CES 2024: Oppo Find X7 Ultra Doubles Down on Periscope Cameras (2024)

LAS VEGAS—Oppo used CES as the backdrop to announce the Find X7 Ultra, its top device headed into the new year. The phone banks on the appeal of photography to stand apart from its peers thanks to its four rear cameras—two of which use a periscopic design to generate optical zoom. Together with large, high-resolution sensors, the Oppo Find X7 Ultra has a lot to offer.

Telephoto Times Two

If there's one way for a smartphone to really make a mark, it's mobile photography. Apple, Google, and Samsung continue to one-up each other with every new generation of iPhone, Pixel, and Galaxy. Oppo intends to be a part of that conversation and adopting two zoom cameras is one way to do that.

(Credit: Oppo)

Most flagship phones include an ultra-wide camera, a standard-angle camera, and a telephoto zoom camera. These cover focal lengths from roughly 12mm to as high as 120mm for "10x" optical zoom. The Find X7's dual-periscope cameras do things a little bit differently. First, the phone packs a 14mm ultra-wide camera (0.6x) with a 50MP Sony LYT600 sensor at f/2.0. This pairs well with the 23mm main camera (1x), which has a 1-inch 50MP Sony LYT900 sensor at f/1.8 and includes optical image stabilization (OIS).

Oppo then broke the telephoto system in half. The first camera includes a 50MP Sony IMX890 sensor at f/2.6 with a 65mm focal length and the equivalent of 3x optical zoom. Many phone makers would have stopped there and enabled any additional zoom via digital cropping. Instead, Oppo opted for a second telephoto camera that has a 50MP Sony IMX858 sensor at f/4.3 with a 135mm focal length and the equivalent of 6x zoom (when compared to the main camera). This is a lot of optical zoom. It's here that Oppo then lets you go further with digital cropping to 12x zoom and beyond at the equivalent of 270mm. Both of these cameras rely on internal periscopes to bend the light and enable the larger focal lengths, which is partially why the external camera module is so large. Both are aided by OIS to help with clarity and sharpness.

(Credit: Oppo)

In addition to this hardware, Oppo made sure to include advanced software to ensure the photos look their best. The first is its upgraded computational photography algorithm, which it is calling the HyperTone Image Engine. Oppo says it preserves highlights, shadows, and mid-tones while safeguarding photo integrity. The company worked with partner Hasselblad to bring processing and other features to the Find X7 Ultra, including Hasselblad Portrait Mode for better bokeh and Master Mode for more control over the camera app's settings.

Oppo didn't forget about video. The phone can capture 4K60 footage across all the cameras at various levels of zoom. You can snag 10-bit Dolby Vision quality via the main camera, which is rare among smartphones. The new GenAI object removal tool mimics features we saw in Google's Pixel 8 phones and allows you to erase things you don't want in your final shot, such as people or things in the background.

There's a Phone, Too

Lest you forget this is a smartphone, Oppo gave the Find X7 Ultra all the flagship trimmings in order to compete with today's top devices.

The phone is made of metal and glass and comes with a 6.82-inch screen that runs from 1 to 120Hz and has 3,168-by-1,440 pixels for a density of 510ppi. It's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and offers up to 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. A 5,000mAh battery charges at up to 100W via Oppo's proprietary SuperVOOC technology, as well as up to 50W wirelessly. It supports dual SIM cards, NFC, Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 7, and sub-6GHz 5G. It runs ColorOS 14, which its based on Android 14.

(Credit: Oppo)

Oppo doesn't sell its phones in the US directly and instead relies on its brand-mate OnePlus to fill in the US market. While that may disappointing, it's not unreasonable to assume features from phones such as the Oppo Find X7 Ultra will eventually make their way to OnePlus-branded phones. Pricing and availability were not specified.