Phone companies tapping up photography brands is nothing new, but few camera collabs have lasted as long as Oppo and Hasselblad’s. The Swedish imaging expert has been lending its expertise for a few years now, resulting in some of the best camera phones on sale – putting big names like Apple and Samsung firmly in the shade – and now the pair have announced they’re going to stick it out for the foreseeable.
A next-gen mobile imaging system is currently in the works, and will make its debut on the next Oppo flagship.
That’ll be great news to fans of the firm’s HyperTone colour treatment, which closely matches the colour characteristics of Hasselblad’s X2D medium format digital camera, and the ProXDR pipeline that does a fantastic job with backlit subjects and skin tones. It also means features like the 65:24 aspect ratio XPAN panorama and Master manual mode aren’t going anywhere.
The Hasselblad logo first showed up on the Find X5 Pro back in 2012, and made regular appearances on Oppo flagships ever since. Not all of ’em have gone global – the Find X6 Pro and Find X7 Ultra only got a release in the firm’s native China – but this year’s Find X8 Pro is a lot easier to get hold of. Some of the tech also filters through to sister brand OnePlus’ phones, which should keep US phone fans happy.
Of course it helps when the hardware is heroic, too. Oppo’s currently top-tier handset, the China-only Find X8 Ultra, is rocking four 50MP rear snappers – including a 1in lead lens and twin periscope telephotos for 3x and 6x lossless zoom. There’s also a dedicated colour spectrum sensor that measures white balance across 40 different points, not just the scene as a whole.
I’ve been using one for the past week and have been blown away by some its photos. And aside from a few quirks like Breeno voice assistant instead of Gemini and no Circle to Search, the Find X8 Ultra is also a very usable phone for Westerners. It even plays nicely with Android Auto and Google Wallet contactless payments. Fingers crossed the next model will see a wider release.
“Over the past four years, we have brought the truly professional, legendary camera experience of Hasselblad to OPPO’s global users,” Oppo chief product officer Pete Lau said at the announcement event in Gothenburg, Sweden. “With the extension of our collaboration, we will push the boundaries of mobile imaging even further.”
