The smartphone
market is changing faster than ever and to keep up, the manufacturers are
working overtime to come up with the best. We have seen lot of new innovations
in the past couple of years and this has resulted in the introduction of some
really very smart features in mobile devices. We recently saw Oppo announce the
N3 which comes with a motorised swivelling camera along with other features
like hybrid fingerprint scanner. With this new feature, they try to take the
camera features a step further and also give the selfie lovers something to be
happy about. This device also comes with a mini remote too, like something that
you would use with your DSLR to release the shutter. With all these features,
the Oppo N3 looks like a promising device and we take a closer look at this
device and all the smart features it offers.
Design and built
The device look
big and it actually is. There is no way you can have a 5.5 inch display on a
small device. The dimensions aren’t small by any standards. It is 161 mm tall,
77 mm wide and 9.9 mm thick. It is also quite heavy, tipping the scale at 192
Gms. The device feels bulkier compared to the Galaxy Note 4 or LG G3. Still the
device is smaller than the Oppo N1 which was too big to be practical. The phone
has got a swivel camera on the top so the components that usually sit there are
moved to other spots. The micro USB port is present on the left side and the
headphone jack is on the right. While the device has been made out of plastic,
it gets a steel frame running around it which gives it a solid feel and also
helps with the grip. The back is smooth and nice to touch. Thankfully the back isn’t
glossy so you won’t see smudge marks all over it. You will find a shiny
fingerprint scanner on the back near the logo. Near the bottom you will find
the LED notification light bar that we saw on the Oppo Find 7 or maybe on the
Xperia SP.
Display
Recently various
manufacturers decided that full HD is not enough for mobile phones and they
should go for 2K resolution. Even Oppo came with device with 2K display but
thankfully they have adhered to full HD here. Even with a 5.5 inch display, you
get a pixel density of over 400 ppi which is more than enough. You need
superhuman eyes to spot the difference in sharpness between this display and LG
G3’s display. The display is pretty good with impressive viewing angles and
natural colours. The saturation could have been a bit better though. This is an
IPS LCD display so the blacks are obviously not as good as the Note 4. The
display comes with Gorilla Glass 3 protection to save it against minor
scratches and mild drops.
Hardware
The Oppo N3 runs
a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset with the quad core processor running at 2.3
GHz. This chipset can actually support higher clock speeds but for some reason,
they have decided to go for 2.3 GHz. Still pretty good. You get 2 GB of RAM and
an Adreno 330 GPU. The hardware is reasonably powerful to ensure that the
device doesn’t break a sweat in processing and you always have a lot of power
at your disposal. You get 32 GB of internal storage and you can also add a
micro SD card so it shouldn’t be a concern for anyone. It is powered by a 3000
mAh battery which is reasonably powerful for such a device. It also gets fast
charging capabilities for when you need to charge up your device quickly. The
device comes with a fingerprint scanner on the rear. Thankfully it isn’t like
the scanner you find on Samsung devices that would require a swipe. It is a
simple button that would scan the finger when you press it which makes it far
more convenient. It makes the operation much easier as the power key has been
placed on left side of the device. You can add multiple fingerprints to unlock
the device and also restrict the other users from complete access to your data.
Camera
Of course this
is the highlight of this device. The rotating camera on top of the device and
that too a motorized one. It allows the lens to rotate 206 degrees which is
actually more than what we expected. The camera has a 16 megapixel sensor and
the pixel size is larger than the usual crop of mobile phone cameras. The
camera software is similar to what you would find on most Oppo device except
for a couple of additions. There is a manual mode which you can use to manually
adjust the focus and obtain some impressive results. The image quality is
pretty impressive from the camera.
With this
device, you get the O Click accessory. It is a small remote control with 5
button construction and allows you to control various functions but most
importantly the camera. You can release the camera shutter using this remote.
It would also allow you to control the angle of rotating camera. It could be of
great use when you are trying to put the device somewhere and shoot a panorama.
Overall they have done a really good job with the camera and this O Click.
Verdict
It is really
great to see devices where the manufactures have tried to go beyond the
tradition and do something different with the product. The Oppo N3 is one such
device and judging by what has turned up so far, they have done a pretty good
job. It is a considerable improvement over the previous devices that we saw
from the manufacturer. The rotating camera, fingerprint scanner and remote
control are really nice additions. The device is a strong contender against the
top players in the market.
Author Bio: The article has been written by Kundan Srivastava, who is
passionate about technology. He's working at 91mobiles.com and
writes about the latest in the tech domain, right from devices to innovations.a