So This is Peak Smartphone

0:02 So this is peak slab phone?

0:04 for now anyway.

0:06 We gotta talk about it.

0:08 So this is the Oppo Find X9 Ultra.

0:10 By the time you see this, I've been testing it for almost a month.

0:14 It's their newest maxed-out flagship that makes

0:16 Samsung's S26 Ultra feel not so ultra.

0:19 Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, 7,050mAh battery,

0:22 6.8-inch super bright OLED and an insane

0:25 200-megapixel camera system on the back...

0:27 It is ridiculous, and it's got me thinking a lot about peak...

0:32 slab phone, which is, of course, a moving goalpost.

0:34 See, I called Oppo Find N6...

0:36 peak foldable a couple weeks ago because it

0:39 just feels like we finally reached the watermark of...

0:42 just being a great phone that happens to fold in half.

0:45 They'd one by one engineered away all of the downsides of a foldable,

0:49 from the front bezels to the cameras to the crease to get to that point.

0:53 And that's really exciting.

0:54 Peak...

0:55 slab phone, though, it's a little harder to define.

0:58 Like, there's obviously going to be a better slab phone in a year,

1:02 but you know, there's so many things that make a great smartphone...

1:06 And as far as...

1:07 special...

1:08 watermarks that we're trying to achieve,

1:10 I think we've achieved basically all of them except for one.

1:14 And hot take, we're not going to achieve that last one.

1:18 So hear me out...

1:19 If you've been following smartphones like me for the past decade plus,

1:22 you've seen lots of trends come and go and then some of them stick around.

1:26 So curved screens, they just came and went.

1:29 Pop-up cameras, they came and went too.

1:31 Ultrawide cameras though, those stuck around.

1:33 And so now, as boring as it is,

1:35 we've kind of settled on this final form of a default...

1:38 high-end, maxed-out flagship smartphone.

1:41 Easiest way to see it is to just look at my five pillars of a great smartphone.

1:45 I've always said if one phone can have great display,

1:49 great battery, great build, great performance...

1:52 and great cameras, like, if you can ace all five of those things,

1:56 then you have a great phone.

1:57 Now each of these things, you know,

1:59 is exciting at different times as we get different innovations,

2:02 and they're all changing at different rates.

2:04 But for the past 20 years, all of these categories have felt like they're...

2:08 chasing something...

2:10 that like drives everything to get better.

2:12 So display.

2:13 Right, let's just take that as the first example.

2:15 Everyone...

2:16 for the entire history of smartphones has just wanted a screen on the phone...

2:20 that just looks good...

2:21 all the time...

2:22 that's the watermark.

2:23 And so over the years of smartphone screens,

2:25 they've gotten bigger and bigger, they've gotten thinner bezels.

2:29 You know, they tried curved edges for a while, but it turns out that wasn't it.

2:33 And now we've essentially settled on a large, flat, bright...

2:37 OLED, high refresh rate, high resolution...

2:38 fingerprint reader underneath and a hole punch

2:40 up at the top for a selfie camera...

2:42 They look good outside in the sun now because they get insanely bright,

2:46 and they also look good in the dark because they all get

2:48 all the way down to 1 nit and have high frequency PWM dimming.

2:52 So we still get...

2:53 higher peak brightness numbers and contrast ratios and occasionally

2:56 special features like the privacy display in the bleeding-edge phones.

3:01 But for the most part now...

3:02 in flagships, they have great displays.

3:06 Box checked, watermark achieved.

3:08 So then, what about battery?

3:09 Okay, everybody wants a great battery in their smartphone.

3:12 What does that mean?

3:13 Honestly, just, I want my phone to last all day...

3:16 no matter what.

3:17 Then that's a great battery.

3:18 Now, when we first got 4G phones,

3:20 I remember my HTC Thunderbolt didn't even last till the end of the school day.

3:24 They were terrible batteries.

3:25 But phones have gotten more efficient

3:27 and batteries have gotten bigger and more dense.

3:30 So there was like a 3,000 milliamp-hour barrier that all these flagships hit,

3:34 and then 3,500 and it just kept getting better and better.

3:37 The average screen-on time for a good phone before it died was...

3:41 went from two hours to three to four...

3:43 and then five.

3:43 Anybody spending five hours on their phone in a single day to kill it,

3:49 that's getting a bit ridiculous.

3:51 But you could still do it, I guess.

3:53 But then silicon carbon batteries came along, like in the last two years.

3:57 And so in a few short months,

3:58 the normal flagship battery size went from 5,000 milliamp-hours...

4:02 to 6,000.

4:03 And even higher than that, the X9 Ultra here has a 7,050 milliamp-hour battery.

4:07 So now these phones are just, they're just too good to die in a single day.

4:11 Regular use, they're gonna work no matter what.

4:14 I gave my battery award last year to a phone that could

4:16 get me seven to eight hours of screen-on time every single day.

4:19 Most of the time that's actually a two-day phone.

4:21 Like, I'll end a normal day with 60% left

4:23 and then I just don't even charge it overnight.

4:25 But then if you do actually kill it in a day with some insane day,

4:28 then they'll have like 100-watt wired charging.

4:30 Or 50-watt wireless charging like this with the right accessories.

4:34 So basically we got there.

4:35 These phones have incredible batteries kinda no matter what.

4:38 Box checked, watermark reached.

4:40 Now great performance is maybe a little more subjective since

4:43 that includes the software and people have different preferences there.

4:47 But...

4:47 generally if you have a high-end chip,

4:49 smooth animations and a responsive display,

4:51 keep that thing updated for a long time

4:53 and most people are gonna feel pretty good about it.

4:56 The improvements we get year-over-year these days are like in the highest end...

5:00 that you might notice in like graphically intensive games...

5:02 or benchmark scores basically.

5:04 So you know, performance is definitely box checked,

5:07 and then great build quality is just, I mean it's all there now.

5:11 Metal rails, square...

5:12 built like a tank.

5:13 Slightly improved glass every year that's still glass.

5:16 And then IP69 dust and water resistance.

5:19 As long as the design isn't ugly, we're all good here.

5:22 So then there's great...

5:23 cameras and, and this is the one where we

5:26 get kind of stuck a little bit because okay, we want great cameras.

5:29 What does that mean exactly?

5:31 You've probably noticed every smartphone presentation now is...

5:34 more camera than ever.

5:35 It used to be like one or two slides,

5:37 now a new phone is like 20 slides about just camera stuff.

5:40 Actually just did this little experiment that I've

5:42 been posting on Shorts and maybe leave

5:44 a like or comment on this video if you want to see like a long-form...

5:47 breakdown of it all.

5:48 But we took a picture on every generation of the same phone

5:52 and put them back-to-back to see the differences and they were fascinating.

5:57 I did iPhones, I did also every Samsung phone,

6:00 I did every Google phone, we did daylight, low-light, backlit.

6:04 But the one thing that struck me as I was sitting there,

6:07 you know, getting my picture taken by 17...

6:09 phones in a row and I'm looking at these phones,

6:12 I couldn't help but notice how massive...

6:14 these cameras got over the years.

6:16 It went from a literal pinhole webcam on the back to, to this...

6:20 huge...

6:20 plateau multi-camera system just dominating the back of the phone.

6:24 I think the camera watermark people want to use now in 2026

6:28 is that a smartphone camera system is as good as a regular camera.

6:33 And if we can achieve that, then we can say it's a great camera.

6:37 Unfortunately, this is a battle against physics that...

6:40 can never fully be won.

6:41 As much as these are doing a hell of a job of getting close like this...

6:45 X9 Ultra is the most ridiculous camera system I've ever.

6:49 And next year, sure, there's probably gonna be an even more ridiculous one.

6:53 But let's look at this.

6:54 The whole phone is built around this camera system.

6:57 From the design, like the faux leather on the back, the orange accent,

7:01 the Hasselblad and Oppo text being sideways to the specs themselves.

7:05 It's five camera sensors back here, and each one of them is either the best...

7:10 or among the best numbers on paper I've ever seen.

7:12 200-megapixel main camera with the biggest 200-megapixel sensor we've ever

7:16 seen in a phone with a wide aperture and OIS.

7:19 Then a 200-megapixel 3x telephoto camera.

7:21 Literally the biggest telephoto sensor we've ever seen in a phone.

7:25 Bigger than a lot of phones' main cameras.

7:27 There's also a second zoom.

7:28 There's a 50-megapixel 10x camera with sensor-shift stabilization,

7:32 and there's a 50-megapixel ultrawide...

7:34 and...

7:34 a dedicated color sensor that they're calling this true color camera

7:38 to help get the most accurate white balance in photos and videos.

7:41 And, a shocker to absolutely no one, this is a great...

7:44 camera system.

7:45 Oppo's X9 Pro already won my smartphone camera of the year last year.

7:49 This is the ultra version of that phone...

7:51 So it's got a lot of the same tasteful,

7:54 relatively minimal processing with just better hardware.

7:56 And so that's just a treat.

7:57 There's still plenty of processing going on, and it takes a while.

8:01 You can actually snap a shot and then wait

8:03 two to three seconds to see it finalize everything.

8:05 And it can get a bit HDR-y sometimes,

8:07 but for the most part, any shot you can imagine,

8:10 any shot you're thinking of getting,

8:12 you can probably get it, and it'll come out really good.

8:15 There's just so much versatility with these focal lengths, too.

8:18 But there is a difference there.

8:20 There's a difference between super versatile...

8:22 and as good quality as a regular camera.

8:25 Those are two different things.

8:28 The irony with this, you know, Oppo,

8:30 is they clearly want you to think of this as like a Hasselblad camera.

8:33 They...

8:34 bought the licensing, and they use the same accent colors,

8:37 and it's got the knurling around the camera ring...

8:39 And this is based on the Hasselblad X2D Mark II.

8:42 They say it on their website.

8:45 I actually own the Hasselblad X2D Mark II.

8:49 These are...

8:50 these are like opposite cameras.

8:51 They could not be further apart!

8:53 The whole point of an incredible smartphone

8:56 camera system is to be the most capable,

8:59 versatile, convenient camera possible, no matter where you are,

9:03 no matter what situation you're in.

9:05 This computer is going to try its absolute hardest

9:08 to not let you take a bad picture or video.

9:11 It's why it's called computational photography.

9:15 The X2D Mark II is a professional,

9:17 very deliberate camera that doesn't have computational photography.

9:22 It doesn't even have a video mode.

9:24 So I think it's actually kind of a mistake to compare these two.

9:28 The smartphone will never, I'll just say it,

9:30 will never actually replace a high-end professional camera at what it does.

9:34 Just physics, you know, they,

9:36 these sensors get bigger and better every year, but so do these.

9:39 I actually think that's true about everything.

9:42 Probably over...

9:42 like, an RX100-type of camera.

9:44 But I think what we're settling on is

9:46 that a truly great smartphone camera is obviously really good quality,

9:50 but it's one that minimizes the misses and maximizes the makes.

9:53 Like, it's like that self-moving basketball

9:56 hoop that Stuff Made Here, a YouTuber,

9:58 made a couple years ago, where no matter what your skill level,

10:01 no matter how bad any of your shots are,

10:04 you can always end up with a make, you just can't miss!

10:07 And if you don't know better, you might even think that that's your skill: "Wow,

10:11 every shot looks so great." "I'm killing it!"

10:14 That's what computational photography is trying to do.

10:17 A lot of us, you know, enthusiasts, don't love that look.

10:21 So if you can do that without the over-processed look, then that would be great.

10:26 So anyway, the updated watermark, I think,

10:29 that we're chasing is that a great smartphone camera

10:33 can take a really good photo or video anytime.

10:37 That's what we're chasing.

10:38 That's not to say you can't have a little fun,

10:42 because not only does this, and phones like it,

10:44 try to defy physics with things like portrait mode to simulate a larger sensor,

10:49 and even the Hasselblad modes with lens

10:51 emulation to mimic the bokeh of these bigger,

10:53 better lenses, but they're also making literal lens

10:56 attachment accessories to unlock even more incredible capability.

11:00 This, and also the Vivo X300 Pro,

11:02 are at the forefront of that with these attachments

11:05 that are honestly kind of insane.

11:07 Like, Oppo has it with Hasselblad, Vivo is doing it with Zeiss.

11:11 This phone has a whole specialized case and lens

11:14 attachment and battery grip with a two-stage shutter button.

11:18 It's truly hilarious that you can carry

11:20 all this stuff around and actually take some

11:23 pretty incredible 400-millimeter zoom photos that you

11:26 can technically say you shot on your smartphone.

11:29 But at the end of the day,

11:30 as good and as fun as this is, it's really impressive.

11:34 It's still mimicking the real thing, as good as it's gotten.

11:38 So the strength is definitely still in its versatility.

11:41 Like, it really reminds me of all the parallels

11:45 of when someone tries to turn their iPad into a laptop.

11:49 You...

11:50 You can kind of do it, kind of...

11:52 Like, the software is still not exactly desktop software,

11:56 but you can multi-window mostly the same way.

11:59 And the web browser is mostly desktop-class,

12:01 and there's a file manager now, so that's nice.

12:05 And if you ignore the kind of wobbly weight distribution...

12:09 Eh...

12:09 kind of a laptop??

12:10 It's cool that it's gotten that good, but nobody sane would say that it's

12:15 a one-to-one replacement for a high-end, pro-level laptop.

12:19 But!

12:20 for regular use, stuff that most people are doing:

12:24 YouTube, video watching, social media, web browsing, word processing,

12:28 basic stuff, even some light photo editing and video editing,

12:33 it is actually as good as anyone will need.

12:35 And that's a smartphone camera.

12:37 Professional cameras, of course, will always have their place.

12:40 That's what I keep shooting these videos with.

12:42 That's what us hobbyists and professionals love.

12:45 But I will also keep shooting the Auto Focus channel exclusively on smartphones,

12:49 because that's also really fun and it demonstrates the capabilities

12:52 and how good that these keep getting over the years.

12:55 The latest episode was actually shot on this X9 Ultra,

12:57 so if you want to see what the footage from this phone looks like,

13:00 I'll link it below the like button.

13:01 It is so good.

13:02 Thanks for watching.

13:03 And I'm very curious to see your comments below,

13:06 what you think of peak slab phone in 2026.

13:09 Catch you in the next one.

13:11 Peace!