Oppo Find X7 Ultra First Impressions: Well Equipped to Take on the Competition

Oppo has not launched a camera-focussed X-series flagship since the Find X2, which came to India in 2020. While the brand has been punctual with the launch of its X series flagships in China (year after year), Oppo’s most recent entrant in the premium segment in India was its line-up of N series foldables. The most recent model was the Find N3 Flip, announced in late 2023. And now, out of the blue, Oppo invited us to try its latest and greatest. It’s called the Find X7 Ultra, and it’s a well-equipped flagship from Oppo with the latest hardware specifications. It even packs four rear cameras, which include two periscopic telephoto cameras, something we have yet to see on other smartphones in the premium segment. I’ve been using the phone for a few days and I’m quite surprised as to why it’s not coming to India.

Yes, the Oppo Find X7 Ultra is not coming to India. It’s currently only available in China and is priced from CNY 5,999 (roughly Rs. 70,000) for the base 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant, which I received for review. The phone tops out at 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, priced at CNY 6,999 (roughly Rs. 80,000).

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra uses a mix of metal and faux leather for its rear panel

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra sure looks the part. It’s available in three colourways – Ocean Blue, Sepia Brown and Tailored Black – and they all look very different from one another, thanks to the contrasting colours and finish achieved by Oppo’s design team. My favourite among them is the Sepia Brown finish, which stands out from anything currently available in this segment and looks luxurious and premium in its tan-brown faux leather and matte-silver combo. The Ocean Blue finish also has a nice navy blue leather paired with a contrasting stark white top half around the camera module, giving it a nautical theme.

I received the Tailored Black review unit, which has a very understated yet premium appearance. The vegan leather back (which starts below the camera module) has a stitch that runs along the bottom of the camera module and straight down the centre, leaving a gap around the Oppo branding.

The 6.82-inch AMOLED QHD+ display’s glass, like the curved edges around the back and the curved frame, is also curved on the left and right sides. The glass is also rounded at the top and bottom edges, making software interactions very inviting.

Since the phone is not officially sold in India, we have a Chinese device running the Chinese version of Oppo’s ColorOS software. It’s loaded to the brim with third-party apps and comes with no Google apps pre-installed, even the Google Play Store. So, I had to get the Play Store installed first from a verified source and then proceeded to download apps that most of us are familiar with.

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra has a 6.82-inch QHD+ AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate

Powering this software experience is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, which is the most high-end offering from Qualcomm. Apart from the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Gen 3 has only shown up on the iQoo 12, the OnePlus 12, the Xiaomi 14 and the Xiaomi 14 Ultra in India.

Like previous Find X series smartphones, the Find X7 Ultra is focused on camera performance. Oppo’s gone with a revamped camera setup this time around. Compared to the Find X6 Pro, which is the spiritual successor of this device, the Find X7 Ultra gets a new 50-megapixel primary camera with a Sony LYT-900 1-inch type sensor, a 3X optical zoom periscope telephoto with a 50-megapixel Sony IMX890 sensor and second 6X optical zoom periscope telephoto with a 50-megapixel IMX858 sensor. Lastly, there’s also a new 50-megapixel LYT-600 sensor for the ultra-wide camera. The selfie camera has also changed and is now backed by a 32-megapixel LYT-506 sensor. Indeed, this camera seems well-equipped to tackle any sort of imaging situation. Oppo even claims that it can output 4K 60fps video on all cameras. And I’m quite excited to test the cameras out for our full review.

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra has four rear cameras, including two periscope telephoto cameras

As for the battery, Oppo has stuck with a 5,000mAh unit like most camera-centric flagships this year. Oppo provides a compact 100W charger in the box. The phone also supports 50W wireless charging.

Going by the above specifications, it sure seems like Oppo has everything it needs in an Ultra smartphone to compete with devices like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Oppo handing out a Find X7 Ultra unit to us for review is more about a show of capability, and it seems like an interesting smartphone with a unique design that would have given Samsung’s Galaxy Ultra series some much-needed competition.

Sadly, you won’t be able to purchase this phone in India as Oppo has made it clear that it has no plans to bring this model to the country. Regardless, we will be testing out this device in the coming days to let our readers know about how it stacks up against the competition, so stay tuned for our full review which will be out soon.

Disclosure: Oppo sponsored the correspondent’s flights and hotel for the trip to Shenzhen, China.