OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G is gorgeous, powerful, impressive and desirable (update – now in Vegan Green leather)

OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G

The OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G is everything you expect from a flagship. A remarkable 120Hz, ultra-bright 1440p AMOLED screen, SD865+ power-house processor, 12/512GB RAM/storage, Dolby Atmos sound, a camera to rival the best, and it is IP68.

The OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (review here and 4.7/5) are in my opinion, the only two current phones that deserve 5G ‘Flagship’ moniker.

OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G – what is missing? Not much at all – a micro-SD expansion slot and Qi Charging give it an almost perfect score of 4.9/5.

I called the Samsung (we will refer it as the S20U from here), “The best Google Android smartphone you can get in 2020”. I may have to eat my words but let’s be objective and look at where one, or the other excels.

Interestingly I have both phones with me, so I am going to make a few comparisons (shown in brackets). It is not a matter of which is best, but which suits you the best. Let’s just say that I am a bit like the dog with two bones. I don’t know which to eat first so I may starve.

Hmmm, both are equally delightful. This one or that one? (rinse and repeat)

Review: OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G Model CPH2025AU – 12/512GB Single Sim Australian certified model

  • Australian website here
  • Price: $1599
  • Colours: Black Ceramic (back) or Orange Vegan Leather (back)
  • 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), OPTUS (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. OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G has an intelligent auto-switch between 4 and 5G depending on use and signal strength.
  • 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.
OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G colours
Vegan leather is an oxymoron – good, different!
Now in Vegan Green leather

Warning on dodgy grey market sellers

We have named and shamed the main grey market opportunists here, and many are already listing the Dual-Sim PDEM30 and OPG01 versions. While the specs are similar (some have 12/256GB) they do not support LTE band 28, can’t get-over-the-air OS or security updates, have no Australian manufacturer warranty and are not registered to the Australian Telcos 5G or 4GX/Plus network.

OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G First impression (Ceramic Black version)

Almost identical to the S20U – same physical size, shape and wrap-around glass. Naturally, everyone looks at the Orange Vegan Leather, and it is very stylish. But Vegan Leather is an oxymoron – leather comes from animals. It is a hardwearing, polyurethane, leatherette.

OPPO (L) Is brigther that the S20U (R)
OPPO (L) Tri-Camera and the S20U (R) even more lenses but they are functionally equivalent. Shown with transparent bumper case. Both wobble on a desk!

The main difference is the rear camera bump. OPPO’s tri-camera is smaller – the S20U has a far larger one. But the OPPO needs to use a bumper case to stop desk wobble!

Verdict: It’s a draw! And remember S20U specs are in (brackets).

OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G screen – EXCEED

  • 6.78” 3168×1440, 513ppi, 93.1% STBR, 19.8:9, 120Hz Ultra Vision OLED screen (6.9”)
  • Left O-hole for selfie camera (centre)
  • 536 nits typical, 800nits peak and 1200 nits HDR (slightly lower)
  • Infinite contrast – Zero black levels (similar)
  • Factory calibrated 100% DCI-P3 for movies and games – deltaE <2 (similar)
  • Settings: Cinematic DCI-P3 or Gentle sRGB – (similar)
  • HDR10+ certified to play Dolby Vision content (No Dolby Vision)
  • 10-bit (8+2 dithering) screen for 1 billion colours (16.777 million)
  • Widevine DRM Level L1, HD quality (yes)
  • 240Hz touch sampling rate for games and 120Hz for all other apps (same)
  • Motion compensation technology brings 24/30fps videos to 60/120 fps (no)
  • Gorilla Glass 6 and factory-applied screen protector (yes)
  • Low blue light eye protection certification by TÜV (no)
  • Screen accessibility features like layout, large fonts, icons, high contrast (similar)
  • One of the best haptic feedback I have used. Pulse touch has eight scenarios and four intensity levels, X-axis motor beneath the screen’s surface. (not as ‘haptic’)
OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G  screen

There is no other word than perfect. It passed all tests and is ultimately daylight readable.

It has buttery smooth scrolling, fast and responsive touch and highly accurate colour. Perhaps so real, that I engaged the Natural Tone option that offers what is called a ‘paper-like’ reading experience.

As far as the 120Hz goes, OPPO has an auto setting to match the content (manual settings). I understand that Samsung is fixing that, but at the moment OPPO is the only screen that operates at 120Hz@1440p resolution so gamers will love it.

Its proprietary 01 Ultra Vision Engine offers SDR-HDR upscale and 24/25/30fps upscale to 60fps and later 120fps content playback (no). The latter is about adding additional frames – motion estimation and smoothing – as premium 4K TVs do. It is quite stunning to see the difference.

https://youtu.be/zIWfwhu7CDc

Compared to the S20U the OPPO appears brighter but has 32 fewer pixels! The S20U is 0.12″ larger.

Verdict: OPPO has the edge here in screen brightness, colours and customisation options.

Processor – EXCEED

  • Qualcomm SD865+ –2020, 7nm flagship processor. 4MB cache (Samsung Exynos 990 which is not as fast)
    • 1 x 2.84GHz + 3 x 2.42Ghz + 4 x 1.8Ghz
  • 12GB LPDDR5 (the latest and fastest) and 512GB UFS 3.0 (452GB free – ditto) (S20U extra cost option but has micro-SD)
  • Adreno 650 GPU – the fastest mobile GPU will play all mobile games (Mali G77 MP11)
  • Qualcomm X55 Gen 2 3/4/5G modem (Samsung 5123 seems similar)
  • Various AI and other on-die engines (ditto)
  • Missing – microSD but it has USB-C 3.1 Gen1 and OTG and will support up to a 2TB external SSD

CPU Throttling – EXCEED

This is the first SD865+ we have tested.

It started at 255,658GIPS (153,058) and had little throttling in a 15-minute, 100% load test averaging 238,784GIPS 88% (142,037 88%). This is impressive and shows OPPO knows its design chops with a very effective vacuum chamber heat dispersal.

Geekbench 5 single/multi/compute is 912/3167/3139 (518/2792/5635) that makes it the current fastest smartphone using the SD865+ SoC, but the S20U has a faster GPU.

GPU

The Adreno 650 playback codec support includes Dolby Vision, H.264/5, HDR10+, HLG, HDR10, H.264 (AVC), VP8, and VP9 – everything. It also supports 8K and 360° AR/VR (no Dolby Vision)

It is the first Qualcomm GPU to support updatable GPU drivers, so it is relatively future-proof (no).

Gamers will have no issues with its Elite Gaming features, including Desktop Forward Rendering. OPPO’s own Game Space Booster focuses the device. (may achieve slightly higher game frame rates).

Verdict: OPPO has superior Geekbench 5 speeds and GIPS over the Exynos 990. Interestingly the S20U has higher compute GPU scores. OPPO handled the Throttling test better. OPPO has 512GB memory but no micro-SD. Winner OPPO.

Phone – EXCEED

Single Sim, VoLTE, VoWi-Fi, Wi-Fi calling and HD calling (Single sim and eSIM)

The Qualcomm X55 modem is Gen 2 meaning its better than the OPPO Reno 5G (review here 4.9/5) using the SD855/X50 Gen 1 modem launched last year. Despite the modem advances it is still not a 5G global roaming device, but as 4G it is a world phone. That is not OPPO’s fault – I expect it may be years before you can globally roam on 5G.

4G LTE bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 41, 42, and 66 – a world phone.

5G sub-6Ghz Bands: n5, 28A,40, 41, 78 (Australia)

5G mmWave: not enabled at this point but a firmware update is coming for bands 257 (28Ghz), 258 (26Ghz for Australia), 260 (39Ghz) and 261 (28GHz). You can find a complete list of global 5G bands here.

Note that sub-6GHz 5G is only available from Telstra and Optus (not MVNOs).

Tests

Regrettably, we could not find a local 5G network on the Central Coast despite the Telstra coverage map telling me where they are!!! The X55 modem is capable of 5.9/4.1Gbps DL/UL. We expect that it would be able to max out on the Telstra 5G network at around 200Mbps/40Mbps. By comparison, actual 4GX test speeds were 102Mbps/9Mbps (102/5.56)

In our standard test in a 3-bar 4G network test (where I live) it is excellent at -74dBm and found the next adjacent tower at -80dBm signal strength giving a 4G speed of 45/19Mbps. We understand that OPPO has developed a 360° antenna system that makes a difference to the Samsung/Qualcomm 180° RF system (-100dBm giving 28/17Mbps)

Verdict: The OPPO has excellent signal strength and upload/download speeds soundly beating S20U making it a good city and regional use phone with Blue-Tick characteristics.

Comms – EXCEED

Wi-Fi 6 AX, Tri-band, 2×2 MIMO (similar).

This means it can break the Wi-Fi 5 AC 866Mbps barrier by combining available bandwidth (limited to 1200Mbps downlink) and it has a very strong -39dBm/1200Mbps signal (-50dBm 960Mbps) at two meters from our reference NETGEAR Nighthawk AX12 router.

BT 5.1 supports all Qualcomm codecs – SBC, AAC, LDAC, aptX, aptX LL and aptX HD – it has a hi-res music DAC (similar but seems to default to SBC unless you use developer options).

NFC supports Google Pay and BT pairing (same)

GPS is the latest dual-band with accuracy to 4 metres. It is perfect for ‘high-speed’ turn-by-turn navigation (same).

USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 means up to 5Gbps data transfer rate (same). OPPO and S20U have Alt DP (can support a monitor over USB-C) but the S20U also has Samsung DeX (an Android Desktop).

Verdict: If DeX is important, it is the S20U, but if sheer Wi-Fi speed and BT codecs are important, then the OPPO is the winner.

Sound – EXCEED

DXOMARK  gave it 74 in the audio test – 75 playback and 69 recording (69 – 71/65), and we won’t argue the point – that is one of the highest marks ever given.

There is an earpiece speaker and a bottom-firing stereo speaker. A 0.65 cubic centimetre chamber behind the speaker adds some bass punch. Both speakers have matched volume and give good stereo separation – a broader sound stage.

Ringtone averages 82dB and one was 86dB – great (81.3). Music is 83dB – one brief peak at 86dB (78.4), and handsfree voice is 78dB (77). It has imperceptible distortion or harshness; decent, if a little late, bass; surprisingly good high-end treble and a good sound stage – as far as a smartphone can.

Frequency response – EXCEED

OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G
  • Deep Bass: 20-40Hz – none
  • Middle Bass: 40-100Hz – building
  • High Bass: 100 to 200Hz – building
  • Low-mid: 200-400Hz – flat
  • Mid: 400-1000Hz – flat
  • High-mid: 1-2kHz – flat
  • Low-treble: 2-4kHz – flat
  • Treble:4-6kHz – flat
  • High Treble: 6-1kHz – slight descent
  • Dog whistle: 10-20kHz – falls off at 12Khz but makes a comeback at 15kHz to give it presence without the harshness

It is almost warm and sweet – verging on mid-centric. In comparison tracks on S20U it was ever so slightly more pleasant to listen to perhaps because of the upper treble (Similar).

Dolby Atmos is for two purposes. It downmixes Atmos content to two speakers giving a hint of a wider sound stage but importantly gives the Atmos environment to cabled or BT headphones. We loved the quality of the sound on our reference Sony WH-1000xM3 headphones, and the Atmos effect was delightful – coming from overhead and behind (same)

Recording and hands-free – EXCEED

3 mics enable 3D recording, and one is for noise reduction and sound focus. In all one of the best hands-free I have used (dual mics).

Verdict: Speakers – OPPO slightly outclasses the S20U giving a louder, smoother sound and wider spatial sound stage. On the headphone front, they are similar, but the OPPO automatically found the Sony LDAC whereas the S20U needed it set in Developer Options.

But Samsung has easy to access Adapt Sound settings to boost mid/treble (clear voice) for 30, 30-60, 60+-year-old and Music Share allows another Android 10 device to share a Bluetooth passthrough to a speaker.

Battery – EXCEED and ludicrous speed charging

4260mAh, (5000). OPPO’s ‘VOOC’ means two 2130mAh batteries (in parallel) and two chargers in the one physical brick.

This is incredibly clever – charging two smaller batteries at once means 38 minutes for a 0-100% without the heat or safety issues (TÜV Rheinland’s Certified Safe Fast-Charge). It also means 10 minutes will give a 40% charge.

The charger is a combined standard 5V/2A/10W and in SuperVOOC 2.0 mode 10V/6.5W/65W (25W with a 45W option). The catch 22 – you need to use the supplied yellow cable – any standard USB-C cable will charge at 10W.

It can also use any USB-C PD 3.0 or QC 4+ charger drawing up to 18W but will not be as fast as the SuperVOOC 2.0

But there is more to this phone. Despite a 120hz refresh screen that can be a battery sucker AI and battery management get the discharge at idle to a very low 130mAh.

Finally, there are a lot of battery management/saving parameters that you can adjust. It should easily last 24+ hours (similar).

Tests

  • Battery drain test – 100% load, screen on, all devices on – 4 hours (3.33)
  • Heavy load with all devices on, 60Hz screen – 12 hours (12)
  • As above 120Hz screen – 9 hours (9)
  • Typical use 60Hz – 38+ hours (42)
  • Typical use 120Hz – 25 hours (30)
  • Video Loop 1080p 60Hz – 20+ hours (18)
  • Video Loop 1080p 120Hz – 15 hours (10.5)
  • T-Rex test – maxed out 498 minutes (8.3 hours) and 3,368 frames (S20U: 362.8/3365 frames)
  • 65W charge – 38-minutes
OPPO Find X2 ro 5G
The steep purple line is VOOC 2.0 charging and the temperature does not exceed 35° and drops to 25°

In typical use, you should expect to charge once a day but with a 38-minute charge who cares?

Verdict: The S20U has a 5000mAh battery, QC/PD charging, Wireless Qi and reverse charging. The OPPO will last a little longer, but the lure of Qi is very strong. This is one area the S20U leads.

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.

Samsung has Knox – its proprietary security app – and a secure chip – the S3K250AF which frankly I don’t know enough about to comment. But I do know that pins, fingerprints, face ID, passwords – if the app supports it -, crypto-currency credentials and credit card payment tokens are stored separately from standard mobile memory. That is similar to Apple’ Secure enclave and Pixel’s Titan M.

I gather that now Samsung, Apple and Pixel have a privacy solution OPPOs is just one of the many we will see.

Verdict: Both have under-glass, and 2D Face unlock. I can’t call this one, but I suspect Samsung is ahead here.

Build – EXCEED

  • Black Ceramic 165.2×74.4×8.8mm x 217g (222g)
  • Gorilla Glass 6 front and ceramic back over a metal frame (same)
  • Pre-fitted screen protector and clear bumper case (same)
  • IP68 1.5 metres for 30 minutes (same)
  • Vegan leather is 9.5mm thick and 200g
  • It looks and feels premium – the vegan leather is a nice touch and should wear well. Note that if you scratch it there is a white substrate that shows through
  • Quality OPPO buds (AKG)

Missing: micro-SD slot, Qi charging and 3.5mm (3.5mm only)

Verdict: As good a build quality as the S20U

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 April (June coming in days)

The S20U has Android 10 and One UI 2.1 (1 June 2020 security patch). Both have similar OS upgrade and patch policies.

Verdict: As both are UIs that add value to pure Android, it’s a draw.

OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G Camera – EXCEED

OPPO uses a 48MP primary and 48MP secondary and a periscope zoom. The S20U goes 108MP, 44MP, 48MP (periscope) and .3MP ToF – on paper it has the advantage.

But OPPO scored highest for a Google Android phone in DXOMARK  at 134/104 Photo/video. By comparison, the S20U is 132/102.

Both are incredible cameras, and I can only say that OPPO had the slight edge the same photos in the test as you will see below.

OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G Camera Specs

Primary camera – Wide angle

  • 48MP – bins to 12MP (108 bins to 12)
  • Sony IMX689 Sensor (Samsung S5K-HM1)
  • 1.12um pixels binned to a huge 2.24um (.8 to 2.4)
  • 1/1.4 sensor size, f/1.7, 7P lens, OIS (f/1.8)
  • 68.4° field of view (79)
  • Dual native ISO (no)
  • All Pixel Omni-Directional PDAF with a focus success rate of 97% (two directions)
  • Laser Autofocus as well (PDAF)
  • OIS + EIS (same)
  • 12-bit True Capture (unsure)
  • 4K@60fps with H.264/265 encoders

Ultra-wide angle

  • 48MP – bins to 12MP (44MP bins to 11MP)
  • Sony IMX586 Sensor (Samsung S5K-GH1)
  • f/2.2, .8um bins to 1.6um (.7 to 1.4)
  • 6P lens
  • 120° field of view – 109° with wide-angle correction (same)
  • OIS and EIS
  • AF (FF)
  • Auto macro mode (manual)

Periscope Zoom

  • 13MP Periscope Telephoto (48MP bins to 12MP)
  • f/3.0, 5P lens (f/3.5)
  • AF (PDAF)
  • OIS (no)
  • 5X Optical zoom (3X)
  • Second-generation 10x Hybrid Zoom (same)
  • up to 60x digital zoom (100X but without OIS it is hard to use past 30X)

Selfie

  • 32MP Selfie Camera – not binned (40 binned to 10MP)
  • f/2.4 aperture, 5P lens (f/2.2)
  • HDR (same)
  • Fixed focus (PDAF)

The All Pixel Omni Directional PDAF means every pixel focuses – it is blazingly fast. It seamlessly swaps lenses as needed so you can select macro (3cm) to 60x digital zoom simply by pinching the screen zoom.

OPPO also has extensive AI camera capabilities including a new Ultra Night Mode 3.0, a new Ultra steady video mode, and all the usual object identification, beautification and AR emojis etc.

The Periscope Zoom produces better images at 60X than the S20U.

Its OIS/EIS/AI video stabilisation is superb.

Verdict: The OPPO produces marginally better images all around, but it is a different camera to what we are used to from OPPO. Gone are the oversaturated colours with a real focus on accuracy and detail. Compared to the S20U colours look less intense, but they are accurate. Its OIS Periscope is highly usable up to 60X – the S20U past 30X is not.

Outdoor

OPPO – natural colour and great detail
S20U – great shot be the OPPO is more detailed and lifelike
10X – OPPO has good detail and natural colours
10X – S20U has good detail but the colours are slightly off
30X – OPPO
30X – S20U

Indoor office light 400 lumen

Dark <40 lumen

OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G
OPPO – this is one of the best ‘standard’ low light shots I have seen
OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G
S20U – average dark shot
OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G
OPPO – Night mode – superb and no noise but a slight loss of colour
OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G
S20U – Night mode – where is the sizzle?
OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G zoom
OPPO – Night mode – 30X and look at the excellent details

GadgetGuy’s take – the OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G is a category leader

Huge ram (12/512GB), fast 120Hz adaptive screen, ultra-fast battery charge, a camera that tops the DxOMark – all at $1599. What more could you want?

Well apart from Qi charging (a big issue for me), no eSIM (Single SIM – no big issue) and microSD (no big issue with OTG) it is a category leader.

If you are a flagship shopper, it is time you included OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G in the line-up.

It is closest to the Samsung S20+ 5G 12/512GB at $1699 (normally $1899), but most specifications are above that verging on the S20 Ultra 12/512GB 5G at $2249 (Periscope camera).

So, the two are neck and neck except for price where OPPO has a huge advantage.

More Qualcomm-based SD865+ phones are coming. Xiaomi has the Mi 10 Pro at $1999 and the Mi 10 at $1699 (8/128GB/micro-SD and neither has a Periscope camera). But as we have not seen them yet, we can’t comment.

So which would I buy?

As readers know I am a Samsung Note tragic and am anxiously awaiting its Note20 launch in August. My two buying criteria are the pen and Qi charging – take it as a given that a phone has a great screen etc.

So I have cognitive dissonance – conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviours. Ah, that dog with two equally delicious bones. Which is best? Which do I want?

If I had not invested so heavily in Qi charging pads, OPPO Find X2 Pro 5G wins on both points and value – 4.9/5. It loses a few points because of no micro-SD and Qi but gained points in spades for performance, screen, camera, sound and value.

But, to be fair to Samsung, OPPO was only slightly ahead in most categories. Price knocked the S20U 4.7/5 score down a couple of notches.

But, you have to ask yourself if you need 5G, a periscope zoom camera, 12/512GB or can you settle for the Galaxy S20+, 4G, 8/128GB/MicroSD at $1299?

Or you might want to consider the OPPO Find X2 Neo at $999 using the Qualcomm SD765G – it is amazing for the price.

Tough call but if you are a flagship shopper its time you included OPPO Find X2 Pro in the line-up.

98
Performance
OPPO
Design
Reader Rating0 Votes
Vegan Orange Leather is different – black is well, black
Best display to date – 120Hz@1440p is buttery smooth
65W fastest charge time in class
Best camera on a Google Android phone to date
IP68 rated
Best value X55 5G in its class
OK, if you must be picky, no Micro-SD or Qi Charging
4.9