Following the debut of the super-thin R5 last year, Oppo today took the wraps off of the thicker — but still pretty thin — R7 and R7 Plus.
Both the Oppo R7 (6.3mm thick) and R7 Plus (7.75mm thick) feature metal unibody constructions and 2.5D “Arc Edge Screens” to prevent hard angles on the edge of the devices. They’ve also both got VOOC Flash Charge, which can get you enough juice for a 2 hour phone call in just 5 minutes.
Turning to straight-up specs, both the R7 and R7 Plus have 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 615 processors, 3GB of RAM, microSD card slots, and 4G LTE connectivity. They’ve also got 13-megapixel cameras on their backsides with features like Expert Mode, GIF, HDR, and Ultra HD, as well as 8-megapixel front-facing cameras with Beautify 2.0+ that will let you select your beautifying effect to match your age, gender and more.
So what makes the two phones different? As you might’ve guessed from their names, the Oppo R7 Plus is a bit larger than the R7, with the former packing a 6-inch AMOLED display and the latter offering a 5-inch AMOLED screen. Both displays have a resolution of 1920x1080, though. The bigger R7 Plus also has a rear fingerprint reader that the R7 lacks, as well as a 4100mAh battery that’s considerably beefier than the R7’s 2320 juice pack. The Oppo R7 Plus also has double the internal storage of the R7 (32GB vs 16GB), but they’ve both got microSD card slots.
The R7 Plus runs Android 5.1 and the R7’s got Android 4.4, both of which run beneath Oppo’s custom ColorOS 2.1 user interface, which Oppo says offers faster boot speeds and shorter app launch times. ColorOS 2.1’s also got lock screen notifications, screen-off gestures that let you launch apps by drawing gestures on the device’s display, and a single-hand mode that lets you shrink the content on screen to make one-handed use easier.
Now for the all-important pricing and availability info. Both the R7 and R7 Plus will launch in China tomorrow for CNY 2,499 and 2,999 ($402 USD and $483 USD), respectively, with international launches expected in mid-June. It’s worth noting that Oppo lists U.S. versions for both models in their Connectivity sections, so anyone U.S.-based consumers should be able to eventually get their mitts on an R7 or R7 Plus that plays nicely with their networks.
Both the Oppo R7 and R7 Plus look like well-made phones, and while some folks may be disappointed that they’ve got Snapdragon 615 processors instead of 800-series chips, they do at least offer 3GB of RAM. It’s also worth noting that while it’s kind of strange to see the R7 running Android 4.4 and the R7 Plus packing Android 5.1, I’m sure that we’ll see the R7 bumped up to 5.1 in the near future.
What do you think of the Oppo R7 and R7 Plus? If you were buying one, which one would you rather have?