Typically, when I see the suffix “lite” at the end of a phone name, I’m immediately cautious. That’s especially true if it’s also attached to the flagship name of a particular brand of device because it’s usually an unsubtle way to try to attach that premium quality association with a device that’s often less than premium in approach.
If your best mate told you they were now driving a “Ferrari Lite”, you’d want to think long and hard about what that meant before you jumped in the passenger seat, right?
This is exactly the case for the Oppo Find X5 Lite. It’s part of Oppo’s new flagship phone range, headed up by the pricey $1799 Oppo Find X5 Pro and slightly less expensive – but still in flagship price range – $1399 Oppo Find X5.
By way of comparison, you can walk out of an Officeworks store with an Oppo Find X5 Lite for under $800.
That’s quite the price gulf, but what do you get – and is it just Oppo throwing a brand name onto a significantly lesser phone?
In one sense, yeah, it is. The Oppo Find X5 Lite is sold overseas as the Oppo Reno 7 5G, so there’s some branding games being played here. As you’d expect, it doesn’t quite have the power or features of phones that start at twice its price, either.
Still, having tested out the Oppo Find X5 Lite over the past few weeks, and comparing against what you could get for the same money, I’m quite impressed overall.
The Oppo Find X5 Lite sells in either blue or black finishes, with a 6.43-inch AMOLED display capable of up to 90Hz refresh rates. That matters, because your typical smartphone has a 60Hz display, refreshing 60 times per second. Those extra 30 refreshes per second lead to a smoother display for scrolling webpages, viewing social media feeds, video, or gaming functions.
On the processor front, the combination of one of MediaTek’s Dimensity 900 CPUs alongside 8GB of RAM means that it’ll run most Android apps without any real issue.
It’s worth noting if you’re a mobile gamer that other phones such as the Samsung Galaxy A53 and especially the Apple iPhone SE 5G do outpace the Find X5 for graphics performance. That’s especially true for the iPhone, although it won’t suit you if you don’t like Apple’s particular smartphone approach.
Oppo’s phones all use Android but with its own “ColorOS” launcher on top. Opinions split here; some people love its bright, big-buttoned style and controlled look, while others prefer a more pure Android look. Honestly, I fall into the latter group, but it’s very much a taste matter.
Where the Oppo Find X5 really impressed me – and surprised me – was in battery life. Most mid-range 5G phones can typically manage a day’s moderate use without issue these days – the previously mentioned iPhone SE 5G is an outlier in this case, sadly – but the Find X5 really ran rings around most of the other phones in this price bracket I’ve tested.
If you’re a light user, multi-day usage is absolutely within your grasp. You don’t get wireless charging, but you do get Oppo’s insanely fast SuperVOOC charging to top the phone up. When you do need to top up the Oppo Find X5 Lite, if you’ve got the supplied charger to hand, it’ll start charging faster than anything else at this kind of price. What’s more, you do still get a charger in the box, something that’s becoming a rarity in many phones these days.
The battery life of the Oppo Find X5 Lite did seriously impress me, but where that “lite” suffix did come into play was with the camera array. It’s an interesting shift for Oppo, which has long sold itself as a “camera phone” company.
At the front, the Find X5 Lite has a generally very good 32MP selfie camera, while at the back it features a primary 64MP wide lens, 8MP ultra-wide and 2MP macro lens. On paper that gives you a lot of tools to play with. In reality, you’re probably going to want to use the wide lens more than anything. The 2MP macro lens can take close-up shots, but they’re all too often grainy and hard to focus. The ultra-wide lens certainly works, but delivered shots that were just a little less bright than those shot on the primary lens.
I’m very fussy about phone cameras, to be fair, and for most folks you won’t have a bad experience with the Find X5 Lite’s cameras. It’s simply that it does slightly undershoot relative to other phones in this price space, so if camera shots are a key part of your phone buying experience, it’s worth keeping in mind.
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