Test: Oppo R7 Lite

It’s been a blockbuster year for OPPO. The Chinese tech company has released a good number of new devices throughout the year. Among these gems is the new R7 Series, the company’s entries into the midrange/high-end segment. The series is currently comprised of just three phones: the R7, R7 Plus, and the R7 Lite. Carrying a 6-inch screen, the Plus is surely a crowd pleaser, but how about its little brother? Size isn’t everything. Let’s see if the R7 Lite has the chops to wine and dine with OPPO’s cream of the crop.

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• The R7 Lite sports a small and thin full metal unibody design. Besides ensuring the phone’s sturdiness, the sleek body gives it a premium look and feel to rival other form factors out on the market. An improvement that puts the R7 Lite over its predecessors is the presence of rounded edges. OPPO phones usually have the characteristic of feeling like a slab in hand. The R7 Lite feels softer but firmer to the grip with its improved design. A small quip I have is the irregularity of its power button on the left side, which may take some getting used to.

• A Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chip and 2GB of RAM power the R7 Lite under the hood. For most usages, the midrange chip optimizes performance well between tasks. Performance was mostly playable with the graphics-intensive Hearthstone game. Unfortunately, lags were glaring, but nothing that detracted from the game’s enjoyment. Heat was bearable upon playing, but it did increase once I played more and more games.

• Sadly, the R7 Lite only carries 16GB of internal storage. On the bright side, it’s compatible with expandable memory of up to 128GB via microSD. It can also take on one micro-SIM and one nano-SIM, simultaneously.

• Out of the box, the R7 Lite comes installed with Android Lollipop. OPPO has laid over its custom ColorOS ROM onto the Android interface. The software shares the simple design of the iOS but the easy customization options of Android. As usual, there’s no app drawer but only home pages. Fortunately, bloatware isn’t an issue with the R7 Lite.

• The 13-megapixel rear camera is a decent shooter that can take good shots even in sub-par lighting. The flash shot technology can take fast-moving subjects easily. An Ultra HD mode allows photographers to virtually take 50MP shots from the small camera. The phone also comes equipped with an 8MP front camera.

• The phone carries a 2,320mAh battery. On regular use, this capacity will be enough to carry you over to the next day with a bit of juice to spare. But power users, beware, you might want to take a charger or a power bank with you for heavier usage.

• The price tag shouldn’t be a huge setback except for the stingiest of smartphone hunters. It retails for P13,990. Arguably, it’s a good price for a midrange phone that powers out good performance.

THE VERDICT:

It may be called “lite” but there’s nothing light about the R7 Lite. It’s a good bang-for-your-buck phone that delivers good performance in a sleek package inside and out.

PRICE:

P13,990

SPECIFICATIONS:

DISPLAY 5” HD AMOLED (1,280 x 720 resolution)

SIM Dual (micro-SIM/nano-SIM)

OPERATING SYSTEM Android 5.1 Lollipop, ColorOS 2.1

PROCESSOR Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 1.5GHz octa-core

GPU Adreno 405

MEMORY 2GB RAM

STORAGE 16GB internal, expandable up to 128GB via microSD

CAMERA 13MP rear, 8MP front

CONNECTIVITY & I/O PORTS Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, microUSB 2.0, OTG support

BATTERY Non-removable Li-Po 2,320mAh

DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT 143 x 71 x 6.3mm, 147g