Oppo astounded many with its 5x optical zoom technology at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017, but there was no commercialisation of the advanced camera feature even to this day. While many might find it disappointing, Oppo has another reason for its fans around the world to be excited this year.
2018 was a great year for mobile photographers, as they witnessed some incredible camera technologies integrated into small sensors in smartphones. Handsets like Huawei Mate 20 Pro, Google Pixel 3 XL, Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and even the iPhone XS-series redefined what phones are capable of in this new age of technology. Oppo, with a single camera feature, could race past all these innovators and even end users could benefit from it.
Oppo has confirmed an event to be held in Beijing on Wednesday, January 16, where the invite poster is strongly hinting at the global debut of 10x hybrid optical zoom technology. Unlike two years ago, Oppo is hosting a standalone event in China to make the announcement that'll succeed its own 5x lossless zoom technology.
We'd tested Oppo's 5x optical zoom on a prototype smartphone at MWC 2017 and couldn't be more impressed at the time. But Huawei Mate 20 Pro came with a similar feature that added value to the zoom feature and more importantly made it commercial. With the upcoming 10x hybrid optical zoom, Oppo plans to commercialise the technology sooner than later, MySmartPrice reported.
The report further added that Oppo could introduce 10x lossless zoom in the next F-series phones, namely F19 and F19 Pro, which will additionally feature an in-display fingerprint scanner, punch-hole display, Snapdragon 675 processor and more.
While there's nothing known about Oppo's upcoming 10x zoom feature, it is only a matter of days before the official word drops. But the new technology is largely expected to use the same blueprint as the 5x optical zoom with certain advancements.
For those unaware, the 5x lossless zoom by Oppo used the idea of a periscope on a submarine and combines two lenses – a telephoto and a wide angle. The angle of the telephoto lens is tilted by 90 degrees, allowing deep zoom capabilities. It remains to be seen how Oppo has improved on its current-best technology to allow for up to 10x zoom without losing any details on the subject in focus.
