One of the best — frequently the best — camera phones of 2026, with a uniquely versatile quad Hasselblad system and class-leading 10x optical zoom
Class-leading battery life: a 7,050mAh silicon-carbon cell routinely delivers 8–10+ hours of screen-on time and can stretch to two days
100W SuperVOOC wired and 50W AirVOOC wireless charging — roughly 0–100% in 45–52 minutes
Stunning, distinctive Hasselblad-inspired design widely called one of the best-looking phones of the year
Excellent, very bright display — ~3,600 nits HDR peak and ~1,800 nits full-screen outdoors
Pros & Cons
Oppo Find X9 Ultra
Pros
One of the best — frequently the best — camera phones of 2026, with a uniquely versatile quad Hasselblad system and class-leading 10x optical zoom
Class-leading battery life: a 7,050mAh silicon-carbon cell routinely delivers 8–10+ hours of screen-on time and can stretch to two days
100W SuperVOOC wired and 50W AirVOOC wireless charging — roughly 0–100% in 45–52 minutes
Stunning, distinctive Hasselblad-inspired design widely called one of the best-looking phones of the year
Excellent, very bright display — ~3,600 nits HDR peak and ~1,800 nits full-screen outdoors
Detailed Comparison
Design & Build
Oppo Find X9 Ultra
A Hasselblad-camera tribute in phone form — vegan leather, a symmetrical 'master eye' module and a Hexagon-inspired ring. Gorgeous to most, oversized to some, and undeniably heavy.
One of the best-looking phones of the year.
Inspired by the Hasselblad X2D camera — the most beautiful phone of 2026 so far.
The perfectly symmetrical 'master eye' camera module and Hasselblad-style shutter button clearly pay tribute to the brand's classic camera aesthetics.
The hardware is insanely ambitious, but the first thing you notice holding it isn't elegance — it's size and weight.
It weighs about 239g and measures ~9.1mm thick — a genuinely big phone.
TechTalkTown may earn a commission from purchases made through links below. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This does not influence our reviews. Learn more.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 delivers top-of-chart benchmark performance
Best-in-class video on an Android phone, with strong stabilization and 8K30 / 4K120 Dolby Vision across lenses
Deal Breakers
Heavy and large (≈236–239g, ~9.1mm) with a polarising oversized circular camera island
Expensive (≈€1,699 / ~$1,100+ in China) with limited or no official availability in many markets
ColorOS trails Samsung and Google on AI-feature depth and integration, and feels iOS-derived to some users
Mediocre sustained performance — 3DMark stability around 49% with peak performance dropping within a minute
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
What Reviewers Agree On
The flat 6.8-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X with 2,600-nit peak (measured ~2,400 nits at 20% window) is one of the best, most usable outdoor displays ever put on a phone.
The 200MP main plus 5x periscope and 3x telephoto is a genuinely versatile, top-tier camera system, with excellent portraits and zoom flexibility.
The built-in S Pen remains a unique productivity advantage no other mainstream flagship matches.
Seven years of OS updates (announced first with the S24 series) is the longest support on Android and the single biggest reason it still holds up in 2026.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy with 12GB RAM is still fast and stutter-free two years later, comfortably handling heavy gaming.
Gorilla Armor glass is exceptionally scratch resistant — multiple long-term owners report micro-scratch-free screens after 1–2 years.
It holds its value and is now a standout used/refurbished buy at roughly half its launch price.
Deal Breakers
The $1,300 launch price was the highest ever for an Ultra and a recurring complaint at retail.
Galaxy AI features are hit-or-miss and, by reviewers' own admission, not used as often as expected day to day.
Samsung's camera image processing still trails the Pixel for moving subjects and natural rendering, per both reviewers and Reddit owners.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 delivers top-of-chart benchmark performance
Best-in-class video on an Android phone, with strong stabilization and 8K30 / 4K120 Dolby Vision across lenses
Cons
Heavy and large (≈236–239g, ~9.1mm) with a polarising oversized circular camera island
Expensive (≈€1,699 / ~$1,100+ in China) with limited or no official availability in many markets
ColorOS trails Samsung and Google on AI-feature depth and integration, and feels iOS-derived to some users
Mediocre sustained performance — 3DMark stability around 49% with peak performance dropping within a minute
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Pros
The flat 6.8-inch QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X with 2,600-nit peak (measured ~2,400 nits at 20% window) is one of the best, most usable outdoor displays ever put on a phone.
The 200MP main plus 5x periscope and 3x telephoto is a genuinely versatile, top-tier camera system, with excellent portraits and zoom flexibility.
The built-in S Pen remains a unique productivity advantage no other mainstream flagship matches.
Seven years of OS updates (announced first with the S24 series) is the longest support on Android and the single biggest reason it still holds up in 2026.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy with 12GB RAM is still fast and stutter-free two years later, comfortably handling heavy gaming.
Gorilla Armor glass is exceptionally scratch resistant — multiple long-term owners report micro-scratch-free screens after 1–2 years.
It holds its value and is now a standout used/refurbished buy at roughly half its launch price.
Cons
The $1,300 launch price was the highest ever for an Ultra and a recurring complaint at retail.
Galaxy AI features are hit-or-miss and, by reviewers' own admission, not used as often as expected day to day.
Samsung's camera image processing still trails the Pixel for moving subjects and natural rendering, per both reviewers and Reddit owners.
Some find the huge circular camera apparatus ugly, when we usually ask for less intrusive camera bumps.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Samsung swapped the S23 Ultra's curved screen for a flat one and added a titanium frame. Reviewers welcomed the flat display but noted the titanium brings little weight saving, and the iPhone-like flat sides drew comparisons.
The display is now completely flat corner to corner, a change reviewers broadly preferred over the S23 Ultra's curve.
Going to a flat display was 'the best move forward,' even though it was initially polarising.
The titanium frame brings little of the weight saving Apple achieved on the iPhone 15 Pro — it stays heavy.
It uses grade-2 titanium, so it is not quite as premium-feeling as the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The flat sides and flat screen look very iPhone-like all the way around.
IP68 dust and water resistance and a fast USB 3.x port remain, and the build still feels fantastic after two years of caseless use.
Display
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.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Universally praised. The 6.8-inch QHD+ LTPO AMOLED hits 2,600 nits peak with a new anti-reflective Gorilla Armor finish that makes it exceptional in bright sunlight.
The display is so easy to use outside in bright light that the reviewer wants every other manufacturer to copy it.
Peak brightness is rated 2,600 nits, up from 1,750 nits on the S23 Ultra — a big real-world jump for outdoor use.
Measured brightness reached ~2,408 nits on a 20% white window versus ~2,235 nits on the iPhone 15 Pro — a measurable win.
It is a Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 2,600 nits peak panel at QHD+ resolution.
Two years later the 6.8-inch QHD+ AMOLED 'has aged like fine wine' with no screen burn-in and still buttery 120Hz.
Cameras
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.
The ultrawide is probably the weakest part of the setup — with the first three cameras taking so much space, Oppo reused the Samsung GN5 sensor here.
Night-mode processing — color, contrast and exposure handling — is so much better than the Galaxy S26 Ultra's, and the ultrawide is now one of the best for detail preservation.
The optional 300mm Hasselblad teleconverter delivers ~13x (300mm) optical-feel zoom that retains real telephoto sharpness, extending to ~60x (1380mm).
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
A 200MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x telephoto and new 50MP 5x periscope (replacing the old 10MP 10x). Reviewers rate it among the best, with standout zoom and portraits, but image processing remains the polarising point.
The camera system is 'one of the best in the game' and comes with a fantastic portrait mode.
One of the best all-around camera packages out there after months of shooting, including an excellent and often-overlooked selfie camera.
The new 50MP 5x periscope fixes the S23 Ultra's weak 5–10x range; 5x portraits look really good and edge detection is among the best.
Main camera is a 200MP f/1.7 (HP2) with a 50MP f/3.4 5x periscope, 10MP 3x tele and 12MP ultrawide.
The Pixel 8 Pro's ultrawide is preferred for sharper detail and more natural white balance than the S24 series ultrawide.
Battery & Charging
Oppo Find X9 Ultra
A genuine highlight: a 7,050mAh silicon-carbon cell that posts some of the best endurance numbers of any 2026 flagship, with fast 100W wired and 50W wireless charging.
Draws power from a 7,050mAh battery — a sizeable increase over the previous generation — with 100W SuperVOOC wired and 50W AirVOOC wireless charging.
Earned an active-use battery score of over 20 hours; with the SuperVOOC charger it went 0–75% in 30 minutes and to full in 45 minutes.
After ~10 hours of continuous use starting at 7am it still had 53% battery, regularly getting 8–9 hours of screen-on time and ~40% left after a 13-hour day.
A PCMark synthetic loop returned 15 hours 2 minutes, and 100W SuperVOOC charging took ~49–52 minutes (the charger isn't included).
With moderate usage you can easily expect more than 2 days of battery life — Oppo finally feels like a truly complete product.
Charges 0–100% in about 52 minutes on the official 80W charger in a head-to-head charge test.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
5,000mAh with 45W wired and 15W wireless. All-day battery is consistent praise; charging speed versus Chinese rivals is the recurring criticism, and there is a noted One UI update battery-drain bug.
In a head-to-head battery test it lasted 12h31m, over an hour longer than the iPhone 16 Pro Max's 11h22m.
5,000mAh battery with 45W wired (65% in 30 min), 15W wireless and 4.5W reverse wireless.
Charging is on par with Apple and Google but 'leagues behind rivals out of China' that charge far faster.
After two years, moderate use still delivers a full day with 25–30% left by bedtime; light use can stretch toward two days.
Measured battery health was 93% after two years (one heavy year, one moderate), per Samsung's hidden diagnostics.
