The Find X10 Pro Max is a fantastic smartphone that’s easy to love.
It continues on the strong run started by last year’s Find X9 Pro, this time with an even bigger 8000mAh battery (in some regions, anyway), next-gen Dimensity power and a triple 200MP rear camera setup – the first smartphone to offer such a high-res trio.
It’s a phone I’ve enjoyed using as my daily phone for the past month. The screen is big and bright with those ultra-slim 1.1mm-thick bezels that make everything look and feel premium, and when combined with battery life that easily lasts two days, long gaming sessions are genuinely enjoyable.
It goes without saying that it’s a pretty damn capable phone in the camera department too. Those 200MP sensors deliver consistently great shots, complete with Hasselblad tuning and an updated Master Mode that removes much of the artificial processing seen with pretty much every other smartphone camera on the market, offering much more natural results.
And I still think that, despite Oppo blatantly taking elements of iOS 27 (Liquid Glass, hello!) to incorporate into ColorOS 17, it’s still one of the better Android skins around. It’s highly customisable without too much in the way of bloatware, plays nicely with iPhones with AirDrop support and offers solid cross-device connectivity with Windows and Mac.
It’s a well-rounded smartphone then, poised to really challenge flagship Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Google Pixel 11 Pro XL – well, it would be if it wasn’t so damn expensive.
The Find X10 Pro Max is pricier than I expected
There’s no getting around it; the Find X10 Pro Max is an expensive smartphone – one of the most expensive phones that doesn’t fold, in fact, with a £1,499 price tag.
Granted, Oppo is offering 512GB of storage as standard with the X10 Pro Max to try and justify that higher price tag – but that’s no different to what it did with last year’s Find X9 Pro, a phone that cost £1099 – £400 less than this year.
I imagine Oppo will be keen to point out that it’s not a direct follow-up – last year was a Pro, this year there’s a Pro Max – but we all know this is a Pro in all but branding.
One of Trusted’s contributors, Luke Baker, made a great point about this on TikTok a few weeks ago.
I’m paraphrasing here, and it’s worth watching his video on this, but he essentially predicted that many phone makers will be making new Pro Max-branded phones in the coming year because they’re going to be more expensive. But with no previous Pro Max available to compare with, manufacturers can argue that these are indeed different tiers of phone and prices aren’t directly comparable.
It’s an argument that could make sense if Oppo had a Find X10 Pro – but it doesn’t. It’s just the X10 and X10 Pro Max. Again, it’s Pro in all but name.
That price also completely messes up Oppo’s wider portfolio; the Pro/Pro Max isn’t as top-end as the Ultra model, but the X9 Ultra – a phone that’s only six months old and offers a better camera setup than the 10 Pro Max – costs £50 less at RRP, at £1449. And that’s only when going through Oppo directly; the phone can be found for cheaper at other retailers.
Why would you spend more on the Pro Max when the Ultra costs less, even at RRP?
Could it be the first of many?
This might seem like a shocking price jump – and don’t get me wrong, it is – but it could simply be bad timing, with Oppo taking the brunt of what’s likely to be a wave of ultra-expensive 2027 flagships. Someone has to be first, right?
That’s what my gut, and more recently, rumours, are saying. Take the Samsung Galaxy S27 collection as a prime example. Due out sometime in early 2027, rumours suggest that the new Galaxy S27 Pro – taking the place of the S26 Plus with specs closer to the Ultra – will cost the same as last year’s $1,299 S26 Ultra.
The S27 Ultra, on the other hand, could get a price hike to around $1399/$1499 according to the latest online whispers, bringing it up to a similar level to the Oppo Find X10 Pro Max. That’s a potential $200 year-on-year jump in terms of US price – and rumours don’t suggest a complete overhaul of Samsung’s Ultra hardware to justify such a jump in asking price.
And while pricing hasn’t leaked yet, the fact that Honor has the Honor Magic 9 Pro Max this year suggests that it’ll follow suit when it inevitably launches in the UK sometime in the next few months. Phones are about to get very expensive, people.
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Old prices probably won’t return for a while
Of course, as we’re all aware, this is all mainly down to AI and data centres hoovering up RAM and storage, and more component manufacturers pivoting to more lucrative AI-focused RAM and storage over consumer-focused tech like that used in phones. That creates scarcity, which in turn drives up prices.
The argument could be made to simply skip upgrading your phone in 2027 to avoid these crazy price hikes – and usually, I’d agree. But not this time.
The problem is that there isn’t really an answer to the imbalance of RAM and storage – not in the short term, at least. Foundries take time, effort and a lot of money to be built and brought online, after all.
Most believe that this won’t be miraculously fixed by 2028, instead suggesting that it could continue to 2030. A few, including Lenovo, even think that this will essentially be the ‘new normal’ for component prices.
With that in mind, waiting it out isn’t really such a good idea.
Essentially, 2027 is going to be filled with very, very expensive tech, and the jury is out whether we’ll ever get back to the relatively affordable pricing of a year or two ago, so enjoy the current prices while you still can.
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