Oppo lately renewed its partnership with the legendary pictures firm, Hasselblad. To mark the event, I used to be invited over to Hasselblad’s hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, and I spent the week taking pictures photographs on Oppo’s strongest digital camera telephone, the Discover X8 Extremely.
The telephone initially launched again in April, nevertheless it’s solely formally obtainable in China. So, till now, I hadn’t been in a position to totally take a look at its capabilities. Some are calling it the very best digital camera telephone ever made, however the competitors from the likes of Google, Samsung and Apple is extraordinarily fierce, so how good is that this factor, precisely?
The digital camera {hardware}
Beginning with the principle digital camera, the Oppo Discover X8 Extremely utilises a 1-inch kind sensor, the biggest you’ll discover on a contemporary smartphone. For reference, it’s round 30% bigger than the principle sensor on mainstream flagships just like the iPhone 16 Professional Max or Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely.
Which means that the X8 Extremely will carry out higher in low-light eventualities, and it’s able to producing extra background blur on close-up pictures – similar to you’d see with a mirrorless digital camera or DSLR.
It’s clear that some very intelligent engineering went into this handset
Luke Baker
This large foremost sensor is joined by a 15mm-equivalent ultrawide, a 70mm (3x) periscope telephoto and one other 135mm (6x) telephoto. There’s additionally a devoted color spectrum sensor to assist guarantee right white steadiness, even in scenes with difficult multi-coloured lighting.
All of those cameras have a 50Mp decision sensor, and most use considerably bigger sensors than their mainstream competitors. Across the entrance, there’s a 32Mp selfie snapper with autofocus.
It’s a severely spectacular array of lenses, however what shocked me extra is that the digital camera bump isn’t gigantic. Subsequent to telephones just like the Xiaomi 15 Extremely and Vivo X200 Extremely, the Oppo Discover X8 Extremely appears to be like shockingly slim. It’s clear that some very intelligent engineering went into this handset.
Luke Baker
After all, {hardware} is just a part of the story; digital camera telephones depend on picture processing to get the very best outcomes, and that’s the place Hasselblad’s experience comes into play.
The collaboration has resulted in a Hasselblad-tuned Grasp Mode, in addition to movie simulations and really in-depth handbook management choices.
The outcomes
Irrespective of the lighting circumstances or topic, I used to be frequently impressed with the photographs I shot on the X8 Extremely throughout my journey. Whether or not zooming over lengthy distances or capturing an intimate close-up, these cameras convey out all the main points, with a really interesting color palette.
Luke Baker
The telephone undoubtedly favours the cooler tones, and that’s much more obvious when utilizing the Hasselblad movie simulations. On this state of affairs, it labored in my favour, I feel the cool tones and wealthy blues marry properly with Swedish structure.
Nonetheless, I don’t really feel it’s precisely true-to-life. To my shock, it was truly scorching scorching in Gothenburg, and I don’t suppose the blue tones of my photographs all the time replicate that. The precise heat of the summer time solar wasn’t as simple to convey utilizing the telephone’s filters and film-sims; as a substitute, you’d have to tweak manually.
The 3x telephoto is outstanding for close-ups of meals and nature, whereas the 6x enables you to digitally zoom as much as round 20x with barely any perceivable loss in high quality
Luke Baker
Actually, although, that’s one of many solely downsides. The 3x telephoto is outstanding for close-ups of meals and nature, whereas the 6x enables you to digitally zoom as much as round 20x with barely any perceivable loss in high quality. In the event you zoom additional, AI picture enhancement makes an attempt to select up the slack, and it does a good job, however any severe photographer goes to scoff at that.
The principle digital camera can deal with some severely low-light taking pictures, making it nice for indoor areas and late nights in town. That mentioned, the 3x isn’t far behind, and also you is likely to be shocked by how properly it retains up.
The selfie digital camera isn’t a giant draw for this telephone, however I used to be pleasantly shocked by the standard. It captures wonderful pores and skin tones, sharp element, and handles low gentle higher than most. After all, for actually gorgeous portraits, the rear cameras are nonetheless the best way to go.
The ultrawide is the one digital camera that didn’t “wow” me. It’s completely respectable and matches the opposite cameras properly, nevertheless it’s nothing too distinctive. Truthfully, that’s often the case with ultrawide cameras; it’s solely actually Vivo that’s pushing the envelope right here.
Is the Oppo Discover X8 Extremely the very best digital camera telephone?
As I’m positive you may inform, I’m fairly taken with the Oppo Discover X8 Extremely. Whereas I may not be able to declare it the very best digital camera telephone ever, it’s actually up there with the likes of the Xiaomi 15 Extremely, Vivo X200 Extremely and Huawei Pura 80 Extremely.
Sadly, most of those telephones a fairly arduous to get your fingers on within the West. Xiaomi’s finest is out there within the UK, however in any other case, you’d have to take a look at importing. And within the States, the state of affairs is even harder.
Nonetheless, that is probably not the case for for much longer. After pulling out of Europe altogether throughout a patent dispute with Nokia, Oppo got here again with a bang late final yr.
It launched its Discover X8 Professional within the UK, however sadly, the Extremely didn’t observe go well with. There’s a glimmer of hope that we’d see the following Oppo Extremely telephone launch internationally.
If it does, that may be very thrilling certainly, particularly as we now know that the Hasselblad partnership will proceed. For now, I’m positive Apple and Samsung‘s dominance will proceed, however in the event you’re a severe photographer, neither is coming near matching China’s newest batch of Extremely flagships.