Oppo’s Discover X9 Professional has a removable telephoto lens and a big battery

Oppo’s newest flagship cellphone, just like the modern (however exhausting to purchase) Discover N5 foldable, goes exhausting on the tech specs. In reality, the Discover X9 Professional’s specs learn like a wishlist of what many need to see of their telephones, with an enormous 7,500mAh battery, a 200-megapixel telephoto digital camera and a brilliant 6.78-inch display with tiny, nearly one-millimeter bezels, all whereas nonetheless measuring in at 8.25mm in thickness. Oh, and an elective telephoto lens add-on that reinforces digital camera zoom to 10x.

The Discover X9 Professional shall be priced at £1,099 (roughly $1,459). The largest disadvantage could also be that, regardless of the Discover X9 sequence being Oppo’s largest cellphone launch but, it received’t be out there within the US. Nonetheless, with every part that’s crammed into this cellphone, I needed to strive it out. Do I actually need a thinner smartphone? Or one which lasts a number of days earlier than it wants recharging? And man, this telephoto lens is actually eye-catching.

Show and design

The Discover X9 Professional has a 6.78-inch show, with peak out of doors brightness at 3,600 nits. On paper, that beats the iPhone 17 Professional, however most individuals with telephones older than a 12 months or two will discover how a lot brighter telephones just like the X9 Professional are. One other notable function is a 1-nit minimal brightness to scale back eye pressure when utilizing the cellphone at the hours of darkness. Or in mattress. Which we shouldn’t do, however all of us do. Oppo has additionally included high-frequency pixel dimming to additional scale back the display’s harshness.

Like current telephones from its enterprise cousin, OnePlus, Oppo has added a brand new button on this 12 months’s Discover X mannequin. The Snap secret is on the left of the system, and may be custom-made to launch apps just like the voice recorder, translation apps and flashlight. In the meantime, the fitting edge homes the Discover X9’s Fast Button, which is ostensibly the digital camera button. Double-tapping it launches the digital camera app. Whereas it’s not as elaborate because the iPhone’s Digital camera Management, you may swipe on the button to zoom out and in whereas utilizing the digital camera, which is a straightforward, welcome addition.

Alongside Mediatek’s new Dimensity 9500 chip, the Discover X9 Professional is one other flagship cellphone with a silicon-carbon battery. With a better power density than graphite-based batteries, this implies longer battery life with out making the cellphone greater or thicker. At 7,000mAh, the battery is large. That’s far greater than the battery present in foldables like Samsung’s Z Fold 7 (4,400 mAh) and the Pixel 9 Professional Fold (4,650 mAh). It’s even greater than the one within the OnePlus 13 (6,000 mAh). Luckily, the Discover X9 helps suitably swift charging speeds, with assist for 80W SUPERVOOC and 50W wi-fi charging. Throughout my time with the cellphone, it could typically final two days on a cost. Even after a day of heavy digital camera use, Google Maps and streaming video, I didn’t must recharge the Discover X9 Professional till late afternoon on the second day.

Cameras

The Discover X9 Professional’s digital camera consists of a 50-megapixel foremost sensor with f/1.5 lens and optical picture stabilization. There’s additionally a 50MP ultrawide digital camera and arguably essentially the most technically spectacular half: a 200MP periscope digital camera with an f/2.1 lens and OIS. That is additional augmented with an attachable teleconverter lens — extra on that later.

Oppo’s Hasselblad collaboration focuses on telephoto, although the corporate calls its total digital camera setup the Hasselblad Grasp Digital camera System. I’m undecided it wanted such a label.To profit from the high-resolution sensor, the digital camera app features a new Hello-Res mode to seize at 200MP for the telephoto lens and 50MP when utilizing the opposite two digital camera sensors. The corporate warns that the mode is finest utilized in well-lit environments, because it strips out pixel binning and different computational images methods which might be used when there’s restricted mild.

However that’s probably not the purpose: it’s all concerning the zoom. The telephoto has a base 3x optical zoom, which may be cropped to a 6x zoom with a 50MP picture. It’s price noting that every one the cameras on the Discover X9 can seize at 50MP. If the cellphone detects tougher taking pictures situations, it routinely drops all the way down to 25MP or 12MP pictures. In actuality, I didn’t discover the decision leap in most photographs I took, though the wealthy foliage in a few of my panorama pictures showcases how a lot element the digital camera system is ready to seize.

Oppo says its computational images know-how pushes the zoom right here to 13.2x, however its algorithms can get a bit aggressive and messy with faces and element on the larger digital zoom settings. Check out these photos taken throughout a hillside. Whereas the foliage seems crisp and detailed, the walkers are blurry and there’s a halo impact round them. At different occasions, computational images turned pedestrians into nightmarish faces.

In one more alternative to say the Hasselblad collab, there’s additionally an XPAN taking pictures mode for cinematic 65:24 photos. Conversely, in case you’re right into a disposable digital camera aesthetic, the Discover X9 sequence also can set off an aggressive double-flash to imitate ‘00s images.

The identical zoom capabilities can be found in video seize, too, and the corporate has added a brand new Sound Focus mode to strip out ambient noise, which labored higher than I anticipated it to. There are a number of extra video recording upgrades, together with full LOG recording (activated in settings) and an built-in LUT preview to examine shade grading in actual time.

Then there’s the attachable lens. Oppo’s Hasselblad Teleconverter is a stable, premium peripheral, with a metallic barrel and a few heft. It extends the Discover X9’s optical zoom to 10x, with an equal focal size of 230mm. Because of the high-res 200MP Telephoto digital camera sensor, you may punch in at as much as 200x digital zoom for stills and 50x zoom for video, though the candy spot is actually extra within the center. The add-on teleconverter lens, whereas not fully new (Vivo did it first), could be the most intriguing half.

It is advisable use a particular case and mounting plate to securely connect the lens to the cellphone, however when it’s locked in, it feels stable and really safe. It additionally seems to be, properly, the way it seems to be. As a result of it’s such a slender lens, it seems to be like one thing you would possibly use for espionage. It doesn’t even appear to be a point-and-shoot digital camera. It’s… eye-catching, but in addition a lot enjoyable.

I’ve been testing the Discover X9’s digital camera chops for a number of weeks, and it’s been a variety of enjoyable to zoom in with optical zoom readability, whether or not at concert events, film premieres or taking photos of my nieces throughout hectic Play-Doh classes. What’s significantly enticing is the mix of excessive element and bokeh impact. With the leap in zoom, I had to make sure I used to be far sufficient away so as to use the teleconverter, or it could wrestle to focus.

Oppo is pitching its new flagship as the last word cellphone for concert events and dwell occasions, and the zoom vary could be very spectacular. Maybe understandably, when zooming a lot, there’s a excessive threat of blurry pictures. Oppo features a particular tripod mount that attaches to the lens barrel to make sure the entire thing doesn’t tip over, but it surely’s one step too far for me. Carrying across the teleconverter and mounting plate is already rather a lot. It’s additionally a little bit of a chore to must detach the plate when utilizing the digital camera with out the teleconverter. Oddly, the plate covers the opposite sensors, which means that if you’d like a more in-depth focus (or need to use something apart from the telephoto sensor), it’s a further ache level earlier than you may take the picture.

It’s uncommon {that a} cellphone’s “foremost” digital camera isn’t the star of the present, however that could be the case with the Discover X9 Professional. Nevertheless, it’s nonetheless technically spectacular. With a brand new 1/1.28 sensor codeveloped with Sony, the 50MP foremost digital camera can seize triple exposures on every body earlier than merging them. Oppo claims that it provides photos 17 stops of dynamic vary. There’s additionally a fourth digital camera, a True Shade digital camera, devoted to exactly measuring shade temperatures throughout all the opposite sensors. Mixed, it’s a formidable system, however you’ll get essentially the most out of it in case you’re keen to pay for the extra teleconverter.

At £1,099 within the UK, Oppo has priced it identically to the iPhone 17 Professional, though we’re nonetheless ready to listen to pricing for the teleconverter equipment. I feared foldable costs, however this appears not less than aggressive right here in Europe.

What’s stopping Oppo from breaking into the US? Commerce turbulence and competitors, most likely. If it could refine the expertise (and perhaps preserve its subsequent cellphone appropriate with the identical teleconverter), it has an excellent probability at charming the obsessive smartphone photographer away from their iPhones and Pixels.