OPPO has a new camera-centric flagship, the R9s, and it’s looking really good. It’s practically the same as its predecessor, the R9, in looks, but manages to make some improvements under the hood. Pre-order for the OPPO R9s has started in Singapore, but actual availability will commence from 10th December. I’ve the OPPO R9s on hand for some first impressions.
These days, it seems you can copy the iPhone look without having Apple sending an army of lawyers to descend around you. If you mistook the OPPO R9s for the iPhone 6s, well, it’s not just you. The OPPO R9s looks, as did the R9 before it, quite similar to the iPhone 6s, especially when you turn it around and find familiar camera and antenna lines placement.
The OPPO R9s build is really solid, and at 6.6mm, thinner than the iPhone 6s it mimics so well. The phone is available in Gold and Rose Gold colours, though you’ll have to wait till January 2017 for the latter. The all metal build of the device feels very good.
The 5.5-inch display has 1080×1920 Full-HD resolution. Although there’s no QHD here, the display is very crisp, offering 401ppi of pixel density. A beautiful 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protects the display.
In line with their camera-centric focus, the OPPO R9s continues from where its predecessor left off. The main camera on the back has 16MP with impressive f/1.7 aperture, dual phase detection autofocus and LED flash. The secondary front facing camera features 16MP resolution too, with quite respectable f/2.0 aperture.
The OPPO R9s is a dual-SIM phone that takes in nano-SIM. The 2nd SIM slot can alternatively be used to hold a microSD card to support external storage up to 256GB.
Under the hood, the OPPO R9s is powered by Qualcomm Octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor clocked at 2.0GHz. It is fitted with 4GB RAM and 64GB of flash storage. Connectivity includes LTE up to 300Mbps/50Mbps speeds, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth. The battery capacity is rated for 3010mAh.
Notably missing in this smartphone is the support for NFC, so unfortunately you won’t be able to use Android Pay or other contactless payment solutions.
Shipped with Anrdoid Marshmallow-based Color OS, the software is easy to work with. The user interface is smooth. It might have been nice to see Android Nougat.
The fingerprint sensor on the OPPO R9s is really quite incredible. It’s really, really, fast. You can literally tap briefly and lift off your finger to unlock the screen. This is the fastest I’ve ever seen, even when compared with the likes of Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and Pixel XL. Another interesting feature is that you can configure individual fingerprints to specific app shortcuts so that, for example, you can have one of your finger used to instantly launch WhatsApp.
The OPPO R9s will retail for S$679 from OPPO Concept Stores and all M1, SingTel and StarHub stores. Gold colour will be available from 10th December, while Rose Gold colour will arrive some time in January 2017. Pre-order is available between 29th November to 9th December.
This has been a quick look of the OPPO R9s. Watch out for the full review coming up soon.
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