In our review, Oppo’s Find X9 serves up everything under the sun and some more, in a sleek and compact package.
Oppo’s Find X9 is priced at Rs. 74,999 in India
Oppo's Find X8 turned out to be an easy recommendation, given that there was not much happening in the compact flagship segment in late 2024 and the first half of 2025. In the second half, things were a bit different. While Samsung continued to launch the same Galaxy S25 handset with a refreshed design, a new processor (and the same old cameras), year after year, we also saw Google's basic Pixel 10 model get a new telephoto camera, and Apple's iPhone get a 120Hz display, both of which are priced at Rs. 79,999 and Rs. 82,990, respectively. While the Oppo Find X8 was already an enticing option in 2025, the new Find X9 has some fresh challenges to tackle in this segment. To do this, Oppo has equipped it with some interesting upgrades this year. There's a new design, a faster fingerprint reader, a bigger battery and a new chip to keep up with the competition. But are these enough to keep up with the growing competition? Read on to find out!
Not much has changed in overall dimensions between the new Find X9 and the previous Find X8. Oppo has maintained its slim, minimalist overall profile, polished in a few places.
We received the Oppo Find X9 in the new Velvet Red finish
A big change is the missing circular camera module, which has been replaced with a square camera module. It houses the same set of sensors as on the Find X8, but in a smaller footprint, which gets tucked away into the top left corner of the rear panel and does not take up as much space as the circular one.
While the placement of the buttons and the design of the frame remain the same as on the Find X8, the alert slider has now been replaced by what Oppo calls a ‘Snap Key'. It functions pretty much like an Action button on an iPhone, and like the bigger Find X9 Pro, is limited to preset functions only. During the testing period, I used it only for switching sound profiles and nothing else, even though Oppo wants you to use it for its AI feature called Snap to Mind Space, which basically lets you save screen content and tag it with recorded audio for recall.
The ‘Snap Key' is a new button on the Oppo Find X9
The Find X9 has grown a few grams heavier because of the higher-capacity battery, but it's not too heavy nor too light for a compact smartphone. Fit and finish are near-perfect (as they should be), and Oppo has retained the Find X8's IP69 rating, though the company will not cover damage caused by water ingress.
The Oppo Find X9's display remains perfectly flat, which, along with its super-skinny borders, provides a distraction-free view. Colours are on point in terms of accuracy, depending on the screen colour mode you choose. The display also gets plenty bright outdoors, providing a stress-free viewing experience whether you are replying to a message, scrolling through social media feeds or viewing video.
The Oppo Find X9 retains the flat and distraction-free LTPS display from the older model
The display is still an LTPS panel, and I wish Oppo had switched to LTPO for better power savings, given that the Find X9 is a compact device. The panel is also HDR10+ and Dolby Vision-certified and can display supported content. The visuals, be it software interface in general or video content, appear bright and sharp thanks to the high-resolution panel.
The Oppo Find X9's software experience is nearly identical to the Find X9 Pro I reviewed earlier. It has the new Liquid Glass-inspired touches and several new AI features, all of which I have explained in detail in the Find X9 Pro review.
The Liquid-Glassification of ColorOS
While it all appears to mimic Liquid Glass, this is probably Oppo's first go at copying Apple's hugely popular iOS 26. So, I'm hoping that it goes from mimicking Liquid Glass to working like Liquid Glass at some point in the future. Either that, or Oppo does its own thing, or goes down the flatter and whackier Material 3 Expressive path that Google has chosen for its Pixel devices, which helps them stand out in their own unique way.
What Oppo's ColorOS does pretty well in its current confused state is smoothness. The ColorOS 16 feels very fluid, no matter what you are doing and which app you are using. Another visual detail that works well despite the confusing UI elements is the Flux icon set, which, upon selection, paints all of the icons according to the system colour or to match the wallpaper. Unlike the past, the theming engine for the icons actually works well, painting all the icons with the same colour palette or accent.
The new swipe animations look cool, but are limited to the Settings app
Another unique feature I noticed and loved using on ColorOS is Swipe Animations. Currently in beta, it lets you preview or peek at the previous state of the app or menu before returning to it, using a card-like interface. Available under Settings > System & updates > System navigation > Swipe animations (beta), you will need to have Gesture navigation switched on, followed by a restart for all apps to experience the animations. It works beautifully in supported apps, currently limited to the Settings app, but I hope Oppo can enable this for third-party and even other system apps in future updates.
The Find X9 uses the same processor as the larger Find X9 Pro. There's no dual-chip setup like on the iQOO and Vivo handsets, so the phone loses out on some gaming-focused features they offer. Software performance is not an issue. Be it multitasking, switching between apps, launching them, or even scrolling through them, the Find X9 handles it all without breaking a sweat. Apps and games also remain in memory for a long time.
The phone's scores are on par with Find X9 Pro and in line with the competing smartphones as well. So, the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 isn't inferior to the Elite chips offered on other premium handsets.
| Benchmarks | Oppo Find X9 | Vivo X300 | OnePlus 15 | Galaxy S25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display resolution | 1,256 x 2,760 pixels | 1.5K | 1.5K | 1,080 x 2,340 pixels |
| Chipset | Dimensity 9500 (3nm) | Dimensity 9500 (3nm) | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm) | Snapdragon 8 Elite (3nm) |
| AnTuTu v10 | 34,38,884 | 31,38,115 | 36,35,346 | 21,13,343 |
| PCMark Work Performance 3.0 | 12,900 | 16,031 | 15,527 | 20,833 |
| Geekbench 6 Single | 2,966 | 3,297 | 3,622 | 3,034 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 8,710 | 9,372 | 10,712 | 9,211 |
| Geekbench AI CPU (Quantized) | FTR | FTR | NA | NA |
| Geekbench AI GPU (Quantized) | 1,710 | 1,686 | NA | NA |
| 3DM Wild Life | Maxed Out | Maxed Out | Maxed Out | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life Unlimited | 26,128 | 25,925 | 27,327 | 24,983 |
| 3DM Steel Nomad Light | 3,033 | 2,858 | NA | NA |
The phone, like the Find X9 Pro, can deliver sustained Call of Duty: Mobile gameplay at Very High and Max, or Medium and Ultra graphics. The phone does warm up a bit while playing games, but it does not get abnormally hot even after 45 minutes of continuous gaming, whether you stick to Max (60 fps) or Ultra (120 fps). The same can be said when using the camera app: the phone did get hot, mainly when capturing 4K video, which this phone can record at 30, 60, and 120 fps.
The display's touch sampling rate is on point and works well for gaming once you crank it up in the slide-out Game Assistant console. As mentioned earlier, there's no second AI chip, so you cannot enjoy 120 fps game frame interpolation with graphics settings maxed out, as you can on iQOO, Realme, and Vivo flagships.
Unlike Samsung, which offers the same camera hardware with its base Galaxy S-series flagships year after year, Oppo has added a new primary camera this year. It has the same 50-megapixel sensor resolution, but you get a brighter f/1.6 aperture. Also interesting is Oppo's shift from sharing parts between the Find X9 and Find X9 Pro camera hardware. This year, there are plenty of differences between the camera hardware available on both devices, which result in different capabilities at different price points, versus last year's models that shared a lot of parts.
Oppo's Find X9 has a new primary camera this year
For the sake of consistency, I have stuck to 12-megapixel samples for this review using the ‘Standard image format' instead of the default High resolution image format, which captures images in varying resolutions.
Oppo Find X9 ultrawide camera samples (tap images to expand)
The ultrawide camera does a decent job with daylight photos. Details are good, and noise is under control, but the dynamic range could have been a bit better, as I occasionally noticed some bright spots getting clipped. Lens barrel distortion is also minimal. In low-light conditions, images are passable. Details are mostly flat, with more of it available in the centre of the image and flatter textures near the edges.
Oppo Find X9 primary camera samples (tap images to expand)
The primary camera does a fine job with detail and colour reproduction when shooting in daylight. Photos come out clean with minimal noise and have good dynamic range, showing sufficient detail in both bright and dark areas of contrasty scenes. Portrait photos captured by the camera also come out sharp and detailed, with accurate skin tones and edge detection.
Oppo Find X9 telephoto camera samples (tap images to expand)
The 3x periscope telephoto camera remains the same as on the Find X8, and it does a fine job of capturing high-quality images up to 6X, beyond which AI algorithms start to fix the image with some added processing. The photos captured at 3X come out sharp and detailed in all types of lighting conditions, including in dimly lit situations, which is pretty impressive.
Oppo Find X9 selfie camera samples. Top: Portrait mode, bottom: Auto mode (tap images to expand)
The selfie camera does a fine job in both daylight and in low light. There's plenty of detail along with accurate skin tones in daylight. Edge-detection is accurate as well. In low light, edge detection can be a bit shaky, especially in dimly lit settings, leading to minor blurring. I managed sharper images without the Portrait mode, as can be seen from the samples above.
Video quality is quite impressive. As mentioned earlier, the phone can shoot 4K video at 120 fps as well. 4K footage is sharp and with good detail and a steady framerate. Dynamic range is excellent, and there's plenty of detail in the dark and bright areas when recording video in settings with a mix of both. Stabilisation is good, but the frame is a bit cropped, no matter what resolution one records at. Also, I noticed some weird purple fringing in the bright spots when shooting at 60 fps on the primary camera. 120 fps footage looks gorgeous, but comes with a catch. When shooting at 120 fps at 4K resolution, the interface shows the usual 1x, 2x and 3x zoom settings, but the camera will crop into the primary camera's sensor when shooting at this setting and not access the 3X optical zoom lens. So, if you want to zoom in, you are better off shooting at 4K 60 fps, which lets you access all three rear-facing cameras for the best optical quality.
Selfie videos have a problem with background exposure. While the video recording appears sharp and detailed at 4K 30 fps, for some odd reason, it cannot expose the background well. The subject appears well exposed, but the background just appears white. Hopefully, this is addressed in a future software update.
As strange as it seems, thanks to silicon-carbon battery technology, we now have a compact smartphone with a battery that's in the same league as the Pro model's in terms of capacity. The 7,025mAh battery in the Find X9 lasted 24 hours and 17 minutes in PCMark's Work Battery Life test, which runs a bunch of everyday tasks on loop until the battery drains to 20 percent. With a 7,500mAh battery, the Find X9 Pro, which has a bigger display to power, lasted 23 hours and 52 minutes in the same test.
The Oppo Find X9 comes with an 80W charger in the box
For comparison, the OnePlus 15 with a Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, in the same test, lasted an impressive 32 hours and 27 minutes. Regardless of the synthetic tests, the phone easily lasted over a day, even with heavy usage, which included gaming and camera usage. I was usually left with around 30 percent battery life, which, given its high capacity (for a compact device), was enough to power through the first half of the next day as well. Casual usage can easily see the phone lasting beyond 1.5 days.
Charging speeds aren't the fastest in this segment, but still fast enough for a premium device. Using the bundled charger, the Oppo Find X9 managed a 40 percent charge in 15 minutes, 64 percent in 30 minutes, and reached a fully-charged state in 1 hour and 20 minutes.
If it's pure value and specs you are chasing, then the Oppo Find X9 will not get you a big-screen experience. You will be happier with the OnePlus 15 or the Realme GT 8 Pro. Gaming, while excellent overall, is definitely more enjoyable on the GT 8 Pro thanks to its game frame interpolation feature. However, I prefer the Find X9's cameras to the Realme GT 8 Pro's camera system, as it wasn't consistent in quality. The new OnePlus 15 also falls in the same boat as the GT 8 Pro.
However, you need to keep in mind that neither the OnePlus 15 nor the Realme GT 8 Pro is a true comparison, because the Oppo Find X9 belongs to the compact flagship segment. Just like last year's Find X8, the Find X9 ideally competes with Samsung's Galaxy S25 (and the upcoming Galaxy S26), a phone that easily falls behind in terms of both performance and battery life, given that not much has changed over the years. Also in the same league is the Vivo X300, which offers the same chipset, a smaller but more power-efficient LTPO display, a 200-megapixel primary camera and a 50-megapixel ultrawide with autofocus. It packs a smaller battery between the two, but offers faster wired charging. While the X300 seems like a winner, we did encounter some heating issues during our review. Indeed, the decision to get a Vivo X300 versus an Oppo Find X8 boils down to better camera hardware versus a bigger battery.
The real threat that dropped out of nowhere this year is the Apple iPhone 17. It received several upgrades, including a 120Hz display and fast charging. It may appear identical to the iPhone 16, but at Rs. 82,900 (for the 256GB option), it is a solid option for those who want to experience the real Liquid Glass, but are willing to compromise on the camera experience, as the 17 still lacks a telephoto camera. Not everyone needs a telephoto camera, and going by what we have experienced in our review, the iPhone 17's 2X lossless zoom performance isn't too shabby for Portrait photos either.
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