The R7 bears a striking style resemblance to the iPhone replete with a 5” AMOLED HD, 445 ppi, screen housed in a white, ‘less is more’ front facia and an elegant rose gold or silver back. And at $449 – well its half the price.
I won’t use the term flagship because although this is a reasonably high spec phone, the Find 7 reviewed last September really falls into that category with its 5.5” Quad HD screen.
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This is a first looks article – a full review will follow in a week or so.
I was a little apprehensive as the web site says Android 4.4 – don’t worry it comes with Android Lollipop 5.1.1 and OPPO are committed to keeping Lollipop updates coming. The User Interface is OPPO’s ColorOS 2.1.0i and it makes very few changes to Android. It seems flatter and faster than the previous KitKat version. I like that it does not make you sign into Google either.
The phone looks and feels premium – gold and white in a well-made metal uni-body with iPhone like curves and accents. It weighs 147g and has a high screen size to body ratio – it is 143 x 71 x 6.3mm – making it very thin - pocket and handbag friendly.
The HD screen equals all but the QHD screens appearing on Samsung’s S6 and LG’s G4 – yet for everyday use, YouTube and Facebook all you will see is a great screen.
The camera is 13MP using a Samsung 3M2 ISOCELL backside illuminated BSI sensor (as first seen in the Galaxy S5). Should be good.
Unlike many of the Chinese smartphone makers it has stuck with Qualcomm instead of using lower cost, home-grown ARM systems. The Snapdragon 615 is an eight core, 1.5GHz, 64-bit processor that supports fast charging – OPPO calls this VOCC flash charge – 30 minutes gets 75% of battery capacity. It has 3GB RAM and 16GB storage – microSD support is there as long as you don’t use the dual sim feature.
The dual sim feature supports nano, micro, and microSD. This small trade-off however limits the number of LTE bands it supports: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100MHz LTE Bands 1/3/7/8/TD-40 – still enough for Australia.
The R7 Plus – a 6” phablet is slated to come to Australia shortly.
About OPPO
OPPO sell direct from the web site or via 397 Dick Smith stores Australia wide.
OPPO is a global electronics and technology service provider that delivers mobile electronic devices in over 20 countries, including the United States, China, Australia and many countries throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It has an office here in Australia and full service and support facilities.
