Oppo Find X8 Ultra review

1.0-inch main camera, significant tele upgrades

On the surface, the Find X8 Ultra has the same camera system as last year's model. The headliner is perhaps the 'main' camera with a 1.0-inch type sensor, there are two telephotos (at 3x and 6x zoom), and an ultrawide. When you look more carefully, though, the differences start to emerge.

The telephotos maintain the same zoom levels as before, yes, with equivalent focal lengths of 70mm and 135mm. But the 6x zoom module now gets a larger sensor (1/1.95" vs. 1/2.51") and, at the same time, a larger aperture lens (f/3.1 vs. f/4.3). That would normally mean a significantly bigger module, but Oppo has done a more complex prism design that bends the light inside it a few times, keeping the physical dimensions to a minimum. That's the same approach taken on the Find X8 Pro for its 3x zoom camera, but here we're seeing it on the 6x unit.

The one downside is that with the prism being fixed and the depth of the module limited, there's not a whole lot of range for the remaining lenses to move so this camera's focusing distance starts at 95cm - no 6x closeups.

The 3x module on the Find X8 Ultra maintains the sensor size of its counterpart on the Find X7 Ultra, but upgrades to a larger aperture lens, now at f/2.1 instead of f/2.6.

That's not the only upgrade though - with the close-up-challenged 6x telephoto, the 3x had to cover for it in macro duties, and it can now focus as close as 10cm. That's looking like the closest focusing telephoto from Oppo to date.

Zoom cameras light paths: Find X8 Ultra, 6x • Find X8 Ultra, 3x • Find X8 Pro, 3x and 6x

The main camera appears unchanged, though that's no bad thing - it keeps the 1.0-inch sensor (unlike the upcoming vivo X200 Ultra). So this year it's just the Find Ultra and the Xiaomi Ultra that will be rocking a sensor of this size (possibly the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra too, we'll see about that).

Back to the Find in our hands, there's a new development on the ultrawide front and it's not strictly an upgrade - more like a downgrade, going by the numbers. Still a 50MP sensor, it's now a smaller 1/2.75" optical format in place of the 1/1.95" image of the previous generation - this module is the same as on the X8 Pro.

• Wide (main): 50MP Sony LYT-900 (1", 1.6µm - 3.2µm), f/1.8, 23mm, dual pixel PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; 2160p@60fps
• Ultrawide: 50MP Samsung JN5 (S5KJN5, 1/2.76", 0.64µm - 1.28µm), f/2.0, 15mm, multi-directional PDAF; 2160p@60fps
• Telephoto 1, 3x: 50MP Sony LYT-700 (1/1.56", 1.0µm - 2.0µm), periscope lens, f/2.1, 70mm, multi-directional PDAF (10cm - ∞), OIS; 2160p@60fps
• Telephoto 2, 6x: 50MP Sony LYT-600 (1/1.95", 0.8µm - 1.6µm), periscope lens, f/3.1, 135mm, multi-directional PDAF (95cm - ∞), OIS; 2160p@60fps
• Front camera: 32MP Sony LYT-506 (1/2.74", 0.8µm-1.6µm), f/2.4, 21mm, PDAF; 2160p@60fps

In addition to the 'real' cameras, there's also the True Chroma camera. It's a spectral sensor on steroids - a dedicated 2MP camera that divides the frame into a 6 by 8 grid and calculates the light temperature for each section separately. That way you can get selective white balance for different portions of the frame and better color rendition in difficult settings. The main goal is to achieve appealing skin tones in portrait shots in artificial and/or limited lighting.

Exploded view of all of the Find X8 Ultra's cameras

The Find X8 Ultra also features the Quick Button we already saw on the Find X8 Pro. It's not quite a button because it doesn't actually click but it's pressure-sensitive instead. It relies on the phone's (super nice) vibration motor for haptics to fuel the illusion.

The functionality is straightforward and intuitive. Double-press on the key can be used to launch the camera or launch and immediately snap a photo. You can also disable the double press action and only use the Quick Button once you're already in the camera app.

In Photo mode, a press on the button will take a photo while long-pressing it will do a burst of photos. In Video mode, it can be used to start and end a recording. There's also a capacitive sensor underneath so you can slide your finger for zoom action (but only in landscape orientation).

Daylight photo quality

Main camera

You wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Find X8 Ultra's main camera captures excellent images in daylight. The photos are packed with detail that has a nice, organic rendition, while noise is nowhere to be seen. Exposures are on point, dynamic range is great. There's no fooling the auto white balance either and colors are vibrant without going overboard.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x)

People shots at 1x are also looking nice, with our model having a particularly lively complexion - okay that could be all the press talk about the selective white balance rubbing off on us, but we do think there's at least a little bit of merit to it.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), Photo mode

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), Portrait mode

What we're struggling a bit more to see is any real advantage in shooting in 25MP resolution on the main camera - one of the other new bits about this Ultra. Perhaps given the right scene and lightning and after looking at pixels long enough, you might be able to spot something in one corner or another, but it's certainly not an obvious day-and-night difference.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 25MP

It's sort of a similar story with the switch to 50MP - things are just getting progressively softer on a pixel level, and if there's an actual extra amount of detail, it's not plain to see.

Daylight samples, main camera (1x), 50MP

The 2x results are pretty good in terms of detail, but it's not one of those instances where we'll be raving about how sharp they are - not bad, not outstanding.

Daylight samples, main camera (2x)

Daylight samples, main camera (2x), Photo mode

Daylight samples, main camera (2x), Portrait mode

3x telephoto camera

The 3x telephoto on the Find X8 Ultra is nicer than that on the Pro in many ways, and if you're into taking pictures of flowers or your food (or whatever it is that we're doing here), perhaps the close-up capability is the most important one. Its 10cm minimum focusing distance is a marked improvement over the 25cm on the Find X7 Ultra too, making for some nice 'macro'-style shots.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x), close-ups

Of course, it's just as good with more distant subjects, capturing excellent detail. At this point, the wide dynamic range, accurate white balance and overall pleasing color rendition are all but a given.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x)

Portraits are also superb out of this camera, whether in Photo mode or in Portrait mode.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x), Photo mode

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x), Portrait mode

Here too, we're so happy with the crispiness of the 12.5MP photos that we struggle to see the point in the 25MP or the 50MP modes. Either way, here are some samples at the higher resolutions for you to stare at.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x), 25MP

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x), 50MP

6x telephoto camera

The longer telephoto doesn't do close-ups too well, but that's fine - it specializes in reach instead. We're getting sharp results with excellent detail and no noise - the usual. Colors are on point, dynamic range is great too.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (6x)

6x, or 135mm equivalent is on the long end of the portraiture range, but it's still a classic focal length for tighter crops. The Find does quite well too.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (6x), Photo mode

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (6x), Portrait mode

Another set of 25MP and 50MP counterparts to some of the above images for you to judge the usefulness of the higher-res modes.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (6x), 25MP

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (6x), 50MP

A tap on the 6x button takes you to 300mm equivalent for some extended reach at the expense of pixel-level definition. It's not bad, particularly with man-made subjects with regular shapes.

Daylight samples, telephoto camera (13.4x, 300mm)

Ultrawide camera

The supposedly downgraded ultrawide camera is actually performing admirably despite what looks like inferior hardware to that found on the X7 Ultra. It's not the benchmark for pixel level acuity, but as ultrawides go, it's certainly among the sharper ones. The global properties don't leave much to be desired either.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x)

Next up, the mandatory set of 25MP and 50MP samples.

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x), 25MP

Daylight samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x), 50MP

Selfies

The X8 Ultra, like the X7 Ultra, features autofocus on its front-facing camera, so you can do close-ups of your face - technically you could do those on the fixed-focus selfie camera on the FInd X8 Pro, it's just that your mug will be blurry, but not so on the Ultra.

Sure, Oppo could downsample these to 8MP or 12MP, so you don't have to be dealing with 32MP selfies, but this is apparently not happening, so we might as well just accept it. Detail is good, colors are lively, skin tones are life-like, dynamic range is alright.

Selfie samples

Low-light photo quality

Main camera

At night, the Find X8 Ultra's main camera generally captures excellent images. Exposures are great, highlights are competently preserved and shadows are well-developed, and there's a nicely high overall contrast. White balance is reliable and colors don't suffer from any loss of saturation. Detail is great too.

There's one unusual flaw that you may or may not run into - if you have moving bright lights in the frame, they can get rendered weirdly in a hard to describe ghost-like way (the fifth sample below).

Low-light samples, main camera (1x)

At 2x zoom, the results are looking good from afar thanks to the main camera's overall exposure and color excellence, but on a pixel level things are a bit too soft for our liking. Stick to fit-to-screen viewing, or just use the 3x camera.

Low-light samples, main camera (2x)

3x Telephoto camera

The 3x telephoto camera captures superbly detailed shots - a meaningful improvement over the already solid Find X8 Pro's short tele. Dynamic range is very good, though the shadows could use a boost in more contrasty scenes. Colors are typically great too, in terms of both white balance and saturation.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (3x)

6x Telephoto camera

The 6x telephoto is another major upgrade over the Find X8 Pro or the Find X7 Ultra, particularly evident in low-light shooting. Its photos are sharp and super-detailed and there's no reaching out to the 3x camera for help like those others would do - the 6x is doing great on its own. Again, shadows can be a little dark but you can give them a kick in post processing with no negative effects on quality. Colors are nice too.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (6x)

A tap on the 6x button to take you to 300mm, and you'd be getting pretty jagged detail. Maybe the results are usable if you want to isolate a subject without fiddling with cropping after the fact, so long as you fully realize the quality won't be top notch.

Low-light samples, telephoto camera (13.4x, 300mm)

Ultrawide camera

The ultrawide that's supposedly a downgrade compared to the Find X7 Ultra and is otherwise the same as on the Find X8 Pro, takes noticeably better photos than either of them in the dark. The images are sharp and detailed, exposures are well balanced, dynamic range is great.

Low-light samples, ultrawide camera (0.6x)

Video recording

The Find X8 Ultra can record video up to 4K60 with all of its cameras - the four on the back and the selfie camera too. 4K120 is also available on the rear cameras, with the exception of the ultrawide. There's no 8K capture mode (and we won't be missing it), and there's no 24fps capability directly in sight. There's a Movie mode that works in a 21:9 aspect (so 3840x1648px, no other resolution), where you can tweak exposure parameters, focus and white balance - no 24fps in here either.

The default codec is h.265 but you can switch to h.264. Dolby Vision capture is available too, masked behind the HDR toggle in the viewfinder, and there are no camera/resolution/fps limitations for it - if you can record video in that mode, you can opt for it to be Dolby Vision. LOG capture is also in the works, but isn't available yet at the time of reviewing.

'Regular' electronic video stabilization is available in all resolutions and frame rate combos except 4K120 and then there's Ultra Steady mode, which also works in all modes except 4K120.

You can check out the playlist below, which includes multiple video samples.

Video sample playlist

4K videos from the Find X8 Ultra are very good overall, just short of true excellence. Detail is very good, but just like on the Pro, it's missing that ultimate edge that would make us go wow. Dynamic range is great, and the good contrast and vibrant colors make the image pop. All that pretty much applies to all cameras in equal measure, with only the 2x mode on the main camera producing noticeably softer results.

In the dark, the Find will generally treat you to excellent exposures and dynamic range - particularly on the main camera. The accurate white balance and pleasing saturation levels are also a welcome sight. Detail is again good, but not super great. 6x zoom results aren't too inspiring - they're on the soft side.

Stabilization is something we can give the Find high praise for - it was thoroughly excellent in our experience. All cameras stay planted if you're just pointing the phone in one direction, including both teles. Pans are smooth too. Walking shake is also nicely corrected, even without resorting to the Ultra Steady stabilization. That mode would probably have more of a pronounced effect in higher-action shooting on the main and ultrawide cameras - it appeared to add a little bit of shake on the telephotos, so we'd avoid it there.