The future of smartphone design is bright once again all thanks to the OPPO Find X, which was unveiled during the wee Malaysian hours, while it is still too early to tell if the phone’s design with motorized camera modules will be successful, it is sure to have captured the spotlight and shine over other flagship Android phones. OPPO’s announcement of the Find X’s price at €999 isn’t surprising, which officially marks the company’s entry point to Apple’s and Samsung’s turf, and I’m totally OK with that and would so willing pay for the price to own the Find X simply for it’s gimmick. But one thing for sure, OPPO has one thing to fix before convincing customers like me to buy.
This thing is called ColorOS.
I’m not suggesting that ColorOS sucks entirely and it still has features that I love as a proprietary skin, but OPPO’s software still has the shadows of iOS in so many ways especially when it comes to usability, and I was seriously hoping that OPPO would have done more to its software just like Huawei’s take on the P20 and Mate 10, such as giving users the option to change the homescreen with an app drawer and if possible, a desktop mode would be great as part of the software package. Instead, the Find X features O-Mojis and some 3D AI camera features, which the former is already a feature that can be found on a number of Android phones despite having better tracking due to dedicated hardware, and the latter isn’t actually new on flagship devices of today.
In fact, I would think that it’s time that the software team at OPPO start offering a real Android experience on their phones, given the fact that I’m going to spend that much for a flagship device that finally doesn’t look like an iPhone copy, give me a software experience that doesn’t look like one too to make a difference. While I admit this could probably be my problem with the Find X, I’m still nonetheless excited with what OPPO has to offer on the table, but I really wished that OPPO can finally step out of the shadows of copying others with their flagship device, and it has certainly come a long way with the Find X’s innovative design, which I’m sure will be the next role model for many Android phone makers in building bezel-less smartphones.
