iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Oppo Find X9 Ultra

iPhone 15 Pro Max

6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED with ProMotion 120Hz adaptive refresh and a 2000-nit peak brightness — the best display Apple has shipped. Dynamic Island carries over from the 14 Pro Max with no major changes.

• 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR OLED, 2796×1290, ProMotion 120Hz adaptive (1-120Hz), 2000-nit peak HDR — best iPhone display ever shipped.
• Display brightness easily readable in direct sunlight — meaningful improvement over the 14 Pro Max's 1600-nit peak.
• Dynamic Island carries over from 14 Pro Max with no major feature changes — still the iPhone's most distinctive UI element.
• ProMotion 120Hz on the Pro is 'significantly smoother' than the standard iPhone 15's locked 60Hz — a real-world differentiator.

Oppo Find X9 Ultra

A 6.8-inch LTPO OLED with up to 144Hz and very high real-world brightness — among the brightest screens on any phone outdoors.

• 6.8-inch LTPO OLED panel up to 144Hz, with a maximum brightness around 1,800 nits and dimming as low as 1 nit.
• Hits a staggering ~3,600 nits of peak HDR brightness, making it incredibly easy to see and edit shots in direct sunlight.
• In manual mode the display peaks at 840 nits, rising to ~1,156 nits in auto on a 75% white patch and up to ~1,932 nits in the native gallery app.
• The smoother 144Hz panel and 3,600-nit brightness outperform Samsung's display.

iPhone 15 Pro Max

48MP main + 12MP ultrawide + 12MP 5x Tetraprism periscope telephoto (Pro Max exclusive) + 12MP TrueDepth selfie. The 5x periscope is the headline upgrade — first iPhone past 3x optical, with computational zoom up to 25x.

• Cameras: 48MP main (f/1.78, sensor-shift OIS), 12MP ultrawide (f/2.2, 13mm), 12MP 5x Tetraprism periscope telephoto (120mm, f/2.8), 12MP TrueDepth selfie.
• 5x Tetraprism is Pro Max EXCLUSIVE — the smaller iPhone 15 Pro is capped at 3x telephoto, the first time Apple meaningfully gated a camera feature by size.
• Computational zoom extends usable range to 10x and 25x — beyond that, optical clarity degrades, but the 5x base is a meaningful step up from 3x.
• vs Samsung S23 Ultra's 10x periscope — Samsung still wins at maximum reach; iPhone wins on natural color, video stabilization and ecosystem.
• Pro photo modes: ProRAW capture, ProRes video at 4K60 to external storage via USB-C 3.0 — content-creator-grade workflow finally on iPhone.
• Front-facing camera improvements help selfies and video calls — best for content creators per WIRED.

Oppo Find X9 Ultra

The reason to buy it. A Hasselblad-tuned quad system with the most versatile zoom on any phone, a true 10x optical periscope and an optional 300mm Hasselblad teleconverter. Near-universally praised, with only minor sharpness and ultrawide caveats.

• A 200MP main, 200MP 3x telephoto, 50MP 10x optical telephoto and 50MP ultrawide, all Hasselblad-branded — camera-first overkill in the best way.
• Consistently great photos, sharpness and dynamic range with really good color calibration — this phone did basically everything right in the camera department; an incredibly well-rounded smartphone camera.
• Is this the best camera phone ever built? — my new favorite camera phone and one of the best Android phones I've ever used.
• Even after a direct shootout, still the best camera phone I've ever used.
• Detail is very good, but sharpness remains a bit underwhelming on the main camera.

iPhone 15 Pro Max

First-ever 3nm A17 Pro chip with hardware ray tracing, 8GB RAM and NVMe storage — the fastest mobile silicon at launch. Launch overheating issues plagued early units but iOS 17.0.3 mitigated. Future-proofs the phone for Apple Intelligence on iOS 18+.

• A17 Pro is Apple's first 3nm chip, with 8GB RAM and NVMe storage — fastest mobile silicon at launch, hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
• Launch overheating: A17 Pro ran hot during gaming and 4K recording in the first weeks — iOS 17.0.3 update mitigated but didn't fully eliminate.
• Console-grade games (Resident Evil 4, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Death Stranding) now run natively on the A17 Pro — first phone to support them.
• Apple Intelligence compatibility — A17 Pro is the minimum chip required for iOS 18.1 Apple Intelligence; future-proofs the phone for 2024+ AI features.
• In 2025, A17 Pro 'is an absolute beast' and 'handles everything you throw at it' — performance has aged extremely well.

Oppo Find X9 Ultra

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 puts it near the top of the benchmark charts, but sustained-load stability is mediocre and Oppo deliberately throttles early to control heat.

• As expected, the Find X9 Ultra earns excellent benchmark scores near the top of the charts.
• A 3D ultrasonic fingerprint scanner Oppo claims is 35% faster and 33% more reliable, plus vapor cooling to dissipate heat through the aluminium frame for better sustained performance.
• 3DMark returned ~7,530 best-loop and ~3,682 low-loop with only ~49% stability, and peak performance didn't last a minute — weak sustained behaviour.
• Genshin Impact stayed consistently above 50fps and remained smooth even when throttling to ~30fps after ~16 minutes at 41.5°C, at under 4W power draw.
• Honor of Kings averaged 144fps over 30 minutes at max settings; Genshin held max 60fps before stabilizing near 50fps.

iPhone 15 Pro Max

$1,199 starting (256GB base) — the most-expensive baseline iPhone yet. In 2026 it's the smart-buy Apple pick at $700-900 used with 6+ years of updates left. Versus the S23 Ultra: closer than ever on cameras + zoom, still loses on raw zoom range.

• Launched at $1,199 with 256GB base storage (vs $1,099/128GB on the 14 Pro Max) — meaningful real-cost increase even with the storage doubling.
• Best smartphone deal in 2025: at $700-900 used the iPhone 15 Pro Max delivers titanium + USB-C 3.0 + 5x periscope + A17 Pro + 6 more years of updates.
• Phone Arena: 'the best phone I've ever owned to date' — long-term verdict after months of use.
• vs Galaxy S23 Ultra ($1,199): Apple wins on natural color/video/USB-C 3.0/longevity; Samsung wins on 10x periscope and S Pen.
• Best for: existing Apple users on iPhone 12/13 wanting USB-C + titanium + 5x zoom; long-time Pro Max users get meaningful gains too.

Oppo Find X9 Ultra

Premium-priced and hard to buy in many markets, but reviewers broadly conclude it out-cameras the S26 Ultra and Pixel and edges the Vivo X300 Ultra on usability.

• Its main compromises are the ~€1,699 price, large 236g body, occasional software concerns and limited availability in some markets.
• It feels like Oppo wanted to make the camera first and just happened to also create the best Android phone you can get right now — though it won't win every year-end award.
• The base Find X9 Ultra starts at 7,499 yuan in China — roughly £814 / ~$1,100 — but the heaviness and visual pressure are the first impression.
• The closest rival is the Vivo X300 Ultra, but the X9 Ultra wins by having a more user-friendly OS.
• The Hasselblad alliance delivers a phone that genuinely challenges the Galaxy S26 Ultra on cameras.