The unusual camera bump on the Oppo Find X3 Pro is the result of a complex 40-hour forging process

The Oppo Find X3 is the eagerly anticipated follow up to one of last year’s best Android phones, the Oppo Find X2 Pro. The device is scheduled to launch on March 11 but it has already been well leaked in advance thanks to Evan Blass who was the first to reveal its unique, and controversial, camera bump. The camera bump or camera housing has become a key design point for smartphones, particularly since they started adopting an all-screen approach on the front.

Oppo’s approach for the Find X3 Pro has polarized Android fans since its launch, but the company is hoping that its just-released promo video highlighting the design and engineering process it used will change hearts and minds. It’s undoubtedly a significant technical achievement as it starts out as a single piece of flat glass. A lengthy 40-hour heating process is applied to the glass following 2,000 design points forging it to create a seamless fluid rear shape.

Once this has been achieved, Oppo then applies a special OC0 process to the shaped glass panel to achieve a polished porcelain finish. The final touch is a special paint finish, which in this instance is called a “shine-through mirror black”, designed to create a depth effect. Oppo is marketing the event with the tag “Awaken Color” which is likely a reference to the end-to-end 10-bit imaging capability of the device. However, it could also indicate that it has a special color up its sleeve that we may not have yet seen.

Buy the Oppo Find X2 Pro from Amazon.