Like it or not, the smartphone camera bump isn’t going away anytime soon, so Oppo is using a new curvy glass design in its latest flagship phone to try to convince people to love the bump.
In addition to updated specs, including a Snapdragon 888 processor and a 6.78-inch QHD+ AMOLED screen with a nifty variable refresh rate, the new Oppo Find X3 Pro features a rear panel made from a single piece of glass that Oppo claims was created to “artfully evoke spacecraft and the technology of tomorrow.”
By shaping the camera bump from a single sheet of glass, Oppo was able to create a “Gradient Arc Camera” with smooth flowing curves that stand in stark contrast to the boxy camera bumps Apple used on its latest batch of iPhones, or the large camera module Samsung employed on the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
When it comes to the camera itself, the Find X3 Pro also uses the same 50-MP Sony IMX 766 sensor for its main and ultra-wide cams (which is a nice touch for people who don’t like being saddled with lower-quality, wide-angle shots). Oppo is also tossing in a 13-MP telephoto cam with a 5x hybrid zoom and a 3-MP “microlens” with a 60x magnification, designed to be used like a mobile microscope. On top of that, the Find X3 Pro also comes with both optical and electronic image stabilisation for sharper images and a new “All-Pixel” omnidirectional phase detect autofocus system that promises faster performance across a range of environments.
Leveraging Oppo’s SuperVOOC and AirVOOC charging tech, the Find X3 Pro also features fast wired charging at up to 65 watts, which can take the phone from dead to full in just 30 minutes, or 30-watt wireless charging (using a proprietary stand) that can go from 0 to 100% in a little over an hour.
But let’s go back to the display. In addition to that 120Hz VRR screen, Oppo also includes a 240Hz touch sampling rate and an OLED screen that can show up to 1 billion colours, to better support the super huge gamut of colours you can capture using the Find X3 Pro’s cameras.
The Find X3 Pro also comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, though sadly, as has become standard on most modern phones, you don’t get support for microSD expandability or a headphone jack.
In the end, while curvy glass probably won’t be enough to appease the sort of people who want camera bumps banished entirely, I do appreciate that Oppo is trying something a bit different with the rear glass on the Find X3 Pro. It’s just a little sleeker and easier to keep clean than phones with boxy camera modules, and that counts for something.
While there aren’t any official plans for a global release at the moment, the Find X3 Pro is expected to go on sale March 30 for 1,149 euros, or about $1,771.