Gadgetory

the previous and the thin line of phones by Oppo was definitely a sleek device but it seemed to lose a couple of key functions for the sake of slimming down the newest Oppo does what it needs to regain those capabilities but still doesn't lose its slender profile so let's see how it goes because it's Josh of agar from Android Authority what's going on everybody and this is the Oppo r7 it's obvious at first glance what the main story of the r7 is its thinness and though it isn't as slender as the r5 from before it does get just enough to regain the headphone jack that before had to be adapted to the microUSB port a metallic frame from the back houses the rest of the device providing a bit of a lip on the sides where the solid but very thin power button and volume rockers adorn the sides with the power button being on the left though capacitive keys lined the front though a menu button is in place of a recent apps button the metallic body has a subtle golden hue in this particular unit and the optic package is neatly placed on the top left at just six point three millimeters it's clear that the phone needed to be just thick enough to fit the headphone jack which just barely makes the cut of the body but where some discomfort might be expected with this razor thin phone the lip provides a nice grip and an overall heft in the weight coils these concerns getting from side to side is easy due to the lack of thickness and gripping is thankfully not that difficult as a result plenty of phones these days are trying to get slimmer and more beautiful but that can be at the expense of some peace of mind plenty of phone slip about and the fear of even a small drop cracking glass or causing scuffs and dents is common while the r7 doesn't strike me as an indestructible phone it also doesn't feel particularly delicate either so I won't be dropping this one anytime soon of course but at least in my hand it's it's solidly and doesn't slip around very easily the over r7 is another great looking phone in the line that doesn't sacrifice much to achieve its size and for this phone thin is definitely in a 5-inch display rounds out the size of the Oppo r7 and it brings the standard but high quality features expected 1080p resolution at 445 pixels per inch were pushed out of this AMOLED display covered in Gorilla Glass 3 AMOLED works to bring a higher level of saturation than other types of panels and the colours do show quite well in all tasks viewing angles are all real great though one thing noticed is a prominent black bezel around the lid panel nonetheless we found no problems with sharpness in areas of text and contrast kept blacks at a good level neither over or under achieving gaming remained a treat for the eyes as I spend quite a bit of time with the wolf among us and found associated noir game quite lovely to watch and play and adventures and video weren't a problem either this might not be a particularly overachieving display but going AMOLED certainly helped elevate this otherwise standard experience high standard but standard nonetheless as has been the case with many devices this year already there is a focus on software optimization rather than just a move towards sheer power a generally considered mid-range Snapdragon 615 runs the Oppo r7 backed by the adrenal 405 and three gigabytes of RAM what's of note however is that the 615 is an octa-core processor a circumstance that provides its own benefits despite the mid-range designation and with color OS 2 at the helm there was a definite need to keep the software as tidy as possible for everyday usage happily this has felt like the case transitions move about without any incident and gating among the different applications is easy and for even a better example my gaming experience with the wolf among us has been a breeze with only the occasional framerate issue between scenes my only real problem with speed deals with the recent apps screen though it's already a nuisance to have to hold the Menu button to get there scrolling in it and moving from app to app can have a slight stutter when each one has to be reloaded completely hardly any typical experience in day-to-day usage brought any trouble and with how smooth color OS seems to be now it's not hard to put the r7 among the many phones who have made the proper step forward in performance for the daily perhaps the most important piece of news in the hardware front is the return of the headphone jack which was omitted for size in the r5 the phone is now just thick enough to accommodate it and the audio coming from the jack is standard ly good without any extra enhancements baked in and while on the subject of audio phone calls did seem to come in loud and clear though I must say that we did notice a few cut offs in the signal from time to time and the rear-facing speaker is also pretty loud with a bit more attention given to the lower ends which isn't usually typical of units like this and a nice little touch is a small dimple on the bottom of the backing lifts the phone up just enough to emit it sound better off the surface this Chinese Network version of the r7 posed an all-too-familiar problem for me though a lack of LTE connectivity but thankfully connections to the HSPA+ network on t-mobile have been more than adequate for daily usage in the states and the r7 does come with a dual SIM tray though one can be repurposed into a microSD card slot for storage above the built-in 16 gigabytes other connections include the usual Bluetooth and sensors but there is the omission of NFC which is a bit of a bummer for anyone hoping to tap tap their lives one nice thing about the sensors on the r7 is that when the phone knows it's covered up like say in a pocket any screen on gestures or button presses will be glossed over to keep from this operation happening and finally in battery a smaller body means that the battery unit needs to fall in line and 23 20 milliamp hours is the capacity that up will put in here while hardware and software optimizations can definitely help they can only go so far and thus it should be expected that battery life is about as average as it gets in heavy usage I was able to get just over three hours of screen on time which can stretch to a full day's worth of life at lower levels of usage and yes plenty of power modes are available to aid in the longevity allowing from everything from lower screen brightness to even an under clocking of the processor but the phone pretty much never stretches to the predicted numbers of hours in the battery app of course Oppo is true to form in including a vogue fast charger one of the first and best performing around getting the phone to about 70% in just half an hour oboes typical camera application returns with a number of modes that were all introduced in their last few smartphones hit that icon in the corner and plenty of modes like HDR give creation and Ultra HD return swiping the viewfinder switches to video capture which is done at 1080p resolution moving to the front facing camera brings a typical beautify mode but the more important detail is the 8 megapixels self-portraits are thus quite good as a result though it does lose a bit of sharpness due to some noise reduction in post ultimately that's the story with the rear-facing 13 megapixel shooter - while photos typically look quite good as they are there are some nuances noticed in typical shots including a fuzzy noise reduction observed when zooming in pictures are quite bright perhaps overly so and plenty of them but the HDR unfortunately doesn't help the dynamic range get much better as the blown out areas of a photo are only slightly dialed back now this is a bummer because HDR used to be quite effective in the Oppo find 7 specifically but in the right kind of situation colours do get a small boost in saturation which might be the only real takeaway from this mode Ultra HD takes a number of the same photo and creates a blown-up version of it though we don't really see a big improvement in the details it's still about the same quality just a lot bigger which might be useful for some people otherwise colors are rendered pretty well without an overt level of saturation though it is important to use the spot metering to find just the right amount of exposure and white balance which is a pet peeve of mine because without some extra care you get the overexposed shots that I mentioned earlier and lower light shots suffer more from the post-processing but honestly they aren't the worst that we've seen just above average which ultimately is the story with this entire device it's clear that the r7 is a solid day to day phone and the camera falls in line with that even with the 8 megapixel front-facing shooter the experience yields good but not exceptional results as Oppo even said during our visit with them at the phone's launch it's no secret color OS isn't the most loved version of Android so with the 2.1 edition of the OS some changes had to be made well it might not look or perform too differently from before it's definitely much smoother which helps a little I called color OS ethereal in the past with its more muted color scheme and slightly more spread out text but with the nice AMOLED screen it only seems right to change the look a bit which is easy to do in the theme engine that now has a robust network of themes customization is one focus of colour though with options to add media pages for some extra fun and even different transitions for the home screens which is useful because you may be scrolling through them a lot without an Abbe drawer installed the notification drop-down houses a drag down Quick Settings panel though this also means that notifications need to be pinched out for expansion which isn't my favorite thing and another pet peeve some extras are baked in like the typical gestures on a turned off screen circle for camera double tapped awake and any other gestures that are user programmable for launching applications easily and if you're a fan of the app Twilight for an easier time on the eyes that's actually built in here with what's called eye protection display that puts a warm hue over everything when triggered honestly I don't think color OS is really all that bad despite some issues in translation from time to time and the lack of an app drawer I kind of like how it handles itself though it could use a bit of polish as usual any user that lets color oh I stick around should find a smooth flowing and operational version of Android in the Oppo r7 the Oppo r7 is available for pre-order now on the Oppo style website for 399 dollars with shipment starting in early July for that price the r7 is actually quite the deal especially when you consider its sleek and attractive build so Oppo has proven time and again that they are not only capable of thinking outside of the box but also excelling within the confines of it to users high standards well might be the best part about the r7 is that Oppo is trying to keep the middle path with a phone that prioritizes great aesthetic and feel with the best possible capabilities fit for its price point no the Snapdragon 615 is an exactly future proof but you want to really feel that along the way and though the camera isn't the best one we've used it's more than enough for typical let's say social media users and finally color OS get some of the updates it's needed even if they weren't necessarily in the looks department the price point won't break the bank but once you get this one in your hand it does feel like it might and that's why we give the Oppo r7 a seal of approval large and abilities and pretty much nowhere else as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the Oppo r7 it's definitely a competitively priced device though there are some phones out there that are priced a little bit less that provide a very similar experience so it's up to you whether or not the build and the quality of the build are really enough for you to shell out $400 for us we do think that it is quite the deal so the r7 just might be the phone you're looking for for a great daily driver nonetheless keep it tuned here for even more on the Oppo r7 and keep it tuned here for the rest of our content here at Android authority drop us some likes on our videos and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already listen to the FDP every single weekend and after you're done with all of that head on over to android authority comm and discuss android in our forums because we are your source for all things Android