Flagship phones from Chinese device maker Oppo are known for their premium design and sturdy body. However, with more smartphone makers switching to metal, unibody form factors even for their mid-range devices, the company also recently introduced two new all-metal mid-rangers - R7 Plus and R7 Lite that are essentially variants of its R7 model.
The R7 Plus is the more interesting, 6-inch screen-equipped phablet that boasts of a high capacity 4100mAh battery. We used the phone for a few days to find out if it's a good mid-range device...
Metal unibody design
The Oppo R7 is a big, beautiful slab of metal and glass. It's strictly for phablet-lovers so if you're looking for a device optimised for one-hand use, this phone is not really for you. Oppo says that almost 91% of the phone's body is made of metal. In fact, the body of the R7 Plus was designed with a single piece of aircraft-grade magnesium aluminium alloy and has undergone 48 polishing processes. The phone's back panel and a frame sitting between the front and rear panels are clad in champagne gold coloured metal and exude a premium look. There are two strips at the top and bottom portion of the back that feature a slightly darker shade of gold and perhaps act as the antenna. The back is slightly rounded towards the edges and also sports a slightly recessed fingerprint sensor, a camera and dual LED flash in addition to a laser auto-focus sensor and a speaker grille.
The frame has chamfered edges that enhance the look of the phone even more. At 7.75mm, the phone is pretty sleek but is slightly bulky at 192grams but then the weight is well distributed across the body of the phone. The metal buttons on the two edges for volume control and power are easy to reach and offer good tactile feedback. The micro-USB port is at the bottom edge while the headset jack is placed at the top and the sim+microSD tray is at the right edge.
The front of the phone features a 2.5D arc edge glass panel which is rounded at the edges softly blending in with the phone.The display appears to have minimal bezels but that's mainly because of the curved edge to edge glass panel. It does have considerable bezels at all sides.
Great display
Oppo R7 Plus sports a 6-inch full-HD (1080x1920p) Super AMOLED display that offers vivid colours, excellent brightness levels and wide viewing angles. Text and images look crisp and sharp even though the pixel density is not very high, however, colours appear slightly oversaturated because of the AMOLED panel. You'll not face any problems while reading the screen or taking photos under sunlight. Touch response was also flawless.
Color OS offers a pleasant experience
Oppo R7 Plus runs Color OS 2.1 which is based on Android 5.1 (Lollipop). The OS is essentially a heavily customized version of Android that offers support for themes and lock screen widgets.
Just like UI skins from Gionee and Lenovo, Oppo's Color OS doesn't feature a separate app launcher and is now closer to the likes of MIUI and Vibe OS in terms of navigation, home screens and lock screen widgets.The company has replaced the stock apps with its own and has skinned menus and notifications panel. Some apps, such as Music, look really good due to Oppo's nice little touches. While the UI is subtle (with the default theme) compared to other phone maker's custom UI skins, you can select different themes and customize them further as per your liking.
Oppo has also incorporated support for gestures, including 'double tap to unlock,' three finger swipe for screenshots, and pinch-to-launch camera app. However, with the new version of Color OS Oppo has got rid of the gestures panel. Instead there are Screen-off and Screen-on gestures for performing different tasks. These gestures worked as promised. The Screen-on gestures are now limited to camera activation with multi-finger pinch, gesture screenshots, volume control and single-handed operation mode.
The single-handed mode is Oppo's way of making its large screen phone fit for single handed use and you get the choice of left or right handed use.
The Color OS is good to look at and functional at the same time.
Camera
The R7 Plus sports a 13MP rear camera with f2.2 aperture. Schneider-Kreuznach optics, and laser auto-focus in addition to a dual-LED flash. It has an 8MP front camera and the screen acts as a light filler eliminating the need for a front-flash when you're taking selfies in low light conditions.
The quality of images captured outdoors, in daylight was excellent with good level of detail, accurate colour reproduction, little noise and good contrast. The laser auto-focus works really well and reduces the time to focus on objects.
Low-light shots also came out well, though these had some noise, especially under 100% zoom.
The Oppo R7 Plus features a dual-LED flash which does a good job of filling up light. The selfie mode offers additional functions including controls to soften facial features and a Beauty mode. Selfies shot with the camera look really good.
The rear camera shoots 1080p and 720p video and also offers a time-lapse mode. Quality of video recording was impressive. The camera also has plug-ins that can be installed for enabling different shooting modes.
Smooth performance
Oppo R7 Plus is powered by a 1.5GHz 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor and 3GB RAM. The smartphone offers 32GB of internal storage and can support microSD cards through the hybrid dual-sim+memory card tray. Out of the 32GB storage about 8.5GB is used for storing system files while the rest is available to the user.
We found the phone to be very responsive and there was no lag or stutter during casual use. Thanks to 3GB of RAM, we didn't struggle with opening multiple apps or browser tabs in the background. We did observe that the phone has a tendency to slightly heat up after playing games for more than 20-30 minutes but it was better than other Snapdragon 615 phones we've tested so far.
We played games like Leo's Fortune and Asphalt 8 and did not find any frame drops or stutter. The phone was abale to play full-HD video without any hiccups. The sound output through the phone's speaker outlet was loud and clear.
Call quality and network reception were pretty good. The phone also offers 4G LTE connectivity in addition to the regular suit of connectivity options. It does not come with an FM radio tuner or NFC connectivity though. We used it on Airtel's 4G network and did not face any problems.
The phone has a jumbo 4100mAh battery and easily lasts about two days with moderate use if you put the brightness at the highest level and use 4G data. With heavy use and keeping the screen on for about 4 hours its will last one and a half days.
The phone comes with Oppo's VOOC fast-charging technology, offering four times faster charging than conventional chargers. Oppo claims that a 5 minute charge gets you 2 hours of talk time. At a time when phones struggle to offer a good battery backup due to resource-hungry hardware, this feature definitely makes life easy for heavy users. You don't even need to lug a bulky charger (unlike the Find 7) as Oppo has bundled a mini version of the charger with the phone. Unfortunately we were not able to test VOOC charger as it was not supplied with the review unit.
Touch Access
Touch Access sensor on the R7 Plus is a fingerprint scanner used for unlocking the phone and app authentication. You can use up to five different fingerprints or set up personalised guest modes for others for the Touch Access. In our use we found that the Touch Access to be extremely responsive. It's almost as responsive as Apple iPhone's Touch ID sensor.
Is it a good buy?
At Rs 29,990, the Oppo R7 Plus is a premium phablet that competes with the likes of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra. Barring the brand value, Oppo's phone has a slight edge when you factor in the design and performance departments. The cameras on the Oppo phone are also one of the best in the market and the AMOLED screen offers vibrant colours and deep black levels. The fingerprint sensor is another useful addition. If you primarily want a device that can double up as a media player or an e-book reader but don't want to compromise on features and aesthetics, the Oppo R7 Plus is a great option.
Having said that, if you can make do with a 5.5-inch display, the OnePlus 2 and Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe are better options with superior hardware and some additional features and are available at a much lower price than the R7 Plus.
The R7 Plus is the more interesting, 6-inch screen-equipped phablet that boasts of a high capacity 4100mAh battery. We used the phone for a few days to find out if it's a good mid-range device...
Metal unibody design
The Oppo R7 is a big, beautiful slab of metal and glass. It's strictly for phablet-lovers so if you're looking for a device optimised for one-hand use, this phone is not really for you. Oppo says that almost 91% of the phone's body is made of metal. In fact, the body of the R7 Plus was designed with a single piece of aircraft-grade magnesium aluminium alloy and has undergone 48 polishing processes. The phone's back panel and a frame sitting between the front and rear panels are clad in champagne gold coloured metal and exude a premium look. There are two strips at the top and bottom portion of the back that feature a slightly darker shade of gold and perhaps act as the antenna. The back is slightly rounded towards the edges and also sports a slightly recessed fingerprint sensor, a camera and dual LED flash in addition to a laser auto-focus sensor and a speaker grille.
The frame has chamfered edges that enhance the look of the phone even more. At 7.75mm, the phone is pretty sleek but is slightly bulky at 192grams but then the weight is well distributed across the body of the phone. The metal buttons on the two edges for volume control and power are easy to reach and offer good tactile feedback. The micro-USB port is at the bottom edge while the headset jack is placed at the top and the sim+microSD tray is at the right edge.
The front of the phone features a 2.5D arc edge glass panel which is rounded at the edges softly blending in with the phone.The display appears to have minimal bezels but that's mainly because of the curved edge to edge glass panel. It does have considerable bezels at all sides.
Great display
Oppo R7 Plus sports a 6-inch full-HD (1080x1920p) Super AMOLED display that offers vivid colours, excellent brightness levels and wide viewing angles. Text and images look crisp and sharp even though the pixel density is not very high, however, colours appear slightly oversaturated because of the AMOLED panel. You'll not face any problems while reading the screen or taking photos under sunlight. Touch response was also flawless.
Color OS offers a pleasant experience
Oppo R7 Plus runs Color OS 2.1 which is based on Android 5.1 (Lollipop). The OS is essentially a heavily customized version of Android that offers support for themes and lock screen widgets.
Just like UI skins from Gionee and Lenovo, Oppo's Color OS doesn't feature a separate app launcher and is now closer to the likes of MIUI and Vibe OS in terms of navigation, home screens and lock screen widgets.The company has replaced the stock apps with its own and has skinned menus and notifications panel. Some apps, such as Music, look really good due to Oppo's nice little touches. While the UI is subtle (with the default theme) compared to other phone maker's custom UI skins, you can select different themes and customize them further as per your liking.
Oppo has also incorporated support for gestures, including 'double tap to unlock,' three finger swipe for screenshots, and pinch-to-launch camera app. However, with the new version of Color OS Oppo has got rid of the gestures panel. Instead there are Screen-off and Screen-on gestures for performing different tasks. These gestures worked as promised. The Screen-on gestures are now limited to camera activation with multi-finger pinch, gesture screenshots, volume control and single-handed operation mode.
The single-handed mode is Oppo's way of making its large screen phone fit for single handed use and you get the choice of left or right handed use.
The Color OS is good to look at and functional at the same time.
Camera
The R7 Plus sports a 13MP rear camera with f2.2 aperture. Schneider-Kreuznach optics, and laser auto-focus in addition to a dual-LED flash. It has an 8MP front camera and the screen acts as a light filler eliminating the need for a front-flash when you're taking selfies in low light conditions.
The quality of images captured outdoors, in daylight was excellent with good level of detail, accurate colour reproduction, little noise and good contrast. The laser auto-focus works really well and reduces the time to focus on objects.
Low-light shots also came out well, though these had some noise, especially under 100% zoom.
The Oppo R7 Plus features a dual-LED flash which does a good job of filling up light. The selfie mode offers additional functions including controls to soften facial features and a Beauty mode. Selfies shot with the camera look really good.
The rear camera shoots 1080p and 720p video and also offers a time-lapse mode. Quality of video recording was impressive. The camera also has plug-ins that can be installed for enabling different shooting modes.
Smooth performance
Oppo R7 Plus is powered by a 1.5GHz 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor and 3GB RAM. The smartphone offers 32GB of internal storage and can support microSD cards through the hybrid dual-sim+memory card tray. Out of the 32GB storage about 8.5GB is used for storing system files while the rest is available to the user.
We found the phone to be very responsive and there was no lag or stutter during casual use. Thanks to 3GB of RAM, we didn't struggle with opening multiple apps or browser tabs in the background. We did observe that the phone has a tendency to slightly heat up after playing games for more than 20-30 minutes but it was better than other Snapdragon 615 phones we've tested so far.
We played games like Leo's Fortune and Asphalt 8 and did not find any frame drops or stutter. The phone was abale to play full-HD video without any hiccups. The sound output through the phone's speaker outlet was loud and clear.
Call quality and network reception were pretty good. The phone also offers 4G LTE connectivity in addition to the regular suit of connectivity options. It does not come with an FM radio tuner or NFC connectivity though. We used it on Airtel's 4G network and did not face any problems.
The phone has a jumbo 4100mAh battery and easily lasts about two days with moderate use if you put the brightness at the highest level and use 4G data. With heavy use and keeping the screen on for about 4 hours its will last one and a half days.
The phone comes with Oppo's VOOC fast-charging technology, offering four times faster charging than conventional chargers. Oppo claims that a 5 minute charge gets you 2 hours of talk time. At a time when phones struggle to offer a good battery backup due to resource-hungry hardware, this feature definitely makes life easy for heavy users. You don't even need to lug a bulky charger (unlike the Find 7) as Oppo has bundled a mini version of the charger with the phone. Unfortunately we were not able to test VOOC charger as it was not supplied with the review unit.
Touch Access
Touch Access sensor on the R7 Plus is a fingerprint scanner used for unlocking the phone and app authentication. You can use up to five different fingerprints or set up personalised guest modes for others for the Touch Access. In our use we found that the Touch Access to be extremely responsive. It's almost as responsive as Apple iPhone's Touch ID sensor.
Is it a good buy?
At Rs 29,990, the Oppo R7 Plus is a premium phablet that competes with the likes of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra. Barring the brand value, Oppo's phone has a slight edge when you factor in the design and performance departments. The cameras on the Oppo phone are also one of the best in the market and the AMOLED screen offers vibrant colours and deep black levels. The fingerprint sensor is another useful addition. If you primarily want a device that can double up as a media player or an e-book reader but don't want to compromise on features and aesthetics, the Oppo R7 Plus is a great option.
Having said that, if you can make do with a 5.5-inch display, the OnePlus 2 and Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe are better options with superior hardware and some additional features and are available at a much lower price than the R7 Plus.
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