Trending Topics
Mobile Professional Reviews--Oppo R5 review
Oppo's R5 is a seriously gorgeous phone. Clad in metal, it's super-thin -- just 4.85mm (0.19 inches) deep, and it weighs a scant 155 grams (5.5 ounces). It's certainly impressive, but this comes at the loss of the 3.5mm audio jack, so you'll have to use Bluetooth headphones if you want to listen to music. For Android fans envious of the iPhone 6 's slim frame, well, look no further. The R5's ultra-slim body beats the iPhone handily, and will draw envious stares from other Android owners as well. But slimness isn't all that great without the performance to back it up, and this is where the phone falters. It's oftentimes sluggish, and the camera takes forever to start up. The phone's thin frame also doesn't help with the heat and it can get uncomfortably hot at times.
See a phone that's less than 5mm thick, How to Transfer Playlist from iTunes to iPhone with Data Remained the... See full gallery
Oppo hasn't yet revealed exact dates for the phone's availability, but the Chinese company intends to sell it globally, either through its online store or working in partnership with local distributors. What I do know is that there will be three versions due to the different LTE bands -- one for the US, one for China and one for the rest of the world.
Price wise, the R5 will be sold at $449, which converts to roughly £310. It will also come unlocked, so you'll be able to use the phone on 3G mostly everywhere.
DesignThe R5 is encased in metal -- with a hand-polished steel frame and, on the back, brushed aluminum. This gives the phone a premium feel that you'd expect from a more expensive device.
The two-tone color scheme (either white and silver or white and gold) at the back does draw comparisons to Apple's iPhone designs, but the shape of the phone is much more angular. Despite being thinner, it doesn't feel as slippery as the iPhone.
One downside to the thin frame of the phone is that the rear 13-megapixel sticks out, much like Apple's iPhone. However, unlike the small bump of the iPhone 6, the R5's rear camera pops out a fair way, enough that it makes the phone uneven when placed on a flat surface.
The R5 sports a 5.2-inch AMOLED display, with a full HD resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels. The screen is bright and sharp, while colors were vibrant. I do have issues with the auto-brightness settings of the phone -- it can sometimes be too dim.
Like most Chinese-made smartphones, the R5 sports physical home, menu and back keys. I'm not a fan of physical keys since I feel software keys are better to interact with -- you can (depending on the OS) switch the back button to either the left or right position.
The volume and power keys are on the right side, with the micro-USB port at the bottom. As mentioned earlier, there's no 3.5mm audio jack.
Oppo's R5 is powered by an octa-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, and in theory, should have enough juice to power the phone. But my experience with the device was less than satisfactory: at times the phone would pause between switching apps, for example. I reckon a software update could fix this, and I will update the review if it does.
The phone packs 2GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage and a 2,000mAh battery. There's no microSD card slot to expand that storage, which limits the number of apps you can install and the number of tunes and movies you can keep onboard.
The phone is powered by Android 4.4 KitKat -- not the latest 5.0 Lollipop -- with Oppo's custom ColorOS UI on top. The software is very much improved from the company's first version, How to move apps from an old iPhone to a new iPhone though it looks similar. For one, it's much flatter.
Which is better? Le 1s or iPhone SE?
Let's start with the OS. Android and iOS are now at-par on features, freely taking inspiration from each other and the perennial also-ran Windows Phone. However, if you've been using an Android phone, the move to iOS is jarring regardless of preparation. Trust me, having moved from a OnePlus 2 to an iPhone 6S, I know this better than most. If you're an iPhone user already, there is no discussion required. If you're an Android user, then I'd say "Don't even consider an iPhone!"
Moving on to design and build, the new iPhone is, in line with Apple's policy "thinner, smaller and lighter" than the Le 1s. However, the Le 1s has an astounding screen-to-body ratio of 75% that enables single-handed use and the phone doesn't feel too big. After all, within reason, bigger is always better! Both phones offer amazing build quality at their respective price points, so that's not really much of a contest.
On display, if you like smaller screens, the iPhone SE will appeal to you. But for someone who has used a 4+ inch screen device earlier, going back to a smaller display doesn't really work. In this respect, the Le 1s scores with its big but not too big display, and its helped by minimal bezels. Resolution-wise, its a no contest with the Full HD In-Cell display on the Le 1s ruling the roost with its fantastic color reproduction, great viewing angles and almost-zero bezels.
On connectivity, both the Le 1s and the iPhone SE are at par with each other on Wi-Fi and Network compatibilities, but the Le 1s scores with its dual-SIM capability.
When it comes to performance, I believe that specs are just one part of the game. Real-world performance is key. And in this area, despite having lesser amount of RAM than the Le 1s, the iPhone SE performs equally well due to better memory management in iOS versus Android. Its a straight tie!
Camera is another key feature where specs are just one part of the game with actual photo clarity being the key identifier. The iPhone SE uses the much-lauded camera module from the iPhone 6S, so its a given that photos will come out well. The Le 1s on the other hand had a few initial hiccups with photo clarity but they've since been resolved by OTA updates, so overall - its a good camera experience on both smartphones. The Le 1s scores in lowlight clarity and front-camera! Apple, for reasons that defy logic, went with a 1.2MP sensor on the front-camera. Now megapixels might not be everything, but with a 5MP sensor, the Le 1s handily beats the iPhone SE on selfies. Another reason is the smaller aperture size on Le 1s cameras – both front and rear (f2.0) compared to the iPhone SE which has f2.4 on the front camera and f2.2 on the rear camera – in photography parlance, smaller is referred to as “wider”. A wider aperture lets in more light which gives better photos in low-light and indoor situations, and gives you that beautiful blurred “out of focus” effect on wide shots.
With respect to sensors, the Le 1s has an infrared sensor to control home appliances that the iPhone doesn't. Everything else on this front is a tie.
Finally, the "essential spec" in today's world, battery! The Le 1s has almost double the battery capacity of the iPhone SE, with fast-charge built-in! While iOS has better power management than Android, the huge difference in capacity should result in longer standby times with the Le 1s!
Regardless of all technical specifications and performance comparisons, there will still be people convinced that an Apple product is the next best thing since sliced bread! So, to those people, here is a final nail in the coffin. Both the Le 1s and iPhone SE are good phones that do almost everything you can expect them to. Most importantly for a budget-conscious Indian, the Le 1s costs INR 10,999 while the iPhone SE starts at a whopping INR 39,000! That’s three times more expensive than the Le 1s!!! Case closed.
