First impressions of the Oppo R7 Plus and R7 Lite

Chinese phone manufacturer Oppo recently unveiled two new ‘skinny’ phones flaunting their characteristic full-metal unibody design: the R7 Plus and the R7 Lite. Running on their own ColorOS 2.1 UI that sits atop Android 5.1 Lollipop, the phones particularly aim to speed up photography, charging and overall system response.

At the launch event I did a quick 10-minute hands on with both these phones, and here are the initial impressions.

This, the bigger of the two phones at 6-inches, marks the vanguard of their ‘premium midrange’ phone range. Its Full HD screen delivers a 367 ppi density, which isn’t class-leading, but is especially rich in color largely due to its AMOLED screen. The device also features a 2.5D arc edge screen--basically rounded edges--that is supposed to make the device more comfortable to hold. It felt well, solid, in the hand and the subtle curves did lend a sense that you’re not simply holding a slab of metal. Speaking of metal, the device’s unibody construction and almost all-metal back does lend a comfortingly cold heft to the device, something you just don’t feel with phones constructed using plastic. But at 6 inches it’s a large phone, that often becomes unwieldy; single-handed operation being out of the question (unless you’re particularly large-handed.)

Like the R5 that we earlier reviewed, this one continues to play to the slim form factor, with the device measuring just 7.75mm thick. The front of the device is, of course, dominated by its screen, with the front-facing 8MP camera up top and the brand logo at the bottom. The device uses buttons that are rendered within the interface itself--like every other device adopting this approach, it inevitably occupies that smidgen of screen space at all times, taking away room for actual content. In the 6-inch screen context though it’s not that significant an issue, only a persistent one.

The right edge bears the power button and the retractable tray that accepts either two SIM cards, or one SIM card and one microSD card. Having to trade off between dual SIMs and added storage is a definite downer. Also the volume rocker button is unusually located all by itself on the left edge of the device.

The back of the device has its f/2.2 13 MP main camera, which features three autofocusing systems--the regular contrast detection, phase detection (which is used in several regular cameras,) and laser-assisted focusing. All of this cuts down focus time to a claimed 0.3 seconds. This was believable: it certainly felt speedy when using it even in low-light conditions.

Also present is a fingerprint sensor beneath the rear camera lens. The sensor is especially well integrated into the device’s ColorOS system, with the ability to unlock not just your phone, but also protect user-selected apps from launching. This feature could be especially pertinent in the corporate context, with specific office apps (your work email app, for example) needing to be locked down from unauthorized access.

The overall speed of the user interface was snappy, and firing up and having a go at the third-person arcade shooter Frontline 2 (which happened to be installed on the device) was a smooth affair. But based on the Snapdragon 615 processor and 3GB of memory, I wasn’t expecting the device to be slow at all. Oppo claims its Flash charge technology enables two hours of talk time with just a 5 minute charge of its large 4100mAH battery. Although we’ll verify this when we actually put a review device through its paces.

The smaller R7 Lite is a 5-inch phone with a 720x1280 display (a 294ppi density), with the same arc-edge screen and the same 1.3GHz Snapdragon 615 processor as the R7 Plus. However this one has 2GB of RAM and half the onboard storage at 16GB. It’s also got a smaller 2320mAH battery.

This phone is undoubtedly more comfortable to hold, with its palm-fitting form factor. The front of the device has its 8 megapixel camera--the same as the R7 Plus. Also unlike the R7 Plus, this phone does have actual soft buttons beneath the screen leaving the full display available for applications. Speaking of the screen, this one is AMOLED based as well, making for a particularly color-pop user experience.

The right edge has both the power and the volume rocker, along with the retractable tray for the dual SIMs or SIM+microSD combination. The power button on this one is, inexplicably, placed by itself on the right edge--exactly opposite that of the R7 Plus. It’s wasn’t clear why the two phones had these opposing button layouts.

The R7 Lite skips the fingerprint sensor altogether, while the 13MP rear camera is exactly the same as the R7 Plus, including the same rake of photographic features such as a 50MP mode for high-res captures, a time-lapse mode, and the beautification filters. However this one excludes its elder sibling’s laser autofocus system.

Bearing the same core hardware, using this phone was snappy enough, and the overall user interface experience was nothing to scoff at.

At Rs 29,990 and Rs 17,990 for the R7 Plus and the R7 Lite respectively, they’re well on the higher side mid-range. Its svelte form factor, smooth usage and good cameras notwithstanding, I reckon these prices are easily about 30 percent higher than they should have been.