Oppo's Find X9 Ultra is flawless and offers peak performance. It is the finest camera phone from the house of Oppo. Here's our review.
The Find X9 Ultra is the first 'Ultra' device from Oppo to reach the Indian market. Last year, when I reviewed the Find X8 Ultra, I absolutely loved it, but since it was unavailable in India, it was tough to recommend. Glad Oppo India is changing that with the Find X9 Ultra, which now joins other elite premium smartphones launching from other handset makers. After the Xiaomi 17 Ultra and the Vivo X300 Ultra, it is Oppo's turn to bring its best yet to Indian shores.
Much like other Ultras on the market, Oppo's Find X9 Ultra makes a strong case for replacing your DSLR and becoming your full-time camera companion. Oppo's approach includes two telephoto units: one with a 200-megapixel sensor and 3x optical zoom, and the second with a 50-megapixel sensor and 10x optical zoom. However, the Find X9 Ultra gets many more updates beyond the camera sensor, which I will break down during the review.
Now, pricing for all the Ultras this year has been on the higher side, and the Find X9 Ultra is no different. The Find X9 Ultra will go on sale at Rs. 169,999 while the Vivo X300 Ultra is available at Rs. 1,59,999. By comparison, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra retails at Rs. 1,39,999. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra retails at Rs. 139,999. So, now that we are done with the pricing, let's get started with the Find X9 Ultra and see if it really punches above its weight.
The Canyon Orange weighs about 235 grams, while the Tundra Umber weighs about 236 grams
The Find X9 Ultra looks and feels like a solid device, and is great to hold in your hands. Launched in Tundra Umber and Canyon Orange colours. We got the latter, and the Tundra Umber is the colour to go for. It feels more premium and has the legendary Hasselblad X2D camera-inspired design that stands out in the market.
The Orange colour doesn't even get a vegan leather back; instead, it gets a fibre-reinforced plastic back, which Oppo calls aircraft-grade fibre, which doesn't feel as premium as the price tag suggests. Of the two colours, the Orange is sleeker at 8.7mm, compared to the Tundra Umber at 9.1mm. At 235 grams, the Find X9 Ultra has good enough heft and flat side frames.
The Find X9 Ultra gets a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front panel, aluminium frame, and fibre-reinforced back (Canyon Orange)
The camera deco features hexagonal detailing that mimics the aperture blades of professional camera lenses. The attention to detail is what makes it a distinct, premium-quality device built for authentic photography.
Then there's the iconic Hasselblad orange circle, which adds a signature finishing touch to the housing. That's more apparent in the Tundra Umber colour, whereas it gets almost lost in the Orange colour unit. Oppo has also added elements like the Quick Button, which gets a Hasselblad orange finish for one-the-go shooting in both portrait and landscape. Apart from the Quick Button, there's also Snap Key, a customisable button that you can assign to any function or app launch. The dual-SIM card tray is located on the bottom panel, alongside the USB-C charging port.
The phone gets IP66, IP68, and IP69 dust tight and water resistance
The Find X9 Ultra also features dual nano-coating applied to both the inside and outside of the lens. Oppo has done this to achieve a high refractive index with low dispersion, ensuring pristine optical clarity while providing enhanced scratch resistance.
To handle daily wear and tear, Oppo has also added what it calls the Armour Shield architecture, which provides the Find X9 Ultra with structural durability against accidental drops. It also has the highest IP rating among all Ultras on the market, with IP66, IP68, and IP69 certifications. Long story short, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra has been designed with the photographer in mind, which is a great fit for the brand's overall positioning.
Connectivity options include 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC and Infrared
Jumping to the display on the Find X9 Ultra, it gets a fantastic panel that's bright enough and now supports a whopping 144Hz refresh rate. However, in real-world scenarios, you won't notice a difference between 120Hz and 144Hz, so it is a good feature to have on paper. The 6.82-inch ProXDR LTPO AMOLED display is the best I have experienced on any Oppo device yet and offers 3600nits of peak brightness with flawless outdoor legibility. It also gets 2160Hz PWM dimming to reduce flicker and eye strain during extended use.
It makes for a great daily driver thanks to this amazing screen, and it was my pick for all multimedia consumption, including social media doomscrolling.
The camera bump on the Oppo Find X9 Ultra isn't as massive as the one seen on the Vivo X300 Ultra
If there's one department Oppo has completely refreshed in the Find X9 Ultra, it's the camera. We get a major overhaul with a new main sensor alongside larger sensors for the ultrawide and telephoto. In contrast, the second telephoto gets extended zoom support, and not to forget, the front camera gets upgrades too. Of course, unlike the Find X8 Ultra, which came with a 1-inch sensor, the Find X9 Ultra ditches it in favour of a more advanced main sensor. The penta-camera setup seems overwhelming at first, but you quickly come to understand each sensor's specific role. Oppo is calling it the new generation Hasselblad master camera system. The new Sony LYTIA 901 main sensor gets an f/1.5 aperture. Oppo offers a total of six focal lengths, including 0.6x, 1x, 2x, 3x, 6x, and 10x, covering a range from 14mm to 460mm.
The Find X9 Ultra gets the new-gen Hasselblad Master Camera System that features a penta-camera setup
The biggest strength of the Find X9 Ultra is its portrait mode, which delivers a realistic bokeh effect. The phone is exceptional at handling portraits, producing accurate, natural skin tones while delivering fantastic subject-background separation. Even the facial exposure is handled with utmost detail, and there's no artificial overprocessing that misses small but important details, like a strand of hair or even the frames of glasses, when clicking portraits of people.
Oppo Find X9 Ultra Portrait Samples (tap images to expand)
The main sensor of the Find X9 Ultra is phenomenal, and you can't go wrong with it in any lighting condition. The dynamic range is excellent, and you get sharp, detailed images in daytime photos. Of course, the autofocus system is on point and accurate across lighting conditions. What Oppo has done to achieve superior colour capture on the Find X9 Ultra is to introduce a new True Colour Camera, a specialised multispectral sensor that precisely measures white balance data for more accurate colour rendition.
Oppo Find X9 Ultra Daylight Samples (tap images to expand)
The Find X9 Ultra also consistently delivers strong low-light photography, producing natural-looking images in extremely dim conditions. The detail levels and exposure are decent, while the noise is well managed, even in extremely dark corners. The colour reproduction is also apt, and you won't be disappointed by images that pop unnecessarily in low-light situations. Even the zoom performance in low-light conditions is impressive compared to competition devices like the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Oppo Find X9 Ultra Low-light Samples (tap images to expand)
The telephoto camera is also impressive, with results that are mostly accurate in colour, have great dynamic range, and offer plenty of detail. Some of the shots I captured came out really sharp, and you wonder whether the telephoto sensor is as amazing as the main sensor. The second telephoto sensor is also amazing for zoom shots, and my favourite pick was the 12.5-megapixel resolution, which delivers fantastic results every time.
Oppo Find X9 Ultra Telephoto and Zoom Samples (tap images to expand)
The ultrawide camera also manages some good shots, but it's not as great as the main and telephoto sensors. However, on the quality front, the phone does nail some good ultrawide shots with excellent colour rendering.
Oppo Find X9 Ultra Ultrawide Samples (tap images to expand)
The Find X9 Ultra can also capture close-up shots with sufficient detail and sharp colours. The 200-megapixel telephoto sensor (3x) serves as a telemacro sensor. Coming to the front camera, the Find X9 Ultra has cracked the selfie code and, to date, has the best front sensor. The dynamic range is wide, while skin tones are generally good. And, even the portraits come out great.
Oppo Find X9 Ultra Selfie Sample (tap image to expand)
For all new-age flagships, the video front has been the next big challenge, and Oppo has addressed it as well. The Find X9 Ultra can capture high-quality 4K videos at 60 fps across all rear cameras, with Dolby Vision support by default. There's also log recording support to make editing easier for content creators. The stability is also on point.
In the camera department, the videos do show occasional colour instability, but that can be fixed via over-the-air updates by Oppo.
The Find X9 Ultra also gets Hasselblad Master Mode that offers nine film simulations, including Vibrant, Vintage, Primrose, Fresh, Clear, Neon, Cold Flash, Warm Flash, and Vold B&W. There's also my favourite Hasselblad XPAN Mode that gives a signature 65:24 aspect ratio for shooting photos that appear to come from cinematic footage. Oppo's Lumo Image Engine can be seen doing what it is intended for, leveraging parallel computing across the CPU, GPU, and NPU to boost processing efficiency significantly. Overall, the Find X9 Ultra is a great camera flagship on the market and should appeal to anyone and everyone with the budget who doesn't want to compromise on quality.
The Find X9 Ultra gets a 200-megapixel main Sony LYTIA 901 sensor
The Find X9 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform, the fastest Android chipset on the market. The phone comes in a single 12GB RAM and 512GB storage configuration, which is on the lower side even compared to the Find X9 Pro or other Ultras on the market. While the company hasn't given an official reason for the RAM being stuck at 12 gigs, a safe assumption is that memory prices may have played a role. However, during my testing, the Find X9 Ultra handled everyday tasks smoothly without breaking a sweat. The UI optimisation is such that you never feel that 12GB of RAM is on the low side.
It is powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and comes in a single 12GB RAM and 512GB storage configuration
Compared to other flagships, the Find X9 Ultra performed well, as shown in the chart below.
| Benchmarks | Oppo X9 Ultra | Galaxy S26 Ultra | Xiaomi 17 Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display resolution | QHD+ | QHD+ | 1.5K |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm) | SD 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy (3nm) | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (3nm) |
| AnTuTu v10 | 40,13,147 | 37,61,149 | 34,36,995 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 15,582 | 20,273 | 16,469 |
| Geekbench 6 Single | 3,577 | 3,675 | 3497 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 10,594 | 10,846 | 10,352 |
| Geekbench AI CPU (Quantized) | 4,660 | 6,913 | 3,055 |
| Geekbench AI GPU (Quantized) | 3,727 | 4,004 | 4,244 |
| 3DM Wild Life | Maxed Out | Maxed Out | Maxed Out |
| 3DM Wild Life Unlimited | 29,884 | 30,069 | 23,916 |
| 3DM Steel Nomad Light | Couldn't Run | 2,794 | 2,201 |
While Oppo may not have been promoting this one as a great gaming device, the Find X9 Ultra turns out to be a pretty good performer. During the review, it handled games like Genshin Impact at the Highest graphics setting with 60 fps enabled, and similarly, it handled Call of Duty: Mobile (CODM) at both Ultra and Highest frame rates smoothly. I have been a fan of the haptic motor performance on flagship Oppo devices, and the Find X9 Ultra doesn't disappoint either. Be it gaming, typing long emails, or texting on chat platforms, the phone is a great companion. The speaker's performance is also good, and the audio quality is loud and crisp, making both multimedia and gaming experiences immersive. Even at loud volumes, there's almost negligible distortion.
The phone offers 3600nits of peak brightness and 510PPI pixel density
The handset runs ColorOS 16, based on Android 16, and is promised to receive 5 years of Android updates and 6 years of security patches. The interface is mostly identical to the one we reviewed on the Find X9 Pro last November. You can check out the reviews section of that review here.
Briefly, the ColorOS 16 offers smooth animations, adaptive folder designs and adaptive icons. It also offers glanceable, interactive information without opening a full app. This is pretty useful for checking scores, using delivery apps, and even for background multimedia playback. It also offers multiple personalisation options, such as motion photo, full-screen AOD, and more. One thing Oppo could have done is make the Find X9 Ultra less bloatware-heavy. There are tons of unnecessary apps like Meesho, ChatGPT, Agoda, Snapchat, ORoaming, Zen Space and more. I had to offload these apps because some of them, especially the Oppo Store, sent random notifications to update apps that weren't even installed. Those buying a premium device expect minimal interactions with such apps.
The Find X9 Ultra will receive 5 years of OS upgrades and 6 years of security patches
The Find X9 Ultra, however, comes with plenty of AI features and now lists them all under one roof in the Oppo AI Hub. You can check via Settings > AI. Some of my favourites are AI Bill Manager, which lets you track all your spending in one place, and AI Mind Space, which simply captures on-screen content with a swipe-up gesture using three fingers and saves it to Mind Space. There are more AI features, such as AI Mind Pilot, AI Menu Translation (a visual guide to the menu in a different language), and AI Recorder, which records meetings and provides transcription.
Find X9 Ultra packs a massive 7050mAh battery, which is way bigger than the one we got on the X8 Ultra (6100mAh) last year. By comparison, the Find X9 Pro still gets a larger 7500mAh battery. In everyday use, the X9 Ultra can last over a day with heavy use, including apps like Microsoft Outlook, Slack, WhatsApp, Gmail, Telegram, X, YouTube, Google Maps, and Reddit open in the background all day alongside camera and gaming for a couple of hours. Of course, if the use is moderate, it can go for a full two days without sweating.
The Find X9 Ultra gets the XPan mode, part of the iconic Hasselblad partnership with Oppo
The PCMark Work Battery Life test, which runs real-world apps in a loop, achieved an impressive 21 hours and 35 minutes, which is pretty good for an Ultra league device. The Find X9 Ultra also gets 100W SUPERVOOC wired and 50W AIRVOOC wireless charging. It can go from 0 to 100 percent in less than 50 minutes, and in 30 minutes, it reaches about 70 percent. Overall, a solid device when it comes to battery prowess.
Oppo Find X9 Ultra Review: Verdict
The Oppo Find X9 Ultra is in a league of its own, with only other Ultras to challenge it. What this means is you will most likely pick one in the market if photography is the top priority on your list, depending on what you like more: the Find X9 Ultra, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra (Review), or the Vivo X300 Ultra (First Impressions). If it is Hasselblad colour science, then Find X9 Ultra has to be your choice. If Leica and Zeiss interest you, one of the other two may appeal to you more.
What I liked about the Find X9 Ultra? The Find X9 Ultra has everything it takes to be the true Android flagship. It offers top-notch performance, excellent display, loud speakers, amazing battery life and impeccable cameras. With ColorOS and some bloatware among a few things I wish could be fixed.
The only true enemy of these new-age Ultra devices is the pricing. No doubt, the Find X9 Ultra, at its price, is currently the costliest Ultra device on the market, but it is also worth every penny.
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