The iPhone 17 Pro is unquestionably among the best camera systems available. It can take amazing images in all sorts of conditions with almost no effort on your part. But there are a number of top-end Android phones that pack serious photography setups, too -- and the Oppo Find X9 Pro is just such a device. Its triple rear camera is potent, and capable of taking beautiful images from both its wide and 200-megapixel zoom cameras.
The Find X9 Pro is a powerhouse phone in all respects, which is why it scored so highly in my full review -- and why it was given a coveted CNET Editors' Choice Award. So to see just how it stacks up against the iPhone 17 Pro, I took it out on a series of photo missions around my beautiful home city of Edinburgh.
Before we dive in, a quick note about the images. They were all shot with each phone's default camera mode in JPEG with no other settings applied (the Photographic Style on the iPhone was set to Standard). The images have been imported into Lightroom for the purposes of comparison and exporting at file sizes that will play nicely on the internet, but no other edits, sharpening or noise reduction have been applied.
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Remember that while some decisions about which images look better might be obvious (such as a lack of detail or image processing aberrations), others will simply come down to personal opinion. I'm a professional photographer, so I typically look for an image that captures the scene more naturally. You may 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 cameras comparison
Enlarge Image iPhone 17 Pro, shot on the main camera. Andrew Lanxon/CNET
Enlarge Image Oppo Find X9 Pro, shot on the main camera. Andrew Lanxon/CNET
Starting off with this easy snap overlooking the train tracks. Both phones have exposed their images above well but the Oppo's shot has more natural warm tones on the brickwork on the wall -- the iPhone's look more magenta. The Oppo's colors are more vibrant, too, but not overly so.
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