Oppo Find X9 Review: A Near-Perfect Compact Flagship for Camera Lovers

I'm honestly just tired of brick-sized flagship phones that barely fit in my pocket and make my wrists hurt during one-handed usage. As of late, I have been super enticed by pocket-sized flagships and the newly launched Oppo Find X9 instantly caught my attention. Powered by MediaTek's greatest chipset, featuring an impressive camera setup and flaunting a solid on-paper specs sheet, I had to see for myself what this phone was all about. So, I took it out for a spin and after spending about a week with it, here's what I think in this Oppo Find X9 review.

Oppo Find X9 Unboxing

The Oppo Find X9 comes with all the essentials right in the box to keep you sorted initially:

With that out of the way, here's a quick rundown of the Oppo Find X9 specs for your reference:

Oppo Find X9 Design and Build

One of the first things you notice is the new camera module design of the Oppo Find X9 and Find X9 Pro. While it's subject to taste, I like how clean and refined the new design is, although one could easily mistake it to be the OnePlus 15. Moreover, the camera module sits flush enough to keep the phone stable on a table.

Besides, it's an absolute delight to hold and that satin-like matte finish at the back with the sturdy aerospace-grade aluminium frame gives off quite the premium feel. While it can be slightly slippery, the phone's compact ergonomics, as compared to many 6.8-inch flagships, keep that from happening. 

I attended the Enrique Iglesias concert in Mumbai this time and it rained heavily at the venue. Before I could react, both the phone and I were completely drenched. Well, thanks to the IP66, IP68 and IP69 ratings, the Oppo Find X9 remained completely unaffected.

I also noticed how, due to its more compact form, the Find X9 was a lot easier to handle with one hand as compared to my personal iQOO 12. Even though I got knocked around a lot in the crowd, the Find X9 firmly stayed in my hands. I also liked how the volume rocker and power button on the right, as well as the Snap Key on the left, were all easily accessible during one-handed usage.

Oppo Find X9 Display Quality

The 6.59-inch AMOLED panel is easily one of the key highlights of the Find X9. Colour reproduction is accurate out of the box and I didn't have to tweak the settings in any way. The brightness and typical indoor and outdoor use impressed me. Using our Luxmeter, I recorded the display hitting a little over 1,800 nits, which is great.

I binge-watched Stranger Things on the Find X9 and the black in those darker scenes was phenomenal. On the other hand, colours popped out just the right amount without feeling oversaturated. 

The viewing angles are excellent and the flat display keeps those annoying accidental touches at bay. The solid stereo speaker setup adds to the multimedia experience, with the bottom-firing unit being louder than the earpiece that doubles down as the second speaker. However, the audio separation was never too out of place to trigger my OCD. 

Oppo Find X9 Performance Tested

Under the hood, the Find X9 is packed with flagship hardware and uses MediaTek's Dimensity 9500 to power it all. And, the phone is fast, to say the least. During my week of testing, the phone handled everything I threw at it without breaking a sweat. App launches were instant, although I had over 30 apps running in the background and impressively, most of them resumed from right where I had left them.

Switching between multiple tabs on Chrome (and I had around 120 open at one point) or even editing high-resolution videos and images were seamless. I didn't notice any slowdown or thermal throttling even in the rather humid Mumbai climate. 

Benchmark numbers do reflect on the Find X9's capability, although the previous leaks suggesting over 4 million AnTuTu was probably a drag. It hit around 3.4 million in my testing and here's a rundown of it all:

With that out of the way, I ran a couple of graphic-intensive games as well, like Call of Duty Mobile and Genshin Impact and the Find X9 held steady frame rates throughout. Yes, there was some warmth around the upper frame after about 30 minutes, but nothing concerning.

Besides, it maintained those temps for a long time before getting slightly warmer, which was still not uncomfortable. Oppo's custom vapour-cooling system seems to be doing its job well.

Oppo Find X9 Software and Updates

The Oppo Find X9 comes with ColorOS 16 out of the box. Right off the bat, the phone feels smooth, snappy and surprisingly minimal for something that's known to pack a ton of features. In my week of using it, the transitions, app switching and animations felt super fluid. There were some random stutters and lag spikes, but it was fixed later with a software update. 

ColorOS 16's little touches stand out. The File Dock and Smart Touch gestures already made multitasking easier, especially when I was juggling between chats and notes. I also appreciated having AI tools like AI Eraser and Smart Cutout at my disposal. Now, the latest update also sees a more intuitive app drawer that categorises everything nicely for you. You can also tap on a letter in the right panel to get to apps that start with it. 

The brand's proprietary O+ Share is also quite something right now and it lets you seamlessly share files between Oppo, OnePlus and Realme devices that are on the latest Android 16-based update. The animation, speed of transfer and everything was top tier and it looks like we finally have a good Apple AirDop alternative.

There are tons of other ColorOS 16 features that I'd have liked to have more time with to explore, but overall, this has to be my favourite Android skin so far. 

What adds real value, though, is Oppo's five years of OS updates and six years of security patches. It's reassuring to know the Oppo Find X9 will stay current for a good while. 

Oppo Find X9 Camera Tested

The camera system on the Find X9 is an area where Oppo has made meaningful improvements. While not quite the extreme "Ultra" zoom beast of the Pro/Ultra models, the triple 50 MP setup paired with advanced processing delivers commendable results. 

In daylight and well-lit indoor conditions, the primary sensor performed very well, delivering plenty of detail, accurate tones and a wide dynamic range. Highlights were well controlled and shadows retained texture rather than being crushed into black. 

The ultra-wide lens on the Find X9 held up admirably as well. Unlike many ultra-wide lenses that weaken at the edges or lose colour, this one maintained good consistency throughout. Additionally, there's autofocus on the ultra-wide, which lets you get creative with close-ups and macro shots.

The periscope telephoto lens is also very impressive and 3x shots are clean and offer solid clarity during the day. Zooming beyond that is acceptable up to about 5x in everyday use. However, understandably, softness and noise start creeping in at 10x and beyond. I also noticed how the telephoto is not that great at handling shadows and during the day as well, it can darken shots a bit.

Results stay the same at night as well, thanks to solid processing and OIS. Images retain detail and noise is mostly kept in check. Colours also stay fairly natural rather than overly saturated. Even the light sources are managed quite well and they don't bleed into the shots. The telephoto was surprisingly good too and shots were the right amounts of crisp and noise-free.

Selfies are great at all times too and offer solid edge detection as well as background mapping. Skin tones are very well maintained and none of the shots seemed overly processed. 

The Oppo Find X9 shines in the video department too, being able to capture up to 4K @ 120 FPS videos through the main setup and 4K @ 60 FPS through the selfie shooter. The stabilisation and lens-switching are super smooth and the video quality was robust. Colours and exposure transitions held up well, although there were subtle focus hunting issues at night.

Oppo Find X9 Battery and Charging

Battery life and charging are standout features of the Find X9. In my mixed-use week of capturing photos and videos, gaming and texting, I consistently ended the day with about 30% battery still remaining. Meanwhile, on lighter days, I achieved around 6 to 7 hours of screen-on-time.

If you take a look at the screenshot below, you'll notice how the phone stayed for over a day with screen off and still delivered around 4 hours of SoT.

Overnight standby drain was modest too, at 2 to 3%, which is quite respectable. The in-box charger also helped me top off the device from 10% to 100% in around 40 minutes and again, that's excellent. 

Bottom line: Should you buy the Oppo Find X9?

In short, the Oppo Find X9 feels fast, consistent and confident in everything it does. It delivers flagship-grade performance at a price that doesn't raise eyebrows. That, paired with a solid set of cameras and commendable battery backup in a relatively compact yet durable form, makes the Find X9 an absolute monster in the segment. 

However, enter the Vivo X300 in the Indian market next month and the phone will start making very little sense. The X300 is a more compact flagship that boasts better cameras, a slightly better display and is just a better phone, which is expected to be priced around the same as the Find X9.

Ultimately, the only area where the Find X9 will undoubtedly shine will be its phenomenal software experience with ColorOS 16. So, while I had a great time with the phone, I'd recommend waiting for the Vivo X300 before making a decision.