Oppo Find X9 Pro vs Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max

EDITORIAL: This is a meaningful upgrade of Find X8 Pro. Significantly bigger battery with record breaking endurance, finally an AF on the upgraded selfie, excellent 200MP periscope telephoto that replaced two 50MP zoom lenses and a new customizable action button. Unlike Vivo, Xiaomi and Honor, Oppo likes their phones to be wide. X9 has actually gone a millimeter shorter while staying 76mm wide for a more squarish screen ratio. The imaging performance is almost Ultra level with only some minor complaints.

EDITORIAL: Apple decided to introduce an aluminium frame for it's Pro phones after years of promoting steel and titanium as better options. The camera bump now stretches across the top portion of the back to allow for a bigger battery and the new cooling chamber. These make for the biggest design changes in years and it's a needed move considering there is much more Android competition in the premium segment. All of the back cameras are now 48MP but photography is not showing improvement over 16 Pro Max while phones from Vivo, Huawei, Vivo and Xiaomi now offer better pics. A new 18MP selfie produces great photos (as did the old one) and iPhone Pros still record the best videos, front and back. New A19 Pro is a good processor but not as powerful as are the latest SnapDragon and Mediatec chips. iOS 26 brings Liquid Glass design language while keeping the fundamentals the same. UI design feels outdated with multiple pages of icons and (while labels can now be removed) the overall design is not efficient.