I have been using OPPO R5 for more than 2 weeks now and thought it
is the right time to write about my experience using this elegant phone. For
those who don't know , let me tell you that OPPO R5 was once world's thinnest phone with just 4.85mm thickness until
Vivo Max 5 dethroned it from that esteemed status. In all our OPPO reviews we
have emphasized on fact that OPPO is not just another Chinese smartphone brand
but its a premium brand which gives some thing unique in its each device
(atleast so far it does) and elegant design which speaks every bit of luxury
and shows the art and hardship involved in creating one. So is OPPO R5 just
another for your eyes only smartphone or it has some substance in it, let's
find out?
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| OPPO R5 |
Look and Feel:
OPPO R5 is encased in a metal frame that is hand polished and the
back cover is made up of brushed aluminium. The review unit we got came in
White and Gold colour combination which definitely looks premium, however a
white and silver colour combination variant is also available in market. The
back designs seems to be inspired from Apple's iPhone design, even the strips
coming down the screen towards the bottom and top edge are also similar to that
of iPhone 5S , however the angular design saves it from being labelled as copy
cat. The device is extremely light weighing just 155 grams and making it one of
the lightest phone in market and is easy on grip despite of
massive 5.2 inch display size. The USP of the device is its thinness but it
comes with a sacrifice of 3.5 mm audio jack, however the manufacturer provides
you with a micro USB adapter for 3.5 mm audio jack or you can use bluetooth
headset (does not come with phone) to enjoy music on this beautiful device.
Similarly the thinness of the device makes 13 MP camera pop out from the frame
and the bump is quite noticeable, having said that OPPO has done a great job in
bringing the thickness of the device to this level while Samsung, Apple and
other brands are struggling to come anywhere less than 6mm.
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| OPPO R5 Side View (Click to enlarge) |
OPPO R5 comes with Full HD 5.2 inch Amoled display with a
resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The screen is bright and produces vibrant and
vivid colours. We found auto brightness setting to be working fine in almost
all conditions except a few cases where we had to manually increase the
brightness. Underneath the screen three capacitive buttons fixed on the chin of
the phone which are multi task, Home and Back respectively.
On top of display there is a earpiece aptly placed in the middle ,
to the right side of it there are sensors and front camera.
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| OPPO R5 top edge (Click to enlarge) |
Back cover of the phone is not removable, micro SIM slot is placed
on left bottom edge of phone which can be extracted by pushing a pin in the
slot provided. On right edge of the phone Volume rockers and power button is
placed.
Hardware:
The phone is equipped with an Octa core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm
Snapdragon 615 processor, and is backed by 2 GB of RAM. On storage front phone
comes with 16 GB storage out of which around 12 GB is available for user and
its not expandable, leaving a huge crisis of storage thanks to the sleek
design. The device is fuelled by a 2000 mAh battery.
For pictures and videos R5 comes with a 13 MP rear shooter
supported by a LED flash and a noise cancellation mic for video recording, On
front there is 5 MP camera.
Software:
The phone still runs on Android 4.4 Kitkat based ColorOS UI. The
custom android is very much improved and intuitive as compared to its previous
versions. There are many cool small features in ColorOS that makes your life
easier for instance for any SMS received you will get a popup where in you can read message, reply to it, delete
it or just close it without actually having to open the messaging app. There is
an option given in the notification panel settings to end all running apps to
free up RAM, once the gesture control is set on then you can access
applications by drawing pre set patterns for example drawing “O” launches your
camera application, user can create their own gestures as well as modify the
existing ones.
In colorOS there is no app launcher button as such all the applications
are available within home screen pages. You just swipe right from home screen
to see applications installed on your phone. For multitasking you need to hold
the multitask button for a while and you can see all the apps running and close
either one by one, by swiping upwards direction the app or at once by clicking on the green button displaying
amount of RAM in use. User can also select themes from theme store and choose
transition effects from the settings.
In day to day use we did not face any lag as such but there were
few times when the phone’s responsiveness was bit slow while switching from one
app to another quickly, otherwise the device did perform well.
Camera:
OPPO is known for its good quality camera from its first
generation devices and R5 live up to that expectation. The 13 MP rear camera is
backed by a Pure Image technology. There are multiple modes which can be
selected such as Normal, Ultra HD, Colorful night , slow shutter, Double
Exposure, super macro etc.
Front camera also works fine with inbuilt modes to enhance the
picture quality as per situation.
Overall camera’s performance was satisfactory in all conditions
including low light and indoor locations.
Below are few shots captured by the phone. (Click images to enlarge them)
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| Low Light shot |
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| Day light shot |
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| Night shot 1 |
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| Night Shot2 |
Performance:
On Quadrant the phone scored 16847 which is in between the budget smartphones and
high end flagship devices, we have already discussed about this a little in
above section. Packing high end specifications and backed by 2 GB RAM the
device doesn’t do any justice with the specifications. Battery life of the
phone is also average as on normal usage it would last whole day and about 20%
of battery was left at end of the day when I had to charge it again.
R5 packs in decent loud speakers that means there are less chances
you will miss a call while the phone is in pocket. Call quality of the phone
was also good and the voice on both sides was clear and crisp.
Verdict:
R5 is one of the most stylish phones available today in market
that comes with good quality camera however lack of SD card slot, average
performance and a price tag which is higher than any other device with similar
specifications doesn’t help. So if you admire the art and design, and looking
for great camera and user experience then go for it but for heavy users the
device might disappoint you.
TS Score: 6.5
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