After a few weeks of trial and the publication of the preview together with Find X2 Lite, the time has come to draw conclusions on OPPO Find X2 Neo, smartphone that will arrive in Italy starting from 22 May 2020 in a price of 699 euros. We are talking about a device that is placed in the medium / high range of the market, given that in the top of the range we have Find X2 Pro (which costs 1199 euros). The Chinese company then goes on to create a sort of "intermediate range", which aims to satisfy many users, accustomed for years to spending figures like these more than going beyond 1000 euros.
Put simply, OPPO wanted to try to make a balanced smartphone, which does not cost as much as a top of the range but offers everything you need to enter the new era of connectivity properly. Will the Chinese company have managed to create an excellent solution?
Design and unboxing
The sales package resumes, in terms of design, that of OPPO Find X2 Pro. As regards the content, we find a 30W VOOC 4.0 charger, the USB Type-C cable for charging and data transfer, the excellent USB Type-C earphones (of a higher quality than many others that are often included in the package), a transparent cover, the pin for extraction of the single nanoSIM compartment and various manuals. In short, the equipment is complete and provides the user with an excellent "starter pack".
The first thing you notice when picking up your smartphone is its weight of 171 grams (many models exceed 180/200 grams). However, the most surprising aspect of Find X2 Neo are its dimensions of 159.4 x 72.4 x 7.7 mm. We certainly cannot speak of a compact device, but it is certainly uno of the thinnest 5G smartphones on the market. A godsend for those who really appreciate smartphones that can be handled easily.
In our view, it is the right compromise in terms of weight and size. The grip is good: the smartphone has never proved too "slippery". If you are wondering where you have already seen this design, you must know that Find X2 Neo is very similar to OPPO Reno3 Pro 5G, announced in China at the end of 2019. In fact, therefore, we can consider Find X2 Neo as the successor of OPPO Reno2 for our market.
If you think that the design choices are going to impact on the solidity of the device, you are wrong: the materials used (metal and glass) give the smartphone an excellent build quality. We know how much the Chinese company studies in detail the design of its devices and the Starry Blue coloring that we have been able to test is proof of this: the "play of light" makes it very pleasant to the eye. For those with different tastes, the Moonlight Black color is also available.
Remaining on the back of Find X2 Neo, in the upper left we find the four photographic sensors arranged vertically, accompanied, a little more on the right, by the Dual LED flash. The cameras are slightly protruding and Find X2 Neo "dances" a little when placed on a flat surface.
If the backcover is very nice to look at, the front of the device is no different: the screen is curved on the sides, but without exaggerating. This makes multimedia content more immersive. The real touch of class is the small camera hole, located at the top left, a truly excellent solution, since it "disappears" in many situations. In short, we have not missed the iconic "shark fin" camera. For the rest, there is a fingerprint sensor under the display, which proved to be quick and precise.
Facial recognition is also present, a method we always prefer to fingerprints because of its speed. Among other things, you can also activate the automatic brightness compensation options and you can prevent the smartphone from recognizing while the subject has his eyes closed.
Returning to the design of the device, at the bottom we find the speakers, the microphone, the USB Type-C port and the trolley for the SIM (you can insert a single nanoSIM), while at the top only the second microphone peeps. The right side houses the power button (highlighted with a green line in the center), while on the left there are the two buttons to raise / lower the volume.
Summing up, OPPO Find X2 Neo is a smartphone that it is very appreciated in terms of design, constructive solidity and "starter pack". The Chinese company has thought of everything and the flaws are really minimal (like the slight protrusion of the camera).
Technical features
OPPO Find X2 Neo has a particularly interesting data sheet. It is pushed by an Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G octa-core processor operating at a maximum frequency of 2.4 GHz (1 x 2.4 GHz + 1 x 2.2 GHz + 6 x 1.8 GHz), flanked by an Adreno 620 GPU and 12GB of RAM. It is a medium / high-end configuration, able to run almost all the applications on the Play Store as it should. Obviously, as we will see later, there is some software that can test the device and we are certainly not talking about the most powerful smartphone in terms of brute force, but Find X2 Neo has very few performance problems. Then we find 256GB of internal memory UFS 2.1: the available space is more than enough and the impossibility of using a microSD does not make itself felt at all.
As for the screen, we find a 6.5-inch OLED panel with Full HD + resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels), 20: 9 aspect ratio, 92.1% screen-to-body ratio, 90 Hz refresh rate (180 Hz touch sampling rate), 5000000: 1 contrast, HDR 10 support + and brightness peaks of 1110 nits (500 nits in standard mode). We are faced with an excellent panel, capable of providing well-balanced colors and exceptional maximum brightness. The automatic configuration of the latter works well and we have never had any problems. To underline the fact that the smartphone comes with a pre-applied protective film.
There is no lack of the always-on and all the necessary features (among which we find the color temperature adjustment, the screen color mode and the refresh rate setting). There is also full screen mode for applications. Most software works as it should and watching movies and TV shows on Netflix or videos on YouTube is a pleasure for the eyes with this smartphone.
There are Widewine L1 DRMs, which allow HD viewing via streaming services. In short, the display of Find X2 Neo is excellent and the refresh rate of 90 Hz guarantees that extra fluidity that we expect from a device of this type.
OPPO has not neglected also the photographic sector, where we find a 32MP front camera (f / 2.4) and a quadruple rear camera 48MP (f / 1.7, Sony IMX586, OIS) + 8MP (f / 2.2, 116 degree wide angle) + 13MP (f / 2.4, telephoto, 5x hybrid zoom) + 2MP (f / 2.4, mono). The four rear sensors can record videos in 4K at 30fps, while the front one reaches Full HD / 30fps.
We now know the main features: Night, Portrait, Expert, Adhesive, Panoramic, Time-lapse and Slow motion (1080p). Artificial intelligence, HDR and Macro mode are also inevitable. OPPO uses an interesting system to take macros, using the 8MP wide-angle sensor to guarantee the user the ability to focus on the subject even at a distance of 2.5 cm (usually macros are taken at a fixed focus at 4 cm) . The possibility of taking macros is certainly interesting, but the final results are always to be used on the social side and little more.
Moving on to a more usual scenario, the quadruple rear camera takes great photos. These are quite interesting in good light conditions, while they tend to get lost a bit in dark contexts. However, the AI Ultra Night mode is really able to improve the situation, making visible the details that would normally be almost completely in the dark. The noise in some contexts is noticeable, but we must say that the result is excellent.
The color balance is good and the artificial intelligence and HDR work well, without distorting the image too much. As for the zoom, digitally reaches up to 20x. The 5x and 10x can be used well on the social side, while going further you start to notice all the limitations of the case, but we are on good levels. In short, the Find X2 Lite rear cameras are promoted.
Different speech for the front camera. In fact, the latter, while guaranteeing discrete results, is unable to excel in this price range. The general quality is not the best and this is probably also due to the choice of using a sensor with particularly small dimensions. We are on more than acceptable levels, of course, but we would have expected more. Entering the video field, the Ultra Steady 2.0 mode is excellent and is able to stabilize everything properly. However, by activating it, the resolution is automatically brought to 1080p / 60fps.
Ultimately, the photographic sector of Find X2 Neo is excellent, even if it comes down to some compromises. You can see some uncompressed photos by consulting our Drive folder dedicated to OPPO Find X2 Neo.
Speaking of autonomy, the smartphone has a 4025 mAh battery. We often arrived in the evening with 25-30% of the remaining charge. We cannot get to the second day, at least with our type of use, and there are solutions that can offer better results, but we are on good levels and there is absolutely no complaining.
Do not underestimate the 30W VOOC 4.0 charging support, which allows you to fully charge your smartphone in about an hour (or slightly less). As for the connectivity sector, it is practically everything in its place: we find support for 5G, 4G LTE, dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth 5.1. The audio jack for the headphones is missing, but the USB Type-C earphones in the package are excellent and solve the problem. The other absences are the usual ones: waterproofness and wireless charging.
A flaw on which it is worth dwelling is the possibility of inserting a single SIM, which could make a certain type of users turn up their noses, but in reality many 5G devices adopt this solution.
Excellent the stereo audio sector, which supports Dolby Atmos, has an above average general quality and has a good maximum volume (our tests have scored 83 dBA).
Summing up, the OPPO Find X2 Neo technical sheet is very complete and, as mentioned above, there are few flaws.
Software
One of the most criticized aspects of OPPO smartphones is definitely the software. In fact, ColorOS has always been a little "mistreated" by enthusiasts, guilty of not meeting too much the "western" style. However, Find X2 Neo mounts the ColorOS 7 based on Android 10, customization capable of making excellent improvements to the graphic interface and to the functionalities. An important novelty is the Dark Mode, which adapts optimally to the system. In addition, there is a very interesting experimental feature that manages to "force" the dark theme even on third-party applications that have not yet adopted it (such as Facebook).
We then find countless interesting possibilities, from the quick bar accessible with a swipe from right to left to the duplication of the app. In short, OPPO has worked splendidly on the software and the fluidity of the system is high. For more details on the customization of the Chinese company, we advise you to consult our insights on ColorOS 7.1 and the main differences with the Realme UI.
Performance and benchmarks
Coming to the usual performance tests, Find X2 Neo performs very well on a daily basis, but there are other solutions that surpass it in terms of brute force.
For benchmark lovers, the device has recorded a total of 326550 points on AnTuTu Benchmark. On Geekbench, however, it reached 614 points in single-core and 1790 points in multi-core. They are good numbers, but in the average of the price range.
To give you a concrete example, Google Pixel 4 XL, which is at prices very similar to Find X2 Neo, reaches 424853 points on AnTuTu.
However, the choice of OPPO is actually much more prudent than you might think from the mere benchmarks. In fact, the Snapdragon 765G processor manages to work well in terms of energy savings and the presence of 12GB of RAM and a screen with a refresh rate of 90 Hz guarantees very high fluidity both in the daily environment and in other contexts. In short, despite not being the most powerful device on the market, Find X2 Neo is the perfect compromise for many users on the performance side.
Gaming
To "stress" OPPO Find X2 Neo properly, we have chosen three titles: Call of Duty Mobile, ARK: Survival Evolved and Asphalt 9. These are all games that can put even the smartphones of this range to the test.
Call of Duty Mobile runs without any kind of problem with details and FPS set to "Very high". If you want to access the maximum fluidity, just "play" for a moment with the options. Among other things, COD Mobile can easily cover the part in front of the camera hole.
Same goes for Asphalt 9, which runs perfectly on this smartphone. We come, therefore, to the "real" test, or ARK: Survival Evolved. Well, Find X2 Neo manages to discreetly manage it only at "Low". In fact, by setting the graphics to "Medium", you often notice lag. In short, ARK confirms our impressions and benchmarks, highlighting the limits of the hardware sector.
For the rest, the usual is present gaming mode called Space Game, which acts as a hub for installed titles, optimizes performance and has the classic additional features. As regards the cooling system based on the vapor chamber, OPPO has made improvements and the body never "warms up" too much. Very interesting the excellent signal reception even in landscape, thanks to the 360-degree antennas, an aspect that is also appreciated on the gaming side.
