The OPPO Find X8s and a OnePlus small-screen flagship: a "battle of the gods" in the small-screen phone market?

The OPPO Find X8s and a OnePlus small-screen flagship: a "battle of the gods" in the small-screen phone market?The OPPO Find X8's popularity is undeniable, but its relatively large size has deterred some consumers. To cater to this segment, OPPO quickly launched the Find X8s, a flagship phone focused on lightness, thinness, and a smaller screen

The OPPO Find X8s and a OnePlus small-screen flagship: a "battle of the gods" in the small-screen phone market?

The OPPO Find X8's popularity is undeniable, but its relatively large size has deterred some consumers. To cater to this segment, OPPO quickly launched the Find X8s, a flagship phone focused on lightness, thinness, and a smaller screen. Online bloggers have already leaked real-life photos of the Find X8s' bezels, revealing a 6.3-inch 1.5K custom small straight screen, touted as having the industry's narrowest four-sided bezels. OPPO Find series product manager Zhou Yi Bao confirmed this information and emphasized that the Find X8s utilizes a self-developed new generation of chip-level screen packaging technology, resulting in bezels of only "1.xx mm" (the exact decimal place is yet to be revealed), even narrower than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, potentially under 1.32mm.

The leaked images show impressively slim bezels. Beyond the narrow bezels, the Find X8s strives for thinness and lightness. Reportedly, it's approximately 7mm thick and weighs around 180g, showcasing its lightweight design. Importantly, the Find X8s doesn't compromise on specifications despite its slim profile.

The Find X8s is highly likely to debut with the MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ processor. Manufactured using TSMC's 3nm process, this processor boasts significantly improved performance and energy efficiency. Its super-core frequency reaches a record-breaking 3.7GHz for MediaTek mobile chips, with an expected AnTuTu benchmark score exceeding 3 million.

The Find X8s' battery is also impressive. Despite its smaller size, it features a larger battery capacity than the standard Find X8, reaching 6000mAh, and supports 80W wired fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging, effectively addressing the short battery life often associated with smaller-screen phones.

The Find X8s shares the main and ultra-wide cameras with the Find X8, but the telephoto lens has been upgraded from the IMX882 to a 1/2.76-inch JN5 periscope telephoto lens. While image quality might slightly decrease, the Find X8s' periscope lens design still holds an advantage over competitors using the same JN5 sensor. Thanks to OPPO's inverted periscope module design this year, the lens's DECO thickness is only 3.11mm, further contributing to the phone's slim profile.

In short, the OPPO Find X8s can be considered a "smaller version" of the Find X8, retaining its core strengths while upgrading and improving certain details. However, some anticipated upgrades, such as an under-display fingerprint sensor, are still absent.

Simultaneously attracting attention is the upcoming OnePlus small-screen flagship. This phone also features a 6.3-inch 1.5K small straight screen, but utilizes the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. Noticeably, the OnePlus device boasts a bold design change, abandoning its previous top-left circular camera arrangement for a new horizontal dual-camera setup. While this compromises imaging performance slightly (eliminating the ultra-wide lens in favor of a 50MP 2X vertical telephoto lens), it enhances the grip. To compensate for the imaging downgrade, the OnePlus phone includes a 6000mAh+ battery, aiming for impressive battery life, potentially becoming the longest-lasting 6.3-inch phone.

With strong performance, excellent battery life, and a comfortable grip, the OnePlus small-screen flagship is a strong contender in the small-screen market. Its price is expected to be similar to the existing ACE 5 Pro.

The upcoming OPPO and OnePlus small-screen flagships demonstrate a significant shift in manufacturers' design philosophies, prioritizing user needs. Both phones effectively improve upon the previously common weakness of poor battery life in small-screen phones. Building on the success of the Find X8 and ACE 5 series, OPPO and OnePlus are highly likely to continue their success with these new products targeted at the small-screen market.

In conclusion, the arrival of the OPPO Find X8s and the OnePlus small-screen flagship signals a potential new competitive landscape in the small-screen phone market. Both phones excel in thinness, performance, and battery life, offering consumers more choices. Their ultimate success, however, remains to be seen.