Oppo has finally confirmed what we basically had already assumed: it's partnered with camera brand Hasselblad for "the next generation of OPPO’s flagship Find X series" - that's the Oppo Find X5 then, isn't it.
The company announced this via a press release which also confirmed that the upcoming phone will launch "Q1 2022" - that means January, February or March, so we don't have much time to wait.
No solid information was provided about what this partnership actually means, though, other than that it'll last for three years. The company did say that it will begin with "software improvements for natural colour tuning" and after that will "enhance the colour calibration solution and target to establish the new benchmark for smartphone camera colour performance".
That's basically all marketing talk, but it does suggest that software is the focus rather than hardware.
Analysis: don't expect big changes immediately
This Hasselblad partnership isn't exactly a huge surprise. Leaks have been telling us this will happen, and OnePlus, which Oppo merged with in 2021, has its own Hasselblad partnership which likely paved the way for Oppo's one.
OnePlus' partnership started with the OnePlus 9, but it's a multi-year one, and it sounds like the OnePlus 10 Pro will reap the benefits a lot more. So the Find X5 might just tout Hasselblad branding, and we might need to wait for the Find X6 or X7 to see some serious benefits.
We're hoping the Find X5 will launch soon - perhaps at MWC 2022 at the end of February - and whenever it shows up we'll see what the Hasselblad partnership brought.
