Oppo’s Find X8 Ultra squeezes better specs into a slightly thinner phone

Oppo’s new Find X8 Ultra is the latest entrant in the ongoing competition between Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo to produce the world’s best camera phone. But unlike its rivals, Oppo has decided that bigger might not be better.

Let’s be clear: the Find X8 Ultra isn’t a small phone by any means, with a 6.82-inch display and a total weight of 7.97 oz. But at 8.78mm thick, it’s comfortably thinner than either of the phones Oppo sees as its rivals: the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Vivo X100 Ultra. There’s a new X200 Ultra around the corner too, but early teases for that don’t suggest it’s gotten much thinner.

These are among a new class of Chinese camera phones that run almost comically large, all packing big batteries and circular camera modules that squeeze in as many lenses and sensors as possible. Oppo, at least, seems to be trying to draw a line in the sand when it comes to size, with product specialist Jeff Jiang describing the goal as to make a “relatively normal phone” without compromising on the camera.

With four 50-megapixel rear lenses tuned by Hasselblad, including both 3x and 6x periscopes that have been upgraded with faster apertures, the X8 Ultra arrives with a credible claim to rival Xiaomi and Vivo on the photography front. It includes a dedicated haptic shutter button with touch controls for zooming, along with a new customizable shortcut button that replaces the popular alert slider.

Despite being slightly svelte, the X8 Ultra includes an enormous 6,100mAh battery — larger than that of any direct rival — with 100W wired and 50W wireless charging. The Snapdragon 8 Elite powers the phone, which ships with up to 16GB RAM and 1TB of storage. Like most of this year’s Chinese flagships, it boasts both IP68 and IP69 ratings for protection against dust and water.

Oppo launched the Find X8 Ultra alongside the Find X8s and X8s Plus, refreshes of the Find X8 powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 Plus, also announced today. The X8s is a more compact phone, with a 6.3-inch display, while the X8s Plus runs larger at 6.59 inches but boasts a bigger 6,000mAh battery. The bad news is that Oppo has no plans to launch any of the new Find X8 phones outside China.