Oppo are now the major player in the Australian mid-range segment of the smartphone market. They are set to expand this further in coming months with the upcoming release of the OPPO R11, announced today in China.
The OPPO R11 is powered by a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 which matches the market target for the phone- mid-range. There is 4GB of RAM alongside 64GB of internal storage and the ability to expand the storage by up to 256GB via the microSD card slot. The display is a 5.5in 1080P LCD display powered along by a 3000mAh battery.
The R11 is OPPO’s first dual camera smartphone with the the two rear cameras being 16MP (f/1.7) and a 20MP (f/2.6) telephoto lens. They work in tandem to provide greater zoom, simulating up to 2X zoom. There are a few extra functions including a portrait mode and bokeh-type functionality that OPPO have included within the software, making good use of the dual camera setup. The front facing camera is a whopping 20MP selfie camera with a big focus on post-processing of selfie images.
The software is OPPO’s ColorOS 3.1 on top of Android 7.1.1. Apparently OPPO have softened the harsh iOS styling of ColorOS to be more in line with the Android design guidelines. The icons are still extremely iOS but of course this can be changed with a custom launcher and icon packs.
The overall design of the phone is very OPPO in it’s stylish metallic body and close resemblance to certain Apple devices. It also bears an extremely close resemblance to the upcoming OnePlus 5 and last years iPhone 7 Plus. We can now see why OnePlus have designed their phone like they have — they didn’t. The OPPO phones are always well made and feel solid while maintaining a decent, extremely competitive price. This is expected to be the same.
Australian pricing and availability is yet to be announced but is expected to be around $5-600AUD when it is available before the end of July. It will come in rose gold, gold, and black (my favourite). As soon as more details are known we will pass them onto you.
I feel like design is becoming less and less important as everything is converging on the same bezel-less, curvy, metal block which most people will either have in a case, bag or pocket for the majority of the time.
That aside, seeing dual cameras in the midrange segment is excellent, and I’m sure this will do well here.