Oppo Find X9 Ultra brings back 10x zoom, but that extra camera might be too much
Oppo’s new Find X9 Ultra is doing something most flagship phones stopped bothering with: a proper 10x telephoto camera.
That alone makes it stand out. According to The Verge, no major new phone has shipped with this kind of 10x zoom lens for the past three years, after Samsung moved away from the idea. Oppo is now bringing it back as part of its latest camera-first Ultra phone, and on paper, it sounds like a dream setup for mobile photography fans.
The catch? The phone is excellent overall, but that headline-grabbing 10x camera does not always justify its place.
The big flex is the zoom
The Find X9 Ultra comes with a stacked camera setup: a 50MP selfie camera up front, plus four rear cameras made up of a 200MP main camera, a 200MP 3x telephoto, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 50MP 10x telephoto. Oppo is also pushing video hard, with 4K 60fps Dolby Vision HDR recording available across every lens, front and back.
That 10x lens is the main talking point. It uses a 230mm equivalent focal length, a larger sensor than older 10x implementations, a faster f/3.5 aperture, and a new quintuple prism periscope design. The result, based on The Verge review, is probably the best 10x phone camera yet.
In good lighting, it delivers sharp detail and strong colours. That matters if you like shooting buildings, stage moments, or subjects that are far away and not moving too much.
But real life is where it gets messy
The problem is simple: the 10x camera struggles in the exact situations where people usually want heavy zoom.
Fast-moving subjects can turn soft. Low-light performance drops off. Combine motion and dim lighting, like concerts or sports, and things get even shakier. The review also notes that colour tuning can feel inconsistent compared with the phone’s other cameras, and bright light sources can blow out.
That is a bit rough, because these are very normal use cases in our part of the world. Think badminton matches, football games, idol concerts, cosplay stage events, or even trying to zoom in during a packed esports arena. In Malaysia and across SEA, people love using phones as their all-in-one camera for events, so consistency matters more than having one spec-sheet monster lens.
Even more interesting, the phone sometimes switches away from the dedicated 10x lens and uses the 3x camera instead, depending on lighting and distance. So the feature that makes the X9 Ultra unique is not always the feature you are actually using.
The rest of the phone sounds seriously solid
Outside of that debate, the Find X9 Ultra looks properly flagship. It has a 144Hz OLED display protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a huge 7,050mAh silicon-carbon battery, and support for 100W SuperVooc charging or 55W over USB-PD. It also carries IP66, IP68, and IP69 ratings, which is a wild level of durability on paper.
Software support is decent too, with five major Android updates and six years of security patches.
Design-wise, The Verge was very positive. The phone uses a retro camera-inspired look, with a two-panel vegan leather back, flat sides, curved corners, and Hasselblad branding that leans hard into the photography identity. There is also a Hasselblad Master mode with RAW shooting across all lenses, up to 16-bit colour, plus film simulations for users who want more control.
Why this matters for Malaysia and SEA
Even though this specific launch is for Europe and the UK, Oppo is a major name in this region, so any camera-first flagship move from the brand is worth watching. The listed UK price is £1,449, which puts it firmly in ultra-premium territory, roughly around the RM9,000-plus bracket before any local market differences.
That means buyers here would expect near-zero gimmicks. And that is the core issue with the Find X9 Ultra: the phone sounds great, but the 10x lens may be the one part that feels more like a flex than a must-have.
If you care about phone cameras, this is still one to watch closely. But based on this review, Oppo may have built a better overall flagship if it skipped the extra zoom and put those resources elsewhere.
Source: The Verge
