It’s beautiful and so thin! These were words used to exclaimed at phones such as the Motorola RAZR and Apple iPhone 4 when they were introduced to the world, like seriously, I think most people took the thickness of a smartphone more seriously than they do at girls. Every smartphone maker wants to claim the crown for being the fastest and thinnest smartphone in the universe, Oppo has amazed us with the incredibly thin R5, though it’s crown has been taken away by the rumored ViVo X5 at this point of time, the Oppo R5 is still very respectable in terms of its amazing engineering.
Oppo R5 First Look & Unboxing Video
Oppo R5 Hardware Specifications
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 1.5GHz Octa-Core
RAM/ROM: 2GB/16GB Built-in flash, no storage expansion
Display: 5.2″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) AMOLED
Camera: 13MP Sony BSI (Main), 5MP (Front)
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, BT 4.0 LE
Networks: TD-LTE/FDD-LTE/DC-HSPA+/GSM
Battery: 2,000 mAh
Incredibly thin and it doesn’t bend
At 4.85mm, you won’t believe what you’re holding and seeing is an actual working smartphone, simply imagine how can such a thin form factor fit a 5.2-inch display and slim lithium battery, the hardware is simply breathless and you will absolutely love it. Similar to the Xiaomi Mi 4, the Oppo R5 employs a stainless steel frame and the very same edge coating process which Oppo claims its hand polished, therefore it is very smooth and premium.
On a side note, the phone is too thin to have a 3.5mm headphone jack, Oppo is providing a MicroUSB to 3.5mm adaptor for earphones.
Since my hands are big, the phone’s size isn’t really an issue for me, thanks to its rough aluminum back, the phone doesn’t feel slippery at all when holding it, some users have actually reported to us that the phone doesn’t feel comfortable for long durations as it lacks rounded corners and a curved back. Well, all we can comment here is you just need to compromise some stuffs to be able to achieve that slim form factor.
Oh yea, it doesn’t bend when I tried it with my bare hands, so don’t even think of attempting it.
Color OS is beautiful, Snapdragon 615 processor does its job
We are not going to spoil the entire user experience on the Oppo R5, it is certainly my first experience with Oppo’s own ColorOS custom skin, which runs on the foundation of Android 4.4.4 KitKat. Similar to most Chinese Android smartphones, it lacks an app drawer, it has a theme store and beautiful default apps, but what makes ColorOS really different from the rest of the competition is its visual effects, animations, color scheme and icons look refined and consistent, and the skin is pretty light in resource usage in our opinion.
The Oppo R5 is also the first Snapdragon 615 Octa Core 64-bit SoC powered smartphone that we’ve ever come across, the difference between a Snapdragon 801 32-bit SoC is imminent, apps do launch extremely fast and even gaming is pretty impressive. The phone also has a ‘Cooling Element’ technology implemented into the phone and we find that to be valid, as the phone stays warm most of the time when we’re gaming and it doesn’t heats up easily when we make lengthy phone calls.
We could go on and on, but we are saving the rest in the full review.
Oppo R5 Camera Samples
Equipped with a Sony BSI 13 Megapixel main camera, the Oppo R5 takes wonderful pictures in both outdoor and low light conditions, it’s front facing 5 Megapixel camera performs reasonably well too. Check out the camera samples down below.
Early Verdict – A promisingly good and sexy performer
The Oppo R5 is one of the most well-built smartphones that we’ve ever seen from a Chinese smartphone maker, it is clearly targeted at the higher end consumer market with its beautiful cosmetics, Oppo has fortunately also considered to give the phone some respectable hardware internals that won’t make consumers stupid buying it. At least in our point of view, this phone is a thousand times worth than a Vertu smartphone.
The Oppo R5 is scheduled to be available next month, do stay tuned to our full review.
