The OPPO Find X3 Lite has the lowest cost of the Find X3 series that range from $749 to $1699. It holds its own against similarly priced mid-range 5G phones, but we are not sure if it deserves the Find X3 moniker. Why? Because elsewhere, it is a Reno5 5G.
Sometimes the family name works because they are all from the same mother, but this bears almost no familial resemblance. So before you buy, have a look at our OPPO Find X3 familial differences article. The differences, in brief, compared to both the Pro and Neo are
- Qualcomm SD765/Gen X52 Gen 2 modem
- 8/128GB
- 6.4″ AMOLED
- Wi-Fi 5 AC 433Mbps
- 4200mAh battery (still SuperVOOC 2 65W fast charge)
- No Qi or reverse charge
- Mono speaker (Dolby Atmos support)
- 64+8+2+2MP EIS camera and 32MP selfie
In its own right, fairer comparisons to the OPPO Find X3 Lite are the LG Velvet, Moto Edge, Google Pixel 4a/5 and even the 2020 OPPO Reno4 and 4Z.
OPPO Find X3 Lite Model CPH2145
- Australian website here
- Price: $749
- Colours: Astral Blue and Starry black
- *From: OPPO Online and major CE retailers like JB Hi-FI, Harvey Norman, Goodguys, Officeworks, and Catch.com.au
- Elevator pitch: Mid-range Qualcomm SD765G 5G smartphone
- Warranty: 2-years global traveller
- Country of Manufacture: China
- Company: OPPO is now #2 for Australian Android smartphone market share. It has achieved that by excellent product and after-sales service.
- Other GadgetGuy OPPO news and reviews here
* Grey market – no Australian warranty
We issue the standard warning that you must buy the genuine model with Australian firmware. Why? Because 5G IMEI numbers are registered with the Telcos and must be activated here. It can also make a 000-emergency call (not 911) without a SIM. Look for the Australian and NZ regulatory mark under Settings, About Phone, Regulatory. We have named and shamed the major grey marketers here. Get a genuine ‘Made for Australia’ model. Do not buy the Reno5 5G – it is for Asia only.
First impression
OK, another ‘Astral Blue’ slab, but I rather like the textured finish. Astral Blue or Starry Black – they look more youth-focused than the bigger siblings. And it has a 3.5mm audio port that some will love. The textured finish means no fingerprints and great grip. Otherwise, it’s a flat-screen with a single O-hole selfie top left and a quad-camera bump rear top left.
Screen – Bright, colourful 90Hz OLED
Size | 6.4″ 60-90Hz (Auto-adjusts when an app does not support 90Hz) |
Type | Left top O-hole selfie, AMOLED The screen edge is slightly curved but does not affect touch areas |
Resolution | 2400 x 1080 |
PPI/Ratio | 412, 20:9 |
Depth Brightness Black Contrast Delta E Vivid Gentle Temp adj | 16.7M 430 typical, 600 max, 750 peak (Tested 400/580/740) pure black infinite 3.5 (<4 is excellent) after tweaking from 5.6 93.28% NTSC/135.13% DCI-P3 (Tested) 73.72% NTSC/100% sRGB (Tested) Cool to warm |
Daylight Angle AOD Dark Blue light | More than bright enough for direct sunlight AMOLED allows for extreme off-angle viewing Yes – not customisable Yes Yes |
DRM | HDR10/HLG, Widevine L1, HDCP 2.3. It plays Netflix HD HDR. |
Gaming | The screen has up to 90Hz refresh and 3.2ms G-t-G. Add the Qualcomm SD765, Adreno 620, OPPO Game Space app, and it is suitable for most medium to high frame rate games |
Protection | Glass not specified (possibly GG3 or 5) and pre-fitted screen protector |
Fingerprint Face ID | Optical under glass – Test: 10/10 8/10 |
It’s a lovely bright screen with excellent colour gamut and good daylight readability. Place it beside the Find X3 Neo, and you can see the subtle differences – still, it is very good.
Processor – Excellent mid-range choice
SoC | Qualcomm SD765G 7nm |
GPU | Adreno 620 |
Modem | X52 5G Gen2 sub-6Ghz only, limited Carrier Aggregation support |
Game use | Mid-range frame rates |
RAM | 8GB LPDDR4 |
Storage | 1288GB (105 free) UFS 2.1 Androbench Tests Internal: 950/470Mbps sequential read/write – lower-end SSD territory Remember to turn OTG connection on for external storage USB-C 2.0 supports a maximum of 480Mbps or about 60MBps half-duplex. Maximum external storage sequential read/write rate is about 30/30MBps |
micro-SD | No |
Geek Bench 5 | Single: 604 Multi: 1793 Open CL: 1248 Vulcan: 1223 |
Throttle 15-min test | Max: 157,158 GIPS, Average: 153,700, minimal loss over 15 minutes CPU temp reached 50° |
The SD765G is the Goldilocks chip for 2020 (just right) – that democratised 5G. It performs pretty well, the same in OPPO Reno 4 and 5, Vivo V20 Pro, Moto Edge, Google Pixel 4a/5, LG Velvet and about 100 more.
This only has USB-2.0 480Mbps (60MBps half-duplex) data transfer rate. It is barely fast enough to record 4K video to an external drive. It is a shame that it does not use the X3 Pro USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 5Gbps (625MBps).
Lack of throttling shows OPPOs expertise in temperature management.
Comms – Plenty fast but limited to 433Mbps
Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 5 AC 1×1 dual-band MIMO (maximum speed 433Mbps) Signal Strength 5Ghz – distance from Netgear RAX200 AX1100 router 2m: -23dBm/433Mbps 5m: -42dBm/433 10m: -58dBm/433 15M: -63dBm/433 |
Bluetooth | BT 5.1 |
GPS | Single-band but supports QZSS as well |
NFC | Supports HCE, NFC-SIM, and Android Beam |
USB-C | USB-C 2.0 – maximum 480Mbps half-duplex |
Sensors | Combo BMI160 accelerometer/gyroscope, e-Compass, pedometer, gravity, proximity sensor |
You come back to earth with a bit of a thud when the Pro/Neo manages 2400/1200Mbps, and this is 433. But it holds the signal very well – again, a testament to OPPOs antenna design.
LTE and 5G
SIM | SIM 1 supports 4G or 5G, and SIM 2 is 4G Both active but one at at a time use |
Ring tone | Single |
Support | VoLTE – carrier dependent – yes (not via most MVNOs) Wi-Fi calling – yes |
DL/UL | Test: 12.5/9.3Mbps, 35ms – average in a 3-bar reception area |
LTE Band | 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/28/38/39/40/41/66 World phone |
5G | Sub-6Ghz NR: n77/78/38/40/41/1/3/5/7/8/20/28 Not mmWave |
Test | -105dBm/31.6fW in a 3-bar reception area (very good) Found next tower at -114dBm/20fW Found the third tower at -116/12.6fW |
It is not often that a smartphone finds three towers – and it occasionally found a fourth!
While it has OPPOs excellent antenna design, the signal strength (femtoWatts) indicates it is more suitable for city, suburbs and regional city use.
Battery – damned fast charge
Battery mAh | 4200mAh |
Charger | OPPPO SuperVOOC 2 5V/2A/10W and 10V/6.5A/65W It also supports any PD and QC charger (5V/2A/10W – slower) Claim: 100% in 35 minutes Test: 0-50% – 12 minutes 0-100% – 40 minutes Using 5V/3A standard USB charger and cable – approx 4 hours |
Tests All at 90Hz | Video Loop test: 1080p/50%/aeroplane mode – 17 hours Netflix 1080p/50%/Wi-Fi – 14 hours Typical use 4/5G, Wi-Fi, – 14 hours MP3 music test: 50% volume played from storage – 24+ hours 100% load Battery drain – 8 hours GFX Bench Manhattan 3.1 Battery: 397.9min (6.63Hrs) and 2038 frames GFX Bench T-Rex: 486min (8.1 hours) 3310 frames PC Mark 2.0 battery drain: 14.48 hours |
Battery life is spectacular, and with OPPO SuperVOOC 2.0 charge, it is almost irrelevant as 40 minutes will fill it. It eats all comers in this class. In any case, it will give you over 15 hours of screen-on time or two days of typical use.
OPPO SuperVOOC 2.0 is one of the safest fast charging methods. The trick is that it uses two 2100mAh series-connected batteries and two charger circuits, so it never stresses the battery. This requires an OPPO charger and cable that delivers 2 x 5V/3.25A circuits equivalent to 10V/6.5A/65W.
Sound – Mono
Speakers | Earpiece (front and up-firing) and down-firing speaker Mono Dolby Atmos-certified for decoding to its mono speaker or stereo headset |
AMP | AK4376 Stereo 32-bit DAC, 16dB SNR for excellent BT transmission Single TFA9892 digital amp capable of 6.6W RMS at 8W Considered superior to the Qualcomm Aqstic SD765G amp |
BT Codecs | SBC (standard), AAC (Apple), LDAC (Sony), aptX/HD (Qualcomm) |
Mic | Dual Noise cancelling |
3.5mm | Yes, and OPPO standard earphone/mic supplied |
Tests dB Anything over 80dB is excellent | Media – 78 Ring – 80 Alarm – 80 Earpiece – 55 Handsfree – 75 |
Sound stage | There is no sound stage for a mono device It has solid mid and low treble for clear voice. |
This has the standard Dolby Atmos presets – smart, movie, gaming and music. They don’t make a significant difference to the speaker frequency response but do impact BT and cable headphone use.
The BT 5.1 drove our reference Sony WH-1000xM4 in SBC and LDAC modes and provided good clear sound and plenty of volume. We also tested with the M3 version that supports aptX and its variants. There was plenty of volume and an excellent clear feed.
We do not test sound signature for mono devices.
Build – OPPO quality
Size/Weight | 159.1×73.4×7.9mm x 172g |
Colours | Astral Blue Starry Black |
Build | Front: Glass unspecified Frame: Likely polycarbonate Back: Likely textured multi-layered polycarbonate |
IP | Not rated, but we understand its similar to IP52 – spray resistant |
In the box | Bumper cover 65W charger USB-A to USB-C cable 3.5mm earphones |
Excellent workmanship rather than the masterpiece of the Find X3 Pro or Neo. It is made to a price and is exceeds what you can expect. Add to this the positive feedback from readers about its after-sales service and 24-month global travellers warranty.
It now has a trade-in program, and this brand is serious about keeping its customers. You can’t go wrong.
Android 11
Android | Google Android 11 Security patch date: 5/2/2021 |
UI | ColorOS 11.1 |
All standard apps, Google Lens and Assistant. Dedicated Google Assistant key. | |
Bloatware | Mostly productivity and utilities |
Update Policy | Assume two OS update. Security patches should come monthly |
Security | Optical Goodix Fingerprint sensor FaceID |
We won’t go into ColorOS 11.1 except to say that it is the grease on pure Android’s wheels and makes this phone far more fluid and easier to operate. It also allows OPPO to tune the operating system to the hardware for best performance.
OPPO Find X3 Lite camera – overall one of the best for this price
The Find X3 Pro and Neo use the new Sony IMX766 50MP sensor, but this reverts to the more traditional quad camera with a 64MP primary (bins to 16MP), 8MP Ultra-wide. 2MP Macro and 2MP mono. It is a camera set up comparable with most in this class.
Camera | Primary 64MP (bins to 16MP) | Ultra-Wide 8MP | Macro 2MP | Mono Depth 2MP | Selfie 32MP Bins to 8MP |
Sensor | Omnivision OV64B | HI-846 | OV02B10 | GC02M1B | Sony IMX615 |
Lens | 6P | 5P | 3P | 3P | 5P |
Focus | 2×2 PDAF | AF | FF | same | same |
Aperture f-stop | 1.7 | 2.2 | 2.4 | same | same |
Pixel size um | .7 (bins to 1.4 | 1.12 | 1.75 | 1.75 | .8 (bins to 1.6um) |
FOV° and cropped | 80 (68.8) | 119 | 89 | 89 | 85 (69.7) |
Stabilisation | EIS video | EIS | – | – | EIS video |
Flash | Single LED | Screen fill | |||
Zoom | 20X digital | 2X | |||
Video Max | 4K@30fps | 1080p@30fps | |||
Features | HDR Dual view video | HDR |
Daylight, outdoors
Indoors Office Light (400 lumens)
No Bokeh Bokeh
Low light (room with <40 lumens)
Selfie
It is the same throughout the Find X3 range and takes terrific selfie shots in most light conditions.
Video
Electronic image stabilisation (EIS) means that it crops the larger frame to achieve a stable horizon. It will shot 4K@30fps, but we recommend either 1080p@30fps for non-tripod shooting.
GadgetGuy’s take
The Find X3 Pro and Neo have many flagship features and similarities; the Lite is totally different.
Overall, it is what I expect from a mid-range smartphone built largely to a Qualcomm reference design. And that is probably the most significant issue – there are dozens of adequate competitors. Apart from the excellent SuperVOOC 2 fast charge – which is reason enough alone – it does not stand out of the crowd.
So it is not a decision to buy this or the excellent Find X3 Neo or Pro – it’s a decision about what 5G phones you can get for $749.
That includes the Samsung A52 5G ($749), Google Pixel 4a ($799), the amazing LG Velvet ($799) or the OPPO 2020 Reno4 ($649) and Reno 4 Z ($599). I hate to confuse you, but some excellent 5G phones are now at $499 or less.
And then if 5G isn’t needed (and that is for most of us), you can get down under $399 with the OPPO A91 ($299), Moto G30 ($299), or realme 6 ($299) – all with great cameras.
Rating
The Find X3 Pro scored 9.8/10, and that is about as good as it gets. It faces off to the Samsung S21+ and Ultra, and I suspect it has a slight edge.
The Find X3 Neo is $500 cheaper, but at this price, we still expect a better IP rating, and we think USB-C 3.1 should be standard for any flagship without microSD expansion. So it came in a smidge lower at 9.6/10.
OPPO Find X3 Lite passed all of our tests, so it starts with a pass mark of 8/10. We have added extra points for SuperVOOC 2.0 charging, a better camera than you could expect and OPPOs unswerving commitment to its users to provide excellent after-sales service. Its trade-in program may help retain its second-hand value too.
Trying to decipher your signal strength analysis. You’ve mentioned readings of -105, -114 and -116dBm as very good. But in other reviews that got similar scores you’ve said are very average or poor (eg Nokia 5.4) Isn’t above 100dBm poor and lower scores much better? What am I missing? Cheers.
It s not true.
I bought this phone Bluetooth hard to connect n the internet very slow as same I have Samsung.
Not good as Samsung even I had Samsung s8+