Oppo R5 Hands-on, Photo Gallery

Oppo didn’t take much time after Gionee’s announcement of their slimmest smartphone, and the Oppo R5 is official in India after its entry in China, and this device is indeed brilliant. There were a couple issues I had in mind before getting the device in my hand, but that became all clear in a positive away when I played around with the device for some time.

First off, the camera popping out on the back, but to have a 13-megapixel camera with Sony’s sensor, nothing could be done. Second was the issue with the absence of 3.5mm headset jack. Though I would still miss that in the device, it is understandable that Oppo had to pack in a lot of high-end specs in this thin chassis, and some compromise had to be done.

Specs wise, the Oppo R5 has a 5.2-inch AMOLED 1080p display with the Gorilla Glass 3 protection, Snapdragon 615 processor (octa-core chipset), Adreno 405 GPU and 2GB RAM. The device runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat with ColorOS, and there is a combination of 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel front facing camera. It has the 4G LTE connectivity and the slim body packs in a 2000 mAh battery.

On the first look, the R5 looks brilliant and there is a reason why we even love the build quality of it – Hand-polished aluminum alloy gives a premium feel. Nothing different except for the camera bump on the back which we aren’t much impressed about, but that cannot be avoided, just like in the Vivo X5 Max if we have to see a good camera that can actually take standard photos. It is a 13MP Sony camera capable of recording 4K videos, with the possibility of 50MP HD captures.

The device is 155gm and quite big in numbers, but it doesn’t really feel heavy because the metallic usage in the body gives you a feel of holding a premium smartphone, bringing in no thoughts about it being heavy. On the back of the phone, there are plastic frames on the top and bottom (have seen similar ones in Apple iPhone 5 and 5s) and these are to cover the antenna area.

Interestingly, the Oppo R5 has a phase shifting material, according to the company, comprising of metal, resin and composite materials. How well does it work in absorbing the heat generated by the Snapdragon 615 chipset (we’ve seen Yu Yureka heating up a lot), is yet to be seen. But given the way Oppo has claimed things to be, we expect it to do the intended job without a problem. Not providing a 3.5mm headset jack will raise the eyes of several users, but Oppo has tried to compensate by providing a MicroUSB to headset jack adapter and there is Bluetooth A2DP for the Bluetooth headset functionality.

Another interesting feature in the Oppo R5 is its smart charging, i.e. the VOOC charging which we saw on the Find 7. The VOOC mini rapid charger is said to charge the R5 from zero to 75% in just 30 minutes, which is incredible, but we’ll have to test before commenting on how well it works in reality.

Oppo’s ColorOS v2.0.1 is layered over Android 4.4.4 KitKat, and it looks neat, only after we changed the default theme to one that we can get well adjusted with. There is some bloatware but that is fine, else the interface with no separate app drawer would’ve seemed even more boring. You get something to start off with, at least.

The camera isn’t very well used already, thus won’t comment much about the quality. Though, although the bump on the back, it is commendable that Oppo has not compromised with the sensor and packed in, a good 13MP one so that the end user gets to have a good power packed device with all good specs.

All in all, the R5 isn’t just a simple slim phone made to please with its looks. It is sturdy, not slippery, thanks to the sharp edges and corners, and it drops itself into a premium category with its looks, a very good build quality with premium materials, and it has all the internal power needed for using the device as a primary one. Although we might go against our words, the pricing seems a bit higher than what you would expect.