OPPO R9s: Now, it’s clear

Image credit: OPPO

We all know that the smartphone market is dominated by the Samsung S series, the iPhone and at the other part of the world, Google Pixel too. But does it mean that other smartphones in the market are not as good? Today, let’s take a look at the R9s, the latest flagship phone of OPPO that runs on Android 6.0.

Exterior

The OPPO R9s looks very much like a hybrid of an iPhone and a Samsung phone. The R9s is thinner than the iPhone 7 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The design of the phone is not revolutionary. So there are no surprises waiting for you when you first take it out of the box. But I have to say that it looks great. Really. It does. The weight is a little heavier than the Samsung S series but not by a lot so it should not bother you much.

Screen

The R9s has a 5.5-inch screen AMOLED display backed with Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The touchscreen also supports gloved and wet touch input. So you do not have to worry about touching it with your wet hands but you do need to know what’s that liquid on your hand for hygiene purpose. The 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution is not one of the best out there but it’s not bad. It’s high-definition in case you are wondering.

Hardware

Hardware for smartphones are pretty standard nowadays and the R9s is no different. It runs on the Qualcomm MSM 8953 Octa Core Processor, Adreno 506 GPU, has 4GB of RAM and an internal storage of 64Gb that can go higher, up to 256GB.

Camera

Main selling point of the R9s is its 16MP rear camera that supports 4K video. It uses the Sony IMX398 sensor and has a f/1.7 aperture. The camera is also said to have great focusing speed, noise reduction and low-light performance. Now, this is the point that I am not a fan of. The latter three features tend to process your image too much and this may not produce the best image outcome for you. You will need to take note of this if you rely on phone cameras a lot. The front camera is also rocking a 16MP camera with f/2.0 aperture. Now, this is what we are talking about. No more low-quality camera at the front. Selfies are guaranteed to be better on this phone that may expose some flaws on your face. Haha!

Battery

The battery life for R9s is pretty decent at 3,010 mAh. Since the phone is running on an AMOLED display, the 3,010 mAh unremovable battery should serve you well for a full day. OPPO also highlighted its VOOC Flash Charge. This means that a five-minute charge can translate into a two-hour talk time. “It also uses cutting-edge power-saving optimisations, intelligently managing a user’s favourite applications to make sure they are ready when they are needed and not eating power when they are not.“

Verdict

OPPO has come very far to get to where they are now and R9s is its best phone yet. The specifications of the R9s are comparable to the other flagship phones out there or perhaps even better than the iPhone. There, I said it.

If you are not looking to break the bank for the Samsung S series or the really super expensive iPhone, the OPPO R9s is really something you should consider. It is currently selling $398 for a 2-year Combo 2 contract at SingTel. Trade-in with your current phone may shave some dollars off the price too.

What do you think? If you have an OPPO R9s, do you like it?