The Oppo Find X3 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra are both top flagships with a big camera focus, but a lot of differences.
The Oppo Find X3 Pro is one of the biggest rivals to the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra yet. It’s tremendously powerful, has high-end specs and features, and even has a clever microlens camera that you won’t find on other phones. So does it have the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra beat? Well, not in all ways, but for some people it could certainly be the better choice. We’ve reviewed both of these phones, but below we’ll directly compare them, looking at both their on-paper specs, and how we found them in practice. The Oppo Find X3 Pro has a glass back and a metal frame, with a rear that’s mostly quite plain except for the camera bump, which rises smoothly up from the body in the top left corner. Around the front, the Find X3 Pro has a slightly curved screen with small bezels, and a punch-hole camera in the top left corner. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra also has a glass back and a metal frame, and its camera block is also in the top left corner, but it’s bigger than the Find X3 Pro’s, and doesn’t jut out as smoothly. It’s also a different shape, being more rectangular than square. The Galaxy S21 Ultra also has a curved screen with small bezels, but its punch-hole camera is positioned in the top center. So the designs of these two phones differ, but not drastically. Both handsets are IP68 certified for dust and water resistance, but they have different dimensions and weights, with the Oppo Find X3 Pro coming in at 163.6 x 74 x 8.3mm and 193g, while the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is 165.1 x 75.6 x 8.9mm and 227g. So Samsung’s phone is marginally bigger and thicker, and significantly heavier. Finally, while the Oppo Find X3 Pro comes in Gloss Black or Blue shades, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is available in Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, Phantom Titanium, Phantom Navy and Phantom Brown, so you have more color choices with Samsung’s phone – though you might not find every color in every region. The Oppo Find X3 Pro has a 6.7-inch 1440 x 3216 AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support,525 pixels per inch, and a maximum brightness of 1300 nits. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra meanwhile has a 6.8-inch 1440 x 3200 AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh, HDR10+ support,515 pixels per inch, and a maximum brightness of 1500 nits. So these are very similar screens. They’re both curved, have almost identical resolutions, and similar features. The Galaxy S21 Ultra’s is marginally larger and brighter, but the difference is negligible. Both phones also have a variable refresh rate, meaning they can operate at much lower than 120Hz when refreshing that fast isn’t beneficial.
