Hardwired
In Hardwired, AC Senior Editor Harish Jonnalagadda delves into all things hardware, including phones, audio products, storage servers, and networking gear.
I switched to the Find X9 Pro after using the Vivo X300 Pro, and both phones have plenty of similarities this year — more so than in the past. They’re both powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 platform, get the same storage variants, have a similar-sized 6.78-inch AMOLED panel, same ultrasonic fingerprint modules, and a big battery.
They even share the same 50MP Sony LYT-828 main camera and 50MP Samsung JN5 wide-angle modules, and a 200MP telephoto lens — albeit one that’s slightly different, with the Find X9 Pro featuring the Samsung HP5 module (Vivo uses a custom HPB sensor). Heck, OPPO even has a telephoto extender this year, which is similar to what Vivo provides on the X300 Pro.
Although there are many hardware similarities, these devices aren’t identical to use — far from it. Vivo and OPPO clearly diverge when it comes to their camera tuning, and that was immediately evident when I started using the Find X9 Pro. The software is refreshingly different as well, even if both phone makers chose to “borrow” iOS 26’s translucent effects.
Anyway, back to the cameras. OPPO is using a new Lumo camera engine, with the brand noting that it overhauled its imaging algorithms to deliver cleaner and more detailed photos. Interestingly, it’s designed to shoot 50MP stills as standard, able to eke out much better quality. Video quality is improved as well, and the phone is now able to shoot 4K120 Dolby Vision footage — albeit with the main camera and tele lens (wide-angle is limited to 4K60).
Let’s get to the photos. Predictably, the Find X9 Pro does a fantastic job in just about any lighting scenario, delivering detailed photos with good dynamic range and color accuracy. OPPO says it worked closely with Sony and Hasselblad to tune both the sensor and its imaging algorithms this year, and there is a noticeable difference in the resultant image quality over the Find X8 Pro.
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While there isn’t a dedicated 6x zoom lens this time, the Find X9 Pro does just as well at both 3x and 6x, producing photos that are just as good as the main camera — it holds its own against the X300 Pro in this regard. The wide-angle lens is the only module that’s holding the device back a little; it doesn’t quite have the same tonal balance in challenging conditions, and doesn’t measure up to the other two cameras.
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There are no issues in low-light scenarios with the rest of the cameras, and the phone does a great job with portrait shots. This is one of the key reasons why I used the Vivo X200 Pro and Find X8 Pro so much over the course of 2025, and I’m glad to see both brands making positive strides with portrait mode on their latest devices.
Then there’s the telephoto extender err, detachable zoom lens. OPPO went with a similar system as Vivo, but annoyingly, attaching the zoom lens covers up the entire camera island, so you can’t use any other lens when it’s in use. This isn’t a limitation on the X300 Pro, and OPPO should consider tweaking the design with the next generation. The detachable lens does a great job extending the zoom range, and the resultant image quality is similar to that of the X300 Pro. But the associated hassle means I didn’t use it anywhere as much as its Vivo sibling.
I still think Vivo has the overall edge with the cameras; I prefer the brand’s image tuning and color science, but it’s solely a matter of choice. From a technical point of view, the Find X9 Pro delivers photos and videos that are just as good, and that’s great news — it just means you get two choices when considering a phone upgrade next year.
