Ahead of MWC 2022, OPPO announced the flagship Find X5 and Find X5 Pro series smartphones. Both smartphones were showcased at OPPO’s booth along with other products which include the fastest smartphone charging solutions, AR Glass, and 5G CPE Device. Fast charging on smartphones is becoming a key trend to watch out for this year with OEMs racing to offers the fastest charging solution on the market.

OPPO Find X5 Series

OPPO has always introduced new, premium experiences with the Find series smartphones. From a pop-up camera to a periscope style zoom lens to a microscope camera system, and a compact foldable smartphone, OPPO has done something different with every new device. This year, OPPO is focusing on improving the photography experience, and to achieve that, it has now partnered with Hasselblad for the Find X5 series. The partnership aims to improve mobile photography using Hasselblad’s color science for natural color calibration.

In addition, the Find X5 and Find X5 Pro smartphones also come with OPPO’s own MariSilicon imaging NPU. It unlocks features like 4K Night & 4K Ultra HDR video recording, AI Noise Reduction to improve night photography. The dedicated NPU also helps in speeding up other AI-based image processing tasks.

The Find X5 Pro features a triple rear camera setup which includes a 50MP primary sensor with 3-axis sensor-shift and 2-axis lens shift technology from Cambridge Mechatronics. It helps in compensating the shaky hand movements when clicking photos, and jerks when recording videos, thus allowing you to capture blur-free photos and videos. There is also a 50MP ultrawide lens and 13MP telephoto lens completing the camera system.

The Find X5 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, 5G connectivity, and a 6.7-inch AMOLED LTPO display that can refresh between 1Hz to 120Hz depending on the on-screen content.

WATCH: MWC 2022: Quick Look at OPPO Find X5 Pro

150W and 240W Fast Charging Solutions

OPPO also introduced the industry’s fastest smartphone charging tech. First is the 150W SuperVOOC flash charge, fast charging solution that can charge a 4,500mAh battery to 50% in just five minutes, whereas a full charge will take about 15 minutes. OnePlus’ smartphone with 150W fast charging will be launched in Q2, 2022. Next is the 240W fast charging tech which can fully charge a 4,500mAh battery in just nine minutes.

Now, on one hand, we have the fast-charging tech with which smartphone OEMs are trying to address one pain point. But there are other concerns related to the battery life and the damage that fast charging could induce. To allay these concerns, OPPO is also packing a Battery Health Engine tech with the Find X5 Series, which the company says can retain 80% of the battery’s original capacity even after 1,600 charge cycles. This is more than the industry standard which is around 800 cycles. So, if we consider the average smartphone replacement cycle of about 28-30 months, the smartphone battery should be good enough until the users upgrade to a new smartphone.

BONUS VIDEO: Fast Charging - A Key Trend This Year at MWC 2022

OPPO AR GLASS

At MWC 2022, OPPO also showcased a demo of its AR Glass 2021. These AR (Augmented Reality) glasses are much closer to the casual eyewear that most of us are used to wearing. These glasses feature an 0.71-inch OLED display which brings 90-inch TV viewing experience just three meters away. As these are AR glasses, the display is transparent, allowing you to see the surroundings as well.

These AR glasses draw their power from a tethered OPPO smartphone with Snapdragon 865 SoC and above. I tried connecting a couple of other smartphones like the Huawei P50 Pro and an iQOO smartphone, and while the smartphone screen was mirrored on the glasses, it could not adjust the resolution and aspect ratio to the required one, possibly because it needs ColorOS and a dedicated app.

Otherwise, the display experience was good. Content is limited for now, and though it has built-in speakers, I was unable to hear clearly as the floor was too noisy. But maybe these are good to use at home and in the office meeting rooms. One other thing about these OPPO AR Glasses is that you can get lenses matching the eye power of your prescription glasses. The AR and XR (extended reality) space is seeing increasing development, but there are still many significant hurdles to overcome before mainstream adoption can occur.

5G CPE Device

Lastly, OPPO also introduced a 5G CPE T2 device, basically, a 5G Hub built to convert 5G signals into LAN or Wi-Fi network connection. The device could be ideal to use in a small office or home office environment where there is no existing broadband infrastructure. With a 5G SIM card installed, the CPE device can let multiple devices like smartphones, TVs, laptops, and more to connect and access fast 5G internet.

OPPO mentioned that the device is made from recycled materials. It also comes with O-Reserve 2.0 smart antenna technology and is integrated with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X62 5G Modem-RF system. The hardware architecture is designed in a way where the X62 5G modem can be swapped with the Snapdragon X65 modem depending on operator needs. There is no word on the pricing, but the OPPO 5G CPE T2 will be available in H2, 2022 across the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Europe markets.