Oppo Find X10 Pro Max hands-on: Triple 200-megapixel cameras but few surprises
Trying to fill a gap in the market, Oppo plays it a little safe with its latest release.
Design and Display
Oppo returns with another flagship phone featuring telephoto accessories and impressive specs. The Find X10 Pro Max is launching across Europe, Asia and other territories, supplanting last year's Find X9 Pro and sitting below the Find X9 Ultra. However, if you're based in the US, it will once again be hard to get the company's newest phone.
Oppo isn't breaking much new ground this year with its upper-midrange Find X10 series. Those changes include some minor design tweaks. Aside from a standalone color sensor and flash positioned next to the camera unit, it looks like another Find X series 'pro' phone. The company seems to have kept the Find X10 design separate from last year's Ultra and Find N6 foldable with its circular camera design. A slender orange accent outlines the camera array, the latest nod to Oppo's collaboration with Hasselblad.
The materials and finish are further refined, with a matte-finish aluminum frame and a textured back panel. The mid-flagship comes in Luna White and Titanium Grey, which has a smooth back cover that lacks the aforementioned textured panel.
The Find X10 Pro Max has a 6.78-inch display, roughly the same as the X9 Ultra, peaking at 3,600 nits. It's noticeably brighter than the Find X9 Pro. It also supports adaptive refresh rates from 1 to 144Hz, plus 10-bit color depth and Dolby Vision.
Oppo is keen to highlight the refinements it made to color temperature adjustments on the display, with faster changes in ambient light levels and a new adaptive tone option that uses a five-channel sensor to better match surrounding lighting.
Camera Capabilities
Cameras are still Oppo's smartphone obsession, though it gets a little confusing this time around. Its newest smartphone's cameras arguably aren't quite as potent as the company's flagship, the Find X9 Ultra, which launched only a few months ago.
That all comes down to the sensors. The Find X10 Pro Max comes with three different 200-megapixel sensors on the main, telephoto and ultrawide cameras. However, the Find X9 Ultra featured a significantly larger main camera sensor from Sony. Meanwhile, the Find X10 Pro Max shifted to a Samsung sensor.
There's also a new image engine for natural color, tones and textures, which minimizes aggressive AI processing. Compared with previous models, the X10 Pro Max makes fewer computational guesses on text detail and patterning from excessive AI correction.
The Find X10 Pro Max's telephoto camera can reach 3x optical zoom, then crop into the massive 200MP sensor to extend that range to 6x lossless zoom. The phone is also well-equipped for macro photography, capable of a 10cm focal distance on its 3x periscope telephoto lens.
When pitted against the Find X9 Pro, the X10 Pro Max autofocuses better in low light and captures more detail, regardless of the shooting mode used.
The Find X10 series' default setup will process full-res 200MP images into 26MP images across its entire zoom range, which is a convenient touch. Naturally, you can choose a high-res shooting mode if you want every single pixel.
Video and Accessories
There are plenty of features for video power users, too. Oppo claims its new technology, built into Samsung's sensor, delivers up to 17 stops of dynamic range, helping capture detail in both bright and dimly lit environments.
The Find X10 Pro seems less prone to blown-out footage in bright light. If you're a vlogger or dedicated smartphone videographer, you'll appreciate the slight upgrade here.
The X10 Pro Max's Pro Video mode offers open-gate capture, using each sensor's full imaging area for wider coverage and giving editors more latitude to crop and reframe footage in post-production. It also supports Oppo's O-Log2 format and LUT previewing.
The teleconverter system makes a return and feels less flimsy this time around. Composed of a specialized case, teleconverter lens, and lens plate, it's a fun optional addition to the camera offering.
The teleconverter lens itself is the same as the Find X9 Pro's, but you will need a new adapter plate and case for the Find X10 Pro Max.
The new lens mounting plate sadly has the same issue by covering the other 200MP sensors when you use the main sensor with the teleconverter lens. To capture images without the telephoto lens, you'll have to remove the lens and plate.
Battery and Performance
Oppo packed a 7,150mAh silicon carbon battery into its newest smartphone. The company says the Find X10 Pro Max can deliver almost 25 hours of YouTube streaming and record 4K video for nearly six hours. It supports fast charging at up to 80W and 50W wireless charging. It is powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 9600 Pro processor.
In day-to-day use, the phone feels responsive, with apps and games loading fast without any notable hiccups or crashes.
Pricing and Availability
Oppo has no plans to launch the Find X10 Pro Max in the US. It goes on sale priced at £1,499 in the UK, roughly $2,000, making it pricier than the Find X9 Ultra at launch. The company is offering a choice of free accessories including the teleconverter kit, a smartwatch, or a tablet.
Early shoppers can also secure trade-in discounts and promotional price cuts, which help soften the blow of the high price tag.
The Find X10 Pro Max's main challenge is standing out when the similarly priced, older Find X9 Ultra has, in some ways, a more capable camera setup.
