Oppo's R7 Plus squeezes a big battery into a slim body
Nope, these aren't the near-bezel-less phones that Oppo teased us with back in March, but they are still very compelling. Following the super slim R5, the Chinese company has shifted its focus back to specs with two new models: the 5-inch R7 and the 6-inch R7 Plus. For us, it's really all about the bigger phone: its 7.75mm-thick aluminum unibody manages to pack a generous 4,100 mAh battery, which goes very well with Oppo's renowned VOOC rapid charging -- a feature that's proven to be faster than most of its competitors'. Not to mention that the device also comes with a single-touch fingerprint sensor on the back, along with an 8-megapixel f/2.4 front imager plus a 13-megapixel f/2.2 main camera with an RGBW sensor (Sony's IMX278) for better sensitivity in the dark, as well as laser auto-focus and dual-tone LED flash.
Since the R series isn't Oppo's flagship line, it's no surprise to see a 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 615 chipset on this Android 5.1 phone, but you still get 3GB of RAM, a vibrant 1080p AMOLED display, a handful of LTE bands (there's a US model as well) and dual Nano SIM slots -- one of which doubles as a microSD slot, should you need more than 32GB of storage.
The smaller R7 has almost identical specs, with the only differences being you get just 16GB of storage (thank goodness for the microSD expansion), a 2,320 mAh battery (which goes from zero to 75 percent in just 30 minutes), single LED flash, no laser auto-focus and no fingerprint sensor. On the other hand, it's only 6.3mm thick and 147 grams heavy (instead of 203 grams, but even that isn't too bad for the size). Design-wise, the R7 has the added benefit of a slightly tapered frame that adds a little comfort to your grip, and it's also something nice to look at up close.
The sad news is that the R7 is only launching with Android 4.4 in China tomorrow, followed by international markets in mid-June, but it'll eventually be updated given that the R7 Plus will be pre-loaded with Android 5.1 come August. As for pricing, the R7 is available for 2,499 yuan which is about $400, whereas the R7 Plus will be sold for 2,999 yuan or about $480, both of which are pretty decent for the specs and how solid the devices are.
