Superzoom lenses like those in Huawei P30 Pro and Oppo's Reno, with 5-to-10x zoom, are so useful that they will likely become ubiquitous in high-end phones
David Ruddock / Android Police :
Context & Ripple Effects
The argument lands at the exact moment the hardware proves it: Oppo showed a working lossless 10x optical zoom prototype in February, then Huawei shipped the quad-camera P30 Pro at €999 with up to 10x lossless zoom weeks later. The thesis matters because Oppo's Reno brings 10x hybrid zoom to a ~$600 device, putting the feature well below true flagship pricing.
The follow-through in the coverage validates the call rather than merely echoing it: Oppo's Find X2 Pro carried 10x hybrid zoom into the 2020 5G flagship tier at €1,199, and by the Find X8 Ultra in 2025 four rear cameras were simply the configuration — zoom had stopped being a headline and become an assumption.
First-order effects
- Huawei and Oppo immediately own the telephoto narrative — the P30 Pro's €999 price and the Reno's ~$600 price both sell zoom as the reason to buy, forcing every rival flagship announcement to answer the same spec.
Second-order effects
- Zoom migrates down the price ladder fast: once a ~$600 phone ships 10x hybrid zoom, mid-premium buyers treat periscope-style reach as expected, compressing the differentiation premium the P30 Pro initially commanded.
Third-order effects
- If ubiquity holds, camera counts keep climbing until multi-camera arrays are fixed bill-of-materials for high-end devices — visible in the Find X8 Ultra's four rear cameras — and flagship competition shifts to battery, charging speed, and display specs instead of zoom reach.
The trend: Periscope superzoom went from 2019 flagship differentiator to default high-end hardware within a few product cycles, exactly as Android Police predicted.