Review: Taking photos with the new OPPO Find X3 Pro —  the world’s first smartphone with a Full-Path Billion Colour management system

Earlier this month, OPPO announced the Find X3 Pro, their newest smartphone that’s been talked about since last year and has been highly-anticipated because of its rumoured billion colour display, photos and videos. And those leaked specs proved to be true; the Find X3 Pro has the world’s first Full-Path Billion Colour management system that includes two Billion Colour flagship cameras. Here’s the teaser on this:

The smartphone is available in two finishes: Gloss Black and Blue, with both sporting the same specs of 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Just looking at the phone, you know that it was designed to impress. It has a “Space Age Design” that is sleek, elegant and expensive-looking, and during the week of testing, was resistant to scratches (very impressive!).

It has a water resistant rating of 5ATM (meaning it can withstand water pressure of up to about 50 metres), which makes it good for splashes, the shower and swimming — just no water sports or diving in the sea.

The smartphone is extremely speedy; switching between apps and just doing regular tasks within apps is remarkably fast. But this comes as no surprise considering the screen has a refresh rate of up to 120Hz (the standard refresh rate for most phones is 60Hz) and the phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset — all top-of-the-line specs for any smartphone in the market now.

There are four lenses on the back and one selfie camera on the front. They include the following:

• Wide angle: 50MP Sony IMX 766 sensor, 1/1.56″ sensor size, f/1.8 aperture, 6P lens, OIS, All Pixel Omni-directional PDAF
• Ultra-wide angle: 50MP Sony IMX 766 sensor, 1/1.56″ sensor size, f/2.2 aperture, 7P lens, 4cm macro shooting
• Telephoto camera: 13MP f/2.4 aperture, 5P lens, 5x hybrid optical zoom, 20x digital zoom
• Microlens: 3MP sensor with 60x magnification, f/3.0, 77° FOV, 4P lens
• Selfie camera: 32MP sensor, f/2.4 aperture, 5P lens

To showcase the Find X3 Pro camera’s capabilities, OPPO will present its first-ever photography exhibition titled, “Painting With Light, Palettes of Singapore”, which happens 10 April to 16 May 2021 at the ArtScience Museum. The exhibition will feature works captured using the 10-bit colour depth of the Find X3 Pro by four local photographers: Wilfred Lim, Venus Oh, Kimberly Kiong, and Adele Chan (that’s me).

I was most curious about the microlens seeing that no other smartphone has this functionality built-in. It can shoot photos with a magnification of 60x, and creates very interesting — and educational — images. There’s a ring light that automatically lights up when the lens is activated, and this fill light is needed because you’re shooting extremely close to the subject, and will inadvertently block all available surrounding light.

My series of photos,  “Food For Thought”, takes the viewer through a visual appreciation of popular food items and ingredients that commonly make their way to the dining table. I used the phone’s microlens camera to capture the close-up shots on display, and the resulting images appear artful, are thought-provoking and help us see our food in a different light. For example, at a 60x magnification, the gills of a mud crab appear alien, and the shell of an oyster resembles a river bed; while the raw flesh of pork and its skin looks — as my 10-year-old says — “gross”.

Here are some sample photos taken using the new OPPO Find X3 Pro. Note that these pictures are different from the ones shown in the exhibition.

[Click on the images to enlarge]

Swimming pool on a sunny day photographed top down. The camera did a good job capturing the texture and detail of the water despite the harsh reflections from the sun.

Look carefully and you can see the specs of rain on the camera lens. Impressive.

Rain drops on a car window pane. Beautiful colour rendering from the smartphone.

Photo of a road taken behind a wet windscreen while stationary. The picture came out looking like a painting.

Oysters in the tank at Sheng Siong. The colour gradient was captured well by the lens.

Fish at Sheng Siong lit by the supermarket LED lights.

Macro shot of the bar snack at Nineteen80. Taken in the dark and lit by the smartphone's 'fill light' flash.

Microlens photo of the bar snack (magnified at 60x). Very oily. As expected.

The bright colours of Melben's Chilli Crab represented well.

Microlens shot of the crab shell.

My favourite hawker dish, char kway teow. Photographed top down in natural light.

Close-up of the cockle from my char kway teow.

Roti Prata stall at Tanglin Halt, taken with harsh sunlight.

Taken at Tanglin Halt in bright sunlight. The exposure on this photo turned out well, with no overexposed highlights despite the harsh light.

Taken indoors at NINETEEN80. The interior was fairly dim save for the light coming from the arcade machines. The camera captured the vibrant colours on the wall and machines well.

The vibrant exterior of Thian Hock Temple at Telok Ayer Street. The colours translate well from the lens, to the phone's display, and subsequently to this blog post.

This was taken at a dark corner of Orchard Central where K.Star has temporarily closed their outlet due to COVID. The gradient colour reflected on the door turned out well.

One of the rooms was open and I snapped a quick picture of an almost pitch-black room. The camera picked up ambient light and managed to capture some of the colours inside the room.

Some things to note about taking photos with a microlens:

• You need to go up close to the subject. Around 4mm away.
• Your hand needs to be steady because at 60x magnification, any small movement will cause a “large” movement on screen.
• Use a tripod if you really want to take clear, sharp pictures.
• Don’t be afraid to touch the item you’re shooting with the lens and to get it “dirty”. The phone can withstand liquids; you can give it a wash with soap and water when you’re done.
• The pictures taken with the microlens come out in a square format; if you prefer a different ratio, change it by simply cropping the photo.
• Show the pictures taken to your friends and kids (if you have kids). Watch them marvel at the world up close.

The OPPO Find X3 Pro, available in blue and gloss black, priced at $1,599. open for pre-orders now till March 26. Available through OPPO’s official stores on SHOPEE and LAZADA.

Pre-orders include a free bundle worth $579, consisting of the OPPO Enco X true wireless noise cancelling earphones ($259), wireless charging stand ($119), Kevlar phone case ($69) and a service bundle with 1TB cloud storage and VIP after-sales care ($132).