Supplied by OPPO
TL;DR
- OPPO has launched the Find X7 Ultra in its home market of China.
- This is the first phone with two periscope cameras, delivering more flexible camera zoom.
- Unfortunately, OPPO has no plans to launch the Find X7 Ultra outside China.
We thought the OPPO Find X6 Pro was one of the best camera phones of 2023, but the Chinese brand restricted the device’s launch to its home market. Now, the company has launched the Find X7 Ultra smartphone, and you can’t get it outside China, either.
“The Find X7 Ultra will be limited to the China domestic market for now. We have currently no plans to take it outside of China, I’m afraid (sic),” OPPO head of product management Arne Herkelmann said in response to an Android Authority question during a media briefing.
The lack of global availability is a massive shame when you look at what the Find X7 Ultra actually offers.
Find X7 Ultra: A camera with phone capabilities?
Supplied by OPPO
OPPO asserts that the Find X7 Ultra has “quad main cameras,” featuring four 50MP lenses. For starters, there’s a 50MP LYT-900 one-inch main camera and a 50MP LYT-600 ultrawide shooter (1/1.95-inch).
OPPO acknowledged that the ultrawide camera was smaller than the Find X6 Pro’s ultrawide sensor during a media briefing. Herkelmann noted in response to a journalist’s question that we should still expect similar results as the previous phone’s ultrawide camera due to software tuning and the X7 Ultra’s sensor being newer. But the OPPO executive also confirmed that the ultrawide sensor was smaller due to two major zoom-focused additions.
This is the first phone to offer dual periscope cameras, namely a 50MP 3x periscope camera (IMX890, OIS) and a 50MP 6x periscope shooter (IMX858, OIS). OPPO adds that it uses a crop from the 6x camera as well as imaging smarts to deliver high-quality zoom at 270mm (~12x).
The OPPO Find X7 Ultra is the first phone to offer dual periscope cameras, offering native 3x and 6x shots.
The Chinese brand says it’s also created a so-called Hypertone Imaging Engine to address various camera pain points. More specifically, this imaging engine apparently addresses issues like over-processed shots, unnatural HDR, and over-exposed images. OPPO also claimed a more accurate and effective portrait mode, saying that you can capture a portrait mode snap when the subject is as far as nine meters (29.5 feet) away.
Not a fan of the phone’s default snaps? The Find X7 Ultra takes a cue from Apple by letting you adjust saturation, contrast, sharpness, and vignetting. You can then save your desired settings to a profile, although multiple profiles aren’t supported just yet. Nevertheless, we’re glad to see another OEM offering meaningful image customization like this.
OPPO is also working to let users save images in a so-called RAW Max format, letting you take 50MP RAW snaps with 13 stops of dynamic range and 16-bit color. The update to enable this format is expected to land in March.
What about the rest of the Find X7 Ultra?
Supplied by OPPO
There’s more to a flagship phone than just the cameras, though. So we’re glad to see that the rest of the Find X7 Ultra is suitably high-end. Expect a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, up to 16GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage, and a dedicated security chip.
OPPO’s phone also brings an OLED screen that seems very similar to the OnePlus 12 panel. You’re getting the same 3,168 x 1,440 resolution, the same 4,500 nits of peak brightness, and the same 1,600 nits of brightness in high brightness mode. OPPO says the screen has OnePlus’s Rain Water Touch screen tech too, adding that the screen will get Ultra HDR support via an update.
OPPO Find X7 Ultra: Hot or not?
150 votes
A 5,000mAh battery keeps the lights on, but you won’t have to wait long for a full charge thanks to 100W SuperVOOC wired charging and 50W wireless charging. The company is even tossing in an IR blaster and a so-called VIP slider (i.e. alert slider). The latter isn’t merely for changing sound profiles, as the slider can also be used to disable camera, microphone, and location access.
OPPO Find X7 Ultra price and availability
We’ve already noted that the Find X7 Ultra won’t be available outside China. In China, you can get the phone in Ocean Blue, Sepia Brown, and Tailored Black color options in the following RAM and storage configurations:
- 12GB/256GB: CNY 3,999 (~$563)
- 16GB/256GB: CNY 4,299 (~$605)
- 16GB/512GB: CNY 4,599 (~$647)
- 16GB/1TB: CNY 4,999 (~$704)
We were really hoping OPPO was able to settle its legal dispute with Nokia, which is believed to be a key reason for the Find X series skipping global markets. Alas, consumers on the hunt for a fantastic camera phone now have one less option to choose from. Again.
