Introduction
So what if the ZTE Nubia Z9 actually has pixels spilled all the way to the sides, and the R7 Plus doesn't? Oppo's 6-inch phablet, positioned where midrange meets flagship, has a wonderful metal build and an appearance worthy of its top-shelf aspirations.
The smartphone does accomplish the bezelless look with the screen off, but fire it up and the illusion is shattered. Even so, the R7 Plus boasts an impressive screen-to-body ratio - and while you may think that's nothing but a catch phrase, it's arguably one of the more meaningful scores in today's numbers race.
We're yet to see someone disagree that battery life is something we just never seem to have enough of. Oppo has done its best and fitted a mammoth battery inside the R7 Plus, and also equipped it with the in-house fast charging tech, so it doesn't take a decade to fill up.
Key features
- Magnesium-aluminum alloy unibody construction
- Dual-SIM dual-standby capability
- 6.0" 1080p AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 367ppi, Gorilla Glass 3
- Octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU (4x 1.5GHz plus 4x 1.21GHz), 3GB of RAM, Adreno 405 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset
- 32GB of built-in storage
- ColorOS 2.1 on top of Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
- 13MP laser autofocus camera with Sony IMX278 sensor, f/2.2 lens, dual LED flash; HDR, Expert, RAW, Panorama, Long exposure (up to 16s), Double exposure, 50MP UltraHD modes
- 1080@30fps, 2x-10x speed timelapse
- 8MP front camera, 1080p video recording
- Cat. 4 LTE (150/50Mbps); dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, hotspot, Wi-Fi direct; Bluetooth 4.0; GPS/GLONASS; microUSB
- 4,100mAh battery capacity; VOOC fast charging
- 3.5mm headphone jack, active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
- Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor
Main disadvantages
- Midrange chipset in a premium price handset
- Sealed battery, microSD slot shared with second SIM
- No NFC or FM radio
- Pricey
A flagship-grade chipset would have been most welcome, given the rest of the specs, but the R7 Plus makes do with Qualcomm's ubiquitous upper-midrange Snapdragon 615. So be it, it won't win performance awards but typically makes for a fine daily driver. The 3GB of RAM and a generous 32GB of expandable storage shouldn't leave you wanting either.
Oppo R7 Plus press images
Oppo has taken a different path with the camera of the R7 Plus, compared to the regular R7. A Sony IMX278 sensor replaces the Samsung ISOCELL imager and the phase detection autofocus has made way to a laser mechanism, so we'll need to see how this new combo fares.
But first things first. Join us on the next page where we start with unboxing the Oppo R7 Plus.
Unboxing
The Oppo R7 Plus comes in a standard-issue retail box. There's an AC adapter and a microUSB cable that support Oppo's proprietary VOOC fast charging tech and can deliver up to 4A at 5V for total of 20W of charging power. More on what this actually means in the battery section.
VOOC charger and bumper case spice up the basics
A headset is also included. There's a textured plastic bumper in the bundle as well, quite typical of Oppo packages.
Oppo R7 Plus 360° spin
The Oppo R7 Plus is a big smartphone, but you'd expect that, given its 6-inch display diagonal. It actually does a great job keeping dimensions within reason and measures 158 x 82 x 7.8mm. Spiritual brother Huawei Ascend Mate7 is a millimeter smaller in X and Y directions, but a is a fraction thicker. For reference, the iPhone 6 Plus is the same height with only a 5.5-inch display.
Weighing in at 192g, Oppo's 6-incher is 7g heavier than Huawei's but, at this end of the weight range, the difference is as good as none. That said, the 6-inch Nokia Lumia 1520 is both substantially heavier and larger in footprint and the just announced iPhone 6s Plus weighs the same despite having a smaller footprint and a half-inch smaller display.
Hardware overview
It should be clear by now that the Oppo R7 Plus was meant to get noticed, not lay low. Its sheer size makes it conspicuous enough, but the Golden paintjob leaves nothing to chance.
Oppo says the smartphone's body has been crafted from a single piece of magnesium-aluminum alloy. 48 polishing processes later, we have the smooth finish of the back and the outer frame, which are one-piece. There's a shallow groove chiseled out from the side, which adds a nice accent to the frame, but also collects dirt.
There's plenty to mention on the back, other than the exquisite finish of the cover. The least attractive part is the plastic inserts required by the antennas. They don't fit perfectly, sit below the surrounding surface and have uneven gaps.
The camera module is up top with a dual LED flash next to it. The assembly is ever so slightly raised, but the actual front element of the lens is recessed into it, so it should be safe from scratches. The laser autofocus is behind a tiny black window on the right.
Under the camera lens you'll find the fingerprint sensor, which is lowered as much as the camera is raised. The depth is just enough to offer tactile feedback as to the location of the sensor, so you can easily find it without looking, which you'd need to be doing most of the time, given its position on the rear.
Further down, a shiny company logo graces the back, etched into the back cover. All the way at the bottom is the back-firing speaker.
A lot of features on the back, color scheme wins points for style
The 6-inch screen pretty much owns the front. When it's off and you look at it head on, the display and the surrounding black frame blend together and the phone does indeed look bezelless. Glance at it from any other angle and the greenish tint that AMOLEDs exhibit when viewed from the side, reveals that the edge-to edge is nothing but an illusion. Good looking, nonetheless.
Front of the R7 Plus
There's the all-important 2.5D glass, gently curved towards the edges. It looks good, feels pleasant to touch, if you notice these kinds of things, and it's associated with premium smartphones.
Unlike the 5-inch R7, which comes with capacitive buttons in the bottom bezel, the Plus has the controls on the screen, thus allowing for a slimmer chin. With the space freed from function, Oppo found it a convenient spot to put its logo. The top bezel serves a lot more purpose with the earpiece in the center, joined on either side by the front camera and the bunch of sensors.
Top bezel with earpiece, camera and sensors
The power button is on the right site, and is located for comfortable reach with your right thumb or left index finger. Even so, you're unlikely to use it much, because fingerprint unlock works really well.
Above the power button you'll find the hybrid card slot, which can accommodate two nano-SIM cards, or a nano-SIM and a microSD card. The tray is made of metal and is pretty sturdy, too.
Power button and SIM card tray on the right
The left side features the volume rocker, which has been shaped to resemble two discrete buttons but is a rocker nonetheless. Both the volume controls and the power button are metal as well, fit snuggly in the frame cutouts and produce nicely solid clicks.
Volume rocker on the left side
The bottom has the microUSB port, which is upside down (the chamfers are on the bottom). Oppo's bundled cable is upside down too, though, meaning the VOOC logo still gets to be on top when charging. The mic pinhole is to the left of the USB port.
The top plate houses the 3.5mm headphone jack and the secondary mic.
microUSB port and primary mic on the bottom • 3.5mm jack and secondary mic up top
The R7 Plus is a 6-inch phablet and handles like one. Most of the interaction with it is done with both hands, though basic tasks like voice calls can be executed single-handedly. The buttons are all very-well placed and the fingerprint sensor on the back helps a lot.
Oppo R7 Plus in the hand
The texture of the finish on the back is very fine and doesn't offer too much traction. In fact, the glass on the front is grippier than the back. The included plastic bumper case improves things a lot, but we're not sure that the trade off in terms of looks is worth it.
FullHD AMOLED 6-incher
The Oppo R7 Plus packs a 6-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. The math works out to a pixel density of 367ppi, which makes individual pixels hard to spot unless you stick your nose right into the screen.
It's a beautiful panel with vivid colors, without breaking the saturation slider. Viewing angles are excellent and there's only the slightest drop in contrast when you look at it from the side.
Our lab tests revealed that the display isn't overly bright though, only managing about 350 nits at the maximum setting. That's a relatively average AMOLED value, to be fair, both the Galaxy A8 and A7 are in the same ballpark, as is the Nexus 6.
The brightness control is nicely linear - midway means 50% of the maximum brightness, and even at this setting it's perfectly usable.
| Display test | 50% brightness | 100% brightness | ||||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | |||
| 0.00 | 171 | ∞ | 0.00 | 351 | ∞ | |
| 0.11 | 149 | 1428 | 0.37 | 530 | 1428 | |
| 0.22 | 263 | 1174 | 0.43 | 522 | 1207 | |
| 0.00 | 169 | ∞ | 0.00 | 367 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 149 | ∞ | 0.00 | 372 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 291 | ∞ | 0.00 | 399 | ∞ | |
| 0.00 | 175 | ∞ | 0.00 | 349 | ∞ | |
| 0.09 | 130 | 1450 | 0.43 | 626 | 1453 | |
The R7 Plus remains nicely legible in the sun, and the numbers in our test reflect that. The Samsung Galaxy Alpha and the Nexus 6 are keeping it company, but the Galaxy A8 sits a bit higher up the chart.
Sunlight contrast ratio
Connectivity
The Oppo R7 Plus has a wide range of connectivity options. It's a dual-SIM dual-standby device with both cards supporting quad-band 2G, while SIM1 also supports quad-band 3G and a selection of LTE bands, which vary by region. The distinction between SIM1 and SIM2 is made in settings.
The smartphone has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac both in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrums, and also Wi-Fi direct and hotspot support. There is a GPS receiver, Bluetooth is the 4.0 iteration, but there's no NFC, nor is there an FM radio.
The microUSB 2.0 port supports USB on-the-go to let you attach peripherals, though it's off by default and the option to enable it is buried deep in the settings. A standard 3.5mm jack completes the wired connectivity package.
Battery life test
The Oppo R7 Plus packs a massive 4,100mAh battery, but it does have a 6-inch display to power up. Even so it's in a very limited group of phablets with batteries upwards of 4Ah, the Huawei Ascend Mate7 and P8max are its most noteworthy peers. The Lumia 1520 has only 3,400mAh capacity, while the recently launched Sony Xperia C5 Ultra pales in comparison with its 2,930mAh unit.
It goes without saying that we expected record breaking numbers from the R7 Plus and while it fell short of topping any of our charts, it still posted some great scores.
Its video playback is the second best we've seen since the beginning of our own tests, only behind the original LG G Flex and a whisker ahead of the already excellent Samsung Galaxy S6 active.
In 3G call times the R7 Plus paces third altogether, if we don't count the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 LTE tablet. The third longest lasting smartphone for voice calls, is only behind the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro and the Huawei Ascend Mate2.
Where the R7 Plus underperforms is web browsing, which drains the battery in "just" 10:39 hours. We figured it may be due to a poorly optimized built-in browser, reran the tests on Chrome and got identical numbers, so that's that.
Our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our battery test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating. Our battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you want to learn more about it.
Filling up the battery of the R7 Plus would have been a tough task, if it weren't for Oppo's VOOC technology. Basically, the battery is made up of two separate cells, which can be charged simultaneously. This effectively doubles the charging speed, while going easy on the battery and keeping temperature down.
What it also means, is that you need a special microUSB port and cable with an added pair of prongs for the second cell. Oppo bundles one with the R7 Plus so you're covered, but the phone will work with any regular cable, it just won't charge as fast.
ColorOS 2.1-enhanced Lollipop
Oppo took its time with the jump to Lollipop, but finally made it. The R7 Plus is one of select few devices that have been launched with Google's now one-year-old release, and it's running the latest available 5.1.1 version. Lollipop was also promised for the regular R7, and we'll be holding Oppo accountable for that.
With ColorOS 2.1 on top, the differences between the two R7s are mostly under the hood. That is, unless you count Oppo's constant rocking between menu background colors - black on the R5, white on the R1x, black on the R7, now white on the R7 Plus - makes you wonder.
In typical fashion, ColorOS makes Android nearly unrecognizable, with custom lockscreen, homescreens, icon packs, task switcher and settings menu, as well as extensive theming support.
The Color OS default lockscreen uses swipe gesture for unlocking, though it only works with an upward swipe. The truly new feature here for Oppo comes courtesy of Lollipop and that's lockscreen notifications. You can set up pattern, PIN or password unlock protection, and now fingerprint unlock too.
The side swipes are reserved for lockscreen widgets, but you need to start swiping from the extreme edge for them to work, so swiping out from the middle of the screen could have easily been used for unlocking purposes. Swiping in from the right opens up the camera app, while on the other side you can have one or several widgets, though the choice is limited to a few basic Google apps - Gmail, Hangouts, the like.
The lockscreen
The Oppo R7 Plus comes with a fingerprint sensor on the back. It's our favorite position, the one best suited to such large devices, as it's the most natural spot to place your index finger, left or right. The HTC One Max premiered the design, although it used a swipe sensor rather than a touch one like Oppo.
You can save up to 5 fingerprints, meaning your two index fingers and another two potentially for someone else, with one extra. It's hard to imagine a use case, where you'd be using any other finger - it's just not a natural position for those. The recognition works excellently and you seldom need to try a second time. Of course, a backup password or PIN can always save you, should your fingers be dirty, in gloves, or whatnot.
What Oppo didn't quite get right is more of a niggle than anything else. The thing is, when you place your finger on the sensor and it recognizes the print, the phone shows the lockscreen for a brief instant before taking you to the homescreen, thus wasting precious moments.
Fingerprint setup
The Oppo R7 Plus doesn't have an app drawer, so all of your app shortcuts are available on the homescreen iOS-style, and the apps above the dock are organized in a grid of 4x5. You can still select multiple apps (up to 20) and move them around the homescreens together.
The 4x5 grid may have been fine on the 5-inch R7, but on the 6-inch R7 Plus it feels a little wasteful. It's also not the only example of unnecessarily large menu elements, which Oppo has failed to scale to better use the ample screen estate. The font size setting doesn't help with scaling buttons, and it's also limiting on the small end for those with good vision.
Naturally, you can group your apps in folders the way you like, and the dock can take folders too, though you need to create them above in the homescreen, and then drag them to the dock. Widgets are available as well, though there aren't many of them here either.
The homescreen
Exclusive space is Oppo's custom homescreen page. Photo has been retired and now there's just Music. Gone is the unintuitive design from the R1x, where you had do swipe away the currently playing vinyl for changing the song and it has made way for more straightforward Previous/Play/Next buttons.
Exclusive space - Music
The homescreen's contextual menu lists widgets, wallpapers, effects and themes. You drag widgets upwards to place them on the homescreen.
Customizing homescreens
Oppo's Color OS supports themes, one of which changes the appearance of Color OS to match that of stock Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. There are plenty of themes available for free in Oppo's Theme Store, and some are better than others at dealing with non-stock apps.
Themes Store • Different themes
By default the notification area will show one row of quick toggles, a brightness slider and a shortcut for enabling auto brightness mode, the current notifications plus a shortcut to go into settings. If you do a drag gesture from the quick toggles row you get two more lines of toggles. There's also a Dismiss all button there.
A long press on a toggle will bring up its respective settings entry. By the way, you can access the notification area even if you slide down from any empty part of the homescreen (not just the top), which was welcome on the R7, and here it's nothing short of a blessing, due to the sheer size of the device. You can also set up app-by-app permissions for displaying notifications.
The task switcher is pretty close to the one in iOS. All your apps are shown in a horizontally-scrollable grid of thumbnails, which you either swipe up to close or tap to open. A downward swipe locks one or more apps, so they remain open even when you use the Kill all button to close all the others.
The R7 Plus notification area • App switcher
The R7 Plus has some of the most comprehensive gesture controls out there. It picks up gestures with the display off, then others with the display on and it also recognizes motions to answer or mute incoming calls.
Among the screen-off gestures you get the obvious double-tap-to-wake, but also music control, which lets you play/pause/skip songs with distinct swipes. Drawing a circle launches the camera and you can set up a host of other gestures to launch an app or call a contact.
Screen-off gestures
Moving on to screen-on gestures, you can swipe with three fingers across the screen to capture a screenshot or pinch with several (three or more) fingers to launch the camera.
The Smart call options are where motion goes into play and they are very useful, too - flipping the device will mute the ringer, raising the ringing phone to your ear will automatically answer the call and more.
Screen-on gestures • Motion
One hand mode is available too, activated by an upward swipe from the bottom left or right corner. When done, this will minimize the UI into a more compact window, for an easier reach with just one hand. It's a lot like Samsung's feature in the Note series, though without the option for resizing. It also doesn't completely turn off the unused pixels to conserve energy, though the effect would probably be negligible.
Synthetic benchmarks
The Oppo R7 Plus is powered by the Snapdragon 615, coupled with 3GB of RAM - the same hardware setup as the regular R7.
That said, Oppo has set different caps on the two quad-core clusters of Cortex-A53 cores and the R7 Plus reports a configuration of 1.5GHz and 1.21GHz for the CPU. The 5-incher had those numbers at 1.46GHz and 1.11GHz, while Qualcomm's default figures are 1.7GHz and 1.0GHz respectively.
And while Qualcomm's numbers are closer to the big.LITTLE idea, despite the actually identical processor cores, Oppo's take on the matter veers towards the Mediatek concept for True octa-core. Whatever you choose to call its CPU architecture, the Oppo R7 Plus is nicely equipped and we expected solid results.
It started to deliver as soon as it hit GeekBench, where it placed close to the Nexus 6 which packs a mighty Snapdragon 805 inside. Obvious archrival Huawei Mate7 is near, but trailing nonetheless. The whole S615 bunch is entirely left behind. The Galaxy A8, sporting an Exynos 5430 SoC, is somewhat better, though.
GeekBench 3
Higher is better
In the compound Antutu benchmark the R7 Plus splits the difference between the big boys and the pedestrian S615 performers. While slightly older flagships are comfortably in the lead, there are no S615-powered devices to threaten the R7 Plus. That includes the Galaxy A7, which scores nearly 10% less. Then again the Exynos-powered Galaxy A8 climbs to the top, rivaling last-year's Note 4. More importantly though, the Sony Xperia C4 posts superior results in both tests.
AnTuTu 5
Higher is better
The general results are much the same, when we head over to Basemark OS II. The R7 Plus is good enough to beat the competition with the same chipset, with the Xiaomi Mi 4i (not actual market rival, used here for performance comparison) coming the closest. Here, however, the Xperia C4 places behind the R7 Plus too.
Basemark OS II
Higher is better
Perhaps most troubling here is the single-core score. It's of little consolation that the last place is shared with the Galaxy A7, when many apps still only rely on one processor core and the R7 Plus is finding it hard to keep up.
Basemark OS II (single-core)
Higher is better
The Oppo 6-incher picks up speed in the multi-core section of the benchmark, where it's on par with the S810-powered LG G Flex2. Mediatek's actual True octa-cores are stealing the show here, joined by the Huawei Mate7, packing an in-house Kirin 930 chip.
Basemark OS II (multi-core)
Higher is better
Different numbers, but similar proportions are to be observed in the newer Basemark OS II 2.0 benchmark. The major difference here is the multi-core test, where the R7 Plus is pushed down the ranks.
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)
Higher is better
Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)
Higher is better
The Adreno 405 GPU inside the Snapdragon 615 was never one to impress with performance but Oppo does seem to be making the most of it. It posts virtually the same score as the R7 in Basemark X, both well above the chip's average.
Basemark X
Higher is better
GFXBench reports mostly the same scores for all S615 devices and the ones we picked for comparison are all 1080p units so there isn't the usual 720p/1080p division. Higher-grade Adrenos inside flagship chipsets perform notably better, but even the Mali T628 inside the Mate7 manages to pull ahead.
GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)
Higher is better
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
The Kraken 1.1 JavaScript benchmark displays an interesting division between the compared devices. Snapdragon 800-series devices are grouped together, among them the Mate7 and the Zenfone 2. Then comes the second tier, formed by the familiar S615 bunch, with the R7 Plus smack in the middle. Trailing the chart are the competing Mediateks.
Kraken 1.1
Lower is better
All-round HTML performance appears to be more dependent on software, as members of different chipset groups are all over the place. The R7 Plus takes two important victories in this one - both the Mate7 and the Xperia C4 are a mile behind.
BrowserMark 2.1
Higher is better
Uninspiring single-core results aside, the Oppo R7 Plus is among the best-performing Snapdragon 615 devices, we've had the opportunity to test. The GPU was never meant to excel with FullHD resolutions but does a decent job, while the overall results are consistently first among equals.
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