Oppo Find X6 Pro review

The competition

The Oppo Find X6 Pro is shaping as one of the best smartphones on the market this year. It impressed us with its premium design, screen, camera hardware and quality, as well as battery life and charging speed.

There is only one caveat, and that's its availability. At the time of writing, Oppo has no plans to release the phone outside China.

There is some good news, though. The Find X6 Pro is available across various retailers for about $930/€930 before taxes and shipping, which makes it an attractive offer, and even competitive if you will. And while the phone does not come with Google Play Store, it has the entire Google Mobile Services baked-in and the Play Store is a few taps away from installing (from Oppo's App Store). Even better, you can uninstall almost all Chinese bloatware.

The Xiaomi 13 Pro is the first smartphone that comes to mind when considering a competing cameraphone. It has an equally premium design, screen, battery specs and speakers, but its triple 50MP camera is slightly different. While the main camera is a match to the Find X6 Pro, the ultrawide and the zoom cameras use smaller sensors. On the other hand, the zoom camera has longer reach, and it offers telemacro mode as it can focus from as close as 10cm away. The Xiaomi 13 Pro is a safer bet in Europe as it comes with an international ROM and you can get service and support at a local level. But if we have to be honest, we do think that Oppo's camera is more appealing than Xiaomi's.

The vivo X90 Pro also matches most of the Find X6 Pro specs. We liked its design a lot, as well as the camera performance, especially the 1" primary camera and the color-accurate photos via the ZEISS mode. The vivo X90 Pro is available in Europe and China, among other markets, so it's a lot more, well, international than the Oppo. Its zoom is shorter at 2x, so you should decide which camera configuration suits you best.

Finally, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is the ultimate cameraphone when zooming is important thanks to its two telephoto cameras - 3x and 10x. The S23 Ultra has the best OLED and an overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, there is S-Pen support and whatnot.

Xiaomi 13 Pro • vivo X90 Pro • Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Our verdict

The Oppo Find X6 Pro is undoubtfully one of the best smartphones on the market, even if it's strictly China-bound for now. The flagship has a one-of-a-kind design, with a good grip and unique charm, and water-resistant, too. Then there is the incredibly bright QHD OLED screen with dynamic 120Hz refresh rate and Dolby Vision support - it's an excellent piece of hardware that's will wow you.

The latest Oppo flagship relies on the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, meaning we cannot ask for more (in terms of hardware) than this. Well, maybe the GPU stability could have been better, but few are really excelling in this department. On the other hand, the high frame rate gaming is still a no-go for BBK-made phones - at least not universally - maybe only for certain titles where the developers have partnered with Oppo.

We do appreciate all the on-board connectivity features, IR blaster included, and the loud stereo speakers, too. And we are quite happy with the Find X6 Pro battery life and the fast charging speed.

Of course, the cameras are what really make this Oppo Find X6 Pro stand out, and they are outstanding. The triple 50MP rear kit is among the best in terms of photo and video quality - the large sensors deliver excellent detail and sharpness, while the superb processing makes for incredibly natural pictures and clips.

The selfie camera is not up to par when it comes to hardware - the 32MP Quad-Bayer sensor could have been replaced with a regular 12MP one, but we do appreciate the autofocus and the overall great photo quality. Now, if Oppo had added 4K video capturing as vivo did on the X90 Pro+, that would have been great.

Regardless of its many virtues, it would be tough to convince anyone to buy a gray import due to the lack of local support, such as warranty servicing, spare parts and first-party accessories, and whatnot.

Still, the great camera quality and the top-notch user experience should be enough to make quite a few people take that risk. And if you live in China, the Oppo Find X6 Pro is probably the best phone to buy right now.

Long story short - the Oppo Find X6 Pro is one of the best smartphones to come out in the first half of the year, and its hardware ticks all the boxes - a dream come true for any tech geek. We hope Oppo reconsiders and eventually launches the Find X6 Pro outside China.

Pros

• Bright QHD OLED, dynamic 120Hz, Dolby Vision-capable.
• Unique premium design, glass or leather, IP68-rated.
• Great battery life, very fast charging.
• Great performance thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
• Class-leading photo and video quality across all rear cameras.
• Outstanding macro photos.
• Great selfies, autofocus available.
• IR blaster, stereo speakers, NFC, Dolby Atmos, dual SIM 5G.

Cons

• Available only in China, gray-importing the Find X6 Pro would get you a phone with Chinese bloatware and limited to no support.
• No high-framerate gaming support outside specific whitelisted titles (currently unknown).
• No 4K selfie videos; using stabilization lowers the video quality.
• A longer optical zoom would have been appreciated.