[rwp-review id=”0″]
Remember the good old Nokia days ? Where it was the case that no two devices were the same, every phone had a sense of individuality and you stood out. Now we have the familiar monolithic design we all know. Large screen, unibody, touch screen and it seems devices only innovate when one of the big players changes something aesthetic or functional wise. Oppo seems to take this sentiment to heart and it shows in their device range, one in particular comes with Oppo N3, the flagship device that now sports the world’s first smartphone with “a motorised swivel” camera. The N3’s swivel camera is automatic if you choose it to be and it appears that there’s something to be said about this particular gimmick but it isn’t for everyone.
That being said, when you introduce a product that drives away from the look and feel that most users are familiar with, it can go either way, it may well be made a mockery or hailed as something terrific, so where does the oppo stand in the sea of devices ?
Design
The N3’s chassis is an aluminum frame that follows the same design of it’s previous model, the N1. It has rounded edges but still a good fit to hold considering the grip you get from the matte surface all around but that’s a matter of opinion especially for iPhone users who are used to an universal grip surface. It’s an oddity for such a clean and minimal phone that you have a bit of leather tapering on the camera which on first glance looks like the camera is a separate module altogether and not part of the phone. It’s also got a bit of bulk (161.2mm tall, 77mm wide and 9.9mm thick), weighing in at 192 grams, it’s heavier than the Samsung Galaxy note 4 (176g), iPhone 6 Plus (172g) and the Nexus 6 (184g) and it’s dimensions class this in the phablet category and it’s still thinner than the N1. If you’re someone who fancies a big sized phone, the Oppo N3 may tickle your fancy for that fact alone.
On the back we have a matte polycarbonate surface, with the name plate and fingerprint scanner. Oppo’s touch access software can store five fingerprints and there’s no swiping just placement of the finger on the scanner. You can use it as a button and trackpad to control the camera and scroll webpages. The 16 MP camera lens has the Schneider certification and comes with a dual LED flash. Unlike the R5, the N3 has the 3.5mm jack and a volume rocker. It also has the main nanoSIM card and a second microSIM card which you can use as mircoSD card slot as well. On the other side we have the power/display button and micro usb 2.0 port. I found I took some time to adjust to it, and it gets annoying when you’re shooting horizontally.
There’s a bevel at the bottom, and this is where you see the N3’s notification LED which Oppo calls the Skyline Notification 2.0, I personally think it looks nice when it’s breathing with pulse light during charge but you might want to face the phone away from you at night if you get bothered by it. The speaker is also placed at the bottom along with the main microphone.
Display
On the display side, the N3 has packed a smaller 5.5 inch full HD (1920×1080) screen at 403 ppi. I felt comfortable holding it but it’s still a phablet size and it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Videos however look fantastic. The auto brightness worked in most situations save the outdoors and I found it a bit difficult to read in the afternoon particularly, but pump the screen’s brightness to the maximum and it will be fine.
Battery
Packed with a 3,000 mAh battery, the N3 will get you through the day on a single charge, I used it at full capacity at wifi, automatic brightness set to medium, browsing and the usual 15 minute gaming sessions at intervals. I got a good 8 hours of use. The fine line comes with the charging, the 5A A/C adapter supplied will fill up the battery very quickly and I got around to 80% in less than an hour.
Performance and Software
The N3 runs on Oppo’s pr proprietary Color OS v2.0 on top of Kitkat, they’ve kept it close to the formula and the launcher customizations make sure it stays true to stock, it’s got several customizations and UI support along with pre installed themes for users to get a familiar feel.
What I particularly liked about it was how smooth it ran, absolutely nothing to nitpick on the software performance. I was skeptical at first, there’s no app drawer and all the apps are on the homescreen and for me in particular I like to keep my screen minimal and this was the one thing I didn’t appreciate fully but that’s just me.
Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, a quad-core 2.3GHz CPU and an Adreno 330 graphics chip and offers 2GB of RAM. Respectable specs but this year has been about pushing that benchmark further. That being said, you’re still going to get slick performance just shy of last year’s HTC One M8 or Samsung Galaxy S5.
There were instances where I thought the heat exceeds and there is a problem with software optimization with the build it’s supposed to get. Again these are simulated tests and if you use it in a real world scenario you won’t find these problems affecting you majorly. Color OS 2.0 is one of the better looking renditions of Kitkat and handles well.
Camera
Of course the main focus is the N3’s camera, it comes with a 16MP camera, f/2.2 aperture and the motorized swivel allows it to have a 206 degree rotation, so you have the same camera back and front and the same 16MP for your selfies as well. The optics are certified from Schneider Kreuznach so it’s safe to say you’re going to get fantastic shots. Here’s a few I’ve taken below. The camera lets you have different shooting modes, Beauty (for selfies), Panorama, HDR, Ultra HD, RAW, Expert, Macro, Slow Shutter and Normal. The Expert mode gives you control over the exposure compensation, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and manual focus which is what you’re going to have to pick to get maximum control over your images. The click accessory that comes with the phone, the O-Click, the dongle pairs via bluetooth and has directional buttons to control the camera so you can shoot on a tripod remotely. It also doubles up as a locator for the phone.
I had a few issues however these are common with all mobile cameras and it comes down to how the camera locks in exposure.
For example, here’s an auto panorama, where the camera does all the work while you hold still, it’s great how it tracked but it locks in exposure from your first shot, which you end up getting overly exposed shots like the one below.
You get to tell if this happening early on so this shot was an illustrative reason to explain why the camera isn’t nearly as perfect as it should be but it did get other details in perfectly.
Here’s the shot taken a second time, another pickle I had when you take a panorama is that the camera moves all the way in the front so it can capture you in it, which is great if you want to be in the shot but you could potentially stand to ruin a nice landscape by blocking your own shot, and to point that out, here’s a funny one from Gulf Photo Plus this year.
Macro mode is pretty cool, too but I did notice in this mode you’re bound to lose some color detail as it records the area around it. Again, it comes down to where you point your focus on.
Another test shot, here’s more natural lighting but slight overexposure, but on the plus side it’s pretty good how it focus so quickly as it detected the cue ball travelled across the board and it even got a bit of that in the frame, stellar imaging from the n3.
UltraHD doesn’t do much to your images but pumps in more resolution in them, not really a huge jump. and it creates more noise than usual, a lot of outdoor shots especially during daylight shouldn’t generate it so much and this is what stops it from being regarded as one of the better cameras when you match it to say, the Lumia 1020.
Cropping it however is where you’ll notice how you can take some pretty impressive macro shots and still retain detail, here’s an example I clicked of momo’s.
Overall, I loved how fast it shot images, for video however it wasn’t the same case, the n3 comes with 1080p at 30fps and slow-motion video at 120fps in 720p upscaled to 1080p resolution at 28 fps. Details are too sharp and overly so and it doesn’t seem to work well with low lighting situations. While it technically has the prowess to shot in 4K there are better shooters in the same price range and it’s a good guess this comes down to software tweaking which I hope should fix this problem.
The Verdict
One thing’s for sure, the phone isn’t just any gimmick that’s come out of Oppo, being the current flagship, it has a premium look and feel and a price to boot and it also has a nice aluminum frame around it and though it may not be the best phone to handle, it’s a solid build. Comparing it to the R5, the N3 is a polar opposite and it’s clearly meant for camera-esque users but the price tag of $650 will give people a second thought about buying this phone. The software, again in a real world situation, will perform well and Color OS 2.0 will deal with whatever punishment you throw at it with its Snapdragon 801 processor but keep in mind we now have the 805 already Battery will last you through the day and not to mention the speaker audio which you can still hear in a noisy mall. The unconventional motorized camera does perform far beyond expectation and hopefully will be improved through software updates. Video isn’t the best around and a 4K update could change that.
A price drop could entice people to check the Oppo N3 out but for Oppo they’re certainly innovating and it will only be a matter of time before they come out with a well rounded winner.
