Beebom
Rating9
The Oppo Find X9 Ultra is a superhuman in a market full of capable flagships – packing top-of-the-line specifications, incredible performance, and a long-lasting battery. The design turns heads too, and the point-and-shoot-like camera largely lives up to that promise. Its only kryptonite is the aggressive AI processing, which gets in the way of what could have been a more authentic photography experience. At over Rs 1.5 lakhs, the Find X9 Ultra caters to serious camera enthusiasts or those who refuse to settle for anything less than the best.
Pros
- Elegant and durable design
- Sharp AMOLED panel
- Class leading cameras
- Top notch performance
- Extremely long battery life
Cons
- Heavy AI processing in photos
- Slightly top heavy
I don't think it would be a stretch to say that the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is the Superman of smartphones. Like the almighty hero, it packs top-tier specifications, with cameras that take photos so clear it almost seems like x-ray vision. But with great power comes great responsibility, and in this case, a great asking price of Rs 1,69,999. Does the phone justify this price tag? Let me answer in this Oppo Find X9 Ultra review.
Oppo Find X9 Ultra Unboxing
The Oppo Find X9 Ultra comes with all the important goodies in the box. Here's everything you will find:
- Oppo Find X9 Ultra smartphone
- Textured colour-matched cover
- 100W SuperVOOC charging adapter
- USB Type A to C cable
- SIM ejector tool
- Paperwork
Before beginning the review, let's quickly catch up with the key specifications of the phone.
Oppo Find X9 Ultra Key Details
- Adreno 840
- QHD+ AMOLED
- LTPO
- Dolby Vision
- 100Watt (wired)
- Wireless Charging Supported
- Charger in the box
- Sony LYT-901
- Sony LYT 600
- OmniVision OV52A
- Samsung ISOCELL JNL
Hybrid Stabilization
8K@30fps
- 512GB (UFS 4.1)
- SAMSUNG ISOCELL JN5
- 4k@60fps
- Eco Leather (Back)
- Aluminium Frame (Side)
- IP66/68/69 (Dust and Water Resistant)
- 5 year(s) of OS Update
Build and Design
- 8.7mm/9.1mm thickness, 235 grams weight
- Aluminium frame, glass or eco-leather back
- IP 66/68/69 dust and water resistance
I have been using the Tundra Umber variant of the Find X9 Ultra for this review, and this design has me impressed from the moment I picked it up. The huge bump on the back makes it clear that this is a camera-focused smartphone, but not just any camera. Oppo took a step further, drawing inspiration from the Hasselblad X2D camera system for this design, and it turned out beautifully.
The phone makes a clear statement that "This is an ultra-premium flagship". Whomever I have handed it to can immediately tell that this feels like an expensive piece of equipment. Plus, I love how the earthy metal mid-frame with the vegan leather back feels in hand.
The camera island is the centrepiece of the Find X9 Ultra. But it has a subtle hexagonal shape with ridges all around that give an impression of a camera lens focus ring. But unlike the real thing, it doesn't twist, despite my several attempts, and it's just there for aesthetics. Talking about aesthetics, I like how Oppo tastefully used Hasselblad's signature orange accent around the camera ring and the camera button.
All that said, I cannot deny that this is a large phone, and at 235 grams, it is not a light one either. Most of the weight, as you might guess, is centred around the camera island like the Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which makes the phone quite top-heavy. My heart even skipped a beat a couple of times during this Oppo Find X9 Ultra review period, worrying the phone might slip out of my hands.
It goes without saying, but it is also not meant for anyone with smaller hands. Even for someone like me, I was only able to comfortably grip it thanks to the slightly curved edges. On a good note, the phone carries IP66, IP68, and IP69 ratings, which means it can survive an underwater photoshoot.
Display and Audio Quality
- 6.82-inch 2K (3168 x 1440 pixels) 144 Hz AMOLED display
- 3,600 nits peak brightness (as claimed by the brand)
- Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection, dual stereo speakers
The display of the Find X9 Ultra had me coloured impressed, as it is a 6.82-inch LTPO AMOLED panel with a 3168 x 1440 resolution. This is the same panel that Oppo used last year on the Find X8 Ultra, which is not a complaint, given how good that display was, and the same carries on here. This is such a crisp and vivid screen to look at.
As a bonus, Oppo has increased the refresh rate to 144 Hz and the brightness to 3600 nits. Now, when I started this Oppo Find X9 Ultra review, I was in the middle of catching up with the popular Amazon show, The Boys. And I ended up watching over 2 seasons on the phone.
The show's cold blue tones, mixed with dim lighting, were perfect to test this screen, and it managed to deliver excellent colour calibration. I didn't need to change anything in the settings; everything looked sharp and smooth from the moment I took the phone out of the box.
However, the brightness is not the best in the scene. It is higher than the Pixel 10 Pro XL and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, but it does seem a little low in very bright outdoor situations. So I have to cut some marks here; else, I would have easily considered it as one of the best display phones out there.
The stereo speaker setup is also a standout here, with clear-sounding dialogues, no muffling or tearing at max volume and a clean audio experience overall.
Performance Tested
- Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor
- Up to 16 GB LPDDR5X RAM and 1 TB GB UFS 4.1 storage
Like Superman, the Find X9 Ultra has superhuman strength thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. It is the top-of-the-line chipset that handles all the day-to-day tasks and even gaming as if it were no big deal for it. Even benchmark numbers are on par with the current flagships, and you can check them out in these screenshots.
Everyday usage was completely seamless. Whether I was jumping between apps, editing photos, or scrolling through social media, the phone never gave me a reason to think about its performance. It just gets out of the way and lets you use it.
Gaming is similarly impressive. I started with the typical set of Call of Duty: Mobile, which supports up to medium graphics at 144 FPS. BGMI runs at 120 FPS on smooth settings. I also threw in some demanding games like Genshin Impact, which ran at 60 FPS at the highest graphics settings. However, there is no 120 FPS support for this game as seen on the OnePlus 15R and the iQOO 15R.
The phone does get warm during extended gaming sessions, which is worth keeping in mind if you are a heavy gamer. But it never got to a point where it throttled to affect the experience. It is definitely not the best gaming phone in terms of features, but the gameplay experience should be plenty smooth.
| Game | Settings |
|---|---|
| CoD Mobile | Multiplayer: Medium + 144 FPS (144 FPS) Battle Royale: Medium + Ultra (120 FPS) |
| BGMI | Smooth + Ultra Extreme (120 FPS) HDR + Extreme (60 FPS) |
| Genshin Impact | Highest graphics (60 FPS) |
Software and Updates
- Android 16-based ColorOS 16
- Five years of Android OS updates and seven years of security patches
The Oppo Find X9 Ultra is the first phone I have used that comes with the new ColorOS 16.1 update based on Android 16. Now, I was going in expecting the same smooth experience and familiar feature set. But somehow, Oppo raised the bar even further by improving the animations even more.
The apps now open and close in such a seamless animation that I have actually spent 5 minutes just watching them play again and again. There's a new One UI-style Live Space pill on the lock screen that shows live activities and currently playing music. Even though it is inspired by somewhere else, Oppo has clearly managed to beat Samsung at its own game.
The way it expands and collapses is so soothing that you would want to do it repeatedly. And there are more new features that I explored, like widget stacks, an even more glass-like effect throughout the UI, and a redesigned camera app. Now, it looks more modern, but I am not a fan of how some of the controls are needlessly hidden.
There are a lot of new MindSpace features too. But the one that caught my attention is the one that allows you to keep track of your spending. I just had to press the Snap key whenever I made a payment, and MindSpace recorded it, allowing me to see a neat chart of where I am spending more and what I can do about it. This is the kind of AI features I would actually appreciate in more UIs.
On software support, Oppo is promising 5 years of major OS updates and 6 years of security patches, which is a solid commitment and comparable to the Vivo X300 Ultra.
Cameras Reviewed
- 200 MP Sony LYT-901 primary rear camera with OIS
- 200 MP 3x telephoto + 50 MP 10x telephoto camera
- 50 MP ultra-wide + 50 MP selfie camera
The camera is the entire reason this phone exists, and Oppo knows it. That is why the Find X9 Ultra comes not with just one, two or three but FOUR cameras at the back. And I want to be clear that this is not a case of stuffing sensors into a spec sheet. Every single one of them is genuinely useful.
Main Camera
The main camera is a 200 MP Sony LYT-901 with an f/1.5 aperture, the widest on any 200 MP sensor in a phone right now. In daylight, the shots look sharp and detailed and they carry a natural quality to them that I have not seen from many phone cameras. Hasselblad's colour science is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. Colours look mostly accurate rather than boosted and artificial.
However, the sharpness in the Auto mode was a bit toned down from what I expected. But the overall shot, especially the one with the clay horse, looks perfect. The shadows are controlled well, and it does not crush them as much as the Find X9 Pro's post-processing does.
The larger 1/1.12-inch sensor size comes into play in low light and takes detailed images. The dynamic range is wide, colours hold up and don't just blend, and the noise is also controlled. It is not as jaw-dropping as the shots I clicked for the Xiaomi 17 Ultra review since that one has a large, 1-inch sensor. But the image output from the X9 Ultra is still really good.
3x Telephoto Camera
This is the camera that genuinely surprised me. The 200MP 3x telephoto uses the largest telephoto sensor ever put in a phone, at 1/1.28 inches, and the results show. Portraits shot on this lens have a very distinct DSLR-like natural bokeh effect that compresses the background, which I haven't noticed in a smartphone before.
The zoomed-in photos also come off as nothing short of immaculate. I kept on taking 70mm shots and couldn't get enough of it. Every photo I took with this lens came out like a masterpiece. As if I were a highly trained photographer, but I couldn't be further from it. Even in nighttime, this 200 MP lens snaps pristine images, and the dimly lit image of the tomb is a good example of that.
10x Telephoto Camera
This is the camera I was most excited about, and there is no doubt that it delivers. The pictures look way higher quality than any 10x cropped zoom photo that you can take from any other phone. And the natural bokeh I was talking about earlier comes off even better with this lens. I asked my friends to play model for the Find X9 Ultra review, and the headshots were so good that they kept asking me for one more photo.
But beyond 10x, things get a little "mushy". At 460mm or 20x, the AI kicks in and tries to fix every little flaw in the image as much as possible. This is a similar problem I faced in my Oppo Find X9 Pro review and the OnePlus 15 review. Oppo's too reliant on AI to fix blemishes. It tries to soften the noise and ends up wiping off most of the details from the shot. To the point that the entire photo can look AI-generated.
Like, look at the picture with the WAVE sign on the building, it is pretty clear. But upon closer inspection, I can see AI tried to add details in the image. I have added a Google Drive link with original-quality images so you guys can check it out for yourself. I really wanted it to be good, but it seems that if you want long-range shots, then you will have to get the additional camera kit to achieve high-quality results.
Ultrawide Camera
The ultrawide uses a 50MP Sony LYT-600 sensor at 1/2.0 inches, which is the same sensor Oppo previously used in the Find X8 Ultra's 6x telephoto lens. For an ultrawide, it is excellent. Detail is good even in low light, distortion is well controlled, and colours are consistent with the main camera.
While most dismiss the ultrawide camera, I enjoy it more when it is actually well implemented. I love taking wide shots without having to step back, and this lens helped me achieve just that. I swear I would have included even more ultrawide shots if my editor allowed, but all of them here are my favourites.
Selfie Camera
The 50MP front camera with autofocus delivers detailed selfies with accurate skin tones. Portrait mode on the selfie camera produces clean edge detection and good background separation, though the slightly smaller f/2.4 aperture compared to the Find X9 Pro's f/2.0 means you lose a little detail in low light.
Video Capability
Video is a serious strength of the Find X9 Ultra. You get 4K 120fps Dolby Vision on both the main camera and the 3x telephoto, 8K 30fps on the main camera, and 4K @ 60fps Dolby Vision on every lens, including the 10x. The new O-Log2 format and 3D LUT support with real-time preview make the Oppo Find X9 Ultra a legitimate option if one wants to record professional videos.
Battery Life and Charging
- 7,050 mAh battery capacity
- 100W SuperVOOC charging, 55W AirVOOC wireless charging
- 10 to 50% in around 25 minutes (as per our tests)
Over my Oppo Find X9 Ultra review period, I completely forgot about the battery life because it is just that good. See, I would spend hours with the phone snapping random photos, playing games, and sending dumb reels to annoy my editors and, by the end of the day, still have enough to watch a movie in bed.
Even though it has a moderate 7,050mAh capacity, I got an average of 11.5 hours of screen-on time. If this doesn't make it one of the best battery phones in the flagship segment, then I don't know what will. And unlike other brands, Oppo was kind enough to bundle a 100W SuperVOOC charger in the box. It would allow me to top up the phone from 0–100% in about 50 minutes.
Oppo Find X9 Ultra Review Verdict: Should You Buy It?
After using the Oppo Find X9 Ultra for a week, I cannot say that it is the best flagship phone of 2026, but it is certainly the most high-end flagship phone out there. It does not cut corners in any department and delivers the literal peak of whatever you expect from a modern smartphone. The design and the display make me want to put it in a glass box and appreciate it as a showpiece.
The performance is top-notch, but the cameras suffer from excessive AI invasion. At the starting price of Rs 1,69,999, it is definitely not the ideal choice for most people. I can only recommend the Oppo Find X9 Ultra to a limited niche of people who would appreciate what is on offer and pay for the expensive camera setup.
For others who want the best camera phone, I would recommend the Vivo X300 Pro or the Oppo Find X9 Pro. And those chasing a balance of performance, a decent camera and good value can check out the OnePlus 15.
