using the Vivo teleconverters<\/a>. Interestingly, Vivo\u2019s implementation is far smoother. On the Find X9 Ultra, after you attach the lens to the Explorer case, you have to manually activate it in the More menu in the camera app. The lens shows up in your photos if you try to use the main camera with the lens attached.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a bit of a mixed bag here, and after the extreme highs of the Find X9 Ultra\u2019s main camera, occasionally a slight let down. There\u2019s considerable processing at work when you shoot at 30x (which uses an in-sensor crop) and 60x, and it\u2019s obvious when you crop the image down.<\/p>\n
Yet, at 13x it can take beautiful, detail-packed photos. See the image of the yellow flower, which was taken from some distance away at 13x, and spot the insect on the petal. However, I\u2019m pretty sure a similar photo could have been taken with the 10x camera, and this makes the Earth Explorer kit feel a bit optional.<\/p>\n
Adding a filter to the Explorer case makes it versatile. I used a polarizing filter to take photos of fish in a shallow pond, and you can see in the comparison above how it removes reflections. There are circumstances where the Earth Explorer Kit will add plenty to the Find X9 Ultra, but it\u2019s not as compelling as I thought it would be.<\/p>\n
Oppo Find X9 Ultra software and performance<\/p>\n
Great performance, software issues<\/p>\n
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The Find X9 Ultra has the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 processor, a vapor chamber for cooling, and Android 16 with Color OS 16 installed. The 6.8-inch AMOLED screen has a 144Hz refresh rate, and is really bright with an 1800 nit full screen brightness. I\u2019ve had no problem seeing it in sunlight.<\/p>\n
ColorOS 16 shares plenty of design similarities and features with OnePlus\u2019s OxygenOS. It\u2019s colorful, and there\u2019s plenty of customization, but it can frustrate. There are a lot of pre-installed apps (but none are intrusive), and I find what should be simple operations like changing the wallpaper needlessly menu-and-button intensive.<\/p>\n
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Unfortunately, notifications are broken on the Find X9 Ultra. Initially, notifications didn\u2019t arrive at all, but things improved when I switched the phone to Performance mode, up from Balanced. Now, some notifications arrive, but most show up after I unlock the phone. It\u2019s frustrating, and not a new issue on Android.<\/p>\n
Switching to Performance Mode turned out to be a good thing. In Balanced Mode, the phone didn\u2019t have the snap throughout the software I expect from such a high-power device, but this returned in Performance Mode. Scrolling through apps is lovely and smooth.<\/p>\n
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Oppo\u2019s vapor chamber works hard when running intensive benchmarking apps, but the phone doesn\u2019t overheat. Expect it to get warm to the touch when playing top games for a while, but not under normal circumstances.<\/p>\n
For those with Mac computers or friends with iPhones, you can install the O+Connect app and share files, but it\u2019s a bit of a fiddle. Not only does your friend need the app on their phone, but you also have to sign in to different accounts to share files wirelessly between the phone and a Mac. I found an email, or a USB C cable was far quicker and more reliable.<\/p>\n
Oppo Find X9 Ultra battery and charging<\/p>\n
Long-lasting, and fast to charge<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/oppo-find-x9-ultra-on-charge.jpg\")
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Inside the Find X9 Ultra is a whopping 7,050mAh silicon-carbon battery, and I\u2019ve consistently seen three days of general use (around three hours screen time per day) on a single charge. When I pushed the phone with use of the Earth Explorer Kit, navigation, and app use, the battery still lasts deep into the second day.<\/p>\n
With light use, I can end the day with around 85% battery remaining, highlighting the software\u2019s excellent efficiency. This has also been with Performance Mode active, as talked about above, so don\u2019t be afraid to activate it due to concerns it\u2019ll dramatically affect battery life. In my experience, it does not.<\/p>\n
I ran a 20-minute 3DMark stress test to show how the phone would handle high-end gaming, and it took 14% from the battery, again suggesting good efficiency. A 30-minute YouTube video at 1440p over Wi-Fi took only 2%.<\/p>\n
You can charge the phone using a 100W wired charger, or wirelessly at 50W. I’ve struggled to get good charging speeds so far. My Anker Prime charging block manages around 33W maximum, but will consistently dip to about 17W, making charging quite slow, despite the phone showing SuperVOOC proprietary standards are being met. Even using the USB A to USB C cable included with the phone, and the Smart Charging option related to it active in the Settings menu, hasn’t improved speeds.<\/p>\n
Battery life is stellar, but the charging may be a pain if you don’t own a SuperVOOC proprietary charging block.<\/p>\n
Should you buy the Oppo Find X9 Ultra?<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/oppo-find-x9-ultra-back-side-rock.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
Yes, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is a fantastic purchase, provided you can stomach the cost. It\u2019s as complete as the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and surpasses it in camera performance.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve never cared about the S Pen, and aren\u2019t interested in an Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra should be top of your list. The camera is far more engaging and varied than the Pixel 10 Pro XL\u2019s too, and meets the challenge from the also fantastic Xiaomi 17 Ultra\u2019s camera for capturing scenes as you see them, then adding a stunning twist thanks to effective collaborations with camera experts.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/oppo-find-x9-ultra-screen.JPG\")
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It\u2019s let down by the software, which has some frustrating problems, but these can realistically be solved in a future update. Plus, previous experience has told me not everyone will see these issues arise. It\u2019s also a big, heavy phone, even by modern standards.<\/p>\n
Forget all about this, and just enjoy what is one of the most complete, exciting, desirable, and expensive flagship camera phones of the year.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/oppo-find-x9-ultra-square.png\")
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![\"Android](\"https:\/\/static0.anpoimages.com\/assets\/images\/ap-logo-icon-colored-dark.svg\" "\\"Android")
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8.5\/10<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSoC \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tDisplay dimensions \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t6.82-inches<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tBattery \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t7050mAh Silicon-Carbon<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tRear camera \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t200MP main \/ 50MP wide-angle \/ 200MP 3x optical telephoto \/ 50MP 10x optical telephoto<\/p>\n
The Oppo Find X9 Ultra is one of the most expensive flagship phones available at the moment, but if photography is important to you, it’s hard to find a better phone. It’s joined by a lovely screen and a long-lasting battery. Just be prepared for some software issues, and a struggle to get the fastest charging speeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just how complete do you want your next flagship phone to be, and what are the essentials? Do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[61,60,202,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-410553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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