Oppo Find X7 Ultra vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: What’s the difference?

Oppo has revealed its top-end flagship for 2024 in the form of the Oppo Find X7 Ultra, but how does it compare to Apple’s most capable smartphone, the iPhone 15 Pro Max?

While both the iPhone 15 Pro Max and Oppo Find X7 Ultra have a lot going for them, there are a few key differences that might sway you one way or the other. Here, we’ll go through some of the biggest differences between the Oppo Find X7 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro Max. 

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra has a better camera setup

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is a particularly capable mobile snapper, sporting a trio of rear lenses comprised of a 48MP f.1.8 main camera, 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide and a new 12MP f/2.8 telephoto with enhanced 5x zoom compared to the 3x zoom of the iPhone 15 Pro.

We praised the quality of both images and videos in our review, with well-rounded performance both in well-lit and low light scenarios.

However, the Oppo Find X7 Ultra might have the iPhone 15 Pro Max beaten on the camera front if specs are anything to go by. That’s because the X7 Ultra sports what Oppo calls a ‘quad main camera system’, which is to say that all four lenses are of ‘main camera’ quality. 

That starts with the 50MP main camera, backed by a second-gen 1-inch camera sensor that’s a whopping 60% larger than the iPhone’s main lens, coupled with OIS and a fast f/1.8 aperture. It doesn’t stop there either; the 50MP ultrawide has a massive 1/1.95-inch sensor and a fast f/2.0 aperture, making it one of the largest, fastest ultrawide lenses on the market.

It’s the duo of periscope lenses that really stand out, however. The 50MP 3x periscope lens may not be quite up to the 5x of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but the 50MP 6x periscope lens is – and it goes much beyond that too, with a maximum digital zoom of 120x. 

Both telephoto lenses have large sensors – 3x bigger than the iPhone 15 Pro Max’ periscope lens when it comes to Oppo’s 3x sensor – with OIS. Combined, that provides complete optical coverage from 3x to 10x and beyond. 

Oppo has also worked on image processing tech to reduce over-sharpening, over-exposure and other elements present in smartphone cameras.

It certainly sounds capable, but it’s something we’ll have to put to the test once we go hands-on with the top-end flagship.  

The iPhone 15 Pro Max has a premium Titanium build

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra has a rather striking two-tone design with a glass and vegan leather rear, complete with an aluminium chassis to tie it all together. It’s available in three finishes – Ocean Blue, Sepia Brown and Tailored Black – and sports the flagship-level IP68 dust and water resistance to keep it going no matter the weather.

However, it’s not something we’ve not seen before; almost every premium phone is a combination of glass and aluminium, and many phones have a vegan leather rear.

That’s why the iPhone 15 Pro Max stands out, sporting an upgraded Titanium chassis in place of the stainless steel frame in previous Pro and Pro Max iPhones. It’s not only lighter than stainless steel, providing a serious reduction in weight compared to its predecessor at 221g, but it’s just as robust and the brushed finish feels great in the hand.

It, of course, also comes with IP68 dust and water resistance, it’s protected by Apple’s in-house Ceramic Shield glass protection and it’s available in four flavours; Black, White, Blue and Natural Titanium. 

The Oppo Find X7 Ultra has faster charging technology

The iPhone has never had the fastest charging by any means, but it has trickled up through the years to somewhere around the 25W-30W mark with the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple doesn’t ever officially confirm maximum charge speeds, making this pretty difficult. 

That’s paired with 15W MagSafe charging and 7.5W Qi wireless charging support, making it a versatile bit of kit when you need to top up the battery.

However, it pales in comparison to the 100W charging available on the Oppo Find X7 Ultra. Oppo hasn’t confirmed charging times just yet, but given its 5000mAh battery and other similarly specced alternatives, that should go from 0-100% in around half an hour.

It’s similarly juiced up on the wireless charging front with 50W wireless charging support, though this requires a special Oppo-branded charger to get the fastest speeds.  

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is likely more powerful

Apple does a pretty good job when it comes to developing the chipset used within iPhones – after all, it has been doing it for years at this point. With the iPhone 15 Pro Max, that comes in the form of the A17 Pro, Apple’s first 3nm SoC with blisteringly fast performance that has beaten all of the smartphone competition until this point.

That’s likely to continue despite the inclusion of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Qualcomm’s latest top-end flagship chipset, which is built on the less efficient 4nm process – but we’ll put that claim to the test once we go hands-on with the Find X7 Ultra. 

Whether the difference will be noticeable in everyday use, however, is another story; likely not. 

Besides, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can do things that the A17 Pro can’t. AI processing is one of the biggest strengths of Qualcomm’s chipset, able to run complex generative AI tasks like text and image generation completely on-device with no internet connection required. The catch? The Oppo Find X7 Ultra sadly does nothing to utilise much of that AI processing power. 

You can’t buy the Oppo Find X7 Ultra in most of the world

It certainly looks like Oppo has an impressive early 2024 flagship on its hands with the Oppo Find X7 Ultra, which makes the fact it’s a China-only release with no worldwide plans all the more disappointing. 

You can still import it from China, granted, but it’ll come with import fees and you’ll have to side-load Google Play and GMS onto the phone yourself – not for the non-techy among us.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max, on the other hand, is readily available to buy around the world (including China), although it comes at a premium price of £1199/$1199. Still, at least you can actually buy it if you’re tempted!