The name may not be totally familiar, but if you’re in the market for a value driven smartphone, Oppo has been pushing models out, and two more have just been announced made for people think thin is in.
Two models are on the way from one of the recent imports to the Australian smartphone market, as Oppo attempts to wrestle market share from major players Apple and Samsung locally.
We’ve already seen some pretty impressive mid-range phones from Oppo thus far, but the latest two appear to bridge flagship and mid-range, offering customers the best of both worlds in the upcoming R9 and R9 Plus smartphones.
The two phones are very similar, with similar designs echoing what Oppo had on the R7, but with less thickness and weight. In fact, Oppo has apparently managed to get the thickness down to 6.6mm — thinner than the iPhone 6S — while the weight sits at 145 grams.
There’s a 5.5 inch screen on the R9, with the device packing in the same screen size as the iPhone 6 Plus but in a body more like that of the Samsung S7, we’re told, while the design includes a very slim 1.66mm bezels that gives the impression of an edge-to-edge display completed by a phone grip that conforms to the counters of a hand.
Meanwhile, the R9 Plus increases the screen size to a more phablet-friendly 6 inch screen size. Both devices include relatively spacious batteries, with the 5.5 inch R9 including a 2850mAh battery while the larger 6 inch R9 Plus nets a positively massive 4120mAh battery.
Under the hood, the camera and fingerprint sensor are the main features Oppo wants to highlight, with a front facing camera capable of 16 megapixels on each relying on what Oppo calls a “hi-light camera” accounting for better low-light imagery with clearer images.
Higher megapixels and lower-light capture us only one part of the equation, as there is also a larger aperture and a new “beautification” software to deal with facial contours and skin capture better than previous generations. Helping this, the lens is wider capable go grabbing 120 degree photos.
The camera on the back of each is different, with 13 megapixels on the R9 while the R9 Plus gets 16 megapixels at the back, also.
Storage is also decent on each, with these mid-range phones delivering 64GB of internal storage able to be upgraded by as much as 128GB in a microSD slot. As per usual, Oppo’s dual-slot design is present, meaning you can bring in a second SIM or a microSD card on either the R9 or R9 Plus, customer’s choice.
The operating system has changed a little, also, so while you can expect it to look like iOS, it’s now cleaner than ever.
Finally, that fingerprint sensor is one worth looking at, because while Oppo had it on previous R series devices, it’s moving over to the front and changing technology, beating Apple with a development that will now work whether you have wet or dry fingers.
Expect that to be one of those things included on the iPhone 7, for sure, though it will come first to Australia in the R9 series in May, with the R9 reaching Australia for $599 and the R9 Plus for $699.
