Oppo Find X9 Ultra review: Flagship phone of the year

The premium smartphone space is no longer just about fast processors or bright displays. Brands are now chasing something bigger — a phone that can replace multiple gadgets at once. Buyers spending over Rs 1 lakh expect DSLR-like cameras, console-level gaming, long battery life, smooth multitasking, and charging speeds that don’t force them to stay near a wall socket. That is exactly the space the Oppo Find X9 Ultra wants to dominate. With the Find X9 Ultra, Oppo is clearly targeting power users who want the "everything phone." It enters a segment already packed with heavyweights like the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, Vivo X300 Ultra, and Xiaomi 17 Ultra. The competition is fierce, but Oppo has managed to create a flagship that feels polished in most areas instead of excelling in just one.

What surprised me most during my time with the device is how balanced the overall experience feels. Yes, the cameras are the headline feature, but this is also a seriously capable gaming phone, a fantastic multimedia device, and one of the best battery performers I have tested recently. But every phone has some cons, and this stands true for the new Oppo phone too. The interesting part over here is the Rs 1,69,999 price tag, making it the most expensive flagship phone of the year. So, the question is, is the Oppo Find X9 Ultra a big bang for your buck? Well, we have tried to answer that in the review.

Design: Bold, premium, and unapologetically Ultra

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra looks exactly like what an Ultra phone should look like — large, flashy, and impossible to ignore. Oppo is offering the device in two very different finishes. The Tundra Umber edition leans heavily into camera-inspired aesthetics with vegan leather textures and design cues borrowed from Hasselblad cameras. It feels classy and slightly retro. The Canyon Orange variant, which I received for review, goes in the opposite direction. It is loud, vibrant, and instantly grabs attention.

The orange candy finish reminded me of Apple's recent viral Cosmic Orange iPhone model, but Oppo has managed to give it its own personality. It is the kind of phone people notice immediately when you place it on a table. If you prefer subtle and elegant designs, the black version makes more sense. But if you enjoy carrying something visually striking, the orange model absolutely stands out. The massive camera module dominates the rear panel, though it does more than just add visual drama. Surprisingly, it improves grip because my index finger naturally rests against it while holding the phone. Yes, the device wobbles on flat surfaces, but that is expected with a camera system this large.

At 235g, the phone is undeniably heavy, and the thickness is noticeable too. Thankfully, Oppo has rounded the edges well enough that it never feels uncomfortable during daily use. This is not a compact flagship pretending to be practical. It fully embraces the "Ultra" identity.

Oppo has also borrowed a few ideas from Apple’s recent iPhones by adding both an Action Button and a dedicated camera control key. The Action Button is genuinely useful because you can customise it for shortcuts and quick actions like adjusting volume status. The dedicated camera key, however, feels underutilised right now. You can launch the camera app, zoom, and capture photos with it, but Oppo still hasn’t added deeper controls for focus, exposure, sharpness and other adjustments, which will offer a better experience while using the Master mode. It feels like a feature with strong potential that still needs software refinement.

One thing I genuinely appreciated is the IP68 and IP69 rating. The Find X9 Ultra feels like a phone you can confidently use without constantly worrying about water or dust damage, especially during rainy season.

Display: Built for binge watching and gaming

-6.82-inch QHD+ AMOLED 10-bit panel
-1-120Hz adaptive, maximum 144Hz refresh rate
-1,800nits HBM brightness, 3,600nits peak brightness

Switching to the Find X9 Ultra after using smaller phones like Vivo X300 FE and Galaxy S26 genuinely feels like moving to a mini tablet. The 6.82-inch display is massive, but once you get used to it, it becomes difficult to go back. This is easily one of the strongest parts of the phone.

The QHD+ AMOLED panel looks stunning in daily use. It delivers deep blacks, punchy colours, excellent contrast, and strong brightness levels. Watching content on Netflix or YouTube feels pleasing because the display simply has a lot of presence. The HDR content especially looks fantastic here. While watching Stranger Things in HDR on Netflix, darker Upside Down scenes looked rich and cinematic with deep blacks, while red lighting, neon signs, and flashlight effects appeared vibrant and intense on the AMOLED panel. During night sequences in Hawkins, the display also maintained good facial details and shadow clarity instead of making darker areas look muddy or overly black. The screen has a slightly warm colour tuning, which is also easier on the eyes compared to some aggressively saturated displays.

The 144Hz refresh rate sounds impressive on paper, though in reality, the phone mostly operates between 90Hz and 120Hz, depending on the app. Some demanding apps appeared capped at lower refresh rates unless manually adjusted. Oddly, I could not force 144Hz in any specific app like Chrome, though a few titles like Clash of Clans did support it automatically. Still, the overall experience remains extremely smooth, and honestly, the difference between 120Hz and 144Hz is difficult to notice in regular usage.

Brightness management deserves praise, too. Auto brightness worked reliably during my testing, which is rare because I usually end up manually adjusting brightness on many Android phones. Outdoor visibility is excellent, while the low (1 nit) minimum brightness makes night-time usage comfortable. Gaming on this display feels excellent because the large screen gives you more viewing space during matches, while touch response feels quick and accurate.

Oppo has also included 2160Hz PWM dimming for users sensitive to display flickering, and the front is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2. Despite a couple of accidental drops during testing, I didn’t notice any scratches on the panel. Overall, this is a proper flagship-grade display that delivers where it matters.

Performance: Fast, powerful, but not perfect under pressure

The Find X9 Ultra runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, and unsurprisingly, the performance is excellent. I enabled Maximum Performance Mode before running benchmarks, and the numbers were predictably massive.

-The phone scored 10,251 in Geekbench's multi-core test, which shows it can comfortably handle heavy tasks like gaming, video editing, and multitasking without slowing down.

-In AnTuTu, the device crossed 4.3 million points, making it the highest-scoring flagship phone currently available. In real-world usage, this translates to extremely fast app loading times, smoother multitasking, and consistently fluid overall performance.

-In the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test, the phone recorded a best loop score of 7,996 with 67 per cent stability. This suggests strong graphics performance for demanding games, although performance drops significantly during longer gaming sessions due to heat buildup.

-The CPU Throttle test showed the processor dropping to 57 per cent of its maximum performance under sustained heavy load. This means the phone prioritises temperature control during extended stress, which leads to some performance reduction during long gaming or rendering sessions.

In daily usage, the phone feels incredibly responsive. Apps launch instantly, multitasking feels effortless, and heavy editing workloads are handled comfortably. Whether I was juggling multiple apps, exporting some personal videos, or switching between games and social media, the device never felt slow. Gaming performance is flagship-level, too.

I played Genshin Impact at High settings with 60fps enabled, and the overall experience was smooth for the most part. Exploration, combat, and fast camera movement felt fluid, while touch response remained sharp during intense fights. That said, sustained performance is not flawless. During longer gaming sessions, the phone did get noticeably warm. I also noticed occasional frame dips during visually intense combat scenes with multiple effects happening simultaneously. The thermal behaviour became more noticeable while running heavy benchmark tests like 3DMark, though the extremely hot weather in Noida during testing likely contributed as well.

To Oppo's credit, the phone never became uncomfortable to hold, nor did gaming become unplayable. But this is not the coolest-running flagship I have tested this year.

Battery life: Surprisingly good optimisation

Battery life ended up being one of the biggest highlights of the Find X9 Ultra. A lot of phones today are shipping with 7,000mAh batteries, but software optimisation still makes a huge difference and Oppo has nailed it here.

Even with heavy usage that included quick gaming sessions, music streaming, WhatsApp usage, background apps, camera usage, and YouTube playback, the phone consistently delivered excellent endurance. On several days, I still had around 40 per cent battery left by bedtime, which genuinely impressed me considering how aggressively I used the device.

The charging speeds are equally solid. The bundled 100W SuperVOOC charger takes the phone from 8 to 100 per cent in roughly 37 minutes, which feels fast enough given the huge battery inside. More importantly, Oppo still includes the charger in the retail box, something brands like Apple and Samsung continue to avoid in their flagship devices.

Camera: How is the performance?

The Find X9 Ultra delivers a polished daylight camera experience that feels properly flagship-grade. Looking at the samples, the phone captures excellent detail without making images look artificially sharp. The chandelier shot is a good example of this, where the camera manages to preserve the intricate crystal detailing and warm lighting without blowing out highlights. The exposure control also looks impressive, especially in scenes with multiple light sources.

The colour tuning is another area where Oppo seems to have done a great job. The flower arrangement and duck sculpture shots show vibrant colours, but the processing never feels overdone. In fact, the pink tones, greenery, and even the red beak on the sculpture look rich while still maintaining a natural appearance. The camera also creates pleasing background blur, giving close-up shots a more premium and DSLR-like feel. HDR performance is equally strong. In the building shot, the Find X9 Ultra balances the bright sky and shadow-heavy structure very well, retaining texture across the frame without excessive processing. However, the ultra-wide shots have pincushion distortion, and the details are also quite soft with average dynamic range.

The camera performs impressively well in portrait photography, delivering sharp subject detail, pleasing skin tones, and a strong natural depth effect across different lighting conditions. The edge separation is handled cleanly, especially around hair and facial contours, giving the portraits a polished DSLR-like feel without appearing overly artificial. The dynamic range is also handled well. I can say this because the highlights and shadows remain balanced while preserving facial texture and colour accuracy. The background blur appears smooth and cinematic, helping subjects stand out naturally while maintaining depth in the frame. Even indoor and ambient-light shots retain clarity with minimal noise, showcasing strong low-light optimisation and effective exposure control.

The X9 Ultra's zoom photography is good, especially in real-world usage. Even at higher zoom levels, the camera manages to retain strong detail in architectural shots, with textures, patterns, and distant subjects looking sharp without excessive artificial sharpening. Night zoom shots also hold up well, controlling noise while preserving highlights and reflections naturally. What makes the experience better is the consistency, the colours remain balanced across lenses, stabilisation is reliable for handheld shots, and distant objects don’t turn into smudged watercolour-like images.

Click on any photo below to access all the camera samples in the album

The X9 Ultra offers a decent night photography experience with bright shots. I like that the camera avoids the common issue of overexposing scenes just to make them look brighter, resulting in photos that preserve the actual nighttime atmosphere. In fact, the light sources like streetlamps and building lights are handled well with controlled flaring, while shadows still retain depth instead of turning muddy. The colours remain accurate under artificial lighting, and the overall output has a clean, flagship-like look that works consistently across different lighting conditions.

Oppo Find X9 Ultra review verdict: Should you buy it?

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra feels like a true Ultra phone in almost every sense. It delivers a gorgeous display, excellent battery life, powerful cameras, flagship-grade gaming performance, and charging speeds that still embarrass many rivals. More importantly, the overall experience feels refined instead of experimental.

It is not perfect. The phone is bulky, thermals could have been better during sustained gaming, and the dedicated camera control button still feels underdeveloped compared to its potential. But despite those flaws, the Find X9 Ultra succeeds at what matters most - making everyday usage feel premium. For users who want one Android phone that does nearly everything well, Oppo has built a seriously compelling flagship here. People who feel the phone is a little out of their budget can wait for a few months, especially during big festival sales, to buy it.