MKBHD's Best Camera Phone of the Year is the OPPO Find X9 Pro, MVP is iPhone 17

Popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, also known as MKBHD, recently held its annual smartphone awards.

Our photo of the Find X9 Pro (left), screengrab from MKBHD's YouTube channel (right)

No matter where you stand as a fan, there’s no denying his huge influence in consumer tech, making him a regular feature in top publications worldwide.

His lineup of winners mixes the usual big brands with a couple of pleasant surprises.

MKBHD's Best Camera Phone of the Year is the OPPO Find X9 Pro

Arguably, the most anticipated category in his smartphone awards is the "Camera phone of the Year".

The surprise? The winner this year is not from Apple, not from Google, and not from HUAWEI.

It is the OPPO Find X9 Pro.

The camera kit of the OPPO Find X9 Pro

Marques Brownlee said the phone did everything right in his opinion. It consistently delivered sharp photos with great detail, dynamic range, and accurate colors. He praised the fast and responsive camera app, quick focusing, and handy features like stage lighting mode for concerts. The camera controls felt familiar, similar to Apple's, while Portrait and Night modes impressed as well. Film simulation also earned a thumbs‑up from him.

On video, the phone performed strongly with support for up to 4K 120fps, Dolby Vision, and more. He said that the microphones are also really good. Marques also enjoyed the fun lens attachment that offers 10x optical zoom.

Overall, he called it a very well‑rounded camera phone.

To recap, it uses cameras co-engineered with Hasselblad. The OPPO Find X9 Pro features a 200MP f/2.1 3x optical zoom camera and even has a massive size of 1/1.56-inch. color accuracy, and lossless zoom up to 13.2x, with support for up to 120x digital zoom.

It also features a 50MP f/1.4 large 1/1.28-inch Sony LYT-828 main sensor with OIS for clear and bright images, and is coupled with another 50MP for ultra-wide with f/2.0 aperture and 120-degree FOV.

At GIZGUIDE, we were also impressed with the Find X9 Pro's consistent photography prowess and the fun-to-use lens attachment. Sadly, this phone is not available in the Philippines.

But OPPO is selling the regular yet also incredibly good OPPO Find X9 (PHP 69,990 in the Philippines. See our Barcelona shots here.

His runner‑up was the iPhone 17 Pro, which he said delivered the best and most consistent video. He also gave a shoutout to the vivo X300 Pro for its solid showing.

Apple iPhone 17 in Sage and in Lavender, price starts at PHP 57,990

Meanwhile, his MVP or the Phone of the Year is the iPhone 17 (starts at PHP 57,990 SRP).

While the handset does not offer the strongest overall specs, it has incredible value for money with its Ceramic Shield 2-protected 6.3-inch 120Hz ProMotion screen, Apple A19 chip, All-day battery life with MagSafe support, 48MP Fusion camera system, 12MP Macro, 18MP Center Stage Camera, Camera Control, Action Button, and Apple Intelligence.

The rest of the winners are found below.

MKBHD Smartphone Awards 2025 winners:

• Best Big Phone - Xiaomi 17 Pro Max
• Best Small Phone - Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7
• Best Value - CMF Phone 2 Pro
• Best Battery - OnePlus 15
• The Design Award - iPhone Air
• Best Foldable - Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7
• Most Improved - iPhone 17
• Bust of the Year - iPhone 16e
• MVP - iPhone 17

Watch MKBHD's Smartphone Awards 2025 at this link.

What do you guys think?