Chinese smartphone maker Oppo has recently launched their latest smartphone, the Oppo R7 Lite, which sets itself in the mid-range targeting the likes of OnePlus X, Moto X Play, OnePlus One, etc. It is a pretty tough segment to compete in, given how well designed the competitors are.
But, Oppo is one of the brands known to do so well in the design segment, and the R7 Lite is no exception. Slim, bold and looking very classy, the phone does well enough with the internal hardware as well, but the question remains the same even if there is a lot offered – Will the R7 Lite hold a good competition against the OnePlus X and similar devices in the price range? Let us find out what we feel about the Oppo R7 Lite after using for a week.
Design: The Oppo R7 Lite is a well-built device, not just in the sense of size but the feel and finish of the device. It is made up of a single piece of Aluminium, and it comes with satin finish, to get this finish the aluminium undergoes multiple polishing sessions. It feels pretty good in the hand as well, the buttons give a premium feel and look as well. The R7 Lite has been kept slim at just 6.3mm and weight is 143g. The only flaw that I felt was the protruding camera, which was the first to touch the surface when placed on its back.
Display: The R7 Lite sports a 5-inch display, which comes with HD resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels. It comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection; the display get a 2.5D arc treatment, which gives curved edges making it smoother in feel and look. The colour reproduction was neat, and the visibility in sunlight was decent enough, the viewing angles are also good. Other devices with which it competes come with a full-HD display, although it has a low-resolution display, it is good thanks to the high pixel density. It also comes with the blue-light filter that is useful in reducing eyestrain by removing certain light.
OS, Interface: The R7 Lite runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop OS based Color. The Color OS offers a lot of customization options; you can play around with various themes, homepage, widgets, etc. The is a lot of importance given for multitasking with Color OS, which opens as a slide page with more details to know which app is running what, giving an overview before closing the app.
The essential Blue Light filter or “Eye Protection” seen in most new devices is provided in the Color OS. You get a Lockscreen Magazine feature that shows wallpapers from various genres online. You can view the speed of your network directly on the status bar. For music lovers, the music player is just a left swipe away.
Performance: The device is equipped to compete with the mid-range devices sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon octa-core 615 SoC with Adreno 405 graphics, coupled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of inbuilt storage expandable using microSD card up to 128GB. The Snapdragon 615 SoC is used in several devices, known for its functionality and reliability, which makes daily usage lag free, even while playing games the device was not getting heated or and frame drops were seen.
We played Asphalt 8 which performed without any frame drops when no apps were running in the background, but with Google Chrome in the background the game saw a bit of lag.
Camera: The Oppo R7 Lite sports a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing camera. Both the front and rear camera come with autofocus feature, and the back camera sports phase detection autofocus along with the anti-shake feature. You can record GIF’s directly from the camera app and Ultra HD feature as well.
Check Camera Samples
You can play around with the settings in the expert mode which gives you control over the ISO and other functions. One negative factor is the protruding camera which was the first one to touch the surface when placed on the back which seemed to attract a lot of scratches.
Both the front and rear camera photos produced good colors and details. The Ultra HD mode lets you capture images up to 50 megapixels with the rear camera and 32 megapixels from the front camera, which I personally felt was just a number as the quality was decent but not 32MP type. You can record fast motion video and comes with various filters, the camera app is fast but I could find a bit of lag when switching between front and rear camera and while switching from camera to viewing photos. Overall we can say it has a decent or average camera set up.
Battery and Connectivity: The R7 Lite supports 4G mobile networks with dual SIM, it comes with WiFi, WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth and micro USB port. It comes with hybrid Dual SIM option where the second SIM slot can be used as a microSD card reader. With just 8GB of internal storage available on first boot up which will get exhausted after installing some essential apps, this makes the use of microSD card essential. It lacks FM radio option which was not accepted so well in the Galaxy S4.
The Oppo R7 Lite sports a 2320mAh Li-Po battery, which is small compared to the competition thanks to the slim profile maintained. Even with the small battery we were able to get at least 12 hours of usage with medium use having two SIM cards. The battery usage was also not that high with around 15-20% discharge while playing high-end games, watching video etc. for 30 minutes with full brightness and running on speaker. The phone was able to give about 3 hours screen-on time, given the two SIM cards always being active.
Conclusion: Is the slim Oppo R7 Lite heavy enough as a contender?
The metal body, the super slim profile and the premium feel add up a lot to why you might want to consider purchasing the Oppo R7 Lite, but at the same time, the performance is not the best for the price asked.
For that thickness, the battery packed in has a good capacity and it could well end the day before draining out completely on normal usage. But the Oppo R7 Lite isn’t the best of the lot in its price range, since for around Rs. 18000, there are some excellent options including OnePlus X, Lenovo Vibe S1, and OnePlus One if the design is one important factor to consider.
