The Oppo Find X is the most interesting Android smartphone of the year thus far, thanks entirely to its one-of-a-kind hardware. As you've no doubt already heard, though, that hardware makes it a more fragile phone than the competition, with a motorized camera module that seems fated to eventual failure. To quote the great Montgomery Scott, "The more they overtake the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."
That's not the reason you shouldn't buy it, though. To me, carrying a phone as beautiful and unique as the Oppo Find X is worth the durability tradeoff. After all, not every device is meant to hold up to the rigors of carelessness, and you've got to expect some compromises in a device made to stand out in 2018. However well-founded they may be, those durability concerns obscure what I think is the more pressing problem with the Oppo Find X: ColorOS. Oppo's custom Android interface insists upon itself so aggressively that it actively prevents the user from installing a custom launcher. To be clear, I didn't expect a cakewalk when trying to adapt an overseas smartphone for North American use – but this is the first Android phone in memory that actively prevents the user from enjoying one of the key benefits of Android: the ability to customize the interface to suit their needs. Oppo tells me a software update is due to fix some of the bugs complained of in the above video, and I'll look forward to seeing those. But until this launcher lockdown policy is lifted (or at least explained), I won't be dropping this phone in my pocket.
Agree? Disagree? Just want to watch a cool camera module do some jumping jacks? Click on through to the video above to go hands-on with the Oppo Find X – and stay tuned for more coverage here on AC!
Stay social, my friends
