Oppo's latest flagship phone is excellent, in nearly every imaginable way. And as is always the case for Oppo, the ColorOS Android skin it's loaded with is full to the brim with lots of great features. Some of them help get the best out of your phone, and others are just useful to know. 

Whether you want to know how to access that mad microscope camera, take a three-finger screenshot or make your very own Always-On Display animation, we'll break down our top tips for you. Watch the video below or just follow the written guide, which ever is easiest for you. 

OPPO FIND X3 PRO 5G

Amazon

1. Swipe down for notifications

It may seem like an unimportant thing to activate but with a screen this big, reaching to the top to drag down your notifications can be a pain. And swiping down on a Home Screen drops down the Oppo search tool by default. 

To make it easier to reach your notifications, you can activate the 'swipe down to get your notifications' feature.

Pinch on your Home Screen and then swipe across on the little bar that pops up until you see 'More'. Now tap that and select 'Swipe down on Home Screen' and choose 'notification drawer'. Now whenever you swipe down on your Home Screen you'll get to your notifications and the quick settings tile. 

2. Enable full resolution and frame rate

The Find X3 Pro has a sharp and fast display, but the maximum resolution and frame rates aren't activated by default. To enable those, head to Settings > Display & Brightness and scroll down to 'More'. Tap on that, and on the next screen you'll see 'Screen resolution' and 'Screen refresh rate' options. To choose the maximum settings set the screen resolution to QHD+ and the refresh rate to 'High'. 

3. Brighten screen for HDR

Watching HDR content often leads to a darker image, so to brighten it you can toggle on the 'Brighten HDR video mode'. You'll find it in Settings > Display & Brightness under the 'More' menu option, just like the resolution and frame rate settings. 

4. Nature tone display

Like the iPhone's True Tone , the Find X3 Pro can adjust its white balance automatically depending on the ambient light in the area you're in. Stay in your main display settings menu and toggle on the switch for 'Nature tone display'. This will - more often than note mean a warmer screen temperature - but you should notice it react a little like paper would under ambient lighting. 

5. Create your own Always-on display

The always-on display is a great feature, showing you a constant clock as well as any notifications you have waiting while your phone is in standby. But with Oppo's latest version of ColorOS you can create your own.

Go to Settings > Personalisations and select 'Always on display'. Tap the plus icon in the top corner and now choose which style of always on display you want from the pop up list.

On the next screen you get to choose the finer details, if you chose a custom pattern you draw with your finger on the screen creating an animation a bit like a Spirograph. You can also choose the colour, shape, and paintbrush style. Tap 'next' and now chose your clock style, text colour and which other information you want to display. 

6. Change your fingerprint unlock animation

Like the always-on display you can customise the fingerprint animation that displays when you unlock the phone. Stay in the personalisation screen and choose 'Fingerprint icon animation'. There are eight to choose from, so select the one you like and then go back to save. 

7. Quick launch an app

One cool feature is the ability to quickly launch an app immediately after unlocking the phone. If you have an app you want to get to quickly and easily, this is very useful.

So go to Settings > Convenience Tools > Quick Launch and toggle it on. Now tap the 'Edit' button and choose any shortcut functions or apps you want to get to. For instance, you could have it go directly to create a new calendar event, or compose a new text massage, or just launch your to-do list app to jot down a quick reminder. 

To use it, tap and hold your fingerprint sensor when you unlock your phone and keep it held down until you see your shortcuts appear. Now slide to the app or function you want to launch. 

8. Swipe to screen shot

To quickly take a screenshot, you can swipe down with three fingers instead of doing any button combinations. If it doesn't work for you, it may not be activated yet. Head to Settings > Convenience Tools > Gestures and Motions. Now toggle on the 'Swipe down with 3 fingers to take a screen shot' option. 

9. Raise to wake 

If you want, you can have your phone screen wake up whenever you pick up your phone. In the same Gestures and Motions settings menu as the last tip just ensure the 'Raise to Wake' option is enabled. Now any time you pick up your phone, the screen will light up. 

10. Record yourself and your screen at the same time

Oppo has screen recording in its latest software, but more impressively, you can record yourself with the front facing camera at the same time if you enable it. Go to Settings > Convenience Tools and 'Screen recording'. Now tap the 'front camera' option on and you'll record yourself at the same time as recording the screen. You'll appear in a little circle window as soon as you start recording, and you can drag it around anywhere on the screen. 

11. Launch Google Assistant with the power button

This is a pretty standard feature on a lot of Android phones these days, but you can launch the Google Assistant by pressing the power button for half a second. Just enable the option in Settings > convenience tools. 

12. Show notification number

If you want to know how many notifications you have waiting for you instead of having a collection of app icons in the status bar, you can enable that. Go to Settings > Notification and status bar and now tap 'Notification Icons', then choose 'Notification count' from the list. 

13. Create your own Relaxing soundscape

One of our favourite ColorOS features is the Relax app that helps us get to sleep at night when we're overthinking *gestures wildly* about everything. Open Oppo Relax and tap the icon that looks like mixer faders. Here you can add layers of sound, and adjust the volume to suit you. To remove any you don't like, just press and hold on the sound and tap the little X to remove it. 

14. Acess the crazy Microscope camera. 

Open the camera, tap 'More' and then choose 'Microscope'. Now you need a really steady hand and to get close to your subject. It's tricky to get it in focus properly, but the effects are a lot of fun. 

15. Shoot video at night

Oppo has a night video mode in its latest phone. To enable it, launch the camera and choose the video option. Now tap the 'AI' button on the side panel, and the amount of light and brightness will increase dramatically. Sadly, stabilisation suffers a bit, so best to just shoot quite static or smooth panning shots. 

So there you have it. 15 tips to help you get the most out of your flagship Oppo phone.