Oppo has joined forces with camera experts Hasselblad in a three-year partnership deal, where the plan is to improve mobile photography together. If you’re thinking you’ve heard this before, you’re correct, because nearly a year ago OnePlus announced a very similar deal. That came just a few months before Oppo and OnePlus decided to integrate the two companies in order to share technology and resources, and the new Hasselblad partnership with Oppo is an extension of this move.
The pair will work together on research and development, mainly around refining the natural color performance of Oppo’s cameras, all through its Hasselblad for Mobile technology which can currently be seen on the OnePlus 9 Pro. Oppo says it intends to further enhance the color science of mobile photography, but does not go into detail about any other advancements, or mention any Hasselblad-led hardware changes for future smartphones. However, this is something OnePlus has suggested will eventually happen.
What we do know is the first iteration of Oppo’s Hasselblad Camera for Mobile will arrive on the next Oppo Find X flagship smartphone, which is expected to be the Find X4. Whether Oppo has had time to alter the Hasselblad Camera for Mobile experience from the version that’s part of OnePlus’s camera isn’t clear. It’s also worth noting that this isn’t a mode that can be switched on and off, but rather something that’s baked into the camera’s software.
The Hasselblad software won’t be the only exciting camera development for the Find X4 either. The phone will be the first to include Oppo’s own MariSilicon X Neural Processing Unit (NPU) which is solely dedicated to imaging and takes the photo-related Artificial Intelligence (AI) processing away from the main chip. Oppo has already confirmed its next flagship phone will use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and that the phone will arrive before the end of March.
Where does this leave OnePlus? Hasselblad’s technology is part of the OnePlus 10 Pro, which has yet to launch outside China, and there’s nothing to indicate Oppo’s announcement will change anything for the duration of its own three-year agreement. However, because it’s already a year into it, it will expire before Oppo’s partnership comes to an end.
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