Oppo digs up the 10x periscope it buried six years ago and calls it revolutionary
Here we go again: Oppo is about to ship Spain its first Find X9 Ultra, armed with a 50 MP, 10× periscope that the company swears will “rival pro cameras.” The same brand that killed the very same spec in 2019 now wants applause for resurrecting it.
The undead zoom returns
Sources inside Oppo’s Barcelona demo room confirm the lens is real, built with Hasselblad’s color science and a custom prism array that squeezes 10× glass into 8.7 mm of chassis. The physics haven’t changed since the Reno 10× Zoom debuted the trick—light still bounces sideways through a periscope—but the sensor has ballooned from 13 MP to 50 MP, and the aperture widens to f/2.8. Translation: cleaner handheld shots of cathedral spires without the watercolor noise that sank earlier attempts.
Why Spain and why now? Simple arithmetic. Chinese pre-orders for the X8 Ultra underperformed; Europe’s €1 400+ segment is still growing. Launching the X9 Ultra here lets Oppo vacuum up margin while Samsung and Apple focus on foldables. The catch: the phone won’t hit shelves until late April, giving rivals a full quarter to fire countermeasures.
We have been here before
Samsung’s S22 Ultra already paired a 10× periscope with dual-pixel autofocus in 2022. Huawei’s P40 Pro+ did it earlier, albeit without Google services, kneecapping sales outside Asia. Oppo’s own Reno 10× Zoom landed first, then vanished from roadmaps as brands pivoted to larger main sensors and computational cropping. The industry consensus: 5× is the sweet spot; 10× is bragging rights for spec sheets nobody reads.
Yet the market shifted. TikTok’s 9:16 format rewards distance—concerts, cliffs, catwalks—while Instagram’s algorithm now boosts ultra-tight portrait frames. A 10× lens captures both without digital mush. Add a 1-inch primary sensor and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, and Oppo bets enthusiasts will pay the rumored €1 599 price.
Still, history stings. The Reno 10× Zoom sank after updates dried up; the Find X3 Pro abandoned periscopes entirely. Oppo’s software track record is the elephant in the room. If the X9 Ultra ships with the same ColorOS bloat that throttled last year’s flagship, the shiniest hardware won’t survive a single firmware cycle.
The takeaway: 10× optical zoom isn’t new; accountability is. Either Oppo keeps its promise of four years of Android upgrades, or the Find X9 Ultra becomes another museum piece—this time on European shelves.