The Oppo Find X3 Lite is the most affordable smartphone from Oppo’s Find X3 series. With its suggested retail price of 449 euros, this 5G smartphone is a lot more accessible. Is the Find X3 Lite also the best smartphone for you?
Oppo Find X3 Lite
MSRP € 449, –
Colors Black, blue
OS Android 11 (ColorOS)
Screen 6.4 inch amoled (2400 x 1080, 90hz)
Processor 2.4 Ghz octacore (Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G)
RAM 8GB
Storage 128GB
Battery 4,300 mAh
Camera 64, 8, 2 megapixel (rear), 32 megapixel (front)
Connectivity 5G, 4G (LTE), bluetooth 5.1, WiFi, GPS, NFC
Format 15.9 x 7.3 x 0.8 cm
Weight 172 grams
Other audio port, fingerprint scanner under screen
Website www.oppo.com/en
8 Score 80 
- Pros
- Design
- Screen
- Fast charger
- Negatives
- Redundant macro camera
The Oppo Find X3 series consists of three smartphones in the Netherlands, of which the most luxurious Oppo Find X3 Pro stands out the most, especially because of its camera that has a microscope camera lens. In addition, the Oppo Find X3 Neo has also been released. However, both smartphones seem to be overestimated by Oppo in terms of price, making a choice for a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or an iPhone more justifiable. The Find X3 Lite is the most affordable version of the smartphone series and seems to suffer less from this price overestimation. For 449 euros you have the Lite version of the Find X3 series at home.
Oppo Find X3 Lite
The Find X3 Lite is in line with the two more luxurious smartphones from the series in terms of design. The back has a round finish, as well as the edge around the device. The camera island (with four lenses) also looks the same. Although the number of lenses is slightly lower.
Just like the Find X3 Neo, the back is made of matte plastic, perhaps it gives a slightly less luxurious feeling when you hold the device in your hand. Yet it still looks luxurious, especially thanks to the matte finish. As a result, the smartphone does not slide out of your hand so quickly and it is certainly an advantage that you have no fingerprint spots and the device is very light and handy.
You will also find an audio connection at the bottom of the device and the front camera is placed in a camera hole at the front and the fingerprint scanner is placed under the screen.
Screen
Of course there are some concessions when you compare the screens between the three smartphones, when you look at color reproduction and brightness. But if you look at it in perspective with its prize mates, there is little to be said about the screen. The AMOLED screen looks fine. The colors jump off the screen, the brightness illuminates the screen well for use in sunlight and the Full HD resolution is sharp enough for the 6.4-inch screen size. The screen also has a higher refresh rate of 90 hertz. You can manually adjust this down if you want to protect the battery.
5G and the fast refresh rate can take their toll on the battery.
Features of the Find X3 Lite
That battery capacity of the Find X3 Lite is 4,300 mAh. Basically enough capacity to get through the whole day. However, the screen refresh rate and 5G can take their toll on the battery. Fortunately, Oppo also included its fast charger in the box. This 65-watt charger charges the battery from zero to a hundred in about forty minutes. The possibility to charge this battery wirelessly is not offered.
In terms of performance, there is also little to say about the Oppo Find X3 Lite. The Snapdragon 765G chipset may not hit the same benchmarks as the iPhone SE (2020) chipset, which falls in the same price range. The chipset of the Find X3 Lite offers 5G support and in practice I hardly noticed any stutters or lag.
In terms of storage, the Oppo Find X3 Lite offers 128GB, of which about 20GB is used. In principle, this should offer enough storage, but check carefully in advance whether you will have enough storage space around 100GB, also in the coming years. After all, it is not possible to expand the storage memory with a memory card.
Four-eye camera
At the back there is room for four lenses. A regular camera lens, a wide angle lens, a macro lens and a depth camera. The latter is not used for photos, but to estimate depth, for example for the depth of field effect in portrait photography and AR apps.
So there are plenty of options with the cameras of the Oppo Find X3 Lite. The most beautiful photos are taken by the regular lens. Good to remember when choosing a lens. When you zoom in in the camera app (2x or 5x), the image from the main sensor is zoomed in. Nevertheless, the results are also fine. The wide-angle camera also takes nice photos, but it is visibly more affected by difficult lighting conditions, such as backlight and low light. As a result, you are more likely to suffer from noise and faded colors. The regular camera can also handle these difficult lighting conditions best, if necessary with the night mode on. This gives you many options and good photos with the cameras of Oppo Find X3, for its price range of course. The Pixel 4A 5G and iPhone SE, smartphones in the same price range, take better photos, but offer fewer features.
From left to right: the four zoom levels of the Oppo Find X3 Lite. The color differences between the first left photo (wide angle lens) and the regular lens are visibly large.
Then there is also the 2 megapixel macro camera. Why Oppo has decided to place this in the device is really a mystery to me. The resolution is too low to be able to capture details nicely, something you really want with macro photography. There is also too much noise and dark details disappear too much with backlighting.
Android 11 with ColorOS
As you can expect, the Oppo Find X3 Lite runs on the most recent version of Android. During testing, an update to the February security patch appeared. Support is what many Android smartphone manufacturers lack. To compete with Samsung, which extended its support policy for new smartphones last year, manufacturers like Oppo have to step up their game. Oppo promises two version updates for its smartphones and two years of security updates. No promises are made about the rollout speed of updates. With that, Oppo is still somewhat behind Samsung. Oppo could take this update responsibility a bit more seriously if it really wants to compete with Apple and Samsung.
Oppo’s Android skin is called ColorOS and changes Android quite drastically, especially visually. The name ColorOS says enough in that respect. Oppo invests a lot in ColorOS and over the years everything has turned and looks a lot smoother. Unfortunately, bloatware is still present, although the number of pre-installed apps is manageable. The only thing that is a thorn in the side is the bad hyphenation in both the interface and Oppo’s own apps.
The fingerprint scanner seems to be placed a bit low at the bottom of the screen.
Alternatives to the Oppo Find X3 Lite
From Oppo’s Find X3 series, this Lite version stands out positively because it finds a better balance in the price-quality ratio. Just like the more expensive X3 smartphones, the most serious competition comes from Apple and Samsung, which do better with the iPhone SE and Galaxy A72 respectively in terms of update support and thus appear more future-proof than the X3 Lite. Despite this, the Oppo smartphone has a lot of trump cards to play that the competition does not offer: 5G support (which also counts when you look at a future-proof smartphone), a better screen with high refresh rate and more camera options. It is also striking that in terms of design, the Galaxy A72 and Oppo Find X3 Lite can hardly be distinguished from each other.
The Chinese Xiaomi offers an alternative with the Mi 11, which is better in terms of specifications. However, the Mi software skin is a few significant steps back from ColorOS.
This makes the Find X3 Lite a good all-round device, which is not inferior to its price competitors.
Conclusion: Buy Oppo Find X3 Lite?
The Oppo Find X3 Lite is a safe choice if you are looking for a smartphone in the price category below 500 euros. The smartphone does not compromise in all important areas: performance, screen, camera capabilities, design, the lightning-fast charger and 5G support. Of course there are a few points for improvement, such as the software support, the superfluous macro camera, the battery capacity could have been slightly higher and things like wireless charging and memory card support are missing. However, they do not outweigh the plus points at all to arrive at a good final conclusion.
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