Oppo R819 Review

Introduction

Those big phone makers better get used to the increased competition coming from Chinese brands, because if they get asleep at the wheel, phones like the dual-SIM Oppo R819 might eat their Android deserts pretty soon.

Sporting a 4.7” HD display, the Oppo R819 is the next representative of the new thin and light Chinese midrange warriors, like the Huawei Ascend P6, which wrap decent specs in fine design, and slip those to us users at a modest price tag. Sounds like a recipe for success, but has Oppo managed to get the overall experience right? Read on to find out...

In the box:

• Wall charger
• In-ear stereo headphones
• microUSB cable
• SIM ejector tool
• Warranty and information leaflets

Design

At 3.88 oz (110 g), the Oppo R819 is the lightest in the midrange category, and one of the thinnest with its 0.29 inches (7.3 mm). Granted, the 4.7” Huawei Ascend P6 is even thinner, and made out of premium materials, unlike than the plastic shell of the R819, yet Oppo's engineering chops are still to commend here.

Because of the plastic build, the Oppo R819 doesn't exude any upscale pretenses, and the metallic ring around the lens that matches the side rim of the phone can't really change that perception. Still, it feels feathery in the palm, and is easy to operate with one hand. The glossy white plastic is rather slippery, though, despite the etched slight diamond pattern on the back, and since the phone is so thin, the firmness of your grip on it diminishes further, so you have to hold the light handset tighter than usual while handling it.

The dual SIM handset actually has a removable back cover, if you really force to pry it open, but underneath it sports a sealed battery compartment with attached cables and such, so not much to do inside anyway.

Oppo provided a SIM tray for both cards on the lower left side, which is easy to push out with a pin. The main SIM is at the bottom of the tray, so you can pull out only half of it, and replace the second SIM quickly – it is not hot-swappable, though, and the phone prompts you to reboot. Unfortunately, the maker couldn't find place for a microSD slot as well, so you'll be stuck with the phone's 16 GB internal memory.

The power/lock key on the left, and the volume rocker on the tight are placed somewhat lower than they should be for completely comfortable operation, and feel rather iffy when pressed, with shallow feedback. We found no issues with the response of the capacitive navigational keys underneath the display.

Display

The 4.7” IPS-LCD panel sports 720x1280 pixels of resolution, which bring about a very good 312ppi pixel density, so you'd be hard-pressed to wish for something more in that department. The color representation is accurate, and the tone doesn't lean overly to the warm or cold sides.

The display is very bright, north of 600 nits, which aids outdoor usage significantly. When the sun shines directly on the panel, though, it is rather reflective, though, which diminishes the visibility of the otherwise luminant panel.

There is some brightness and color shift when you tilt the phone strongly, as usual, but overall the viewing angles are in line with what you'd expect from a decent IPS panel, meaning you won't have any glaring issues in that respect.

Interface and functionality

When you order the Oppo R819, you can actually choose between a stock Android experience and Oppo's Color ROM. The custom interface, which looks like one of the numerous GO Launcher skins, sits on top of plain vanilla Android 4.2.1. The UI features large, colorful rounded icons, transparent dock and app drawer backgrounds, a few transitional animations you can choose from, a bunch of pretty widgets, and a dark-on-white color scheme for the menus that is easy on the eye.

There are up to nine homescreens you can add, and Oppo has turned one of the homescreens into a dedicated music player manager with an old school turntable visual to turn the song on or off. A couple of preloaded apsp like Lomo Camera, tools and utilities folder, as well as an edition of Kingsoft Office round up Oppo's preinstalled software. The on-screen keyboard seems to be the stock Android affair, and because of the handset's dimensions, it is pretty easy to type on with one hand, plus it has Swype-like functionality present if that's what rocks your boat.

Now off to the nitty-gritty about the interface – you can rearrange the dock icons, even the app drawer one, any way you please just by tapping and holding on them. There is a swipable row of connectivity toggles in the notification bar, as with most self-respecting manufacturer overlays these days, but you can actually call the respective setting with all its submenus when you tap and hold on a toggle. A few well-animated lock screen options are present, should you get tired of the default one, but no extra skins or themes for the overall interface.

The only thing that raises some eyebrows is that you can't immediately drag an app icon to the homescreen after a long-press, but have to actually drag it down to an action bar first. The settings menu and the dialer use tabbed categories, so have this in mind if you are looking for an option, and can't find it in the scroll list.

Processor and memory

A 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 chipset with PowerVR SGX544 GPU is in the phone, alongside 1 GB of RAM. Being a frugal Cortex-A7 affair, this processor is no speed king like the A15s in the flagships, or even the A9s, so you can expect some lag while you wander around the interface, and app loading isn't quick either.

The Oppo R819 comes with 16 GB of internal storage, of which about 13 GB are user-available, and there is no memory card slot for expansion.

Internet and connectivity

Oppo provides only the mobile Chrome browser on the R819, so if you need Adobe Flash rendered on some page, you'd have to sideload it and use a 3rd party browser. Rendering pages is relatively swift, but scrolling and panning around feel a bit choppy at times, and text reflow doesn't always nail the right column to fit from the first try.

Oppo's midranger doesn't really shine in the connectivity department – you get tri-band European/Asian GSM modem setup with HSPA+ download speeds of undisclosed number, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 800.11 b/g/n, ,Wi-Fi Direct, GPS, FM Radio and DLNA. Only one of the SIM cards can be connected to use high-speed data, the other will tag along in 2G mode only, though that reflects favorably on standby times.

Camera

The 8 MP camera on the Oppo R819 comes with LED flash that has a dedicated Torch mode button. There is also a 2 MP front-facing camera with wide 88 degrees viewing angle, so you can fit everyone around you in the video chat session, like on HTC's handsets lately. The front cam is also used for other features like an always-on screen while you look at it, and swiping your hand in front of the phone to accept a call.

Oppo uses an Exmor R sensor from Sony for the rear cam, with wide f/2.0 aperture, and backside illumination, plus 5-elements lens with UV and blue glass coatings – all the makings of a good mobile phone camera these days. The lens is very close to the top edge of the phone, though, so you have to be careful not to get your fingers in the way of a pretty shot.

The camera app opens with sufficient speed and the phone focuses quickly, plus shot-to-shot times are very fast - Oppo claims 0.6 seconds, and we can attest that seems to be the case - perhaps thanks to the dedicated image signal processor (ISP) that the company uses, instead of counting on the one embedded into the sluggish MediaTek SoC. The ISP allows a Burst Shot mode that takes 5 frames per second for a maximum of 20 seconds.

Oppo provides large, touch-friendly buttons in the camera interface, and easy to select shooting modes like HDR, Panorama, Night, Sports and Sunset, as well as Beauty Plus that enhances skin tones and removes blemishes. The Rewind mode takes several photos in rapid succession and lets you choose the best. We also get the pictures and video shutter buttons on one screen, saving us the switch from one mode to the other.

The outdoor pictures came out very nice, with vivid, yet not oversaturated colors. The photos sport plenty of detail and correct white balance measurements. The exposure algorithms are also balanced, with only slightly overexposed bright areas here and there.




Video is captured with 1080p resolution and smooth 30fps without visible artifacts, and the phone is quick to adjust the exposure while panning it around.

Multimedia

The stock gallery is a pretty standard affair, with grid thumbnail arrangement by default, and editing options built right into the Photos app interface.

Music playback is done either via the dedicated homescreen with the turntable we mentioned, or the default Music app, which is pretty basic, with no equalizer presets and a minimalistic UI with transparencies. The player controls stay always-on during listening, while in the middle of the display you can swipe back and forth between the album art of the current song, and the tunes catalog present on the handset. Turn the phone in landscape, and a nice album art carousel appears to swipe through.

Oppo has licensed the Dirac HD Sound tech, which promises deeper bass and more intelligible voices, as they all do. It does make a difference when you turn it on in headset mode, especially with the bass range, though it's hard to tell if it is better than similar sound enhancement modes that manufacturers load on their handsets. Here we ought to mention that the supplied stereo headphones don't fit well in your ears and it's very easy for them to fall off, so we'd recommend to stay away from headbanging or jogging activities while listening through them. The loudspeaker is of average quality – strong enough, but with rather thin sound.

The video player has a similar carousel in landscape mode to the music one, but with screenshots of the video files, along with their titles, so you can swipe and preview before playback. The handset plays everything you throw at it, including DivX/Xvid/MKV files, and up to 1080p resolutions at that, without any hiccups. Subtitles support, loop playback functionality and screen brightness adjustment right from the interface round up an excellent video player that comes standard with the Oppo R819.

Call quality

The earpiece is of average quality, producing enough volume, but somewhat hollow-sounding voices. The other side attested they can hear us loud and clear, with no hissing, voice distortion or ambient sounds, thanks to the well-placed two microphones for noise cancellation.

Battery

A 2000 mAh battery unit is what Oppo supplied with the R819, which is unfortunately not user-replaceable. Only one of the SIM cards in the dual-SIM device can stay connected to a 3G network at a time, which works well for the standby times, though while browsing or watching videos you'd get about the average 5-6 hours of endurance – as we mentioned the screen is pretty bright, so toning it down to a half should increase your mileage.

Conclusion

Dual SIM handsets seemed as an afterthought until recently, that's why we are glad the Oppo R819 finally delivers this functionality in a well-designed midranger with good specs and acceptable performance. It sports compact chassis, good call quality, very bright HD display and fine camera, all for about $350 unsubsidized.

There aren't major gripes with the handset, and there's hardly a match in the dual SIM universe for its specs and price, save for the version of Huawei Ascend P6 with two SIM cards. That same handset is Oppo's phone main competitor, as it features svelte, premium design for a tad higher price, but its camera quality is inferior.

We can also chalk off the LG Optimus F7 as a direct competitor if you find no need for a second SIM slot, as it has similar specs and price, albeit with a larger battery. The Sony Xperia ZR can also be put forth, though it will run you more and doesn't come with such a thin compact design. All in all, if you are looking for an affordable Android midranger with dual SIM abilities, the Oppo R819 is hard to beat right now.

Software version: R819_AS_11_A.06_130815