A new smartphone is boasting an incredible camera that promises to show you the world as you’ve never seen it. And it lives up to the hype.
Chinese technology giant Oppo sent me over their flagship Oppo Find x3 Pro for a review – and I was impressed.
I had heard some noise about Find x3 Pro’s ‘microscope’ camera so was keen to check that out first.
The cameras boasts a staggering 60x magnification.
I tried it out on the train – and I know you’re not supposed to look too closely at the train seats. I was shocked by the result.
I could make out tiny fibres of the seat in clear detail.
OPPO says the Find X3 Pro can magnify objects by 30 times optically and 60 times with hybrid magnification.
Sleek finish
The Terminator 2-style liquid metal finish on the phone was the other thing that caught my eye.
Oppo says the design was inspired by spacecraft and the rear camera module’s sleek single-sheet fluid glass does have a futuristic, Elon Musk kind of look to it.
Considering the size of the phone – 163.6mm x 74.0mm – it is quite light, only weighing in at 193g. I find phones that are too lightweight tend to slip out of my pocket anyway.
Selfies
I haven’t seen many advertisements for Oppo in Australia but while travelling in the Philippines I was bombarded with billboards proclaiming Oppo as the “Selfie Expert”.
The camera is one of the main selling points of the phone – and it’s really packing a punch.
But it’s the new software that I liked best. The AI Palette allows you to add a warm glow to an overcast shot or psychedelic pixel colour to make a selfie pop. Computers are just better at this stuff.
Usability
The phone offered hints with pop-up messages, helpful to an Oppo beginner like myself, such as swiping down with three fingers to take a screenshot.
I could really notice the powerful engine under the hood. The Oppo Find X3’s 12g of RAM is double the 6g on my day-to-day phone, a Xiaomi Mi 9t.
It just makes everything that little bit faster, swiping between screens and opening apps.
Battery
The phone utilses SuperVOOC 2.0 flash charging technology with tandem dual cell design.
That means you can charge to 40 per cent in about 10 minutes, which Oppo says is faster than most technology around.
It also has the Power Saving and Super Power Saving modes – becoming standard on phones – which can extend the battery life for days.
I’m also a fan of the 10W Reverse Wireless Charging, which means you can recharge your device from another compatible phone.
Gaming
The Oppo Find x3 Pro has a Game Space, which allows you to choose different modes to customise your game play – low power or competition mode, for example.
As someone with clumsy fingers, I enjoyed the Winning Touch feature which helps prevent mistouches.
Would I buy it?
That’s a clear yes. The phone’s microscope camera and AI software are winning features.
The phone’s privacy settings are also a positive and it ticks all the boxes for hardware.
It retails around the $1700 mark which is a little on the expensive side – but the luxury of 5G isn’t cheap.
