Oppo N3 Review

The guys from Oppo sent us the Oppo N3 which was launched in Singapore last year. It was announced to be available locally early this January (see report here)

The 5.5-inch full HD display with IPS technology has 1920 × 1080 pixels and 403ppi which makes it very visible even outdoors.

Here’s the packaging — it looks so elegant and you know immediately that this phone is a premium item.

Inside the box are the usual items you will find but I noticed that even the wall charger is bigger and heavy duty, even the USB cable is not your usual thin cable.

The looks and the specs

N3 is not your usually-designed smartphone specially with its rotating camera, the bottom has white LED that serves as notification. It is in the same area where the speakers is located. The right side has the 3.5mm audio port and the volume control while the power button is located on the left side.

The micro-USB port is located on the lower left side of the phone. It’s not convenient to use it while charging. 

On a closer look, here is the camera that rotates.

With its 16MP camera that rotates, you get the same quality of photo for your regular snaps as well as your selfie photos.

And you can even take photos of your subject on your side without them noticiting it.

Remember that the N3 is the not first Oppo smartphone with a rotating camera, the N1has already the same feature.

When you hold it and observe the rotating camera, it looks great but when you take a closer look you feel that the N3 is top heavy. At times, I think it is even awkward that the camera is propped on top of the display, eating additional space.

The white color of N3 adds more elegance to its already high-end looking build. But you have to be prepared of flaunting a really big phone to your friends, a one-hand operation is not possible with N3.

Display

N3 display IPS LCD with Full HD screen resolution (1920×1080 pixels) with 403ppi making all images stand out even outdoors. Display is crisp and bright. Viewing angles are also great, I never had any problem with it.

OS and UI

I wish that N3 qualifies for the Android 5 update, but for now it comes out of the box with Android 4.4 Kitkat with Color OS on top of it. Be reminded that, N3, same with Mi3, has no app drawer. You can group your apps into folders to arrange it the way you want.

Going to the settings of N3, you will get this menu arranged into tabs.

The quick menu when you pull it from the to looks like this. And when you stretch it downward, it displays all the other screen quick options.

NFC

Aside from the fingerprint scanner, N3 has NFC feature which convenient is transferring images with the smartphone with the same feature. I tried transferring photos from my Kata i4. While it was not so fast, it was able to transfer without any error.

Camera and sample media

If you are a photographer who likes to control the camera, you will love N3. It has manual operation. You can use the Expert Mode option. It allows you to manually focus, change white balance and the exposure of your image.

However, the 16MP shooter with its automatic settings provided me with great results already. Here are the sample shots we took during our review.

I have the different shots using different scenarios in my photoblog. Check it out here.

Here is the video capture sample I took. I intentionally recorded an evening shot to show how it performs in low light.

LTE, dual-SIM, micro-SD — all in one tray.

I guess this is a genius design, Oppo has put all these three items in one tray. SIM 1 is labeled as the 4G/LTE SIM while the second SIM doubles as the micro-SD slot.

Benchmarks

The Snapdragon 801 2.3GHz quad-core processor on N3 did not disappoint us. I did not feel any lag or slow down during my review. Antutu gave a really high score, but it reported that it is not a verified score.

Antutu gave 39,803 average score, while Nenamark gave a 69.1fps result. We tried this HD game called Marvel Contest of Champions and it was pretty smooth, no lags and the HD display is very pleasing to the eyes.

Battery life

N3 has 3,000mAH non-removable battery. With its fast battery charging that give 75% in half an hour, N3, with average use and LTE is on, it sustain us more than eight hours with 25% of battery remaining.

On WiFi, it’s a different situation, it can last you two days. I had it in my table as Spotify player connected to my Bluetooth wireless speakers and its plays non-stop until the playlist is finished.

Conclusion

Nice to have. That is my quick answer, but let me elaborate it. N3 is a great smartphone, it is very elegant. When you hold it in your hands, you know that you are carrying a premium smartphone. Camera performs really well, crisp images, sharp and saturated. The rotating camera feature bothers me though. It can be damaged really fast because it rotates accidentally even inside your pocket. I wish that Oppo can find a replacement kit for that in case you get it damaged.

It fast, very smooth, no lags, audio is also clear and crisp.

Oppo N3 is now available in the Philippines as well as in the Australia, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam and China. Locally it is priced at P29,990.

Source: http://www.digitalspidey.com/2015/01/review-oppo-n3/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Digitalspidey-Reviews+%28DigitalSpidey.com+%C2%BB+Reviews%29