This Might Be the World’s Best Phone Camera

It’s not precisely a Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, however Oppo’s acknowledged purpose with the Discover X8 Extremely’s design was to drag off “the thinnest digital camera telephone.” At 8.78mm thick in comparison with its 9.5mm-thick predecessor, the Discover X7 Extremely, Oppo has certainly slimmed the Discover X8 Extremely down past any of its cutting-edge rivals. However due to its boxy, squared-off design, it doesn’t essentially appear that a lot thinner within the hand. This 12 months’s Xiaomi 15 Ultra, for instance, is 9.48mm thick however has tapered edges that don’t dig into your palms as a lot.

That’s to not say the Discover X8 Extremely is unwieldy. Oppo has principally achieved what it got down to right here; it primarily appears like a really barely thicker iPhone 16 Pro Max, which is a powerful achievement contemplating the {hardware}. However the design is extraordinarily simple and austere, which can or is probably not to your style. Oddly, the Discover X8 Extremely appears near-identical to the bottom Discover X8, whereas the mid-tier Discover X8 Professional is sleeker and flashier than each.

The show is nearly as good as you’ll discover on any premium telephone. It’s a 6.82-inch flat-sided OLED panel with a variable refresh fee (1 to 120Hz) and 1440p decision. The Discover X8 Extremely will get as much as 1,600 nits vibrant in common outside utilization and peaks at 2,500 nits with HDR content material. The bezels are equally slim on all 4 sides. It has Dolby Imaginative and prescient help and, extra unusually, Oppo’s Splash Contact expertise to restrict undesirable inputs when it’s moist. I did make some extent of testing this in a sizzling tub, for science, and the telephone actually does really keep kind of usable even when it’s coated in drops of water.

I’ll additionally point out the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, not only for its velocity enhancements over the X7 Extremely’s optical reader, however for the way Oppo improved the best way you set it up—now you’ll be able to register your thumb by simply rolling it in a circle just a few occasions somewhat than tapping the sensor repeatedly with each a part of the tip. Not the largest deal on the earth, however a welcome enchancment should you’re a weirdo like me who goes via that course of dozens of occasions a 12 months when testing new telephones.

One other design quirk is Oppo’s shift away from a mute slider change, a well-liked differentiating characteristic on telephones from its subsidiary OnePlus. There’s now a customizable button on the highest left of the telephone referred to as the Shortcut Button, and sure, it really works kind of identically to the iPhone’s Motion Button—proper all the way down to the full-screen UI that pops up once you select its operate. I’m fantastic with the {hardware} change, however the implementation is a little bit brazen.

Elsewhere, the Discover X8 Extremely’s spec sheet contains what you’d anticipate from the highest shelf of Android flagships in 2025. The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite and the telephone may be outfitted with as much as 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. (The bottom mannequin has 12GB and 256GB, respectively.)

That is Oppo’s first Extremely-class telephone to incorporate silicon-carbon battery expertise, following its debut within the X8 Professional and a subsequent look within the folding Find N3. Mainly, this enables Oppo to get much more capability out of a smaller bodily area—regardless of its slimmer body, the Discover X8 Extremely’s battery weighs in at 6,100mAh versus 5,000mAh on the X7 Extremely. As for charging, Oppo’s personal 100W SuperVOOC adapter can get you from zero to 100% in beneath 40 minutes, which is spectacular contemplating the elevated capability of the battery. The Discover X8 Extremely additionally helps wi-fi charging at as much as 50W with a appropriate proprietary charger. Between the quick charging and the massive battery capability, I’ve discovered the telephone unlikely to die on me in common use. I’m not going to say it’ll by no means occur on an extended day of capturing within the solar, but it surely’s been as stable as any comparable telephone I might title.

That brings me to the digital camera system, which—as ever with “Extremely”-class Chinese language flagships—is the primary level of differentiation right here. The Discover X8 Extremely doesn’t essentially have the very best {hardware} in each single class, however there’s a powerful case to be made that it’s essentially the most well-rounded and versatile digital camera system round.

The Discover X8 Extremely’s major digital camera makes use of a 1-inch-type sensor, which is the class-leading commonplace for Chinese language flagship telephones; it’s the identical measurement as what you’ll discover on Sony’s RX100 range of point-and-shoot cameras or Fujifilm’s new X half. What this implies in follow is that the lens you utilize essentially the most provides you much more depth and dynamic vary than what you get from an iPhone or Galaxy. The sunshine-gathering skill is just on one other degree, and also you’re in a position to separate topics via shallow bokeh (background blur) with out resorting to portrait mode, which regularly nonetheless reveals imperfections between the foreground and background.

The Discover X8 Extremely’s telephoto lenses—sure, there are two—are additionally a selected energy. The 3x periscope digital camera has an unusually massive 1/1.56-inch sensor paired to an f/2.1 lens with close-focus skill, permitting for glorious mid-range and macro pictures with pure shallow depth of subject. There’s additionally a 6x f/3.1 lens with a 1/1.95-inch sensor. The one downside is the 1/2.75-inch ultra-wide digital camera, which isn’t essentially weak subsequent to the competitors however does really feel like a compromise within the title of thinness; earlier Oppo flagships carried out a lot better.

Oppo has additionally adopted a considerate strategy to digital camera software program. The common picture mode seems footage alongside the traces of what you’d anticipate from a high-end smartphone, with crunchy sharpness and HDR element preserved in each shot. I feel Oppo has the very best shade science in that sense, which is why telephones just like the Discover N3 can outperform their {hardware}. However should you’re not into the standard smartphone picture look—which I personally am not—you’ll be able to swipe on over to the Hasselblad-branded Grasp mode, which provides you rather more pure outcomes proper out of the field. Whereas Grasp mode is absolutely customizable, its default settings are inclined to line up with what I’d be aiming for when modifying recordsdata from a devoted digital camera.

This 12 months, Oppo’s picture processing is aided by what the corporate calls a “True Chroma Digital camera,” a low-res sensor devoted to capturing correct shade info throughout the body for higher computerized white stability. It’s tough to check precisely how the digital camera system would work with out this extra {hardware}, however I did see spectacular ends in difficult conditions like low-light portraits.

The capturing expertise can be helped by the “Fast Button,” which is just about a facsimile for Apple’s Digital camera Management. It provides fast entry to the digital camera app and shutter launch, but it surely’s absolutely capacitive and far simpler to press; I discovered myself utilizing it much more usually than I do by myself iPhone 16 Professional.

The Discover X8 Extremely has a vastly extra succesful digital camera system than you will get on any smartphone bought within the US, and it trades blows with the very best accessible from home rivals like Xiaomi and Vivo. That mentioned, I can’t actually suggest anybody exit of their manner to purchase it until they’re primarily based in China. I’ve personally discovered it to work nicely on my NTT Docomo SIM card in Japan, however I can’t communicate to bands or protection wherever you is perhaps studying this.

Oppo’s China-focused model of ColorOS is fairly usable and comes with built-in compatibility for Google Cell Companies via a settings toggle, that means you should use the Play Retailer and Google apps together with any third-party software program that depends on Google’s APIs. Nonetheless, an uninitiated Western consumer would possibly really feel blindsided by a bunch of Chinese language bloatware and companies they received’t ever be capable to use. The Discover X8 Extremely’s eSIM help is barely accessible via the built-in ORoaming app, for instance, and you’ll solely pay for knowledge via WeChat or AliPay.

However the larger image right here is that the Discover X8 Extremely demonstrates how Chinese language telephone makers are merely miles forward of what’s accessible within the U.S. and Europe. Whether or not you’re purchasing for a Galaxy, Pixel, or iPhone this 12 months, you’re getting a uncooked deal with regards to pure {hardware} functionality and digital camera efficiency. This telephone launched at 6,499 yuan in China, which works out to round $900.

Given the current political local weather, it appears much less doubtless than ever that Chinese language OEMs will discover a technique to promote their highest-end units within the U.S. That’s unlucky for anybody fascinated about the very best {hardware} accessible. The Oppo Discover X8 Extremely shall be my go-to digital camera telephone till one thing higher comes alongside, and I’ve a sense that that one thing received’t be accessible within the U.S. both. It’s not like this specific telephone essentially modifications the sport—Chinese language corporations have been leapfrogging Apple and Samsung for years.

All in all, the Discover X8 Extremely is an superior telephone that’s nearly as good an instance as any of what’s succesful at the moment with fashionable cell expertise. I feel it’s clearly higher than something Apple, Samsung, or Google are promoting within the U.S. at the moment. Does that imply you must import it? In all probability not. However it does imply you must elevate your requirements for the subsequent time these corporations attempt to promote you on new {hardware}.