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Oppo Plans to Challenge Apple Globally, Starting With 'Find X5' Premium Smartphone

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After Xiaomi pledged to aggressively challenge Apple earlier this month, Chinese smartphone brand Oppo is also now planning to directly compete with Apple on a global scale with a wave of premium devices, starting with the newly announced Find X5 (via South China Morning Post).

oppo-find-x5.jpg

Oppo is currently the world's fourth-biggest smartphone vendor, but following its merger with OnePlus, the company reportedly has renewed zeal to create high-end smartphones that target international markets. The company is planning to use its Find series of devices and custom-designed chips to push into the premium segment that is currently dominated by Apple and Samsung, according to Zhang Zhouchuan, Oppo vice-president of overseas sales and service.

Oppo today announced its latest flagship smartphone, the Find X5, featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the company's custom-designed MariSilicon X image processor that it unveiled in December 2021. The chip is specifically designed to boost camera capabilities and improve low-light video performance. Pricing for the Find X5 series has not yet been announced, but it is expected to be among the priciest devices ever sold by the company, pitting it directly against the iPhone 13 and Galaxy S22 lineups.

Beyond the MariSilicon X image processor in the Find X5, Oppo says that it is designing other custom chips to improve specific functions, including one for improving fast charging. While the company has been hit by the global chip shortage, Zhang said that it has allocated its chip inventory to prioritize premium models in key markets and is expecting supply issues to ease in mid-2022.

Oppo anticipates that sales of its high-end models, including the Find and OnePlus series, will double year on year in 2022 thanks to rapid growth in Western Europe and South America. Like Xiaomi, the company is also seeking to fill the void left by Huawei, which was previously China's largest smartphone vendor before being forced to pull out of the U.S. market.

Article Link: Oppo Plans to Challenge Apple Globally, Starting With 'Find X5' Premium Smartphone
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/02/24/oppo-plans-to-challenge-apple-with-find-x5/
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Like, I’ve heard of Xiaomi, but I’ve never heard of these guys. They’re getting off to a bad start if they want to compete with Apple with that hardware, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon is probably the best Android SoC, but Apple has a 2+ year performance lead on top of the line Snapdragon chips. And an image sensor from 2015?! I know we’re talking no-name Chinese tat (and I suppose we should be grateful they’re not using a MediaTec SoC), but that’s not how you compete with custom hardware on performance.

(Actually, Xiaomi and Oppo probably just mean, “we’ll try to get better at making iPhone look-alikes without actually challenging Apple’s hardware in any meaningful way”.)
 
I just don't see any of the Chinese phone makers competing for iPhone customers. Samsung/Android users moving up from low to mid spec phones maybe.

I hope I'm wrong - because competition is always good! But in my circles (middle age, medium to high income), I rarely see anyone with an Android phone these days, and if I do, it's always a Samsung.

We're all on iPhones, be it work or private phones, and I have a hard time seeing myself move to a Chinese brand on Android. Double spyware whammy, plus - not that I care, but I know a lot of folks do - the status of using a Chinese Android phone, they lack the desirability.
 
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Looks more like a case of matching Apple on pricing rather than in performance. A lot of these Android phone makers found a market by undercutting Apple and Samsung on price, but it they are going to be $1000 anyway, why buy them over Apple/Samsung?
 
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doolar said:
I just don't see any of the Chinese phone makers competing for iPhone customers. Samsung/Android users moving up from low to mid spec phones maybe.

I hope I'm wrong - because competition is always good! But in my circles (middle age, medium to high income), I rarely see anyone with an Android phone these days, and if I do, it's always a Samsung.

We're all on iPhones, be it work or private phones, and I have a hard time seeing myself move to a Chinese brand on Android. Double spyware whammy, plus - not that I care, but I know a lot of folks do - the status of using a Chinese Android phone, they lack the desirability.
Click to expand...
On the latter point, I’ve yet to find a Chinese brand that can live down the reputation for being a cheapo Ali Express extra. It doesn’t help that most of the Chinese branded tech products can be easily found in an unbranded OEM configuration on Ali Express. In some niche categories, such as e-ink tablets (Boox) or Android emulation devices (GPD), there are some devices with a fan base and brand recognition, but even those suffer from the OEM clone on Ali Express problem. For a Chinese firm to crack the global mid to high end market, they’ll need to offer a very compelling product (with great value for money) and will need to take steps to prevent OEM clones. Having an American distribution network would also help.

Edit: Oh, and Apple levels of attention to detail. So many times have I found that some cheap Chinese device has some positive buzz, but the users are like “but you really should do this” or “but this issue is super common”. And it’s clear people only tolerate those things because of the low price. To give three examples, the recommendation for GPD emulation devices is to root them to put stock Android on (instead of whatever spyware infected version of Android they ship with. And in amateur radio, the Baofeng multi band VHF/UHF handhelds are popular, but no one would put up with the difficulty and quirkiness of programming frequency memories in them if they cost the same as a Yaesu or Icom handheld. Also in amateur radio, the Xiegu branded radios are notorious for bad soldering jobs on the mic jack.
 
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If the iPhones are supposedly garbage from the view of the android world, with phrases such as:
  • “iPhones only have 2,3,4,6 GB of RAM! Or three cores! Or only [name specification here]”
  • “while our flagship phone has double the ram, triple the cores! Triple the [random specification]”
Being repeated all these years amongst others, then why Android mobile manufacturers commit to challenge to become or topple an iPhone? It should be to challenge “the best”, another Android… dropping the ball on the narrative there imo.
 
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Well Oppo fones are overpriced just like Apple but what makes them stand out is that are still pretty ****.
 
Apple could really use some non-Chinese competition other than Samsung. The US phone market has become a pretty stagnant duopoly.

BvizioN said:
We heard stuff like this since original iPhone. In general, only iPhones compete with iPhones. Same for any other Apple devices. Key is the ecosystem.
Click to expand...

That may be true for some, but certainly not all. The key for many is price/features.
 
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doolar said:
I just don't see any of the Chinese phone makers competing for iPhone customers. Samsung/Android users moving up from low to mid spec phones maybe.

I hope I'm wrong - because competition is always good! But in my circles (middle age, medium to high income), I rarely see anyone with an Android phone these days, and if I do, it's always a Samsung.

We're all on iPhones, be it work or private phones, and I have a hard time seeing myself move to a Chinese brand on Android. Double spyware whammy, plus - not that I care, but I know a lot of folks do - the status of using a Chinese Android phone, they lack the desirability
Click to expand...

iPhones are assembled in China as well (mostly).
 
leonremi said:
iPhones are assembled in China as well (mostly).
Click to expand...
I know that - and I do assume that you and other people on Macrumors knows and understands the difference between products developed and engineered by the western countries contra devices developed and engineered in China.

The argument "everything is made in China anyway so it doesn't matter what it says on the box" is a really uneducated one. No offence.
 
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ksgant said:
Cool! Does it run iOS? No? Then it's not much of a challenge, is it?

Is it a great challenger to the unbelievable plethora of different Android phones? Um...sure?
Click to expand...
For you and I, maybe not. But for those out there who are not as thoroughly embedded in the Apple ecosystem, maybe it could be a challenge. I use a Mac daily for work and everything else, and own an iPad and an Apple TV -- so it would take some serious eff-ups from Apple before I'd look at Android. But if I used a PC all the time, or if I just really wanted to tweak my phone in ways iOS doesn't permit, it might not be as hard a sell.

I think any credible competition to iOS and the iPhone is a good thing, even for those of us who have no plans to jump ship.
 
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