Oppo R7s review: $529 eight-core Snapdragon 615 processor runs the show

Oppo, the Chinese Smartphone manufacturer, has launched its R7s smartphone in Australia. It has been priced $529, which is pretty mid-ranged, considering the features it boasts.

The R7s is the middle-child in the company’s R7 family. First there was a Plus version. Next came Lite, and now S. The R7s has a 5.5 inches 1080p AMOLED/Gorilla Glass display as opposed to R7 Plus’ 6-inch and R7’s 5-inch screens. It also comes with a 4GB RAM and a 13-megapixel rear camera. Apparently, the phone charges faster than just about any other phone on the market today.

The premium-built mid-ranger has an exquisite fit and finish, a sleek metal uni-body and gentle arcs towards its display edges. Oppo still is a very exclusive club whose members are mostly true flagships, writes GSMArena. The 13-megapixel rear camera comes with a phase detection autofocus. The phone has a decent 8-megapixel front-facer. The phone has a battery capacity of 3070mAh that charges awesomely fast, thanks to Oppo's home-engineered VOOC charging. The handset has 32GB of expandable storage.

However, it’s really the eight-core Snapdragon 615 processor that runs the show. Oppo has done a brilliant job of squeezing the best out of its Snapdragon processor. Oppo enthusiasts will in all probability enjoy the software’s build on top of Android Lollipop although there is no app drawer. Oppo calls its operating system ColorOS and the R7s ships with a heavily customised version of Android Lollipop. Oppo R7s’ ColorOS is very stylish and functional and the screen gestures can be very helpful.

As an alternative to ColorOS, Oppo, sometimes makes available firmware updates that are 99 percent stock Android and that makes it more interesting. Why? It is because users don’t have to shell out as they do for flagship phones, such as that of Samsung, to enjoy pure Android bliss. In about less than half the price of flagship phones, users have a phone that has a big-enough screen, pretty decent camera and highly acceptable performance.

Oppo, in a bid to capture the Western market, is moving towards a stock version of Android, known as Project Spectrum, and it is believed it is going to release it somewhere early 2016, writes The Australian Financial Review. Currently, Project Spectrum is only available for Find 7.

One can buy the OPPO R7s from OPPO’s online store and Dick Smith – Gold and Silver versions available.