After being a powerhouse in the Chinese and eastern markets, Chinese electronics manufacturer Oppo has today embarked on their first foray into the Western market, announcing their launch in Australia.
Oppo has launched in the Australian market first, due to our cultural love of technology and feels its a match for their focus on innovation and high quality devices. At the launch this morning, Head of Marketing, Michael Tran, spoke a bit about Oppo’s history of innovation beginning with the companies inception in 2004 manufacturing MP3 players and other electronics before moving into smartphones in 2008. Since entering the smartphone market, they’ve achieved a couple of firsts including the thinnest smartphone in 2012 and the frist 1080P display on a smartphone with the Find 5 in 2012. They’ve again achieved a first in the display specs race, offering the worlds first QHD (2560×1440) display on a mobile phone with the Find 7, which they have announced as one of four handsets that will launch in Australia.
Oppo Australia will begin offering handsets directly for sale in Australia through their website – oppomobile.com.au – which is expected to go live later today, with four handsets being made available immediately:
- Neo 5 – $219
- N1 Mini – $539
- Find 7a – $629
- Find 7 – $719
Specs for the handsets aren’t showing as yet, with the website still advising that it’s coming soon, but it should be live shortly. Specs for the handsets are as follows :
Oppo Neo 5
- 4.5″ (480×854) display
- 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor
- 1GB RAM
- 4GB on-board storage with microSD card slot(up to 32 GB)
- 5 MP Rear camera with LED Flash and 2MP Front-facing camera
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, FM Radio
- 3G/HSPA and LTE
- Android 4.3 with ColorOS 1.4
- 132×65.8×9.2 mm @ 132.5grams
- 1900mAh Li-Ion Battery
- Black
Oppo N1 Mini
- 5″ (1280×720) display
- 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB on-board storage
- 13MP Rotating camera with 195° movement and LED Flash
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
- Radio:
- HSDPA: 850/900/1900/2100
- LTE: 1700/1800/2100/2600
- Android 4.3 with ColorOS 1.4
- 148.4×72.2×9.2mm @ 150grams
- 2140mAh Li-Ion Battery
- White
| Find 7a | Find 7 |
|---|---|
| 5.5″ FHD (1080×1920) display | 5.5″ QHD (2560×1440) display |
| 2.3 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm MSM8974AB Snapdragon 801 CPU | 2.5 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801 CPU |
| 2GB RAM | 3GB RAM |
| 16GB on-board storage with microSD card (up to 128GB) | 32GB on-board storage with microSD card (up to 128GB) |
| 13 MP Rear camera with Dual-LED Flash and 5MP Front-facing camera | |
| Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS, NFC | |
| GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 HSDPA: 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 LTE: 800 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 |
|
| Android 4.3 with ColorOS | |
| 2800mAh Battery | 3000mAh Battery |
| 152.6x75x9.2mm @ 170grams | 152.6x75x9.2 mm @ 171grams |
Previous online Oppo dealer for Australia – Oppostyle – is now displaying a message advising that your region is no longer supported. Meaning it’s now over to the official Oppomobile.com.au site from now on – of course, Yatango still has Oppo handsets for sale on their site as well.
As well as the oppomobile.com.au website it’s likely that Oppo is looking into mobile carrier partnerships to offer their phones on contract, however they wouldn’t be drawn on specifics, advising that the website was the best place to acquire an Oppo handset.
The emphasis for the day was on the Find 7 and N1 Mini handsets. The Find 7 had displays set up showing off the Audio and VOOC fast charge capabilities of the Find 7. VOCC fast charge allows for the Find 7 to be recharged from dead flat to 75% charged in just 30 minutes, there’s a range of VOCC compatible accessories coming soon. The photography prowess of both the N1 Mini and the Find 7 were on display, with attendees at the event encouraged to take selfies with both handsets.
Along with the local website, the handsets will receive local service through the Oppo Care Line which will connect you to Oppo staff for support on the handsets. A local warranty repair centre is also planned, with details to come shortly.
Oppo has big plans for their home markets, as well as Australia, advising they have a full pipeline of devices coming in the next 12 months and beyond. This also includes adding accessories including powerbanks to their online store in the coming months.
Exciting times for Oppo, we look forward to looking at their handsets which will being with a review of the Oppo Find 7 shortly.
Are you interested in an Oppo handset?
with those price, i would still order it from china
They are only chosen when they offer better value, these phones at those prices are not competitive.
Also not launching a smaller phone with a 4.3-4.7 inch screen is silly.
They have alot to learn.
At those prices and the 4g bands supported I will stick with Nexus thanks all the same. I still think nothing comes close in this market today.
*frist
Hopefully. This is a step towards oneplus being released in Aust.
If not released this would potentially bode well for some parts and servicing,
Those LTE bands are so ill suited for Australia. Yes it supports 1800 Mhz but that’s pretty much it. It doesn’t support the 2300 Mhz that Optus is using (and advertising as 4g+). It doesn’t support the 850 Mhz band that Vodafone will be deploying from 2015. And it doesn’t support the 700 Mhz band that Optus and Telstra will be deploying next year. Most high-end flagships in the market, Like the SGS5 or Sony Z2 already support all those bands. Meanwhile, no one in Australia is going to launch an LTE network on 2600 Mhz or 800 Mhz. So… Read more »
My thoughts exactly
I love that the N1 ‘Mini’ still has a 5-inch screen!
I agree with the other comments here regarding slightly outdated versions of Android, but the prices aren’t too bad, considering they are direct from the manufacturer. Oppo unfortunately doesn’t seem to be all that good with keeping their phones up to date.
Hopefully they’ll arrive in retail stores also, and add a bit to the pool of capable Android handsets available in Australia, since competition should hopefully drive all the prices down.
Considering OPPO’s close relationship with CyanogenMod, it’s a little disappointing that for the international market OPPO launches with Jelly Bean and ColorOS. Perhaps they could take a leaf out of their little sister company’s book, OnePlus – and leave the OS up to CM. The Neo 5 looks like it could go toe to toe with the Moto G, if it wasn’t for the OS and only 4GB of storage. A great price for a LTE phone though. The other phones look good (Operating System misgivings already noted), but those prices need a trimming when compared to the Nexus 5,… Read more »
i had a poke around the xda forums for the find 7/7a and there are nightly CM builds but they appear to be very buggy at this stage.
and yeah, i expected some impressive prices aimed at undercutting the G2/G3/nexus but no dice. difficult to see where oppo plan to slot themselves in at this stage.
I agree on the prices. They don’t seem aggressively priced.
With the launch of other handsets lately, why someone would buy a Find 7 over a LG G3 i do not know. These all have only Android 4.3 too with no guarantees of KitKat. Nice loooking phones but not sure they have the means to success here in Oz.
yep, “Android 4.3 with ColorOS 1.4” is the real stumbling block here. still, good news and keen to see how they go.