Oppo Turns the Find X9 Ultra Smartphone Into a Mirrorless Camera, but There’s a Catch

held a presentation where it unveiled two devices from its high-end Find X9 series at once.

Despite the hefty 7025 mAh battery, Oppo's engineers managed to keep the Find X9s body thickness under 7.99 mm. It uses reinforced Gorilla Glass 7i, and the bezels around the 6.59-inch AMOLED display (120Hz) have been slimmed down to 1.15 mm. The manufacturer specifically highlights comprehensive protection: the device is IP66, IP68, and IP69 certified. The hardware platform is built around a MediaTek Dimensity 9500s processor with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM. The OS is ColorOS 16 based on Android 16 with a commitment to four major OS updates. The software includes a set of AI Mind Space tools for processing notes, screenshots, and documents offline.

The Find X9s camera module, developed with Hasselblad, doesn't boast record-breaking zoom but delivers consistent quality across three focal lengths: a 50MP main sensor (1/1.56", OIS), a 50MP ultrawide (120°), and a 50MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom and hybrid zoom up to 120x. The phone is priced at $910 (around 68,000 rubles).

The second announcement was aimed at mobile photography enthusiasts. The Oppo Find X9 Ultra features a 200MP main sensor with a physical size of 1/1.12 inches — one of the largest among current smartphones with similar resolution — but the main change concerns the long-focus optics. The manufacturer has put a separate 50MP telephoto lens into the body, delivering 10x optical zoom without loss of detail.

Alongside the device, there's a Hasselblad 300mm Explorer Teleconverter accessory. Unlike last year's version for the Pro model, the external lens's magnification factor has increased from 3.28x to 4.3x. When you attach the converter to the 3x (200MP) telephoto module, you get the equivalent of 13x optical zoom. The mounting design has been reworked so the attachment no longer blocks the other lenses, fixing a problem of the previous generation.

Performance duties for the Ultra version fall to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. The 6.82-inch display supports a 144Hz refresh rate and has a peak brightness of 3600 nits. The silicon-carbon battery capacity is 7050 mAh. Professional video features include support for 8K recording at 30fps and ACES certification for end-to-end color management in post-production. In Europe, the Find X9 Ultra goes on sale on May 8, with a recommended retail price of $1950 (around 146,000 rubles).

Both new models will continue to compete with the recently released Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Vivo X300 Ultra in the "camphone" segment. If the Find X9s looks like a balanced everyday proposition with rare-for-the-market body protection, the Find X9 Ultra targets an audience willing to put up with the device's bulk and the cost of external accessories for the sake of maximum optical zoom in their pocket.

In 2026, is a detachable teleconverter on a smartphone really justified, or is the built-in 10x zoom on the Ultra version already enough for most scenarios? Share your thoughts in the comments.