Oppo has been relatively quiet in Malaysia this year, especially in the flagship smartphone market. So when the Chinese company launched the Oppo Find X8 Pro locally last week, it’s quite an exciting affair. After all, the phone is a proper flagship smartphone with some noteworthy features, such as a Hasselblad-branded camera system, a fast MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chipset, and even a camera button.

But that also means the Find X8 Pro carries a premium price tag, retailing at a cool RM4,999 in Malaysia. At this price point, it has some tough competition, some of which offer more refined software experience – though Oppo’s ColorOS software has gotten better – and better camera performance. Nonetheless, there’s no denying that the Find X8 Pro is Oppo’s best flagship phone yet, and I thoroughly enjoy using it as my daily driver.

What It Is

On paper, the Find X8 Pro is a flagship smartphone in every aspect. It has a sophisticated quad camera setup with Hasselblad’s branding, a large 5,910mAh battery – more on this later – an IP68/IP69 dust and water resistance rating, and the Dimensity 9400 is actually a very capable chip that I would rank similarly to the more popular Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.

Oh, the Find X8 Pro also has an alert slider on the left side of the phone, along with a dedicated camera button on the right; much like the iPhone 16 series. However, it’s not a physical button. Rather, it’s a capacitive one that can be used to quickly launch the camera, control zoom level, and of course, snap a picture.

The Good Stuff

Since I’m talking about the camera button already, let’s discuss the camera performance of the Find X8 Pro first. Naturally, all four sensors of the Hasselblad quad camera system can take great-looking shots, especially the primary 50MP shooter. Judge for yourself with these sample shots:

Not bad, right? If I were to nitpick, it would be the 50MP periscope telephoto (6x) sensor. Compared to, say, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra‘s 50MP periscope telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom, the Find X8 Pro’s detail preservation isn’t quite as good. That being said, I’m still quite happy with the overall performance of the Hasselblad camera system. Images are sharp with wide dynamic range, and the camera app remains responsive regardless of lighting condition.

What about the camera button of the Find X8 Pro? Well, to be honest, I barely use it throughout the review period. It’s not that it doesn’t work well, because it does. I can easily double click on the button to launch the camera, and the sliding gesture to control the zoom level feels quite seamless to use too; same goes for clicking on the button to capture an image.

But personally, it just feels more seamless for me to rely on the on-screen controls. But hey, at least the camera button is there for any user that wants to use it.

Moving on, there’s the Find X8 Pro’s Dimensity 9400 chip, which is really a flagship-tier SoC that can keep up with my demands. Whether I’m multitasking with different apps or finishing my dailies on Zenless Zone Zero – with maxed out graphics settings at 60fps to boot – the MediaTek chipset can handle it all seamlessly. Again, it may not be quite as popular as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but as far as I can tell, the Dimensity 9400 can easily compete against Qualcomm’s offering.

In the display department, the Find X8 Pro features a 6.78-inch 2780 x 1264 AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate, which looks good. While the screen resolution is not quite as sharp as the competition, it’s still a pleasant screen to look at with deep blacks, vibrant colours, and wide viewing angles – all the characteristics of an OLED-based panel.

Last but not least is the excellent battery life of the Find X8 Pro. The generous 5,910mAh battery can easily provide me with seven to eight hours of screen on time for my particular usage, which involves a ton of gaming, navigation, web browsing, and content consumption. If you’re not a heavy smartphone user, I reckon it can even provide two days of battery life on a single charge.

The Bad Stuff

Software has always been my pain point with Oppo’s devices, and in the case of the Find X8 Pro, it has…actually improved by leaps and bounds with ColorOS 15. Not only does it feel much snappier compared to ColorOS 14, it also feels more refined now without any weird bugs or glitches.

That being said, ColorOS 15 still has the same issues as previous versions of Oppo’s software: bloatware, and lots of them. On top of that, I’m still getting marketing push notifications from Oppo’s own apps, including the App Market app and Theme Store. Collectively, these don’t exactly make for a pleasant user experience, even if ColorOS 15 has improved quite a bit.

Is It Worth It?

Despite my issues with its software experience, the Oppo Find X8 Pro is still a fantastic flagship smartphone. It has a capable Hasselblad camera system, fast performance, and very, very long battery life. Basically, it easily fulfills the criteria of a proper, premium flagship smartphone.

Although the Find X8 Pro doesn’t offer the best value for money with its RM4,999 price tag, I do think it’s a fair price to pay for a high-end phone of this calibre. If it’s just a tad more affordable without all of the bloatware, the Find X8 Pro would’ve been at the top of my list of favourite flagship Android phones.