Oppo isn’t a company like its other Chinese competitors, the company doesn’t sell smartphones in a flash sale model, it doesn’t have the biggest ecosystem available and their product price points are almost on par with brands like Apple and Samsung. In Malaysia, everybody has the impression of Chinese phones should be priced below RM1000 and judging the value of a smartphone is very wrong in that sense, while I personally do not agree that expensive smartphones are necessarily the best smartphones, but you simply got to pay for what you really appreciate, just like how you value a Louis Vuitton bag and a no-brand genuine leather bag. The Oppo N3 is the smartphone that could change everybody’s perception towards a well-made Chinese smartphone, we maintain our early impressions of using the best Chinese smartphone and present to you our final verdict.
Oppo N3 Hardware Specifications
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 8974AA 2.3GHz Quad-Core
RAM/ROM: 2GB/32GB expandable up to 128GB
Display: 5.5″ Full HD (1920×1080) IPS with Gorilla Glass 3
Camera: 16MP Omnivision Schneider Certifed f/2.2, 206-degree motorized rotating camera
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0LE, NFC
Networks: FDD-LTE/TD-LTE/DC-HSPA+/GSM
Battery: 3000mAh
No sexy design but a little luxury
The Oppo N3 is probably the heaviest flagship smartphone that you will ever come across in today’s standards, measuring a 9.5mm thick and weighing 195 grams feels so yesteryear when you are to compare to the company’s R5 which only possess half of the thickness. All that thickness can be attributed to the upgraded swivel camera module, which has now been upgraded to an Omnivision sensor and has been certified by Schneider.
Oppo has tried making the phone look less plastic by using a high quality polycarbonate plastic for the phone’s body, adding a metal frame around the phone does also help to make the phone look more premium and the company has even cared to include a little faux leather around the camera and earpiece module.
The little gap below the phone not only has Oppo’s attractive Skyline Notification light built-in but also allows users to slot in a lanyard for users to wear it around their neck, which in my opinion should every girl’s favorite feature, a loudspeaker is also present and plays extremely loud and high quality audio with the support of MaxxAudio.
Overall, the Oppo N3 does require some time to get used to for its huge form factor, what really got me loving the phone’s design is the well positioned power button and volume rocker on the phone, which makes it great for both right and left handed users, the phone has also sustained from a few chest drops and still works great despite of that – truly a solid piece of hardware.
Gorgeous display but lacking multi-touch points
I was playing Modern Combat 4 on the Oppo N3 and as I tried to use my third finger for panning around the scene, it didn’t work so I let go the other one, the next moment I was shot dead by an enemy. I tried convincing myself that this could be a glitch on the game however I was proved wrong when I tested multi-touch on the phone’s display – the phone merely registered 3 multi-touch inputs, 5 if you are lucky to get that number.
Despite of that, the Oppo N3’s display look gorgeous in every inch despite not having a Quad HD display, it demonstrates brilliant color reproduction, brightness and viewing angles are also great outdoors, Oppo has included the Swype keyboard which works extremely well on both English and Chinese inputs, we didn’t really have a major issue using the phone’s display but we just wished Oppo has included a better digitizer on the phone, we also suggest that you check on your retail unit as ours here could be a faulty media sample.
ColorOS is gorgeous on a fast hardware
When we used the Oppo R5, ColorOS didn’t perform well with some stuttering transitions and we occasionally encountered crashes in the user experience. On the Oppo N3, the experience was somehow a huge difference from the R5, the Snapdragon801 processor certainly proves its capability in powering Oppo’s software, screen transitions and weather effects are beautiful and fluid on the Oppo N3, we haven’t even encountered any app crashes like we did back then. ColorOS remains the same set of features from previous Oppo phones, consisting many gesture controls to access your favorite apps or features without searching them manually, similar to other Chinese launchers you don’t get an app drawer however navigating around the home screen is pretty seamless with its screen toggle feature.
The N3 introduces a fingerprint sensor on the back this time and it is one of the better implementations that we’ve ever come across, while its position does reminds us of the HTC One Max, it doesn’t require you to swipe your finger. There’s virtually no limit in registering fingerprints on the phone and it basically does two simple things – unlocking your phone and encrypting applications, which is already sufficient in most cases. The implementation of the fingerprint sensor has also made my life simpler with just a single press and touch on it, the Oppo N3 unlocks and I’m ready to use it.
Not to forget this cute little hardware – the O-Click 2.0, which connects to the N3 via Bluetooth and lets you control your music playback and acts as a phone finder.
The Oppo N3’s user experience – apart from its huge form factor – is a great one and even though I’ve been switching phones like almost every week, it is a phone that I still carry around in my pockets and it served me faithfully all the time, which not many Chinese smartphones are able to do so.
The motorized rotating camera is a useful gimmick
The Oppo N1 brought back one favorite smartphone photography feature that once revolutionize the way we take pictures with our smartphones – the rotating camera, while it does save smartphone makers from including an additional front facing camera, it benefits users for its simplicity by simply rotating the camera to the front if you want to take that beautiful selfie or we-fie, Oppo has made it even more interesting this time by allowing in you to rotate the camera electronically.
Of course, I have to admit that anything that is electronically motorized could be fragile, Oppo has made the hardware pretty resistant to accidental bumps, which I have dropped the phone a few times on a chest height, the camera is still able to rotate electronically. The camera is manufactured by Omnivision, the very same sensor maker that used to make cameras for the iPhone and has even been certified by Scheneider Kreuznach, it takes 16-megapixel 4:3 pictures and has two LED flash lights, sadly Oppo has not offered OIS on the camera or it could be one of the best cameras that we have seen.
I’ve been taking the Oppo N3 in a few road trips and events, the motorized rotating camera helps a lot when taking pictures with a low angle and adjusting selfie shots. Is it much better than having a front facing camera? Yes. Is the motorized camera easy to operate? Definitely. Oppo offers three different ways to control the motorized camera – by swiping the fingerprint sensor, display and using the provided O-Click 2.0 remote.
Oppo’s camera software has impressed us since the Oppo R5, offering a plethora of shooting modes that will suit every different scene, the most impressive on that makes full use of the motorized camera is the Auto Panaroma mode, which saves you from panaroma stitching issues by automatically rotating the camera and it takes up to a super wide 206 degree and 64-megapixel panaromic picture, as you can see down below, it is impressive.
Most daylight pictures were taken with great color saturation and clarity on the Oppo N3’s camera, however if you were to use it for low light photography, make sure you either have really steady hands or a tripod to do so because it isn’t really impressive especially when you want to take selfies in dim light party or café. Check out the below sample shots.
While Oppo has fully focused on photography on the N3, video recording is where the phone tends to disappoint a little, we can actually conclude this to be a software issue because the audio recording bitrate is terrible on videos, which means you can hear distortion and tiny sharp sound if you were to record a live band.
Benchmarks, Battery Life and Call Quality
If only the Oppo N3 had come with a faster Snapdragon 801 CPU, it would make a lot of sense to consider it as a serious flagship contender, it does really make a small difference when you compared the 2.3GHz clocked processor to the 2.5GHz one which has been used in flagships like the GALAXY S5 and HTC One M8, the Oppo N3 has fortunately scored well in benchmarks we ran on it however don’t expect it to game like a champ in ultra-high graphics settings.
The Oppo N3’s battery life is excellent based on my usage, I’ve used the phone for a lot of texting and at times trying out its camera, in a mixed usage basis the phone will be able to last me a day on an always on 4G LTE data connection, you will also find the battery depleting at a reasonable rate when you are using navigation apps such as Waze.
Since the earpiece and camera shares the very same location on the phone, Oppo has been really smart to rotate the earpiece if it finds that the camera module is facing you, while I have to admit that I accidentally rotate the camera when it was in my pockets and that works pretty well. Our callers have reported an excellent voice call quality coming from the phone, while I personally have no problems hearing the speakerphone, its cumbersome size could strain my hands if I’m talking in long durations.
Verdict
The Oppo N3 is a product that smartphone photographers will want to take a look, it is my favorite Chinese smartphone to date and one that has never failed me as my daily driver. Performance? Great. Reliable? Absolutely. It has almost everything to be one of the best Chinese made smartphones except some wouldn’t be satisfied with the weight and aesthetics of the phone, the camera may not be on par as PureView, but Oppo’s extensive range of shooting modes and that rotating camera will keep you noticed and glued to that feature as long as you are using the device.
The Oppo N3 currently retails at RM2,098, it is expensive for a Chinese branded smartphone but considering the effort that the company has taken to design such a unique product, you really shouldn’t just a product’s price by its country of origin, otherwise US companies like Polaroid won’t have taken its design cue.
The Good:
+ Motorized camera is a useful gimmick
+ Decent battery life
+ Camera takes good pictures
+ Fast and reliable software experience
+ Fingerprint sensor works practically well
+ Well positioned power button and volume rockers
+ Great loudspeakers and MaxxAudio enhancement
+ Skyline notification is beautiful
The Not so Good:
– Huge and cumbersome form factor
– Reliability of motorized camera remains questionable
– Limited multi-touch points
The Oppo N3 gets a score of 8.1/10.
