Oppo R15: 6 things you must know

Oppo is one of the biggest names in the smartphone industry and in the Oppo R15 and R15 Dream Mirror Edition, the company has the latest flagship phones that continue to push the adoption of the dreaded notch, which is kind of becoming a norm in the Android fraternity.

The Oppo R15 family had been scheduled for a March 31 launch, but the company went for an earlier launch, which suggests that the phones may start selling in early April. But before we get further, let’s check out the specs of both phones – R15 and R15 Dream Mirror.

Specs

Price and availability

• Oppo R15 – ¥2,999 ($475 approx.)
• Oppo R15 Dream Mirror edition – ¥3,299 ($520 approx.)
• Oppo R15 Ceramic edition – ¥3,499 ($552 approx.)

The R15 and R15 Dream Mirror edition phones are releasing in China — exclusively — on April 1, for the price of ¥2,999 and ¥3,299 respectively.

We hope Oppo takes them to Europe, India, and other countries in Asia soon, but it could easily by May-June 2018 by the time device breaks the China-only promise.

6 Things to know about Oppo R15

Here are some of the highlight features and misses of the Oppo R15, which is surely one hell of an exciting phone. Check these points out, and do let us know what you think of the device in the comments box right below this article.

Is a practical spec sheet also the best one?

Design-wise, the Oppo R15 and R15 Dream Mirror are the same devices. You’ll only know the two are different when you get inside the phones, where the standard R15 has a MediaTek Helio P60 chipset while the R15 Dream Mirror has a Snapdragon 660 chipset. While there are some differences in the camera configuration as well, the pair has the same memory options, software, and battery capacity.

That it doesn’t feature a high-end processor like the Snapdragon 845 — that you find on the Galaxy S9, and will on OnePlus 6 most probably — could dampen the mood of some of the young buyers who are more keen on a robust spec sheet, something they can also get from Asus ZenFone 5Z in this range. But when you look at the impressive camera, massive 6GB of RAM and 128 gigs of storage, what an average consumer need is in abundance here.

Given that the Oppo R15 and R15 Dream Mirror will command price tags of between $470 and $530, it makes little sense why one would want to buy either phone when OnePlus 5T and the latest Asus ZenFone 5Z clearly offer a better bang for the buck.

If it’s a notch you are interested in, the ZenFone 5Z has one that is 26% smaller than the iPhone X. Even better is that it rocks the most recent hardware specs led by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845, yet it is in the same price range as the R15 pair.

Although slightly disappointing on the specs front, the Oppo R15 twins have the best of memory options in the shape of 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. This is simply massive and given the raw power supplied by the Snapdragon 660, you will still be getting an excellent handset.

You could be looking at the OnePlus 6, already!

Going by recent history, the upcoming OnePlus 6 should look exactly like Oppo R15. For the uninitiated, OnePlus 5 was very identical to the Oppo’s R11, whose successor, the R11S, is what the OnePlus 5T looks like.

Even though there’s word that the price may be higher than the $499 OnePlus 5T, we don’t expect any drastic departure from last year’s pricing strategy. With this in mind, you might be better placed to wait for OnePlus 6 than buy any of the R15 phones – because the 5T successor is going to be one hell of a beast.

Related: Download Oppo R15 stock wallpapers for your Android device

The notch is here to stay

Oppo R15 and R15 Dream Mirror share the same screen size that pushes a new 19:9 aspect ratio, overtaking Samsung Galaxy S9’s 18.5:9, and thus achieving an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 90%. However, the pair joins a bunch of other Android phones with a notch, which pretty much sums it up – that the notch is here to stay.

As noted, OnePlus 6 could follow the same route and we already know of several other Android OEMs that are going this direction. The aforementioned ZenFone 5Z is among them alongside the upcoming Huawei P20 series.

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Read More: Android phones with a notch

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Android 8.1, yay! But…

It’s good to see that Oppo R15 and R15 Dream Mirror are based on Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. While this is a welcome move, it comes at a price, if history is to be consulted.

Oppo has a poor track record in major OS upgrades. With this in mind, it’s likely that Android 8.1 Oreo is the best you get on the Oppo R15 and R15 Dream Mirror. It’s surprising how such a huge smartphone vendor can ignore one of the most important aspects of any phone, but with Project Treble out of the box, we hope they do give users Android P update treat.

A Solid camera

It’s not possible to determine the quality of a phone’s camera by looking at on-paper specs. However, given Oppo’s recent focus on smartphone photography, we don’t expect the dual-lens setups on the Oppo R15 and R15 Dream Mirror to disappoint, especially the latter.

The Dream Mirror is expected to be better in low-light photography thanks to the wider f/1.7 aperture on both sensors and with the help of Oppo’s software customizations, the 20MP front shooters should also deliver some of the best selfies out there.

No dust and water resistance, bummer!

The latest handsets might be the greatest from Oppo at the moment, but they still lack some of the best features of smartphones. By their price, the two are midrange phones, however, they also happen to be the premium offerings from the Chinese vendor.

If anything, it would have made some sense to include some form of dust and water resistance, but if the likes of Google Pixel and Pixel XL or even OnePlus 5T have no such feature yet they are still some of the best phones on the market, the lack of dust and water resistance shouldn’t be the reason for writing off the Oppo R15 and R15 Dream Mirror.

However, it’s unforgivable that such premium phones are still shipping with a microUSB port in Q2 2018! On the brighter side, you still get the traditional 3.5mm audio jack, which is lucky to have on a $500+ phone these days.

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What are your thoughts on the Oppo’s latest handsets? Would you buy, or know anyone whom you would recommend any of these phones?