OPPO has become a dominant force in the smartphone game in their home market of China and has even seen steady and impressive growth in countries like India. The company is hoping to continue this with their latest smartphone offering that features an increased focus on providing an excellent camera experience. What does this device bring to the table? We find out, as we go hands on with the OPPO R11!
In terms of design, the R11 retains the design language of its predecessor, with it featuring a full metal unibody construction and what OPPO calls the “arc curve” design, where the back of the phone is curved on all sides. With a metal body, there is always the risk of the phone being too slippery, but this curved back lets the phone sit very comfortably in the hand, and the curves along the sides make the phone easier to grip as well.
New in the design though is the Antenna 2.0 technology that OPPO is leveraging to reduce the number of antenna lines from three to two, while still being able to maintain functionality as expected with the use of a 4G signal enhancer and 2×2 MIMO Wi-Fi. The antenna lines have also been colored to look the same as the rest of the device body, and they seem to meld seamlessly into phone and not stand out, making for a beautiful-looking smartphone.
As far as the specifications are concerned, the OPPO R11 comes with a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with Full HD resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor backed by 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of built-in storage (that is further expandable via microSD up to an additional 256 GB), and a 3,000 mAh battery. OPPO also unveiled a Plus edition of the R11 that bumps up the display size to 6 inches, increases the RAM to 6 GB, and features a larger 4,000 mAh battery.
The most notable aspect about the OPPO R11 is the camera setup though. The device comes with a 20 MP + 16 MP dual camera setup, with the 16 MP unit featuring 2x zoom, which means that you will now able to zoom without much loss in quality. OPPO was also proud to share the fact that they worked closely with Qualcomm to develop a customized imaging processor, with the key takeaway being that the R11 will be able to process images quickly, despite the high resolution capture.
Camera samples
There is also a slew of software features that OPPO has added in to further enhance the camera experience, which should translate to great looking images. In the short time that we were able to spend with the device, the rear camera setup does seem to perform well. Up front is a 20 MP shooter too, that allows for some high quality selfies and also takes advantage of software features to create a great looking self-portrait.
On the software side of things, we get the latest Color OS 3.1 based on Android 7.1 Nougat, and with the latest version of their custom OS, OPPO seems to be focusing on getting the smaller details right. For example, the software includes a payment protection mode, Wi-Fi security check, and cool features like OPPO Share, which allows for fast lossless file transfers.
However, it is very clear that this version of the software is intended solely for the Chinese market, with China-exclusive features and interesting UI changes that include having all the notification toggles in a separate control center view, instead of having them be a part of the notification dropdown. We’ll have to wait and see if these changes make their way over to the international variant as well, if and when the R11 is released in other markets.
So there you have it for this quick look at the OPPO R11! The R11 looks to be a very promising mid-range smartphone, with what should be a great camera experience being its biggest USP. While the R11’s camera-first concept is certainly exciting, unfortunately, it is unclear if the R11 will ever make to markets other than China. Of course, many are claiming the R11 is the blueprint for the upcoming OnePlus 5, which looks very similar but with some upgraded internals.