The Find X2 Lite is the cheapest member of the Find X2 family. How does it stack up to the fierce mid-range competition?
Should I Buy The Oppo Find X2 Lite?
Pros
- Great performance
- Excellent cameras
- Vibrant OLED display
Cons
- Iffy photo processing
Our Verdict
- The Oppo Find X2 Lite is a solid mid-range phone, with excellent performance, quality cameras and a fairly nice design.
Price When Reviewed
- £399
In the spring of 2020, Oppo launched two new phones to complete its Find X2 range of smartphones: the Find X2 Neo and more affordable Find X2 Lite. The addition of these two models make the range much more accessible, considering the flagship Find X2 and Find X2 Pro can easily hit four figures.
That sort of price will be too much for many people, but if you’re considering parting that sort of cash for a smartphone, you probably won’t be disappointed. We loved the Pro model when testing it for our recent review.
While the Neo is significantly more affordable at £599, the Lite model offers the same processor alongside competitive specs for just £399. But is it worth it? Read on to find out.
Design And Build
Let’s start with the exterior: the Find X2 Lite has an excellent finish and very good build quality. Oppo has more than demonstrated its ability to design mid-range phones that do a good job of imitating high-end models.
However, one notable difference is the switch to a polycarbonate (plastic) back, a noticeable difference when compared to the high-end Find X2 Pro. Oppo has used a glass effect here though, which makes the device look much more elegant. This also means it’s a fingerprint magnet, but that’s an inevitable consequence of the design.
We tested the version with a black finish, all it’s available in a striking pearl white if you prefer.
The phone is light but solid at the same time, feeling good in the hand. It’s impossible to ignore the quadruple rear camera setup, arranged vertically. It’s good to see that there’s little to no camera bump, as the sensors sit flush with the back of the phone.
The aforementioned polycarbonate has also made its way to the sides of the phone, although the matte finish does a good job of hiding the fact that we’re dealing with a cheaper material here. On the right side there’s the usual power button and volume rockers, as well as a SIM card tray.
We also have an in-display fingerprint scanner here, which is impressive to see on such an affordable phone. The optical sensor has proven to be pretty accurate, and more reliable than some we’ve tested in the past.
On the bottom of the device, we also get a welcome surprise: a 3.5mm headphone jack! The port is relatively few and far between these days, and we’re sure many people will appreciate its return on the Find X2 Lite.
Screen
The display is framed by fairly narrow bezels, although the chin on the bottom of the device is still a bit thick. The selfie camera is housed in a teardrop notch located centrally, something that’s only come to budget phones relatively recently.
Personally, I’m more used to seeing the selfie camera tucked into one corner of the screen. The arrangement here was annoying at first (especially when watching videos), but as with any notch I soon got used to it.
On the other hand, I was extremely happy to see an AMOLED panel here, something that’s still quite rare on mid-range phones. Although the phone doesn’t have the curved “infinity” design that we’ve seen on Samsung phones in the past, the 6.4in panel is fairly good without offering anything out of the ordinary.
The Full HD+ (2400x1080) resolution is generally considered the minimum for a decent mobile gaming experience.
The display is still 60Hz, but we haven’t come to expect higher refresh rates on all mid-range phones just yet. However, it is a big step down from high-end handsets, which offer as much as 240Hz.
The screen can easily be seen in well-lit environments (although it does struggle a bit outdoors), offering sharp but at times oversaturated colours. However, this can be customised to your liking in settings.
Cameras
The Find X2 Lite’s cameras are fairly standard for this price point, but they don’t stand out or offer perfect results. That’s especially true when you compare it to the excellent cameras on its bigger brother, the Find X2 Pro.
Still, at under £400, the Find X2 Lite’s cameras stack up well against the competition. The main 48Mp and 8Mp wide-angle are joined by a 2Mp monochrome (for black-and-white photos) and 2Mp depth sensor (for portrait-style photos).
I would have preferred a macro sensor instead of monochrome, but I’m fairly satisfied with the main sensor, which is the one you’ll probably be using the most.
As you can see in the images below, the phone struggles to handle exposure with HDR turned on, especially in areas which aren’t so well lit. It tends to oversaturate some elements too, especially in the green tones, something that will be particularly noticeable if you regularly take photos of landscapes or nature.
I’d also have liked to see a higher megapixel count in the wide-angle lens, but even in its current form the sensor is able to capture high quality images in good lighting conditions.
Again, the quality of these images is clear, with a good dynamic range and level of detail. I tend to prefer the saturated look when editing photos, so these shots fit with my personal taste, although a professional photographer might have a different opinion.
The ‘bokeh’ effect, whereby the subject is in focus but the background blurred, also achieves good results. The edge detection isn’t always the most accurate, but most images look fairly pleasing to the eye.
As mentioned previously, the monochrome sensor allows you to take black and white photos directly from the camera app. It’s probably the lens you’ll use the least, but I don’t mind having it here.
Without a telephoto lens, there’s no chance for optical zoom. The digital version goes up to 10x, but as you can see in the images below, you start to lose significant detail from 5x onwards.
Clockwise from left: 1x, 2x, 10x, 5x:
The 32Mp selfie camera is capable of decent results. I really liked how many options there were in the app, including a highly customisable beauty mode.
Speaking of the app, this is one of the most complete of any mid-range phone I’ve recently tested. It’s generally easy to use and intuitive, making it easy to switch between modes. By default ‘Night’, ‘Video’, ‘Photo’, ‘Portrait’ and ‘More’ are listed, but there are plenty more options available.
These include an ‘Expert’ mode (which I’m sure serious photographers will appreciate), alongside ‘Stickers’, slow mo, time lapse and Google Lens.
At the top, there’s an HDR toggle as well as ‘Dazzling Colour’ mode, which makes the colours even more vivid.
On the video side, having image stabilisation helps the Find X2 Lite greatly, with options to shoot in 720p, 1080p or 4K at 30fps.
The stabilisation is made up of optical and image, and works across a variety of different scenarios. At times, handheld video can even look like it was recorded on a tripod.
Check out a 4K video sample from the Find X2 Lite in the original review.
Performance
Let’s not beat around the bush: the Find X2 Lite’s performance is good. It responds very quickly to commands, while I experienced no lag during testing. It even works well while playing mobile games, although I’d recommend a dedicated gaming phone if that’s a priority for you.
Opening a wide variety of apps and multitasking is fluid and fast, too. This is due in part to the excellent choice of processor - Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G, one of the best processors you can find in a mid-range phone. This is complemented by 8GB of RAM and 128GB of built-in storage.
To put the performance of the Find X2 Lite into context, I’ve compared it to some of the competition that offers similar specs. As you can see from the chart below, you get very similar results to the Motorola Edge, Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro and Realme 6 Pro.
The price difference is striking when you consider how similar the specs are across all four devices. Of course, opting for the cheaper phone might not always be the best strategy in the long run, and performance isn’t the only area where the phones should be compared.
Battery Life
The Find X2 Lite comes with a 4025mAh battery which performed well in my testing. In Geekbench 4’s battery test, with the phone set to around 120 nits of brightness it recorded 10 hours and 3 minutes.
The phone also comes with 30W fast charging out of the box, which was able to get the device to 68% in just 30 minutes from off. By the 50 minute mark, it had reached 98%.
Speakers
The most remarkable thing with regards to audio is Oppo’s decision to include a 3.5mm headphone jack. There’s also a pair of wired headphones in the box, which work surprisingly well.
Audio across the board is good - hard bass, crisp treble and decent volume - everything we could hope for in a good quality mid-range smartphone.
Additionally, the Find X2 Lite incorporates Dolby Atmos, which further improves the sound when turned on. This can be customised to your liking via the equalizer app pre-installed on the phone.
However, it’s not all good news. We did notice some distortion to the sound at high volumes, to the extent that it’s unpleasant at times.
Software
The Find X2 comes with Google’s latest Android 10, but with Oppo’s own ColorOS 7 skin over the top. Unlike many custom skins, it’s something I like for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it’s very clean and uncluttered. There’s no bloatware, and all the uninstallable Oppo apps were useful. Aesthetically, it also looks quite elegant, something which plays a big role in how much you enjoy using the phone.
Oppo has its own voice recorder and image gallery apps, alongside another I really loved - Oppo Relax. This app features lots of different sounds to help you relax or become more focused.
Soloop is another pre-installed app which I was fond of. It allows you to create videos with various customisable special effects. Combined with the aforementioned image stabilisation, you can get some excellent results.
Check out a Soloop video sample in the original review.
There’s also plenty of opportunity for customisation, something that many people will appreciate. The navigation buttons, display, virtual assistant can all be adjusted according to your liking, while you can also set gestures to correspond to particular actions.
The latter is an increasingly common feature on modern smartphones, but it’s presence here is definitely still worth mentioning. An example of this is sliding three fingers down the screen to mute calls, take screenshots and much more.
Price And Value For Money
The cheapest phone in the Find X2 Family, the Oppo Find X2 Lite costs £399 in the UK. The only configuration offers 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. The company has a list of trusted retailers on its website, which include Amazon and Currys PC World.
At this price, it’s firmly in mid-range phone territory, going head-to-head with the likes of Google Pixel 3a and Xiaomi Mi Note 10. In this fiercely competitive market, Oppo does an impressive job of standing out from the crowd, proving there’s value for money away from the big hitters.
Verdict
The Oppo Find X2 Lite is a well balanced mid-range phone. It offers good features across nearly all the key areas, with its solid processor enabling excellent performance and great battery life.
The points in its favour don’t stop there, as the phone is well-suited for mobile gaming and the camera offers some superb image stabilization.
The exterior of the phone makes it obvious we’re not dealing with a flagship, although that doesn’t mean the design is poor in any way. The camera is prone to oversaturation, but it generally takes very good photos.
If you’ve been attracted by the Find X2 Pro but your budget can’t quite stretch that far, the mid-range Find X2 Neo is another option worth considering. It has the same processor as the Lite, but there’s more RAM (12GB) and a higher quality curved display.
Specs
- 6.4 ”AMOLED screen (2400 x 1080 pixels) 60Hz
- RAM: 8GB / ROM: 128GB
- Processor: Snapdragon 765G
- Rear cameras: 48 MP (f / 1.7), Wide Angle 8 MP (f / 2.2), Monochrome 2 MP (f / 2.4), Depth 2 MP (f / 2.4)
- Selfie camera: 32 MP (f / 2.0)
- Battery: 4025 mAh
- 30W fast charge
- Android 10 (ColorOS 7)
- Bluetooth 5.1
- NFC
- Wi-Fi 6
- 5G
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- In-screen fingerprint scanner
- 180g
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