Oppo is back once again with its Oppo R9s, a powerful midrange smartphone with an excellent f/1.7 rear camera that seeks to impress. Priced at S$679, the Oppo R9s will be made available from the 10th of December. Built with a powerful camera, a beautifully-designed metallic body, and a standard midrange chipset, the Oppo R9s might just be what you’re after in your next smartphone.
Design
The R9s doesn’t differ much in terms of its design when you compare it to its predecessors. It still has that razor-thin build, coming in at only 6.6 mm in terms of thickness (compared to the iPhone 7’s 7.1mm) and weighs a mere 145g.
The 5.5-inch device has a large screen, but thanks to its sleek build, it fits easily in pockets and using it single-handedly should be easy for guys with larger hands. Ladies with their shorter fingers might still find it hard to navigate with only one hand.
The front is covered with a glossy Gorilla Glass that’s strong enough to withstand scratches and the rear has a matte metallic chassis that comes with its usual rose-gold colour.
It does certainly look like the iPhone 6s and its predecessors, but hey, it looks good, and that’s all that matters.
Camera
First things first. The Oppo R9s has a fantastic rear camera. It’s 16MP shooter with f/1.7 aperture is great on paper, and in reality. As much as megapixels matter, when it comes to smartphones, the aperture and sensor size matters more.
With an f/1.7 aperture (just like the Samsung S7), this smartphone has a rather wide aperture, which is a good thing. This allows it to capture shots better in low-light condition since the shutters open wider to allow more light in. It also makes it more capable of capturing a depth-of-field effect.
Thanks to its dual-autofocus system, the Oppo R9s captures pictures really quickly as well, and you can even command the R9s to take photos using voice control. Cool isn’t it?
The front camera works great too, sporting a 16MP camera but a standard aperture of f/2.0.
User Experience
How does it feel to use the Oppo R9s? Fairly good to be honest.
The R9s uses Oppo’s native ColorOS, which is simple and easy to use. It’s layout is quite basic but at the same time, beautiful. If you don’t like the ColorOS, just switch over to something like the Google Now launcher and you’ll still be fine.
There’s a ultra-fast fingerprint sensor (that unlocks the device in 0.2s) on the R9s to make things easier for you, and it’s no longer located at the rear of the device, but at the front. The home button (that holds the sensor) is not a physical button, but one that is activated by touch. This is actually a good thing because we all know how faulty home buttons (especially on iPhones) can be a really annoying thing.
In terms of speed, the average consumer will find no issues at all with the R9s. It’s Snapdragon 625 processor should give it ample of power to fuel your daily productivity needs with no lags, although running more intensive programmes like Adobe Photoshop, and other video editing softwares might see it slow down. The 4GB of RAM also makes sure that multitasking is a smooth experience for the user too.
AnTuTu ratings gave the R9s a score of around 60,000+, putting it on par with phones like the Asus ZenFone 3.
There’s a 3010mAh battery encased within the R9s’ shell, which is fairly standard. However, what makes it stand out is the VOOC fast-charging technology that refuels the smartphone really quickly, and in my opinion, faster than other phones with QuickCharge 3.0 technology.
Conclusion
At S$679, the R9s isn’t a particular cheap smartphone, but it’s not overpriced either. For a midrange smartphone, the camera exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds. The processor and RAM was fairly standard, but the small little things like the sleek and light build, the snappy fingerprint sensor and the flash-charging technology, made the Oppo R9s stand out amongst its competition.
About the Aut
hor
A Dentist-To-Be Dabbling in Tech Journalism:
Zayne is a writer who reports for VR-Zone, Stuff Singapore and The New Paper on all things tech-related. Follow this geek on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram!
