Oppo R17: All you need to know

Oppo, the Chinese company behind what is easily the most innovative smartphone to date, the Oppo Find X, has a new phone in town dubbed the Oppo R17. The phone becomes the first in the world to rock the latest display protection technology from Corning – Gorilla Glass 6 – but there’s also one other feature making its debut courtesy of the R17.

The Oppo R17 still keeps the notched display design, but the Chinese company continues its innovation by coming in with a different take on the popular cutout and makes the device even more interesting by throwing in an in-display fingerprint scanner.

While the launch event in China only witnessed the debut of the Oppo R17, the supposedly superior variant, the Oppo R17 Pro, has only been teased by the company for a later launch. But unlike the standard R17, we still don’t have the specs and features of the Pro variant, although we’ll update this post after the device becomes official. For now, let’s check out the specs of the Oppo R17.

Oppo R17 specs

6.4-inch 19:9 FHD+ AMOLED display
Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 processor
8GB RAM
128GB storage
Dual 16MP + 5MP main camera
25MP front camera
3500mAh battery
Android 8.1 Oreo

As pointed out, the Oppo R17 is the first to come with Gorilla Glass 6 technology and on top of that, it’s also the first to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 670 chipset, the successor to the Snapdragon 660. The handset also brings in-display fingerprint scanning tech to the R series and a rectangular notch at the top of the display screen to house the massive 25MP selfie shooter. Despite not being fans of the notch, Oppo’s take is quite novel and interesting too. Oppo says the 6.4-inch FHD+ display has an aspect ratio of 91.5%, making it one of the highest there is today.

Oppo has paired the SDM670 with big numbers in terms of memory: 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. It should be even more interesting with respect to the Pro variant, which, as the name suggests, will ship with even more superior specs. Just so you know, the SDM670 is a product of the 10nm process, the same technology used to make the high-end SDM845. Speaking of which, this chipset also includes some AI capabilities that are characteristic of the high-end chipset.

To keep the Oppo R17 alive is a decent 3500mAh battery unit that is charged via a USB-C port. Oppo’s VOOC fast charging technology is on board and unlike Xiaomi, Oppo still got some love for the 3.5mm audio jack. In terms of software, you get Android 8.1 Oreo with ColorOS 5.2 running on top and although not mentioned, it’s unlikely the device will receive an update to Android 9 Pie.

The R17 also comes in some interesting colors of Stream Blue and Neon Purple, with the latter largely resembling the Bordeaux Red variant of the Find X as seen below.

Oppo R17 price and availability

On its official page, Oppo says the R17 will be open for booking beginning August 20th. It is then that we’ll get to learn about the price of the device and probably get a glimpse of the Oppo R17 Pro variant.

As for availability, we don’t expect any major changes with respect to previous Oppo R series. Usually, devices in this series are sold in China, but lately, they have been finding their way to other markets. With the Oppo R17, we still don’t know what the company’s plans are, but we do hope the device makes it out of China so that the rest of the world can see how the notch is done.

Oh, for OnePlus fans, this might also be your early look at what the company is planning with the OnePlus 6T. Check out the link below for more on this.