Three major Chinese flagship smartphones were launched recently, just a few days apart. The first two are from OPPO, which announced their R15 and R15 Pro on 17 May, with availability from 25 May. The third is from Huawei’s Honor brand, the Honor 10, announced on 21 May and available from yesterday.
True to the trend for 2018 flagship smartphones, all the new announcements featured AI heavily. They also have notches, and 18:9 aspect ratio for the display is now history, with 19:9 aspect ratio now becoming the in-thing. All of them have very high screen-to-body ratios, and very eye-catching, beautiful, designs.
It’s almost like everyone has converged onto some shared vision on the future of smartphones, a common understanding on what the perfect smartphone should be. Then, various features and characteristics are adjusted to suit the target budget.
The OPPO R15 and R15 Pro are almost identical in size, 155.1 x 75.2 x 7.4 mm vs 155.3 x 75 x 7.5 mm, and quite similar weight, 175 vs 180 grams . They both have the same 1080 x 2280 resolution on a 6.28-inch display, same 6 GB RAM, same 128 GB storage, dual-SIM, and microSD sharing the 2nd SIM slot.
They are so similar, it’s easier to talk about how the R15 Pro is more “pro” than the plain R15. While the former is powered by a Mediatek MT6771 Helio P60 processor, the latter uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660. The R15 Pro earns its “pro” status by offering NFC, Bluetooth 5.0 (Bluetooth 4.2 only in the R15), and IP67 water-resistant rating.
Both the OPPO R15 and R15 Pro are available in very unique, attractive, colours: Nebula Purple, Rouge Red, and Frost White for the R15; and Cosmic Purple and Ruby Red for the R15 Pro.
The OPPO R15 retails at S$749, while the R15 Pro retails at S$899. I will have a review of the OPPO R15 coming soon.
The Huawei Honor 10 has also got plenty of excitement to offer. I’ve got to mention the rather spectacular Phantom Blue colour model, because this is absolutely, fabulously, exquisite. There’s also a Midnight Black colour that is more toned down, but nonetheless still exquisite.
Compared with the new OPPO flagships, the Honor 10 is a more compact smartphone, measuring 149.6 x 71.2 x 7.7 mm and weighing 153 grams. Its smaller 5.84-inch display, however, has the same 1080 x 2280 pixel resolution. The Honor 10 is powered by Huawei’s Hisilicon Kirin 970 with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. It has NFC, Bluetooth 4.2, dual-SIM, but no support for microSD expansion.
Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the Honor 10 is its price. Despite boasting hardware specs that are mostly similar to Huawei’s other flagship, the P20, the Honor 10 is remarkably cheaper. In Singapore, the Honor 10 retails at S$579, a price that is also significantly cheaper than currency-converted prices in United Kingdom and Europe.
I’ll also have a review of the Huawei Honor 10 coming soon.
Having heard so much from both OPPO and Huawei about their AI-powered camera capabilities, I can’t wait to try out these smartphones. I’ve already started clicking away with the OPPO R15, and my first impressions have been quite positive!
Watch this blog for updates!