Oppo Find X2 Pro hands-on review

Oppo Find X2 Pro hands-on

You couldn't possibly have missed one of the Find X2 Pro's more striking design aspects - the combination of materials and colors on our unit - it's the orange vegan leather version.

'Vegan leather' does sound a lot like wooden iron, but it goes to show that it has the texture and feel of real leather, minus all the animal involvement. The polyurethane does feel super nice on our fingertips and offers a welcome blend of grippiness and luxury - function and form can go together on this occasion. Made us reminisce of the times we first saw the Galaxy Note 3 - not that it felt as soft.

Now, it's not the most universally likable color, and we can see how it could be the preferred option for the gentler half of the population. The rose gold frame does contribute to that sense. The phone even has a metal plate with the brand name on the back, much like a handbag.

Fret not, there's another color version - it's a more technical and more incognito black. It's not just the color that is different, but the material too. Oppo calls it 'Ceramic' and goes on to detail they've used zirconia.

We haven't touched that one in particular, but our previous experience with ceramic-backed phones (Mi Mixes, mostly) has taught us that they're tougher to scratch than glass but even more prone to fingerprints. Perhaps Oppo's 'micron etching process' mitigates that. What we can say for sure is that we appreciate the less attention this version draws to the logo.

It's worth mentioning here that the ceramic variant is 7g heavier (207g vs. 200g), but the leather one is thicker (9.5mm vs. 8.8mm). From our experience with the orange one, we can safely say that it neither feels heavy nor chubby - is it the 'leather' that's giving it an air of effortlessness? We should look around to find a ceramic one to compare.

The phone does handle like a lighter and more compact handset indeed. 6.7 inches of display isn't what it used to be, plus the one on the Find is curved to the sides making for less perceived bulk. How that's going to play out in terms of palm rejection, we'll try and answer in the review.

We do enjoy the nice clicky buttons already. They're in what we would call the 'correct' position - power button on the right, volume controls on the left. Sure, humans can adapt to all sorts of bad ergonomics, but these are just right.

Surveying the Find X2 Pro, you'll note there's no headphone jack. There's no adapter in the retail package either, but the included headset can get you started.

We do appreciate the stereo speakers - there's a primary one on the bottom, which Oppo says has a 0.65cc chamber, while the earpiece up top doubles as a speaker as well. The card tray on the bottom doesn't take microSDs, just a couple of nanoSIMs back to back, but with 512GB on board, we can't imagine anyone needing more.

Circling back to the form vs. function conundrum, we had some guys at the office complain that the Find X2 Pro looks just like any other phone. We can see where this is coming from - the Find X from 2018 had an elevating platform that kept all cameras hidden when not in use and allowed for an uninterrupted display.

The X2 Pro isn't as radical, we'll agree to that. The punch hole for the selfie cam is a bit of an eyesore, in no small part because it's quite further inside the phone to clear the curving display edge.

On the back, there's a sizable camera cluster where the Find X had a flush glass panel. But the Find X2 Pro has imaging aspirations that couldn't fit in a pop-up assembly, so instead, Oppo opted for a more conventional design this time around. And a passing glance at a Galaxy S20 Ultra will tell you that Oppo's done quite well in terms of form following function. Oh, and no moving parts certainly helped the phone get that IP rating - never a bad thing.