Xiaomi and their Ultra series with one-inch sensor in the camera and Leica collaboration have impressed us a lot in recent years. Oppo is more of a newcomer to the Swedish market, but in the subsidiary Oneplus phones we have already seen how far they have come in the camera area. With the best set of telephoto cameras in a mobile perhaps ever and its own camera collaboration with Hasselblad, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is ready to challenge.
Sharpness and color reproduction
Xiaomi and their Ultra series with one-inch sensor in the camera and Leica collaboration have impressed us a lot in recent years. Oppo is more of a newcomer to the Swedish market, but in the subsidiary Oneplus phones we have already seen how far they have come in the camera area. With the best set of telephoto cameras in a mobile perhaps ever and its own camera collaboration with Hasselblad, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is ready to challenge.
Sharpness and color reproduction
Xiaomi 17 Ultra
The main camera on the Xiaomi 17 Ultra has a “one-inch” sensor. The resolution is 50 megapixels and the images come out in 12.58 megapixels. The size and resolution of the sensor means that the images in good light always feel super sharp. You can also choose to get the images in 50 megapixels with slightly more sharpness compared to blowing up the smaller image to the same scale, and considerably larger image files.
The camera has two color modes, Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic. In the Leica Vibrant, the details stand out and the subject feels clearly in focus without my experiencing the colors as exaggerated. The Leica Authentic gives a somewhat flatter and subdued reproduction. Which you prefer is a matter of taste and you can switch between the profiles with a tap on the screen. The images from the main camera in good light are consistently brilliant.
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(Click on the arrows to switch between the images)
Oppo Find X9 Ultra
Oppo’s main camera is 200 megapixels with a 1/1.12 inch sensor, which is slightly smaller than Xiaomi’s camera sensor. Oppo combines several exposures to a 26 megapixel image as standard, in poorer light or a lot of zooming, the resolution is reduced to 12.5 megapixels. You can also choose to output the images in 50 or 200 megapixels, at the expense of the file size but the latter is not worth the trouble.
The 26-megapixel images have consistently superior sharpness and detail compared to Xiaomi’s images, but of course you only notice this if you really zoom into the image.
Oppo’s color calibration is done together with Hasselblad, and the result is surprisingly dark and muted. One could argue that the result is more natural, but it makes the images flatter and the subject often blends in with the background. Sometimes they even feel underexposed. You can affect this with filters but there is no easy way to select a more vibrant color profile.
When you need to study the image in detail, the Oppo is clearly the best, but there is no getting away from the fact that if I have to choose between a similar image between Xiaomi and Oppo, I pretty much always prefer the Xiaomi image for its color reproduction, regardless of whether I use Leica Vibrant or Leica Authentic.
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Winner Sharpness and color reproduction: Xiaomi 17 Ultra
Dark photo
Xiaomi 17 Ultra
The large camera sensor on the Xiaomi 17 Ultra takes in a lot of light, which means that it needs to get quite dark before even the darkness kicks in. The main camera is generally good at dark photography, and thanks to the relatively large sensor on the telephoto camera, it is also possible to take good dark photos with 3.2x zoom. If you push the cameras harder with more zoom or even worse light, the images may at first glance look sharp, but if you study them in detail, you will see that there is AI sharpening on the images. But in the vast majority of scenarios, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra excels at dark shots.
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Oppo Find X9 Ultra
The large camera sensor on both the main camera and the two telephoto cameras handle dark photos really well, and I actually take photos with up to 10x zoom in twilight with successful results. When the light gets worse, the camera switches from using multiple exposures of a 26-megapixel image to taking 12-megapixel images with improved sharpness. But it’s striking how far into dusk and night the Oppo maintains the 26-megapixel mode and continues to deliver super-sharp images in low light.
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Winner Dark photo: Oppo Find X9 Ultra
Telephoto
Xiaomi 17 Ultra
Rating: 4
Oppo Find X9 Ultra
This is where Oppo put the real powder in its cameras. Like Xiaomi, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra can use the main camera for two times zoom, but the phone also has two telephoto cameras. One has three times optical zoom, 200 megapixels, and a 1/1.28 inch sensor. It is larger than the sensor in the main camera on most mobiles and it can easily take sharp pictures with 6 times zoom. The second telephoto camera has 10 times optical zoom and a sensor as large as the one in the iPhone 17 or the Samsung Galaxy S26’s main camera. Making 10x zoom with such a large sensor has required several technical innovations for lens refraction and optical image stabilization. The result is that you can take pictures with up to 20 times zoom, which are constantly getting sharper compared to the previous zoom level.
Rating: 5
Winner Telephoto: Oppo Find X9 Ultra
Portraits and selfies
Xiaomi 17 Ultra
Portrait mode in the Xiaomi 17 Ultra zooms in and blurs the background. The border between sharpness on the subject and the blurred background is done nicely, but the face itself often feels a little blurry when you zoom in.
If you switch to the selfie camera, it is as usual less advanced, with a 1/2.7 inch sensor. Here, too, you can choose between sharp and unsharp background in portrait mode. With the selfie camera, the roles are strangely reversed. Leica’s color profiles are not used here and it is Xiaomi’s images that feel flat and too bad at highlighting the subject.
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Oppo Find X9 Ultra
The selfie camera in the Oppo Find is equal to Xiaomi’s, with a 1/2.75-inch sensor, but the color reproduction, both with and without portrait mode, is better.
In the main camera, Oppo’s portrait mode isn’t quite as good at creating a nice transition between sharp subject and blurred background, but the difference isn’t huge. Here, Xiaomi has the advantage in terms of color reproduction, but this is compensated by the fact that you get much sharper subjects with the Oppo, among other things thanks to the images’ resolution of 26 megapixels.
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Winner Portraits and Selfies: Tie
Macro and wide angle
Xiaomi 17 Ultra
The wide-angle camera is the one with the lowest prio in Xiaomi’s camera set. At 1/2.76 inches, the sensor is less than half the size of the main camera’s sensor, but it has autofocus. The image angle is 115 degrees, which is a relatively narrow section for a wide-angle camera in the mobile phone. The sharpness is perfectly fine and the color reproduction, as usual, excellent. It is unclear which camera is used for the macro mode, but regardless, I find it difficult to get really close to the subject and find the focus.
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Oppo Find X9 Ultra
Oppo has made the same priorities as Xiaomi. They have a wide-angle camera with a 1/2.75-inch sensor. As before, we get significantly better sharpness with the images’ 26 MP resolution, while the color reproduction feels flatter. For macro photography, Oppo uses the 3x telephoto camera, which has a close range of 15 centimeters. So you take close-ups by enlarging the subject from a little further away. The result can be really successful, but it is difficult to get the subject in focus, the depth of field is very short.
Rating: 4
Winner Macro and Wide Angle: Tie
Total rating
Xiaomi 17 Ultra 21
Oppo Find X9 Ultra: 22
Winner: Oppo Find X9 Ultra
In a broad comparison of the cameras from many different aspects, the Oppo find X9 Ultra wins by a hair’s breadth, but they are two excellent camera phones with obvious strengths that set them apart. Xiaomi’s color reproduction makes me prefer the images of the Xiaomi 17 Ultra at first glance. Oppo’s color reproduction is trickier, but if you don’t mind, you’ll get sharper images and a superior zoom range.