OPPO Philippines has today unveiled the metal-clad R7 Series phones, which are aimed at the mid- to high-end markets Apple and Samsung are courting. And if there’s anything to be taken away from tonight’s festivities, it’s that the makers of the iPhone and Galaxy handsets — and the rest of the industry, for that matter — should be taking notes on how to put together strong contenders in the smartphone space without asking for too much in return.
The R7 Lite and R7 Plus retail for a reasonable P13,990 and P21,990, respectively, and based on the extensive time I’ve spent with both devices, I must say that OPPO is going to leave a lot of people impressed with its latest efforts.
Both the R7 Lite and R7 Plus have unibody casings made of aircraft-grade magnesium alloy, which is about as good as it gets for smartphones at the moment. They look and feel great in the hand, and the curved-edge Gorilla Glass on the front plus the subtle curves around the back leading to the chamfered metal frame lend to a more-than-satisfying usage experience.
The R7 Lite and R7 Plus have unibody casings made of aircraft-grade magnesium alloy. Based on the time I’ve spent with both devices, I must say that OPPO is going to leave a lot of people impressed with its latest efforts.
The phones are equipped with AMOLED displays for bright colors and intense blacks, as well as 13- and 8-megapixel rear and selfie cameras, though the R7 Plus offers dual-LED flash and laser autofocus for quick snd precise focusing when shooting in close proximity. It also ups the ante when it comes to securing your data, as the Plus variant has a fingerprint sensor on the rear panel to unlock the device with.
Powering both handsets is OPPO’s Android Lollipop-based ColorOS 2.1 running on a combination of an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor and 2GB (R7 Lite) or 3GB of RAM (R7 Plus).
Of the two, it’s the R7 Lite that is more skewed towards a mainstream audience; the R7 Plus touts a massive 6-inch display that’s nearly twice the surface area of most phones today.
But of the two, it’s the R7 Lite, with its 5-inch footprint, that is more skewed towards a mainstream audience; the R7 Plus, in comparison, touts a massive 6-inch display that’s nearly twice the surface area of most phones today. Impressively enough, the latter’s frame isn’t much larger than the screen itself, making it easier to operate one-handed than its size would indicate.
The OPPO R7 Lite and R7 Plus are now available in online and offline stores in the Philippines.
