2020 Winners and Losers: Oppo

In 2020 Oppo had quite the upturns in multiple fields. It launched plenty of new phones, expanded its ecosystem of smart gadgets, and even had some cool concept devices to share with us. Here’s which devices were the real winners and which ones came short of the mark.

Winner: Oppo Find X2 Pro

We have to start with the new Find X phone, the first one since 2018, and a full-blown flagship with all the bells and whistles that make a smartphone great. The Oppo Find X2 Pro has pretty much everything you want from a flagship - AMOLED screen, top-notch chipset, great camera, ultra-fast charging, and all the RAM and storage you need.

On top of that, Oppo Find X2 Pro actually arrived on the global market, unlike the shy launch of the first Find X that was more of a showpiece than an actual attempt at gaining market share. Its not just the internals either - the exterior of the Find X2 Pro also stands out with its two Vegan Leather options that essentially remove any worry for scratches on the back, and the Ceramic Black option with its understated looks and extra durability compared to regular glass.

Sadly, the initial €1,199 price of the phone and the rather unpopular name of Oppo in Europe stopped the phone from gaining traction. Still, it is one of the best flagships of 2020 and clearly a winner for the Chinese company.

Loser: Oppo Find X2

The Find X2 was supposed to be the sleeker option offering better value for money with the same flagship chipset, screen, and battery. However the downgraded camera, the lack of unique finishes and the €1,000 launch price in Europe made this one an very hard sale - there was just nothing to offset the lower brand recognition in the west.

Winner: Oppo F17 Pro

It is really hard to stand out in an oversaturated midrange market, but the F17 Pro did alright. A Super AMOLED panel with the FP scanner underneath an 48 MP camera, VOOC 4.0 charging, and a dual selfie-shooter made it a great bargain.

The Oppo F17 Pro, just like many other phones of the company, is not widely popular across the globe but is well-known in its key market - India. The phone was so beloved, Oppo decided to introduce a new color for Diwali so the users have an even wider selection of paint jobs to complement their lifestyle.

Loser: Oppo Reno4 series and naming

In the span of 365 days, the company delivered 8 Reno4 phones, most of them limited to specific markets. They used a multitude of designs and a wide variety of chipsets and camera setups causing a lot of confusion.

We understand that delivering phones tailored to specific markets helps users get better bang for their buck, but if people can't understand what they are buying it's actually making it wors. The Reno4 Pro 5G is vastly different from the Reno4 Pro, the Reno4 is nothing like the Reno4 5G and the Reno4 Lite is exactly like the Reno4 F.

There’s also the Reno4 Z 5G that is running in its own lane with 5G capability and availability in Europe and the Reno 4 SE 5G that is supposed to be the cheapest of them all but is still limited to China.

Loser: Oppo Watch

We were happy to see Oppo expand its ecosystem with a smartwatch, and we were thrilled when we learned it offers the extra flexibility of running both Wear OS and a custom platform letting you chose between extra long battery life and vast functionality.

However the battery-saving mode ended up too limited even compared to regular nonsmart watches and the Wear OS experience is still rather compromised even if that's more Google's than Oppo's fault.

Worst bit is the unimaginative design that tries to copy the Apple Watch but falls short when it comes to selection of materials. With pricing for the cheapest 41mm version set at €200 and the 46mm LTE units going for double the value for money proposition was just not there. A pity really, because from a technological perspective the dual OS thing is amazing.

Winner: Oppo Find X 2021

It is hard to put a concept phone as a win, seeing how it won't be ready for the mass market for years. However the rollable Oppo Find X 2021 is certainly among the most exciting pieces of tech we've seen this year.

This device can stretch from a 6.7” to a 7.4” diagonal (driven by an electric motor), giving you the appropriate screen size for every use case.

Oppo has definitely delivered a lot of innovative products since it entered the smartphone game with flip camera phones, the pop-up Find X, the periscope cameras and whatnot. This concept proves that the innovation well has not dried up and we should expect the company to deliver more great products in the future.