Oppo doesn’t put a lot of focus in the flagship segment, so when the Oppo Find X2 Pro was officially introduced yesterday, it was quite an exciting announcement. After all, it succeeds the Find X, which was released back in 2018. The fact that the X2 Pro is also feature-packed makes it that much more attractive.

I got to spend a brief time with the Find X2 Pro, and I’d argue it is by far the Chinese company’s most promising flagship smartphone to date. If priced right, not many premium-tier phones can stand toe-to-toe with it.

Let’s start with one of the most highlighted features of the Find X2 Pro: the 120Hz display. It may not be the first smartphone to offer this refresh rate, but it is the first to support 120Hz at QHD+ resolution. This is in contrast with its Korean rival, the Samsung Galaxy S20 series, which limits the 120Hz refresh rate to Full HD+ resolution only.

But does this make a lot of difference? Well, I can’t say with absolute confidence I can tell the difference between FHD+ and QHD+, but the option is definitely there. This gives the Find X2 Pro an edge over the Galaxy S20 series, even if the advantage of QHD+ at 120Hz refresh rate is not immediately noticeable.

As for the screen quality itself, the Find X2 Pro’s 6.7-inch 3168 x 1440 OLED panel looks great with vibrant colours and wide viewing angles. Given that this is an OLED display, it has very deep blacks too, making it ideal for content consumption. Basically, you will get a very pleasant screen to look at with this flagship smartphone.

Another unique selling point of the Find X2 is its impressive 65W charging rate, thanks to the company’s propriety SuperVOOC 2.0 technology. This fast charging rate is made possible with the two-series connected cells of the phone, which are rated at 2,130mAh each. Combined, it’s a reasonably generous 4,260mAh battery; Oppo says that this cell capacity be fully charged in only 38 minutes.

Of course, whether or not SuperVOOC 2.0 can truly deliver this level of charging rate can only be tested in a full review of this phone.

Design wise, the Find X2 Pro is a handsome smartphone. I love the feel of the ceramic back panel, the dual curved screen feels great in my hands, and the bezels surrounding the display are relatively minimal. I also like that the hole-punch cutout at the top left of the screen for the 32MP f/2.4 selfie camera is quite small, so it doesn’t look particularly intrusive.

When it comes to performance, the Find X2 Pro is no slouch. Powering this smartphone is none other than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset, the chipmaker’s best SoC to date. While I haven’t run any graphically demanding games on the phone yet, I reckon the X2 Pro can take whatever I throw at it. It also helps that this phone comes with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of fast UFS 3.0 storage.

For biometric security, the Find X2 Pro features an optical in-screen fingerprint sensor, and it is blazing quick. While it’s still not quite as fast or as accurate as conventional capacitive sensors, it doesn’t feel cumbersome to use, and that’s important.

Last but definitely not least is the camera performance of the Find X2 Pro. Unlike other flagship smartphones’ wide array of camera lenses, the X2 Pro “only” has a triple camera system. It’s made up of a 48MP f/1.7 primary shooter, a 48MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle sensor, and a 13MP f/3.0 telephoto lens with a periscope structure.

Optically, the 13MP f/3.0 telephoto camera can only do 5x zoom, but Oppo is emphasising the 10x “hybrid zoom” capability of the sensor. On top of that, it can even do up to a whopping 60x digital zoom. Shots taken at 10x zoom still look rather good in my testing, but at 60x, detail preservation and colour reproduction suffer quite a bit.

But as a whole, I’m quite impressed with the camera performance of the Find X2 Pro. The primary and ultra-wide angle sensors can take great-looking shots, the camera interface is responsive, and it can lock in focus very quickly. However, I can’t say the same for the telephoto sensor, which has a tendency to hunt for focus.

Regardless, I cannot wait to put the Find X2 Pro’s triple camera system through its paces. After all, there must be a reason why it’s at the top of DxOMark’s ranking for mobile devices, with an impressive total score of 124. That puts it in the same league as the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, which shares the same total score.

The Oppo Find X2 Pro is the Chinese company’s most complete flagship smartphone yet. It is IP68-rated (finally), it has a fast, vibrant 120Hz display, its camera performance is very promising, and it features flagship-tier performance courtesy of the Snapdragon 865 chipset.

If there’s anything that could be improved upon, it would be the addition of expandable storage and a 3.5mm headphone jack, though this phone does come with 512GB of internal storage as standard. Beyond that, the Find X2 Pro really does seem like an extremely competent flagship smartphone.

The only thing that’s left now is for Oppo Malaysia to reveal the price of the X2 Pro for our market. The phone maker says that it will be priced competitively here, but it’s worth noting that in Europe, this phone goes for €1,199, which comes up to about RM5,645. Granted, this price tag includes VAT, so expect the X2 Pro to cost less in markets outside of Europe.

But exactly how much less the Find X2 Pro will cost once it’s made available here in Malaysia still remains to be seen. We’ll find out for ourselves once the flagship smartphone is launched locally on 10 March next week.