • IMX586 sensor bins to 12MP/1.6um
  • 2X Optical, 5X Hybrid and up to 20X digital zoom
  • 4K@30fps
OPPO Find X2 Neo
1X Perfect colour, details and no noise
OPPO Find X2 Neo
2X optical zoom and no background noise
OPPO Find X2 Neo
5X Hybrid Zoom with perfect detail and colours

Telephoto

  • 13MP  f/2.4, 1.01um, 44.5° FOV, PDAF
  • OmniVision OV13A
Macro has terrific detail and colour

Wide-angle

  • 8MP, f/2.2, 1.4um, 116° FOV
  • Samsung S5K3H1
  • Contrast AF

Depth Sensor mono

  • 2MP, f/2.4, 1.75um
    OmniVision OVO2B

Features

  • Dual Led flash, Super Video stabilisation (OIS, EIS and gyro)
  • Photo, video, professional mode, panorama, portrait, night scene, time-lapse photography, slow motion, Photo Editing
OPPO Find X2 Neo
Low light <40 lumens and pretty good
OPPO Find X2 Neo
Night mode brings up the brightness

Selfie – EXCEED

  • 32MP, f/2.4. .8um, 5P, 80.4° FOV
  • Samsung SK5KGD1 bins to 8MP/1.6um
  • 1080p@30fps

GadgetGuy’s take – the OPPO Find X2 Neo is the peoples 5G  flagship

The OPPO Find X2 is compelling. I really like the build quality and finish. I can’t fault it on its screen, performance, super-fast charge time and camera. This is way above the rest at this price.

OK, it’s a sub-flagship because it lacks Qi charge, a formal IP rating, single sim and microSD. But at $999 who cares because you need to spend 50% more to get that in the Find X2 Pro.

I did not draw comparisons to the even cheaper Find X2 Lite, but it shares a lot of the Neo pedigree and parts. If the camera and ram/storage don’t matter, it is a bargain too.

As a 5G sub-flagship it rates very close to 5/5 and when compared to our flagship paradigms its 4.7/5 – that pretty damned good.

Features
Value for money
Performance
Ease of Use
Design
Reader Rating16 Votes
Excellent 90Hz AMOLED Screen
Terrific quad camera and selfie
Strong signal strength 4/5G reception
Great battery life
Plenty of power for games and multi-tasking
No IP rating (splashproof)
No Qi wireless charge (not exp[ected at this price)
Single Sim
No Micro-SD
4.8