Can a smartphone truly replace a dedicated digital camera? That’s been the goal for Oppo’s Find X flagship phone line for a few generations now, through a mix of high-grade hardware, image processing influenced by photography legend Hasselblad, and a series of optional accessory kits that give epic amounts of zoom.
Chinese rivals including Vivo and Honor have since gotten in on the act, helping them stand out from the big-name Western brands that seem more interested in AI-assisted zoom enhancements that don’t always look convincing.
I was a big fan of the Find X9 Pro and was blown away by the Find X9 Ultra’s Earth Explorer Kit. Now it’s the turn of the Find X10 Pro. Max. I’ve spent the last few days putting the firm’s latest effort – the X10 Pro Max Hasselblad Teleconverter Kit – through its paces in Mallorca, Spain across a range of lighting conditions. Simply put, it’s an obvious pick for Western phone photographers.
What you get in the box
Oppo has expanded this year’s camera kit, adding a faux leather carry pouch and a fabric carry strap on top of the phone case, mounting clip and lens extender.
The case is very handy for keeping both the lens itself and the metal mounting clip safe when not bolted to the phone, with a fabric lining to prevent scratches. The strap has quick-release clips that can be threaded though the included phone case in your choice of orientations, should you favour landscape photos over TikTok-friendly portrait snaps.
I like the case’s textured rear finish, which adds a useful bit of extra grip, and the fact it has a MagSafe-compatible ring for snapping magnetic accessories like power banks onto the back. The white finish is a great match to the Find X10 Pro Max’s new White colourway.
There’s no no integrated grip or physical shutter button like you’ll find on the Find X9 Ultra’s Earth Explorer kit. I missed the latter, now Oppo has removed the pressure-sensitive button from the Find X10 Pro Max’s right side.
Putting a new spin on the Find X9 Pro’s square camera island rather than keep the circular style seen on the Find X9 Ultra means the metal lens mount once again blocks off the other lenses once you slide it over the case’s protruding lens surround. You’ll have to pull it off every time you want to go back to regular snapping.
The lens itself is machined from metal and uses real glass elements. It’s weighty, so feels every bit the luxe bit of kit.
The kit in action
Once the lens is securely fitted with a push and twist, you’ve got to pick the specific Hasselblad Teleconverter mode from the camera’s mode menu; I moved it to one of the bottom shortcuts, which was far more convenient, but it’s a shame it doesn’t detect the lens and switch automatically.
From that point on it’s point and shoot, only with a much more magnified view of the world. It defaults to 10x optical magnification, with 20x and 40x shortcuts using a mix of sensor cropping and Oppo’s AI Telescope zoom – which lets you get as close as 200x, or 50x for video.
The resulting photos I captured quickly reveal that reach and background blur are the Lens Extender’s two defining achievements. A lossless 10x magnification has anything Apple, Google or Samsung currently offers beaten for fine detail, even with AI-enhanced processing like Pro Res Zoom. The Find X10 Pro Max having a physically larger telephoto sensor helps, of course. There’s no contest at 40x, though Oppo is using some machine learning algorithms of its own by this point.
Low light ability is also a standout, being able to capture clean images from a distance even when the subject is in motion, without turning details to mush or having to ramp up the image noise.
Focus on a foreground subject and the amount of bokeh blur on display is stunning, adding a sense of depth you just can’t get from a phone on its lonesome. I also liked being able to get closer for street photography snaps without having to be right in my subjects faces, meaning more candid shots I’d never be able to get with a phone.
I did run into a few hurdles while testing. While the 10x magnification isn’t quite as restrictive for close subjects as the Find X9 Ultra’s 13x Earth Explorer kit, you’re still getting much closer than a phone might in any native zoom mode; I was having to take the lens off a fair bit while in a narrow Mallorcan mountain village, just to fit scenes into the frame. That also meant manually enabling the right camera mode each time. You’re also absolutely not going to fit this kit in your pocket while bolted to the phone and it’s extra weight to carry while out and about.
Should you buy the Hasselblad Lens Extender kit?
Oppo’s kits are still some of the most fun I’ve had taking pictures with a smartphone, because it came with purpose. I wasn’t just reaching for my pocket whenever a shooting opportunity came up, but actively walking around with it in my hands (or hanging off the shoulder strap), looking for subjects and scenes to snap.
It’s by no means an impulse purchase at £299, if you miss out on the various early bird offers doing the rounds at launch time. But if you’ve had your head turned by the Find X10 Pro Max, it’s likely because you care about phone photography, so the lens extender should absolutely be on your shopping list too.
