Introduction
Few brands say exclusivity, high performance, and stunning looks quite like Italian car maker Lamborghini. So when you hear of the Oppo Find X Lamborghini Edition, you know it's no ordinary smartphone.
That's even if you aren't remotely familiar with the vanilla Find X, which is already pretty unique before the Lambo-inspired changes. After all, how many smartphones exist with a motorized pop-up section housing the cameras?
Anyway, the Lamborghini Edition adds to that a slick black carbon-fiber back, in true super car fashion, plus a black UI theme with golden accents.
It's not just on the surface that the Find X has been Lamborghini-fied, however - it's got a smaller battery so you might think it's gotten the Superleggera treatment, making it lighter. Not really - it weighs the same as the regular Find X, but the 10-ish percent reduction in capacity has been the result of having to fit the bits enabling SuperVOOC fast charging. And with Lamborghini in the name, you'd be correct to assume it's not just plain fast, it's bonkers fast.
With its 512GB on board the Lambo Find X has more storage than you'd need - so unlike the Centenario, even if we do fancy its custom luggage. The handset lacks the option to extend that via a card slot - as if you'd put a cargo box on said Centenario's roof. The Snapdragon 845 is the metaphorical V12 under the hood, and there's 8GB of RAM for your multitasking needs - sorry, we couldn't think of a clever analogy for that (as if the rest of them were any clever).
This handy list below will save us from further embarrassment while also showing you the Find X Lamborghini Edition's key specs. Spoiler: a lot of them are the same as on the non-Lambo Find X.
Oppo Find X Lamborghini Edition specs
- Body: Metal and glass, reflective coating on the back.
- Display: 6.42" AMOLED, 1,080 x 2,340 resolution, 19.5:9 ratio, curved edges.
- Rear camera: Pop-up dual 16 + 20 MP, f/2.0, OIS, PDAF, 4K video, dual-LED flash.
- Front camera: Pop-up 25 MP, f/2.0, 1080p video.
- Software: Color OS 5.1 (based on Android 8.1); Google Assistant.
- Chipset: 10 nm Snapdragon 845, quad 2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold + quad 1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver, Adreno 630.
- Memory: 8GB of RAM, 512GB storage; no microSD slot (as if you'd need one).
- Battery: 3,400mAh, 50W Super VOOC fast charging with the bundled charger.
- Misc: Notch-less bezel-less design with cameras mounted on a slider; 3D face scanning (15,000 points).
Oppo Find X Lamborghini Edition unboxing
The Lamborghini edition comes in a specially designed box with a fine-patterned weave printed on it and golden Oppo and Lamborghini logos on top. The box is also larger than the regular Find X's, but then it also needs to fit more stuff.
Phone aside, the package contains the mighty 50-watt SuperVOOC charger - naturally, black with a golden Lamborghini logo on one side. There's a super nice braided USB cable to go with the SuperVOOC power brick too.
A pair of Oppo O-Free wireless earbuds have also made it into the box. They're not in one of the regular colors (Bordeaux Red and Ice Blue), but have golden Lambo accents to match the rest of the bundle. Same goes for the earbuds' charging case that also gets a Lambo logo. The case itself charges via USB-C like the phone so you don't need to worry about having a separate cable for it.
Now, the Find X isn't a particularly rugged phone, and the Lamborghini Edition comes with a slip-on back cover to help at least a little with that. It covers the sides and bottom corners too, but can't do much about the top - the motorized camera assembly can't be contained.
One thing we almost missed is the USB-C to 3.5mm adapter - it was, after all, tucked away in a box, within a box, within the tray that holds the phone itself.
Design
Well, the phone is a Find X alright. Its all-display front and apparent lack of cameras on either side make for a striking impression before you even get to the Lamborghini bits.
Next to the vanilla Find X
It's the back that is different from any other Find X. Where the regular version can be had in either Bordeaux Red or Glacier Blue, both of them attractive in their own right, the Lamborghini Edition's back has a fine carbon fiber texture underneath the glass. Because what says sports car more loudly than a carbon fiber mesh.
A golden Automobili Lamborghini badge, that's what. The shield logo, complete with the raging bull, graces the phone's lower back. You'll be covering that up when talking on the phone, and in those cases only the less intimidating (but still golden) Oppo logo up top will give out the phone's pedigree.
Now, just because you have money to spare on a Lambo Edition Find X, doesn't mean you wouldn't want to protect it. But then you'd still want to show it off, and that's where the included case comes in.
It's made of plastic but it mimics carbon fiber too, and it has the Lamborghini and Oppo logos where you'd expect them. Due to the Find X's unique slide-out camera assembly, the case can't cover the top, but the glass back and the sides are safe. The bottom corners are covered too, so the case just might save the phone in the event of a drop, just drop it the right way.
Us being the bitter tech reviewers that we are, we have to point out we're not particularly thrilled about the case. Setting aside the fact that it robs the phone from its premium looks, it also hinders usability - the buttons become too hard to press and lose the positive click they have without the case.
Otherwise, this being essentially a Find X, the buttons are well positioned in what is perhaps the best arrangement - power button on the right, volume buttons on the left. Up top, there's the secondary mic and the ambient light sensor, while the bottom houses the primary mic, loudspeaker, dual nano SIM slot, and the USB-C port. It's no ordinary USB-C,
Oppo Find X Lamborghini Edition battery life
One of the big deals about the Lamborghini Edition Oppo Find X is its SuperVOOC fast charging. But before that, let's go over the battery life. Now, while most of the hardware of the Lambo Edition is the same as on the regular Find X, the battery capacity isn't - instead of the 3,730mAh of the vanilla model, the special edition only gets 3,400mAh.
That's not really all that bad though - the Galaxy S9+, for example, has only a marginally smaller display and a marginally larger battery. The Pixel 3 XL makes do with a barely noticeable 30mAh more (for an admittedly smaller display made even smaller by the huge notch - we just couldn't help ourselves). Meanwhile, the Xperia XZ3 packs 100mAh less juice than the Oppo, though its display is somewhat smaller.
How does all that translate into battery life? Pretty decently, actually. In our testing the Lamborghini edition returned mostly proportionate numbers to the regular Find X - logical given the similar hardware.
As with most phones with OLED displays, we measured a longer endurance when watching videos than browsing the web over Wi-Fi. The Find X LE could loop videos for close to 15 hours - an awesome result, yet 2 hours short of the plain Find X. Almost an hour less on our web browsing script meant the Lambo Edition could still pass the 10-hour mark comfortably too. At close to 25 hours on a 3G call, the exclusive Find X is predictably a couple of hours short of the less exclusive version's 27+ hours. Overall, the Find X Lamborghini Edition posted an 82h Endurance score. Not a record setter, but wait until you see how fast this thing charges back up.
Our endurance rating denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Oppo Find X Lamborghini Edition for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
SuperVOOC is gamechanging
Oppo's VOOC was introduced back in 2014 on the Find 7 as an alternative to competing fast charging technologies that relied on cranking up the voltage to increase charging speeds while keeping current at or below 2A. VOOC, instead, maintains the voltage at 5V but ups the current with the cap set at 4A. This requires both a proprietary adapter and cable.
What if... you have two separate batteries that you can charge at 5V/4A? Or even 5V/5A? Well, you get SuperVOOC. The Find X Lamborghini Edition has 2 batteries inside - 1,700mAh each for a total of 3,400mAh. Add the necessary controllers and circuitry to a) split the current coming in so that you can charge the batteries in parallel, and b) making the phone recognize and use the combined capacity, and you get super fast charging. Again, you can't get around the proprietary peripherals.
With all of the stars properly aligned, that is to say, with the SuperVOOC charger and cable, the Find X Lamborghini Edition charges from flat to full in 35 minutes. At the 30-minute mark where we usually time all phones, the battery indicator reads 95%, while a 15-minute stint leaves you with 57-ish percent. Amazing stuff.
Now, if you don't have the SuperVOOC peripherals on you (understandable, given that the charger is a proper brick and weighs 95g without the cable), you're stuck with whatever's available.
That's more often than not some form of Qualcomm QuickCharge so we timed the Lambo with a QC3.0 compliant adapter we have at the office. That took 2:29h for a full charge, with just a 25-percent charge 30 minutes into it.
We figured we'd give it a go with a non-Super regular VOOC charger to see how that affects charging speeds too. A full charge took 1:53h - still not amazing, but considerably faster than with the QC3.0 adapter. The phone showed 31% at the 30-minute mark. Mind you, VOOC and SuperVOOC cables are interchangeable.
We had to try Power Delivery too. We took out a Pixel charger and timed the Lambo once more, this time shaving off a few more minutes off the full charge - it took 1:44h. 30 minutes into it, the battery was at 33%.
All this goes to say that SuperVOOC is nothing short of amazing in terms of top up speeds. However, if you don't have all the SuperVOOC peripherals on you, you'd be stuck at regular people's charging speed. Particularly time consuming would be the Qualcomm QuickCharge scenario, and most chargers nowadays happen to be QC ones. Let's hope that Power Delivery adoption speeds up, at least.
Lamborghini-fied ColorOS on top of Android 8.1
The Lamborghini Edition of the Oppo Find runs on Android 8.1 Oreo, with the company's proprietary ColorOS bolted on top, v5.1 in this case. That is to say, the same software you'd find on the regular Find X. Here, however, you're getting a custom theme to match the look and feel of the rest of the phone.
Aside from the Aventador wallpaper, there's an overall blackness to the interface, with golden accents here and there. The icons for the system apps are entirely custom, while third-party icons are treated to a hexagonal outline.
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Pre-installed tools folder • Google apps • Homescreen settings
The rest of the interface is entirely identical to the one on the vanilla Find X. That means a predominantly green on white quick toggles and settings menu, which we find at odds with the Lambo theme. And that's before we get to the inherent oddities of ColorOS - for example, it doesn't let you dismiss a notification with a simple swipe - you need to swipe and then tap the delete button.
Settings • Notifications • Task switcher • Swipe-down system search • Gallery
Performance
The Find X Lamborghini Edition is powered by the Snapdragon 845 chipset - so, same as the plain Find X and pretty much every other high-end droid this year. There are 8GB of RAM on board, though that's also the case on the regular version as well. The Lambo only differs in storage space - 512GB vs. 128/256GB. Predictably, the benchmark scores are virtually the same.
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
AnTuTu 7
Higher is better
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
Camera
Another bullet in the list of shared hardware between Find Xs is the camera - the Lamborghini Edition features the same hardware as the regular model, which is in turn one of numerous iterations used throughout the portfolio of OnePlus and Oppo. That is to say, it has a secondary rear cam that's yet to justify its existence.
Anyway, the setup consists of a primary 16MP module built around the Sony IMX519 sensor with its 1.22µm pixels. The lens has an f/2.0 aperture and the EXIF data reports the focal length equivalent at 23mm. The secondary module, which should supposedly help in low light, but is in practice only used for depth detection in portrait mode, has a 20MP sensor with 1.0µm pixels which is behind another f/2.0 lens. The selfie cam uses a high-res 25MP sensor mated to an f/2.0 lens.
The camera app is essentially Oppo's rendition of the iOS camera app. A carousel on the bottom lists the available modes, which you can change by tapping on them or swiping on the viewfinder. There's no explicit setting for resolution, it's aspects instead, and it's not clear which is native to the sensor - boo! There's an Expert mode with manual settings for white balance, exposure compensation, ISO, shutter speed and focus distance.
Camera UI
Even though it's the same camera as on the other Find X, we went out and took some photos with the Lamborghini Edition as well - if for no other reason, then at least to be seen with it. As was the case a couple of months ago when we reviewed the original Find X, we enjoyed the vivid colors and the plenty of detail that the 16MP sensor captures.
Camera samples
In low light, the Find X Lamborghini Edition somehow managed to perform slightly worse than what we remember from the non-Lambo. Then again, it could be down to variations in lighting.
Low-light samples
When else are we going to get a chance to snap selfies with a Lamborghini phone? We had the opportunity now, so we seized it, and spoiler - same selfies as on the vanilla Find X.
Selfie samples
Selfie portraits
Competition
The Find X Lamborghini Edition doesn't quite fit in the usual narrative where at the end of the review we compare phones to rivals within a similar market segment or having comparable feature sets. It's an exclusive product and one you won't find at your local store or offered by a carrier, plus its exorbitant price doesn't really encourage reasonable comparison. Exorbitant... Hmm.
Apple iPhone XS Max • Huawei Mate 20 RS Porsche Design • Samsung Galaxy Note9
You see, if you manage to go through the hoops of getting a Find X Lamborghini edition to your door, it will have cost you about as much as a 512GB iPhone XS Max sells for (in Europe, that is). And for that price Apple won't be bundling Airpods or a case either. True, the iPhone will sit better in terms of warranty (as in, you will have it), and is an overall a much more polished product.
Now, if you absolutely must have a premium car's brand on your phone, there's always the just announced Porsche Design Huawei Mate 20 RS. It'll set you back more than the Lambo in its base 256GB trim, and going for the 512GB version will be even pricier (if that makes any difference). The Mate has all sorts of interesting cameras on its back, while the Lambo only really has the one, and if any phone can come close to this Find X's charging speed it's the Huawei SuperCharge-able Mate. Tough one this.
Back to the realm of regular people who make decisions at least a little founded in reason, a Galaxy Note9 looks like a sensible choice. You can even have it in 512GB/8GB trim to match the Oppo's numbers and that'll cost you, say, 20% less - a difference you can spend on a pair of Icon Xs and a fancy case.
Verdict
People don't buy Lamborghinis because of practicality considerations, and they certainly don't frown at the price. Similarly, this special edition Find X doesn't really need to rank high in any bang-for-buck contests to justify its existence.
Much like the regular Find X that runs for about half the price, the Lamborghini Edition is a pretty competent smartphone package overall. Display, battery life, camera - none of this is class leading going by the specs or the test results, but they're all comfortably above average.
And what the Find X has going for it in the first place - a one of a kind all-display design, is taken a step further by the Lambo customizations to pretty much ensure no one around you will have the same phone.
But in fact, the Lamborghini edition comes with some added practical value beyond the looks. Your friends may get annoyed every time you remind them that you can fully charge your phone in 35 minutes, but it's something you're never going to get tired of (yes, both the quick charging and the bragging). The bundled wireless earphones and the ample half terabyte storage also help with the cost-benefit analysis.
So, it's shaping up little like this - if you've got unlimited budget and you're after a unique smartphone, the Lamborghini Edition of the Oppo Find X is that. It's also practical enough to go grocery shopping with.
Pros
- Rich package contents, the wireless earbuds are definitely a nice touch, the charger is a gamechanger.
- About as exclusive as they come - the one-of-a-kind design of the standard-issue Find X is further enhanced by the carbon-fiber back and Lamborghini badge.
- Ample, half-terabyte of storage, top shelf internals.
- Not bad battery life despite the capacity reduction compared to the vanilla Find X, and when power does run out, SuperVOOC takes you back to 100% in 35mins.
Cons
- Expensive, though a 512GB iPhone XS Max costs about the same and there are no Airpods included, so...
- Moving parts could potentially fail, the phone is prone to bending under (accidental?) load, and there's no dust or water resistance.
- The crazy fast charging requires all proprietary bits to function.
- Idiosyncratic custom software.
- No NFC and wireless charging.
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