Better than Samsung and Google’s best? This might be my phone of the year

Recently, I’ve been thinking about what my dream phone would include — specifically, which specs, features, and overall design. Let’s start with a massive battery, say 7,500mAh with fast charging to boot. Then, it needs great cameras, such as a 200MP telephoto lens and 4K 120fps LOG recording, to meet my professional videography needs. Add tiny bezels, a bright display, and a vapor chamber for cooling. Let’s include 512GB of storage as well, just to be safe. Interestingly, if you put all that together, you get the OPPO Find X9 Pro.

I’ve tested many phones this year, from the Galaxy S25 Ultra to the Pixel 10 Pro XL, but none have excited me as much as the Find X9 Pro. Let me explain why.

One of the primary reasons for this is its camera. It features a 50MP main lens, an ultrawide lens, and a 200MP telephoto lens. The photos produced are impressive, with great detail and slightly oversaturated colors that I like. Importantly, the phone shares a similar color profile across all lenses. The ultrawide lens maintains detail without distortion at the edges. The telephoto lens captures incredible detail with that 200MP sensor, allowing for cropping without a stark reduction in quality.

This year, OPPO includes a physical extender lens for the X9 Pro, available separately. It makes even better use of that sensor, offering 10x, 20x, and 40x zoom levels. This thing produces unreal photos. While not practical for everyday use, it’s impressive when you embrace its capabilities. The lens attaches via a case provided by OPPO, which takes about 10 seconds to set up.

The X9 Pro’s consistency across lenses, from 0.5x to 40x, is remarkable. I may not always use the extended lens, but it’s cool, and I’ve never taken so many photos so quickly on a phone. The X9 Pro excels in video too, offering up to 4K 120 fps. And as I mentioned, it can shoot in LOG, providing everything needed for professional video and color grading.

Want to see samples for yourself? Check out the video at the top of this article.

The rest of the phone is equally impressive. It features a 7,500mAh battery that easily lasts through a day, sometimes even two. Despite the large battery, it’s no thicker than the Pixel 10 Pro XL. The display is a 120Hz LTPO panel with 3,600 nits of brightness, and the bezels are among the smallest I’ve seen on a recent device. The speakers sound great, too. Some might see the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 as a letdown compared to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, but it’s faster than a Tensor G5 and handles everything well. AI tasks are quick, and the phone stays cool during gaming.

I’ve been critical of ColorOS in the past. I’ve always felt that this was OPPO devices’ weakest spots, but I’ve come to appreciate it on the Find X9 Pro. The animations are lively, and there are nice customization options available. OPPO’s Mind Space feature (available on OnePlus phones, too) is also handy, allowing you to save screenshots and plan trips with Google Gemini. Five years of Android OS updates and six years of security patches are also appreciated, even if it isn’t quite on the same tier as the very best.

Overall, the OPPO Find X9 Pro is a great phone, rivaling the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Pixel 10 Pro XL. It offers everything, including reliable performance, rapid 80W fast charging, and 512GB of storage to fuel my photography and videography habits. Unfortunately, there’s one big problem: it’s not available in the US. However, European users will be able to purchase it.

The phone is priced at a rather hefty €1,299 (~$1,515), but that’s a relatively small price to pay considering how much tech OPPO crammed into this handset. All in all, I think OPPO has a contender for my favorite phone of the year, and potentially my new daily driver.