If you want a flagship phone without the associated high cost, the Find X5 offers reasonable trade-offs for significant savings.
Oppo Find X5 full review
To be fair, the Find X5 is so similar and shares so many features with the Pro that it doesn’t require repeating the same. Again, while Oppo wants you to think it’s virtually identical but cheaper, there are a lot of subtle differences that mean it’s a completely different phone overall.
Design and assembly
The main difference in terms of construction is that the X5 does not have a ceramic back like the Pro. Instead, it is frosted glass, which is very smooth and sparkles in the sun.
It’s surprisingly slippery, but at least you won’t have to scrub off your fingerprints.
We can assume that this is the same case as the Pro, but it is a couple of millimeters narrower and shorter – and 0.2 mm thicker.
It’s important to note that the lack of ceramic means it’s 22g lighter, meaning it weighs less than 200g. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have an IP rating like the Pro, meaning there’s no guarantee it’ll be safe if it gets wet. You still get the same durable Gorilla Glass Victus to protect the screen, and the same Oppo, Hasselblad, and Powered By MariSilicon logos, which my colleague Dom pointed out in his review of the X5 Pro are somewhat distracting from the design.
Display and sound
You’ll be forgiven for not noticing, but the Find X5’s display is slightly smaller than the Pro’s. But it’s not just the size: the resolution and underlying technology are also different. Where the Pro has a WQHD + LTPO panel, the regular X5 uses a lower resolution FHD + LTPS display.
In simple terms, this means that the X5 does not support variable refresh rates and therefore cannot help save power like the Pro’s screen, even though it has the same peak refresh rate of 120Hz.
While the 2400×1080 resolution might be disappointing at this price point, in the real world it’s honestly not an issue. And because it’s still a 120Hz AMOLED screen with 1,000 nits (or 500 nits across the screen), it looks great in just about any situation other than direct sunlight.
Specifications and performance
So far, cost-cutting measures include no water resistance and a lower resolution screen, but there are others. Instead of the latest 8 Gen 1 processor, X5 owners should be content with last year’s Snapdragon 888 and “only” 8GB of RAM.
Actually, this is not at all a burden, since the performance is almost indistinguishable from the X5 Pro. This is partly due to the lower resolution, but it does mean the Find X5 feels like a flagship phone.
Camera and video
With only minor differences between the Find X5 and X5 Pro cameras, the similar photo and video capabilities at a lower price point are one of the X5’s main attractions.
No, you don’t get a 5-axis OIS for the main camera, and the 32MP selfie cam has a smaller Sony sensor and a narrower field of view lens, but otherwise, the settings are the same across the two phones, including the new MariSilicon X neural processor.
So it’s no surprise that the Find X5 takes fantastic photos in good light. They’re crisp and detailed, with reliable exposure and color – and that’s true of all three cameras.
It looks good, looks very well built, has a bright screen that’s great for entertainment, has great cameras overall, and performs as well as any flagship. No matter how hard you press it, there will never be any stutter or lag.
If you liked this review and want to get such a phone for yourself and pay a fair price, just visit the Mobile Phones Direct website.
