OPPO Find X9 Ultra
| Photo Credit:
Ashwin Rajagopalan
There’s no denying that flagship smartphones are now in the ‘iterative’ upgrade phase. We’re not seeing those huge year-on-year upgrades at a time when we seem to have hit the peak with smartphone experiences. However, there’s one area where brands continue to push the boundaries leveraging partnerships with imaging companies. The OPPO Find X9 Ultra has upped the stakes in the fight for the best smartphone camera of the year. It’s a tough contest with devices such as the Vivo X300 Ultra (with Zeiss optics) and the iPhone 17 Pro series with its stellar video capabilities. Does the X9 Ultra have enough tricks up its sleeve for this camera showdown? We dive straight in.CameraIf there’s one reason the X9 Ultra deserves your attention, it’s the camera. It’s easily one of the best mobile shooters we’ve tested all year. The X9 Ultra becomes the first Ultra device from OPPO to arrive in India. Previous editions have remained restricted to markets such as China. Comparisons with the Vivo X300 Ultra are inevitable. Unlike Vivo, OPPO has opted to launch the X9 Ultra without the extender kit and bets big on its twin zoom lenses.The five-sensor rear camera array is one of the most formidable we’ve seen on any smartphone camera. It combines a 200MP main camera (f/1.5 aperture), a 200MP 3x Telephoto lens, a 50MP 10x optical periscope lens, a 50MP ultrawide camera and a multispectral/true colour sensor. It’s not just impressive on paper but truly shines in real life scenarios. I aimed for the moon almost as soon as I unboxed this device and the super zoom was quite impressive. The X9 Ultra benefits from Hasselblad’s colour science, producing terrific images in almost every scenario. It’s these colours that set the camera apart from its rivals.While I don’t mind shooting occasionally in pro mode, tweaking the settings for every shot, I am like most users who want to capture the moment in an instant. The settings on the Find X9 Ultra can be a steep learning curve for everyday users who just want the best images for their social feeds, but it’s truly worth the effort. Portrait images are sharp and lowlight images are not noisy. This is not just one of the best smartphone cameras you can buy right now but also one of the most versatile.DesignIf OPPO’s design intent was to craft a smartphone that resembles a camera, the Find X9 Ultra nails it. I used the Tundra Umber colour option with a vegan leather finish. It doesn’t just look premium but also feels durable. I never used the back cover opting to show off the elegant leather finish in a deep shade of grey. The device is also available in a Canyon Orange colour way crafted with aircraft-grade fibre. The most striking design element is the large Hasselblad camera module with a very visible camera bump; we’ve seen similar iterations on previous OPPO devices. The dedicated camera button (with an orange accent) on the right spine, is very handy. At 236 gm, it’s certainly one of the heavier flagships; it’s 9.1 mm thick, not surprising given the camera set-up. The Find X9 Ultra is one of the best designed smartphones we’ve tested from the OPPO stable.DisplayThe 6.82-inch LTPO AMOLED display (4168 x 1440 pixels / 510 PPI) is in the premium flagship class. The display maxes out at 144 Hz refresh rate and hits a peak brightness of 3600 nits. Colours are punchy, visibility is excellent even under direct sunlight. I edited quite a few photos on this device and the colour reproduction is quite impressive. It’s a great display to catch videos on the go. I watched two episodes of the Netflix espionage thriller Unfamiliar on a flight, the Find X9 Ultra captured night scenes from Berlin’s streets and the vivid colours of a street market in Morocco with equal ease.PerformanceYou expect the best hardware spec sheet at this price, OPPO doesn’t disappoint. At its heart is the best of breed Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. The X9 Ultra aced all our tests, consistently notching up scores above 10,600 in our Geekbench (multi-core) benchmark test. This device is ready for anything you throw at it. The smartphone is powered by Color OS 16.0 built on Android 16. OPPO’s custom UI has got better over the years with a clean user interface that’s visually pleasing and offers multiple customisation options. OPPO offers five years of Android OS updates, this is an area where rivals such as Samsung and Google (with 7 years of OS updates) have an edge. Battery life is a big win for the Find X9 Ultra. The 7050 mAh battery is robust, I never reached out for the charger even on long days with extensive camera usage. OPPO bundles a 100W SUPERVOOC charger in the box that powers this device in less than an hour.VerdictThe OPPO Find X9 Ultra is one of our favourite Android flagships of 2026. It certainly doesn’t come cheap but offers a top class camera experience that will please serious camera buffs. It has one of the best zoom photography experiences on any smartphone. The X9 Ultra also ticks all the flagship boxes with an immersive display and a dependable battery making it easy to recommend for users looking at a top of the line Android smartphone.SnapshotPrice: ₹1,69,999Pros: Camera performance, battery life, vibrant displayCons: Five years of Android OS upgrades, priceyPublished on July 15, 2026
