Oppo Find X9 Ultra vs Sony Xperia 1 VII

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.

Sony Xperia 1 VII

A bright 6.5-inch 120Hz OLED that's a clear highlight — though Sony dropped the 4K/21:9 panel that defined earlier Xperia 1 models.

• Peak brightness is up ~20% over the VI — measured ~800 nits manual boosting to over 1,470–1,500 nits in auto.
• Outdoors in sunlight watching HDR content you get just shy of 1,500 nits — a meaningful step up.
• Sony continues to produce some of the best screens in the industry, and the bright 120Hz OLED carries that legacy.
• Long-time fans lose the 4K and 21:9 panel that earlier Xperia 1 models were known for — a real reason some won't upgrade from the VI.

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).

Sony Xperia 1 VII

The most divisive area: a genuinely standout new ultrawide and great selfies, but a continuous-zoom telephoto that's an engineering marvel undermined by mediocre image quality.

• The trio is a 52MP (48MP effective) IMX888 24mm main, a new 50MP IMX906 16mm ultrawide and a 12MP periscope covering 85–170mm continuous optical zoom.
• The new ultrawide is arguably the one camera that delivers truly standout results — and the selfies are awesome too.
• The upgraded ultrawide is clearly sharper than the competition, in the centre and at the edges.
• The super-advanced continuous-zoom camera is a unique feature, but it's a shame it's bad — it just doesn't produce the photo quality to justify its existence.
• The one-lens 85–170mm continuous optical zoom is an engineering marvel, on par with top-tier ultra flagships at 3x, but only usable to about 10x where Samsung/Xiaomi stay sharp to 20x.

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.

Sony Xperia 1 VII

Excellent endurance is a genuine strength — but the 5,000mAh non-silicon-carbon cell pairs with lethargic 30W charging and nothing in the box.

• It scores highly for battery life, beating even the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max and topping the comparison pack.
• It earned an active-use score of ~14h44m and ~17h20m in PCMark screen-on testing — typically ending the day with 25–35% left.
• Even gaming Wuthering Waves non-stop at max settings you still get about 4.5 hours before the battery is fully drained.
• Charging is lethargic 30W wired — 0–51% in 30 minutes and a full charge in ~80–90 minutes — plus 15W wireless.
• It's the same 5,000mAh cell as last year and not silicon-carbon, with no power adapter or USB-C cable included.

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.

Sony Xperia 1 VII

An extortionate price for a deliberately niche phone — superb for the right enthusiast, hard to recommend to a mainstream buyer over a Pixel or Galaxy.

• There's plenty to like, but one of the problems is the absolutely extortionate asking price.
• It's not for everyone, but for creators, photographers and multimedia enthusiasts it could be one of the best Android flagships of 2026.
• It's a dream smartphone for enthusiasts — versatile zoom, very long battery, bright OLED, high-quality build, fast SoC and 6-year updates — but with low charging, only 256GB and a mediocre telephoto.
• Notebookcheck's verdict: a professional camera smartphone not suitable for everyone — but a very strong high-end device for its target buyer.