The compact flagship phone is dead and gone. The Asus Zenfone 10 was arguably the last bastion for that cause, and after Asus decided to make an Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra without a regular Zenfone, it was clear that those who loved devices with screen sizes under 6 inches simply didn’t have an option anymore. “Get with the times”, essentially.
There was a Vivo X200 Pro Mini, but that had a 6.3-inch display. Now we have word that there is reportedly going to be an Oppo Find X8 Mini, but if you ask me, I’d be extremely surprised if the device actually turns out to be mini. OEMs have a completely different view of what makes a phone compact these days.
The Oppo Find X8 Mini Might Be Coming With The Find X8 Ultra
The Ultra devices in Oppo’s Find lineup always come after the initial launch, and it seems to work well for them. So, we’ve been sitting here, expecting the Find X8 Ultra to come at some point in December or January. However, it seems like there’s going to be a bit of a surprise accompanying that phone’s launch. Yep, it’s another phone.
According to Digital Chat Station on Weibo, the Find X8 Mini exists and is going to launch alongside the Ultra phone—making for a good demonstration of the range of the Find X8 lineup. Digital Chat Station is hardly ever wrong, so there’s very little reason to doubt that the phone exists.
He mentions that it will be a “really small screen flagship” (that’s machine-translated, for full disclosure) and that’s interesting. But how small is “really small”?
I Don’t Think The Oppo Find X8 Mini Will Be Under 6 Inches
Here’s the thing: I really don’t think the Oppo Find X8 Mini will be as “mini” as it sounds like it will be. If you’re expecting the old days of compact flagships and a smartphone with a screen under 6 inches, I can almost bet that’s not going to happen. In 2024, most manufacturers simply seem to consider that size to be way too small to be viable.
If the device somehow avoids the 6.3-inch mark that OEMs like to consider to be “small” phones (looking at you, Vivo), I think 6.1 inches is the mark a modern device, with its super slim bezels, needs to be at to be deemed a compact smartphone.
Anyway, time will tell. And even if the Mini device doesn’t entice you, there’ll be the Ultra there too.
The Oppo Find X8 and Find X8 Pro both pitched their tents with MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400, which is great to see, as there’s never been this much competition in the flagship segment of mobile SoCs before. If everything goes well, that choice will likely continue to the Ultra and Mini models, unless Oppo wants to switch to Qualcomm for whatever reason.
Besides that, there’s little else known. We do know the Oppo Find X8 series will go global, but it’s not clear which devices exactly. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mini option doesn’t make it.
