I was surprised that this Oppo camera slammed the iPhone 17 Pro in my testing

THE iPhone 17 Pro is absolutely worthy of its ranking as one of the best camera phones you can buy in 2026. Thanks to its trio of lenses and features like ProRaw, it’s capable of taking stunning images – in broad daylight or in the dead of night – that would rival professional mirrorless cameras. But even though Apple has long held its crown as champion of mobile photography, there are a growing number of flagship Android phones that also offer incredible camera skills – and the Oppo Find X9 Pro is just such a device. Its camera setup is excellent and I’ve taken some nice images with it using both its wide-angle cameras and its 200-megapixel zoom.

The Find X9 Pro is a powerful phone in every way, which is why it scored so high in my full review – and why it received the coveted CNET Editors’ Choice Award. So to see how it compares to the iPhone 17 Pro, I took it on a series of photo missions around my beautiful hometown of Edinburgh.

Before we dive in, a quick word about the images. They were all photographed with each phone’s default camera mode in JPEG format, with no other settings applied (the Photographic Style on the iPhone was set to Standard). The images were imported into Lightroom for comparison and export in file sizes that will play nicely on the Internet, but no further editing, sharpening, or noise reduction was applied.

Watch this: One month later: the iPhone 17 Pro strikes back

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Remember that while some decisions about which images look best may be obvious (like lack of detail or image processing aberrations), others will simply come down to personal opinion. I’m a professional photographer, so I’m usually looking for an image that captures the scene in a more natural way. You might like a more vibrant image with high contrast, so take my findings with a pinch of salt.

With that said, let’s dive in.

Wide camera comparison

An image of a train station — iPhone 17 Pro, filmed with the main camera.
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Let’s start with this easy shot overlooking the train tracks. Both phones showed well in their images above, but the Oppo’s photo shows more natural warm tones against the wall’s masonry – the iPhone looks more magenta. The Oppo’s colors are also brighter, but not too much.

Switching to the ultra-wide lens, the blue sky definitely looks oversaturated in the Oppo’s photo. And this is where we need to delve deeper; Oppo’s image has received more digital sharpening, which makes some details look sharp, but it also benefits from significant noise reduction, which softens details in other areas.

a close-up of the masonry — Detailed crop with iPhone 17 Pro on the left and Oppo Find X9 Pro on the right.
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If we look closer at this section of wall, we can see that the strong mortar lines between the bricks look sharper in the Oppo’s right photo. But the bricks themselves appear almost polished because they have been stripped of detail by noise reduction. The iPhone image retained this detail.

An image of a wooden bookcase — iPhone 17 Pro, filmed with the main camera.
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Another weird thing to analyze. The wooden bookcase box definitely looks sharper in the photo of the Oppo, even the tiny scratches on the plexiglass are clearly visible. But as soon as we look further towards the edges of the frame, this detail collapses.

a detailed close-up of the leaves — Detailed crop with iPhone 17 Pro on the left and Oppo Find X9 Pro on the right.
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Zooming in closely on a section on the right side of the frame, it’s clear that the Oppo’s image is severely lacking in detail compared to the iPhone’s. Whether this is an image processing issue or the quality of the lens, I’m not sure, but it’s surprising to see, especially considering how sharp the rest of the image is.

Pictured inside a museum — iPhone 17 Pro, filmed with the main camera.
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This indoor shot on the main camera seems like a slightly easier win for the Oppo. Its image is brighter and its colors appear richer without being too punchy. As before, it accentuates some areas and reduces texture in others. There’s a lack of detail towards the edge of the frame, but you’ll only notice it if you get really close to the pixels. Overall, I prefer the photo look of the Oppo.

And it’s the same when I switched to the ultra-wide lens: the Oppo takes the win here.

An image of trees and a river with benches — iPhone 17 Pro, filmed with the main camera.
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I like the balanced exposure of both phones in this vibrant outdoor scene, but I prefer the warmer tone of the Oppo’s photo. The iPhone photo appears to have seen all the golden colors and set its auto white balance to the cooler side to compensate. The Oppo produced a more realistic image and I think it’s a great photo as a result.

An image of a restaurant front — iPhone 17 Pro, filmed with the main camera.
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However, I don’t like Oppo’s efforts here. This artificially over-brightened the shadows, giving this scene a false HDR look that screams, “I took this on an Android phone.” The iPhone scores an easy victory thanks to its more natural shadow handling.

An image of buildings next to a river — iPhone 17 Pro, filmed with the main camera.
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I’m conflicted on this one. The Oppo’s photo is brighter and more vibrant, but it’s almost too much. The blue sky is a little electric blue for my taste, while the buildings in the center of the frame seem slightly too bright. However, I think I prefer its rendering to that of the iPhone, which seems a little dull in comparison.

An image of two people in a cafe — iPhone 17 Pro, photographed with 2x zoom.
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At 2x zoom, this indoor scene looks solid on both phones. Overall, I think the Oppo’s photo wins because it’s brighter and sharper than the iPhone’s.

An image of buildings and a clock tower — iPhone 17 Pro, photographed with 8x zoom.
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By taking each phone to its default maximum zoom levels (8x on the iPhone, 6x on the Oppo), the results look drastically different. The color balance is very different, for one thing, with the iPhone leaning more towards teal tones while the Oppo’s photo has a more magenta cast. Honestly, neither feels particularly realistic, with both phones going a little too hard in different directions. What I noticed was that the Oppo’s image went too far with digital sharpening, resulting in crunchier detail rendering that I’m not a fan of.

a close-up detail of the masonry — Detailed crop with iPhone 17 Pro on the left and Oppo Find X9 Pro on the right.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET

The huge amount of digital sharpness in the Oppo’s photo is evident when you zoom in on the details.

A picture of a tower — iPhone 17 Pro, photographed with 8x zoom.
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This is a strange question; at maximum zoom, the Oppo failed to render details on the side of the building.

a detailed close-up image of a tower — Detailed crop with iPhone 17 Pro on the left and Oppo Find X9 Pro on the right.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Discover this detailed harvest; I don’t know what the Oppo was doing in his image, but this building was transformed into a weird, grimy mess. The iPhone did a superb job capturing these fine, distant details.

An image of birds on a log — iPhone 17 Pro, photographed with 8x zoom.
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Seagulls on a log. There is very little choice between either phone in this example. Make your choice!

An image of a clock tower — iPhone 17 Pro, photographed with 8x zoom.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET

The Oppo Find X9 Pro does have a secret zoom weapon, however, in the form of the Hasselblad telephoto zoom attachment. This optional lens attaches to the phone and offers huge zoom lengths – up to 40x – while maintaining excellent quality. Here you can see the difference in the iPhone’s maximum zoom range compared to the Find X9 Pro’s zoom with the lens attached; it’s both closer and sharper.

An Oppo smartphone equipped with a Hasselblad telephoto lens. — The telephoto lens looks like a real Hasselblad camera lens. It’s a lot of fun to play with.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET

An image of people walking down a street — Oppo Find X9 Pro, photographed with the Hasselblad telephoto lens.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET

I love using the lens add-on for street photography because you can get great candid moments without anyone noticing. It’s worth bearing in mind, however, that the Hasselblad lens for the phone costs £435 or $580 (based on a rough price conversion of 499 euros), and third-party telephoto lenses like Sandmarc are also available for the iPhone.

Night photography

An image of a pub at night — iPhone 17 Pro, filmed with the main camera, night mode.
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The iPhone’s night mode photo here looks brighter, but I prefer the richer contrast in the Oppo’s photo. Otherwise, it’s a pretty even match here.

An image of a building at night — iPhone 17 Pro, filmed with the main camera, night mode.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET

But it’s a much easier victory for the Oppo here. The deeper contrast helped keep some of the glare from the lights at bay, while the details on the building’s facade are much sharper.

An image of a bar pub at night — iPhone 17 Pro, filmed with the main camera.
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This indoor scene is brighter, warmer and more vibrant on the Oppo and so I much prefer it.

An image of buildings next to a river at night — iPhone 17 Pro, filmed with the main camera, night mode.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET

The iPhone’s image is brighter here, especially in the sky, but if you zoom in on the details, the Oppo’s image is sharper.

And it’s basically the same story when you move to the ultra-wide lens.

However, when we move on to the zooms, the Oppo has increased the sharpness even further, resulting in a rather over-processed image.

An image of a lighthouse at sunset — iPhone 17 Pro, photographed with 2x zoom.
Andrew Lanxon/CNET

One evening I photographed a beautiful sunset, but only the iPhone managed to do it justice. I love the iPhone’s natural tones and deep shadows, while the Oppo delivered a supersaturated photo that looks like I applied a tacky filter before posting it to Instagram.

And it’s the same here with the Oppo photo looking saturated compared to the more realistic iPhone version.

But the difference was more evident when using the zoom lenses on both phones. The iPhone photo not only has more natural colors, but the Oppo’s heavy processing has given the flagship an unpleasant halo (a slight blur at its edges) that really ruins the photo.

An image of a man in an orange jacket — iPhone 17 Pro, photographed with the selfie camera.
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I ended on a selfie and here both phones went in interesting directions. The Oppo is definitely the winner in my eyes: its photo is considerably sharper (without overdoing it) with more natural skin tones and an accurate orange tint on my jacket. The background is a bit too cyan but it’s certainly a nicer attempt than the iPhone’s.

iPhone 17 Pro vs Oppo Find X9 Pro: Which Takes Better Photos?

I was surprised by the results. Oppo’s phones – and phones from its sister company OnePlus – have a history of relying heavily on image processing with often extremely brightened shadows, excessive sharpening and inaccurate colors that resulted in shots that were only really okay for occasional snaps. The Find

In fact, in many cases it produced shots that I preferred to those from the iPhone. The golden hues of the tree-lined path photo looked stunning on the Oppo, while the warmer, brighter tones inside the pub were a clear win for the X9 Pro. I preferred most of the images from the Oppo’s main camera to those from the iPhone, including some at night. This wasn’t a win either way and just goes to show that each phone’s image processing is still going to trigger in different scenarios.

But overall, I think I have to give the victory to the Oppo Find X9 Pro. Its ability to capture scenes precisely with just enough processing to help give the images a bit of pop but without overdoing it is admirable. So it’s safe to say that if you’re looking for a high-performance Android camera phone, the Find X9 Pro is definitely a phone to consider.