The iPhone 17 Professional is totally worthy of its rating among the many greatest digital camera telephones you should purchase in 2026. Because of its trio of lenses and options like ProRaw, It is able to taking beautiful photos — in broad daylight or within the useless of evening — that may rival skilled mirrorless cameras. However whereas Apple might have held its crown as cell images champ for a very long time, there are an growing variety of flagship Android telephones that supply unimaginable digital camera expertise as effectively — and the Oppo Discover X9 Professional is simply such a tool. Its digital camera setup is great and I’ve taken some stunning photos with it utilizing each its huge and 200-megapixel zoom cameras.
The Discover X9 Professional is a powerhouse telephone in all respects, which is why it scored so extremely in my full evaluation — and why it was given a coveted CNET Editors’ Selection Award. So to see simply the way it stacks up in opposition to the iPhone 17 Professional, I took it out on a sequence of picture missions round my stunning dwelling metropolis of Edinburgh.
Earlier than we dive in, a fast word concerning the photos. They have been all shot with every telephone’s default digital camera mode in JPEG with no different settings utilized (the Photographic Fashion on the iPhone was set to Normal). The photographs have been imported into Lightroom for the needs of comparability and exporting at file sizes that may play properly on the web, however no different edits, sharpening or noise discount have been utilized.
Watch this: One Month Later: The iPhone 17 Professional Strikes Again
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Do not forget that whereas some choices about which photos look higher is perhaps apparent (corresponding to an absence of element or picture processing aberrations), others will merely come down to non-public opinion. I am an expert photographer, so I sometimes search for a picture that captures the scene extra naturally. It’s possible you’ll like a extra vibrant picture with excessive distinction, so take my findings with a pinch of salt.
With that stated, let’s dive in.
Large cameras comparability
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot on the primary digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot on the primary digital camera.
Beginning off with this simple snap overlooking the prepare tracks. Each telephones have uncovered their photos above effectively however the Oppo’s shot has extra pure heat tones on the brickwork on the wall — the iPhone’s look extra magenta. The Oppo’s colours are extra vibrant, too, however not overly so.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot on the ultrawide digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot on the ultrawide digital camera.
Switching to the ultrawide lens, the blue sky undoubtedly seems oversaturated within the Oppo’s shot. And this is the place we’ve to dive deeper; Oppo’s picture has had extra digital sharpening utilized to it, which helps some particulars look crisp, nevertheless it’s additionally obtained quite a lot of noise discount, which smooths particulars in different areas.
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Element crop with the iPhone 17 Professional on the left and Oppo Discover X9 Professional on the suitable.
If we glance up shut at this part of wall, we will see that the sturdy traces of mortar between the bricks look sharper within the Oppo’s picture on the suitable. However the bricks themselves look virtually polished as they have been stripped of element by the noise discount. The iPhone’s picture has retained that element.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera
One other bizarre one to research. The wood field of the library is definitely sharper on the Oppo’s shot, with even the minute scratches on the perspex being clearly seen. However as quickly as we glance additional out towards the perimeters of the body, that element plummets.
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Element crop with the iPhone 17 Professional on the left and Oppo Discover X9 Professional on the suitable.
Zooming in shut on a piece to the suitable facet of the body, it is clear that the Oppo’s picture severely lacks element in comparison with the iPhone’s picture. Whether or not that is a picture processing problem or because of the high quality of the lens, I am unsure, nevertheless it’s shocking to see, particularly given how sharp the remainder of the picture is.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
This indoor shot on the primary digital camera seems like a barely simpler win for the Oppo. Its picture is brighter and colours look richer with out being too punchy. As earlier than, it each sharpens some areas and reduces texture in others. There is a lack of element towards the sting of the body, however you’d solely discover in case you actually stand up near the pixels. Total, I favor the look of the Oppo’s shot.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the ultrawide digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the ultrawide digital camera.
And it is the identical after I switched to the ultrawide lens — the Oppo takes the win right here.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
I like the balanced publicity from each telephones on this vibrant outside scene, however I favor the hotter tone of the Oppo’s shot. The iPhone’s picture seems prefer it noticed all of the golden colours and set its auto white steadiness on the cooler facet to compensate. The Oppo produced a extra true-to-life picture and I feel it is an incredible shot because of this.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
I do not just like the Oppo’s effort right here, although. It artificially brightened the shadows manner an excessive amount of, giving this scene a faux HDR look that screams, “I took this on an Android telephone.” The iPhone takes a simple win with its extra pure deal with on shadows.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
I am conflicted on this one. The Oppo’s shot is brighter and extra vibrant, nevertheless it’s virtually an excessive amount of. The blue sky is a bit on the electric-blue facet for my style, whereas the buildings within the middle of the body look barely too shiny. Nonetheless, I feel I favor its rendition to the iPhone’s, which does look slightly drab by comparability.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with 2x zoom.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with 2x zoom.
At 2x zoom, this indoor scene seems strong on each telephones. Total, I feel the Oppo’s shot takes the win because it’s brighter and sharper than the iPhone’s.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with 8x zoom.
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Oppo discover X9 Professional, shot with 6x zoom.
Taking every telephone as much as its most default zoom ranges (8x on the iPhone, 6x on the Oppo), the outcomes look fairly dramatically completely different. The colour steadiness is wildly completely different for one factor, with the iPhone leaning extra into teal tones whereas the Oppo’s picture has a extra magenta forged to it. Actually, neither one seems particularly real looking, with each telephones going a bit too exhausting in numerous instructions. What I’ve observed is that the Oppo’s picture has gone overboard with the digital sharpening, leading to a crunchiness to the main points that I am not a fan of.
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Element crop with the iPhone 17 Professional on the left and Oppo Discover X9 Professional on the suitable.
The massive quantity of digital sharpening on the Oppo’s shot is obvious while you zoom in on the main points.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with 8x zoom.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with 6x zoom.
That is an odd one; at max zoom, the Oppo has catastrophically didn’t render the main points on the facet of the constructing.
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Element crop with the iPhone 17 Professional on the left and Oppo Discover X9 Professional on the suitable.
Take a look at this detailed crop; I do not know what the Oppo was doing in its picture, however that constructing has been changed into a weird, smeary mess. The iPhone has executed an excellent job of capturing these distant nice particulars.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with 8x zoom.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with 6x zoom.
Seagulls on a log. There’s little or no to decide on between both telephone on this instance. Take your decide!
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with 8x zoom.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the Hasselblad zoom lens.
The Oppo Discover X9 Professional does have a secret weapon on the subject of zoom, although, within the type of the Hasselblad telephoto zoom accent. This optionally available lens attaches to the telephone and offers big zoom lengths — as much as 40x — whereas retaining glorious high quality. You possibly can see the distinction right here within the most zoom vary of the iPhone in opposition to the zoom of the Discover X9 Professional with the lens hooked up; it is each nearer and sharper.
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The telephoto lens seems similar to an actual Hasselblad digital camera lens. It is nice enjoyable to play with.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the Hasselblad telephoto zoom lens.
I completely love utilizing the lens add-on for avenue images, as you will get some nice candid moments with out anybody noticing. It is value maintaining in thoughts, although, that the Hasselblad lens for the telephone is an eye-watering £435 or $580 (primarily based on a tough conversion of the 499 euro value), and third-party telephoto lenses from the likes of Sandmarc are additionally obtainable for the iPhone.
Night time images
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera, evening mode.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera, evening mode.
The iPhone’s evening mode shot right here does look brighter, however I favor the richer distinction on the Oppo’s shot. In any other case, it is a fairly even match right here.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera, evening mode.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera, evening mode.
But it surely’s a a lot simpler win for the Oppo right here. The deeper distinction has helped preserve among the flare from the lights at bay, whereas the main points on the entrance of the constructing are a lot sharper.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
This indoor scene is brighter, hotter and extra vibrant on the Oppo and I a lot favor it because of this.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera, evening mode.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera, evening mode.
The iPhone’s picture is brighter right here, particularly within the sky, however in case you zoom in on the main points, the Oppo’s picture is sharper.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the ultrawide digital camera, evening mode.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the ultrawide digital camera, evening mode.
And it is principally the identical story while you swap to the ultrawide lens.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with 8x zoom, evening mode.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with 6x zoom, evening mode.
Once we leap to the zooms, although, the Oppo has ramped up the sharpening once more, leading to a picture that appears moderately over-processed.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with 2x zoom.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with 2x zoom.
I caught an excellent sundown on one night however solely the iPhone managed to do it justice. I like the iPhone’s pure tones and deep shadows, whereas the Oppo has delivered an oversaturated shot that appears like I’ve utilized a cheesy filter earlier than posting it to Instagram.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the primary digital camera.
And it is the identical right here with the Oppo’s shot trying saturated in opposition to the iPhone’s extra real looking model.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with 8x zoom.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with 6x zoom.
However the distinction was most blatant when utilizing the zoom lenses on each telephones. The iPhone’s shot not solely has extra pure colours, however the Oppo’s heavy-handed processing has given the lighthouse an disagreeable halo (a light-weight haziness round its edges) that actually spoils the shot.
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iPhone 17 Professional, shot with the selfie digital camera.
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Oppo Discover X9 Professional, shot with the selfie digital camera.
I ended on a selfie and right here each telephones went in attention-grabbing instructions. The Oppo is definitely the winner to my eye — it is shot is significantly sharper (with out overdoing it) with extra pure pores and skin tones and an correct orange hue on my jacket. The background is a bit overly cyan nevertheless it’s definitely a better-looking try than the iPhone’s.
iPhone 17 Professional vs. Oppo Discover X9 Professional: Which takes higher pictures?
I used to be shocked on the outcomes. Oppo’s telephones — and its sister firm OnePlus’s telephones — have had a historical past of leaning exhausting into picture processing with usually wildly brightened shadows, an excessive amount of sharpening and inaccurate colours that resulted in pictures that have been solely actually okay for informal snaps. The Discover X9 Professional does have a few of that (the picture of the purple restaurant entrance is a very egregious instance of shadow brightening) nevertheless it’s far more toned down than I anticipated.
In reality, it delivered pictures in lots of situations that I most well-liked over the iPhone’s. The golden hues of the tree-lined pathway shot seemed chic on the Oppo, whereas the hotter, brighter tones contained in the pub have been a transparent victory for the X9 Professional. A lot of the photos from the Oppo’s foremost digital camera I most well-liked over the iPhone’s, together with some at evening. It wasn’t a win in each occasion and it simply goes to indicate that every telephone’s picture processing will nonetheless journey up in numerous situations.
However total, I feel I’ve to provide the win to the Oppo Discover X9 Professional. Its potential to seize scenes precisely with simply sufficient processing to assist in giving photos that little pop however with out going overboard is admirable. It is protected to say then, in case you’re searching for a excessive efficiency Android digital camera telephone, the Discover X9 Professional is definitely one to contemplate.
