Oppo Find X9 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S26

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 S26

The 6.3-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X (up 0.1" from the S25) hits 2,600 nits peak with a 1-120Hz LTPO refresh rate. Reviewers like the panel itself, but most flag that the new Privacy Display and Gorilla Armor 2 anti-reflective coating are Ultra-exclusive — frustrating at this price.

• 6.3-inch panel feels meaningfully larger than the S25's 6.2-inch without making the phone bigger overall — pixel density change is imperceptible
• Notebookcheck measured the panel as bright, uniform, and color-accurate — among the best in its class
• PhoneArena measured 2,425 nits at 20% APL — comfortably bright enough for outdoor use, though Pixel 10 Pro hits 2,921 nits
• 1-120Hz LTPO adapts smoothly; haptics are 'precise' and contribute to the premium feel
• Sustains peak brightness over longer periods better than the iPhone 17, which throttles brightness after a few minutes
• Privacy Display tech is Ultra-exclusive — base S26 buyers lose Samsung's marquee 2026 feature
• Missing Gorilla Armor 2 anti-reflective coating that comes standard on the Ultra — a notable downgrade at $900
• PWM dimming on this AMOLED may bother users sensitive to display flicker

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 S26

The single most contentious topic in every S26 review. The hardware (50MP main, 12MP ultrawide, 10MP 3x telephoto) is unchanged from the S22 — four years old. Software upgrades (Photo Assist, Horizon Lock, Auto-framing) add features, but reviewers split sharply on whether the resulting images are 'still great' or 'severely outdated at $900'.

• Same 50MP + 12MP UW + 10MP 3x telephoto hardware Samsung has shipped since the Galaxy S22 in 2022
• Main camera produces vibrant, detailed shots with excellent sharpness — handles dynamic range more naturally than iPhone 17 or Pixel 10
• Ultrawide is the weakest of the three lenses — soft, grainy edges and clear distortion in low light or backlit scenes
• 10MP 3x telephoto can't match Pixel 10's 5x reach; only 10MP resolution limits useful digital cropping
• Object Aware Engine extended to the front camera — selfies are slightly warmer and more accurate than the S25

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.

Samsung Galaxy S26

The US/China Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 variant is one of the fastest Android phones you can buy, hitting Geekbench multi-core ~10,700 and stable in everyday and gaming workloads. The Exynos 2600 (Europe/ROW) is competitive in benchmarks but throttles harder under sustained load — reviewers split on whether it matters in daily use.

• US Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 variant scores Geekbench 6 multi-core ~10,700 and single-core ~3,100 — among the fastest Android phones in 2026
• Engadget's Exynos 2600 review unit hit Geekbench 6 multi-core 10,664 — surprisingly close to the Snapdragon S26 Ultra's 11,240
• Exynos 2600 is Samsung's first 2nm chip — Geekbench AI scores noticeably trail Qualcomm, indicating a weaker NPU for on-device AI
• S26 suffers significant performance dips under sustained load — smaller chassis has less thermal headroom than the Ultra's vapor chamber
• Day-to-day responsiveness is excellent — multitasking, app launches, scrolling all instantaneous with no lag

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 S26

The 4,300 mAh cell is up from 4,000 in the S25 — a real but modest gain. Charging is the biggest pain point: 25W wired (slowest of any 2026 flagship), 15W wireless, and no integrated Qi2 magnets. PhoneArena measured 1h 16m for a full charge — slower than the iPhone 17.

• 4,300 mAh battery — first capacity increase for the base Galaxy in years; 7-10% bump over the S25
• BGR tested Samsung's claim of 31 hours video playback at 200 nits — measured just over 30 hours, on target
• Engadget measured the Exynos S26 at 28 hours of looped video at 50% brightness — Snapdragon S26 hit 30 hours in the same test
• PhoneArena battery estimate of 6h 37m places the S26 at #102 of phones tested in the past 2 years — below the 7h 29m class average
• Charging speed unchanged at 25W — full charge takes ~76 minutes; the OnePlus 15 hits 100W and lasts two days per charge

Oppo Find X9 Ultra

ColorOS 16 has matured a lot and is fast and smooth, but it still trails Samsung and Google on AI depth and feels iOS-derived to some — the phone's clearest weak point relative to its hardware.

• ColorOS 16 feels like one of the best versions yet.
• It's a good Android experience but not on par with the Galaxy experience for AI features and tool integration, and portrait autofocus struggles in some low-light conditions.
• For me it's the best version of Android I've ever used — light, fast and smooth with no major issues.
• The hardware is superior to the latest Samsung, but the software feels like an imitation of iOS.
• With a bit of tweaking and updates, Oppo's software and camera engineers can make this even better — there's clear headroom.

Samsung Galaxy S26

One UI 8.5 on Android 16 is feature-packed but heavy. Samsung's seven-year update commitment matches Google's Pixel — class-leading. The new Galaxy AI features (Now Nudge, Now Brief, Perplexity integration, Photo Assist) are split-decision: a few genuinely useful (call screening, AI noise eraser), the rest forgettable.

• Seven years of Android OS upgrades and security patches — class-leading alongside Google's Pixel commitment
• Call Screening that forwards unknown numbers to an AI chatbot is 'the first bit of Galaxy AI worth paying for'
• Audio Eraser now works in third-party apps like YouTube — genuinely useful for cutting crowd noise or background music
• Now Nudge contextual suggestions rarely surface in practice; require Samsung Keyboard to function
• Perplexity integration is curiously incomplete at launch — voice commands and Samsung Browser integration not working at review time