Step aside Samsung and Apple, I'm already testing 2026's best phone camera

For a week I've been using the Oppo Find X9 Ultra as if my own. I was briefed about this phone some weeks back – but assumed then, like with its predecessor, that this handset wouldn't land on UK shores.

Turns out that's not going to be the case, however, with Oppo confirming that the Find X9 Ultra will be available here in the UK and wider regions, not just in China. There won't be US availability, however, but that's a given.

Now that matters a lot, because based on my current use of this handset, I'm already using the best camera phone of 2026. Such a statement in the recent past would have been the reserve of Samsung and Apple products, but times are certainly changing.

At my briefing, Oppo set out a series of 'tiered' embargoes, specifying what spec information about the Find X9 Ultra could be published and when, to avoid leaks. I'm increasingly confused why the brand does this, however, given it then often releases the information publicly.

Case in point: the epic quad camera specification. As you can see from the X post direct from Oppo (which was actually posted last week), there's no messing about in what the Find X9 Ultra brings to the table.

I'd already written about its new 10x optical zoom being next-level, but its accompanying optics and sensors are also knock-out. Two 200-megapixel sensors catering for main and zoom, paired with two 50-megapixel offerings to deliver the ultra-wide and 10x.

That delivers (as is printed clearly on the device, per my images in the gallery below) a 14-230mm equivalent focal range, with the widest aperture varying from f/1.5 to f/3.5 – the latter figure remaining mighty impressive at a 230mm equivalent.

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I can't tell you exactly how these perform at this stage, mind, given the embargoes I've mentioned above. What I can tell you, in a visual sense at least, is how the Find X9 Ultra looks. And I'd say it's rather a lot like a phone apeing a Hasselblad camera in the finish that I possess.

As you can see from my photos – screen off, though, as that's another stipulation for this preview – Oppo has managed to squeeze all that camera goodness into a device that isn't actually too huge. Goes to show the payoff from that new 10x optical zoom technology.

The Find X9 Ultra's layout isn't hugely dissimilar to the Find X9 Pro's, complete with a camera-adjustment button to the side – in a fetching orange here, though – and Snap Key for Oppo's AI Mind Space feature to the opposite edge.

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The protruding camera unit certainly sticks out a fair amount, giving the impression that it's got a physically adjustable camera ring around its circular emblem. Spoiler: it doesn't physically rotate, it's just there to look pretty and camera-like. Which I'm totally fine with.

There's a lot more I'd like to say about the Oppo Find X9 Ultra – all in due course – but, for now at least, you can marvel over how the device looks. Its official launch event is confirmed for later this month, so come summertime, this could be the Samsung or Apple alternative you never knew you needed.