OPPO R7 Plus first impressions

As the successor of the OPPO R5, the company created to variants of the new R7 — one which follows the genetic code of its predecessor and another that’s quite literally supersized. So we managed to get a hold of the OPPO R7 Plus, a 6-inch phablet that sports an edge-to-edge display.

The R7 Plus is a huge phone, probably almost as big as the iPhone 6 Plus (although it only has a 5.5-inch display) and even has a number of similarities between them.

One interesting design feature that the R7 Plus initially got us curious is the almost bezel-less glass display. However, upon closer inspection, one will notice the glass panel that covers the entire surface slightly curves along the edges. There’s about a millimeter of gap from the border to the screen and there’s another millimeter or so of gap between the internal screen and the active display.

In a way, there’s still around 2mm of bezels on the sides, it’s not just that apparent at first. Nevertheless, the R7 Plus still has one of the highest screen-to-body ratio at 76.6%. That’s higher than the P8 Max or even the Note 5.

The R7 Plus has a very thin profile despite it size although it is a bit hefty at 192 grams. You will definitely have to handle it with both hands. The all-metal unibody design comes in a white glass covered front panel and soft matte, rose gold frame.

The power button is on the right along with the SIM and micro SD card tray; the volume controls are on the left side; 3.5mm audio port up top and microUSB charging port at the bottom.

The beveled edges of the glass panel reminds us of the iPhone 6 Plus although it is not as pronounced and the metal frame that surrounds it gives the perception that the glass panel is somewhat floating.

At the back is the 13-megapixel rear camera flushed towards the top end together with the dual-LED flash. They’re both slightly raised from the flat surface with a rectangular frame by about half a millimeter. On the right side is the laser module which helps with faster autofocus. Just below that is the fingerprint scanner.

Along the top and bottom end small strips of polycarbonate covers that looks like design accents but actually serves as structural features to allow for better cellular reception. The metal frames along the sides are also separated with white non-conductive bands which doubles as radio antennas (these are pretty common engineerings features found in many handset with metal unibody designs).

The OPPO R7 and the R7 Plus are both positioned as mid-range phones and as such, they run on a Snapdragon 615 octacore processors. Despite that, OPPO still included some very impressive features like the ISOCELL sensor that’s similar to the ones used by the Galaxy S6 and Note 5, a huge 4,100mAh battery and a fingerprint sensor.

Here’s the complete hardware configuration of the R7 Plus.

OPPO R7 Plus specs:
6-inch AMOLED @ 1920×1080 pixels, 367ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor
1.5GHz octa-core, 64bit Cortex-A53
Adreno 405
3GB RAM
32GB internal storage
Up to 128GB microSD
dual-SIM, dual-LTE 150Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
GPS with aGPS
Fingerprint sensor
13MP ISOCELL RGBW sensor, Schneider-Kreuznach lens, phase detection & laser autofocus, dual-LED
4,100mAh Li-Po battery, VOOC fast charging
Android 5.1 Lollipop, Color OS 2.1
158 x 82 x 7.8 mm (dimensions)
192 grams (weight)

OPPO is set to launch the R7 and R7 Plus this September 15 so we don’t have any information yet about the suggested retail price. If we go by the previous SRP of the R5, then expect the R7 duo will be priced in the vicinity of Php22,990USD 392INR 33,211EUR 373CNY 2,853.