Oppo Find X5 Pro

Oppo Find X5 Pro: Galaxy S22 Ultra killer? (review)

7.7

Oppo turned heads with 2021’s Find X3 Pro and now the Chinese company is hoping to give the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra and Google’s Pixel 6 Pro a run for their money with the Find X5 Pro. So how does it stack up? 

Design and what’s in the box

At a glance, the Oppo Find X5 Pro could easily be mistaken for its predecessor. It uses the same unibody design that integrates the rear camera into the body of the phone and even measures in at near identical dimensions and weight. 

However the X5 Pro’s back panel is now made of a ceramic material rather than glass, which feels nicer to the touch and is less prone to fingerprints. The downside is that the phone feels much slipperier in the hand and the phone slides off surfaces that aren’t level. 

Thankfully Oppo includes a transparent silicon case in the box as well as a beastly 80W fast charger (more on that later).  

The Find X5 Pro comes in two colourways – a ‘glaze black’ or a ‘ceramic white’, which is the variant I received for review. Overall, it’s a solid enough design but there’s nothing particularly striking about it to make it stand out from the sea of glass slab phones on the market. I would’ve loved to have seen Oppo offer a vegan leather finish similar to what they did with the Find X2 Pro but the company has chosen to play it safe this time around. 

The Oppo Find X5 Pro comes in either a ceramic white or a glaze black finish

Display 

There’s not much new to talk about on the display front either with Oppo choosing the same 120Hz 6.7-inch OLED panel from last year’s X3 Pro. The panel is identical to the one you’ll find on the OnePlus 10 Pro as well. 

Not that’s necessarily a bad thing given how it ticks all the boxes for a flagship smartphone display in 2022. One new feature is that the screen uses LTPO 2.0 technology, meaning it can more quickly adapt its refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz to match the content being shown – and this contributes to battery-life gains. 

While the screen isn’t quite as bright as the one you’ll find on Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, it can technically display more true to life colours thanks to it being a native 10-bit panel. 

Software 

Oppo’s ColorOS is a heavily customised version of Android 12 that recently made its way to Realme and OnePlus handsets. In other words, if you’ve used an Oppo, OnePlus or RealMe handset recently, then you know what to expect on the Find X5 Pro. 

While it shares a lot of the same functionality as stock Android 12, the visual design takes clear inspiration from Apple’s iOS, with rounded iconography and an overall colourful aesthetic. Even certain features such as the drop down one-handed mode mimics Apple’s reachability feature. 

ColorOS has long been known for personalisation although some customisation options have been paired back in the latest ColorOS 12.1 version. You can still tweak various aspects of the user interface to your liking, and a theme store is also available. Customisations include app icons, accent colours, quick toggles, fonts, fingerprint reader animation, Edge lighting for incoming notifications, and the Always-on display can be altered too.

My favourite is the ability to adjust the intensity of the haptics and how crisp it should feel when performing certain taps and gestures.

There are also aspects of the ColorOS software experience that don’t make sense, such as how swiping down on the home screen brings up search instead of the notification shade. There’s also redundant double confirmations throughout such as when long pressing on a home screen widget and then tapping remove initiates a second confirmation panel. Similarly, swiping away a notification brings up yet another confirmation that requires tapping before the notification disappears for good. 

There’s some bloatware in the form of third party apps such as Facebook and Amazon, but, thankfully, they are uninstallable.  

I appreciate that Oppo doesn’t try to duplicate existing apps and services that Google already provides, and in that regard, the X5 Pro is a refreshing change from using a Samsung handset that forces the likes of Bixby and Samsung Pay on the user. 

That said, I still prefer Google’s cleaner approach to Android on its Pixel phones over the more colourful and at times cluttered feel of Oppo’s ColorOS. 

In terms of software support, Oppo has committed to providing updates including three major Android version upgrades and a total four years of security updates from the phone’s release. That is a significant improvement over last year’s model but lags behind Samsung’s five and Apple’s six-plus years of support.

The back of the Find X5 Pro is made of ceramic, which is smooth to the touch and should make it more resistant to nicks and scratches

Battery life and charging speeds 

Battery life on the Find X5 Pro is excellent, regularly achieving more than 6 hours of screen on time, meaning you will probably only have to charge it every other night with light usage.

Like the OnePlus 10 Pro, the Find X5 Pro uses Oppo’s 80W SuperVOOC charging that is capable of filling the battery from zero to 50% capacity in just 12 minutes. The best part is that Oppo includes the fast charging brick in the box. 

Wireless charging has also been increased from 30W of its predecessor to 50W, which can fully charge the battery in 47 minutes. You will need a proprietary wireless charger (sold separately) to take advantage of that feature though. 

Oppo rates the battery for at least 1,600 full charge cycles using its 80W SuperVOOC system while maintaining at least 80% of its original capacity, which is at least twice as long as most others.

The Find X5 Pro uses a unique split battery arrangement allowing it to pull off 80W wired charging and 50W wireless charging

Camera 

The Find X5 Pro packs three cameras on its back, ditching the rather impressive microscope camera of its predecessor. 

A 50-megapixel camera with an f/1.7 aperture takes care of primary photography duties. It’s supported by a 50MP ultrawide angle shooter with an f/2.2 aperture and 110-degree field of view. There’s also a 13MP telephoto lens with an f/2.4 aperture. If those specs sound familiar, it’s because they are the same as the Find X3 Pro.

However, Oppo is betting on a new five-axis optical image stabilisation system for the main lens and a brand-new MariSilicon X Imaging Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to aid with computational photography and video, especially in low light.

In short, the main 50MP camera shoots very good images, matching the clarity and low light performance of the S22 Ultra and Google Pixel 6 series. However, it isn’t as consistent in nailing skin tones, which is a point I also raised in my OnePlus 10 Pro review

I was particularly impressed with the portrait mode where edges of finer details such as hair remain intact though it tends to over-smoothen the faces of subjects, even with beauty mode disabled. 

The 50MP ultra wide also produced good images but has more of a tendency to either overexpose or underexpose scenes. The 13MP 2x telephoto is the weakest aspect of the camera setup, falling behind the competition at this price point, which often have 5x or even 10x optical zooms getting you closer to your subject. 

The X5 Pro video stabilisation is excellent and comparable to what you get when shooting with the Samsung S22 Ultra, making the handset a great choice for recording video. 

The Find X5 Pro uses the same triple camera setup as its predecessor but image quality particularly in low light has been noticeably improved thanks to a new custom built neural processing unit (NPU)

GadgetGuy’s take 

Although the camera is a little behind the competition, the Find X5 Pro provides a solid, high-end Android experience that should please anyone looking for an alternative to Samsung’s S22 Ultra. 

However, we would like to see the Find X5 Pro stand apart from its rivals a little more – namely the Google Pixel 6 Pro – which retails for $500 less.

Oppo Find X5 Pro
In isolation, the Find X5 Pro is a solid flagship Android smartphone but it ultimately doesn't do enough to stand out from its more accomplished rivals.
Build quality and design
8
Features
7.1
Camera
7.7
Performance
8.2
Software
8.3
Value for money
7
Positives
Smooth and slick performance
Excellent battery life
Industry's fastest wired and wireless charging speeds
Fast charger and case included in the box
Negatives
Pricey at the $1799 starting price
Rehashed design
Average optical zoom and macro modes
Only 3 years worth of software upgrades guranteed
7.7