Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Where to buy yours

When it comes to high-end users who want a smartphone experience that leaves you wanting next to nothing, there are a ton of great ‘Ultra’ handsets to choose from. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and the Xiaomi 17 Ultra bring plenty of great features to the table, but they might seem like small fry now that the all-new Oppo Find X9 Ultra has hit the scene.

Avid Tech Advisor readers will already know that the Oppo Find X9 Pro is one of our favourite Android phones right now, and once it was tested, it shot straight to the top of our rankings for the best camera phone to buy. Its winning combination of DSLR-style sensors and a battery life that can run for several days at a time is already tough to beat, but Oppo is looking to do just that in the X9 Ultra.

This newer phone represents the pinnacle of Oppo’s X9 series, and it’s unlikely that we’ll see anything surpass it from Oppo’s own wares until the inevitable X10 range is revealed. But if you’re shopping for a true flagship phone in 2026, the X9 Ultra absolutely needs to be on your radar, alongside the aforementioned Xiaomi 17 Ultra and Galaxy S26 Ultra.

We’ve seen plenty of rumours about this phone in the lead-up to its reveal, but now that Oppo has officially unveiled the X9 Ultra, we’ve put together this guide to let you know exactly what this handset has to offer. Alternatively, you can check out our round-up of the best phones to see what the X9 Ultra is up against, or check out the best mid-range phones if you want flagship specs on a budget.

Oppo Find X9 Ultra: What’s new?

A next-generation camera setup

The Oppo Find X9 Pro is no slouch in the photography department, but for the X9 Ultra, Oppo has tried to outdo itself with a system that feels far more like an actual camera. As soon as you see the specs, it makes complete sense that Oppo is marketing the phone not as an upgrade, but as “your next camera”.

There are no less than five lenses on the back of the Oppo X9 Ultra, spearheaded by two 200Mp sensors, the first of which is a 1/1.12-inch Sony LYTIA 901 while the other is a 3x telephoto. Already, the combination of these two sensors is designed to give unparalleled quality when capturing subjects from a reasonable distance, and that telephoto lens can also serve as a macro camera for when you want gallery-worthy shots of everyday life up close.

Those cameras alone would probably be enough to turn the heads of most enthusiast photographers, but the real kicker is the inclusion of a 50Mp 10x telephoto which Oppo describes as an industry first, using the brand’s Quintuple Prism Reflection Periscope Structure (try saying that five times) to maintain light purity as it reaches the lens.

There’s also Oppo’s Sensor Shift optical stabilisation to keep things steady when you’re shooting from a distance. It all sounds rather impressive, and it’ll certainly give the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s 50Mp 5x telephoto a run for its money.

The 50Mp ultra-wide 1/1.95-inch can supposedly let in 56% more light than the equivalent lens on the Oppo Find X8 Ultra, so you can anticipate better low-light performance in scenes such as trying to capture a cityscape at night. The fifth and final sensor is the True Color camera, which acts as more of an assistive lens, analysing a scene to deliver accurate colours, presumably in not too dissimilar a fashion to the Google Pixel 10 range, which is known for its ability to represent skin tones in portrait shots.

What’s sure to appeal to the enthusiast crowd is the optional Hasselblad Earth Explorer Kit, which adds a dedicated camera grip with a two-stage shutter button, and a 300mm teleconverter. This beast of a lens mounts on top of the 200Mp 3x telephoto, effectively producing a combined zoom of 13x, so if you’ve got an eye for shots that are way out in the distance, this accessory kit will be a must-buy.

For those interested in creating video content, you may be interested to know that every camera on the X9 Ultra is capable of capturing 4K 60fps Dolby Vision footage. There’s also 8K 30fps recording via the two 200Mp sensors, which is completely unique to the X9 Ultra.

Of course, software plays a big role in terms of video performance, so we won’t know for sure if Oppo can topple Apple (the current king in this arena) until we get into our testing. Either way, the sum total of all these camera specs certainly gives the X9 Ultra a head start right out of the gate.

A design to die for

Although there are two colourways available for the Oppo Find X9 Ultra, those being Canyon and Tundra, it should be clear to anyone that one of them is the real star of the show, inspired by the Hasselblad X2D 100C Earth Explorer Edition camera.

The Tundra colourway takes a lot of the design cues from that camera, such as having a splash of orange on the Quick Button, much like the shutter button of the X2D, alongside a vegan leather backing which imitates the feel of a classic camera in the hand. The fact that the text on the back is readable when the phone is held horizontally further confirms the idea that this is more camera than smartphone.

It’s also a stronger build overall, with the X9 Ultra having official IP66, IP68 and IP69 ratings to better withstand water and dust.

A battery befitting a true flagship

With all of the new cameras onboard, you could wonder how well the X9 Ultra’s battery would hold up after a long day of shooting. Well, Oppo has thought about this by making it one of the key upgrades for this year, jumping up from 6,100mAh on the X8 Ultra to a whopping 7,050mAh silicon carbon cell on its newest phone.

Although that’s not quite at the level of the Oppo Find X9 Pro or the OnePlus 15, which pack 7,500mAh and 7,300mAh batteries respectively, it’s still a massive uptick on the previous generation, and Oppo claims that you can get up to 31 hours of YouTube playback on a single charge.

The charging speeds are unchanged, with 100W over a wired connection and 50W when charging wirelessly, but those are still much faster than the specs of competing flagships from Google and Samsung.

The display is slightly better than before

While not as big a leap as battery life, the display on the Oppo Find X9 Ultra has been given a bump to improve its overall usability. The display can now get much brighter with a peak HDR brightness of 3600 nits (this was previously capped at 2500 on the X8 Ultra). The brightness bump should make it a lot easier to line up any shots taken in broad daylight, as you won’t be left squinting at the preview onscreen. 

In what is sure to be a boon for mobile gamers, the X9 Ultra now has a higher refresh rate of 144Hz. Admittedly, it would have been nice to see Oppo match the 165Hz cap of the OnePlus 15, but given that 120Hz is still the norm, it’s a nice upgrade nonetheless.

Some genuinely practical AI features

Just like every other company right now, Oppo has been trying to find meaningful ways of implementing artificial intelligence on its handsets, and while that process has led to some mixed results depending on who you ask, it seems as though the company has finally landed on a more practical approach for the X9 Ultra.

There are two big AI features available on the X9 Ultra as part of ColorOS 16, those being AI Bill Manager and AI Menu Translation. There’s no real surprise here about what either of these two features do, but they both address problems that almost all of us have had to deal with at some point, which feels like a more inspired use of AI.

AI Bill Manager can take a quick scan of a receipt, catalogue it and provide a dashboard of financial information to let you know exactly how much you’ve been spending recently and which activities are proving to be the most expensive. It’s a great idea, and anything that gives users a means of better managing their finances is fine by us.

AI Menu Translation does exactly what it says on the tin, but it goes a step further by letting you know of any allergens that might be included, as well as generating an image to give you an idea of what the dish in question might look like. Prices are also converted into your chosen currency, so you can keep better tabs on the overall cost before the bill even arrives.

The obligatory chipset upgrade

This particular upgrade shouldn’t surprise anyone, but it’s a nice thing to have. Just as you’d expect, the X9 Ultra has moved on from the Snapdragon 8 Elite, instead adopting the far more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

We’ve already seen this chipset come to life in a few other handsets, including the Oppo Find X9 Pro, and it’s been a blast to work with. Offering true flagship performance, there isn’t really anything out there that can stop this chip in its tracks, which should bode well for all of the processing that’s sure to take place with the cameras onboard.

When is the Oppo Find X9 Ultra release date?

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra was unveiled 22 April, alongside confirmation of a retail release for 8 May.

This date is only slightly behind that of the X8 Ultra, which debuted to the public on 10 April, before shoppers could get their hands on it just a few days later on 16 April.

What’s crucial here is that unlike the X8 Ultra, the X9 Ultra is actually having a global launch and is not limited as a China-only exclusive.

How much does the Oppo Find X9 Ultra cost?

Brace yourself. Oppo has confirmed that the price of the Oppo Find X9 Ultra will ring in at £1,449 in the UK, making it one of the most expensive phones you can buy.

Of course, the phone won’t be for everyone, but that price isn’t too egregious when you consider that the similarly powerful and camera-focused Leica Leitzphone by Xiaomi is even more expensive at £1,699.