OPPO R7 Plus

If there’s one area where OPPO differentiates itself from other Chinese brands, it’s in the design department. The R7 Plus features a sleek all-metal unibody design that’s constructed out of aircraft-grade aluminium alloy. Our gold and white unit looked stunning to say the least, with its chamfered edges and metal accents. To compensate for the huge 6-inch display, the R7 Plus features minimal bezels and a slim 7.8mm frame.

The OPPO R7 Plus’ 6-inch screen features 2.5D Arc glass which is subtly rounded towards the edges, similar to what we’ve seen on the iPhone 6. The display features full HD resolution, equating to a respectable pixel density of 367ppi. The screen offers crisp, clear visuals with good viewing angles and sunlight legibility. The use of AMOLED tech means you get those slightly over-saturated colours and deep blacks, which make photos and videos look stunning. The screen gets a layer of Gorilla Glass 3 for protection against scratches and knocks.

The R7 Plus gets a very capable pair of 13MP rear and 8MP front shooters. The primary camera uses a Sony IMX278 sensor and gets an aperture of f/2.2, while the front camera features an OmniVision OV8858 sensor and f/2.4 aperture. The camera interface is neat and uncluttered, but is pretty much a clone of the iOS camera app.

Since the R7 Plus features mostly flagship quality specs, it's surprising that OPPO has chosen to go with a mid-range processor. The device is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor, consisting of two quad-core Cortex-A53 clusters clocked at 1.0GHz and 1.5GHz respectively. The chipset gets a generous 3GB of RAM and an Adreno 405 GPU to work with. During our usage, we didn't encounter any unwarranted freezes or app crashes. There were minor lags here and there, but that can be attributed more to ColorOS than the processor. The smartphone is able to handle gaming well too, with intensive titles like Riptide GP2 playing without any noticeable frame drops. Overall, the R7 Plus is smooth and dependable, but don't expect the blazing fast performance you might get from a higher-end chip. It's also worth noting that the smartphone doesn't heat up to uncomfortable temperatures during extended usage or gaming, a flaw the Snapdragon 615 chip has been accused of with other handsets.