Branding a smartphone as the world’s thinnest is both headline-grabbing and worrying.
On the one hand it sounds like a technical revolution has taken place – phones so thin they are barely there, so no more ugly rectangles protruding from your pocket.
On the other, however, it makes you wonder whether the phone has anything else going for it.
In respect of Oppo’s new R5, they’ve done a fairly decent job in creating a wafer-thin, high-end device. But all of this noise about being the “world’s thinnest” is quickly forgotten when a first hold of the phone reveals how remarkably heavy it is for a slice of technology just 4.85mm thick.
It weighs 155 grams compared to the iPhone 6’s 129g and the Samsung Galaxy S5’s 145g, while the soon-to-be-released S6 is 138g. Small differences they may be, but the Oppo’s extra weight makes it more of an effort to use the phone one-handed.
Once you get used to it, the heaviness doesn’t detract too much from what is a stylish handset with a premium feel thanks to its metal casing.
The 5.2-inch Super Amoled screen does an admirable job, although the auto-brightness needs switching off as it makes it nigh on impossible to see anything when outdoors.
Sadly, though, the R5 is a let-down elsewhere, primarily by one of the worst batteries I have encountered in a modern-day smartphone.
Time and again I found myself reaching for the charger as the phone failed to make it through the day – even with minimal use – plus the battery is non-removable.
The charging process itself caused consternation too. It can be returned to full power in 30 minutes, but in doing so generates so much heat I made a note of where the fire extinguisher was located.
So despite its slimline appeal, the Oppo proved impractical. The sluggish 13 megapixels rear camera was also a frustration, although it does come with a 5MP front camera for selfies, as most high-end phones do these days.
It’s a shame, as the R5 really is a classy-looking handset.
Priced in the same bracket as the Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z3, at Dh1,899, I’d be choosing one of those, and it wouldn’t be by a thin margin.
Q&A
I’ve never heard of Oppo, why should I buy one?
It would certainly make you stand out from the hordes of iPhones and Galaxys in operation, particularly as it’s so easy on the eye. There was a host of new releases at the Mobile World Congress last week, such as the HTC One M9 and Galaxy S6, so it’s no wonder Oppo is trying to make itself heard by shouting about the R5’s dimensions.
Any other niggles?
Yes, there’s no headphone jack. I excitedly went to plug in my new Jawbone fitness tracker, having downloaded the app from the Google Play store only to find nowhere to connect the device. It does come with earphones, which can be plugged into the micro-USB port.
Sacrifices had to be made then to make it the “world’s thinnest”.
Yes, indeed they did. But world’s thinnest? Actually that doesn’t appear to be accurate. The Vivo X5 Max – another Chinese phone – measures up at just 4.75mm. If you read the tiny print at the bottom of the R5’s spec sheet, it says it is the “slimmest full high-definition smartphone in the world”. Hmmm.
What else is there to this sliver of innovation?
It runs on the Android 4.4 operating system, has a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, and is packed with 2GB of RAM. There’s no microSD card slot.
ioxborrow@thenational.ae
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