Oppo Find 7 review: powerful and future-proof

“For an Android smartphone, the Oppo Find 7 is certainly quite loaded, but lacks eye candy”

Oppo Find 701

As a new entrant, Oppo is quite an exciting device maker, absolutely worth looking up to. The devices that we have seen from the brand have always tried to offer the best of features and functionality, though its pricing strategy has been a tad off the mark. Its latest flagship Android smartphone, the Find 7, is the first one in India to feature a 2K display along with a host of other features and functionality that really makes this device stand out of the crowd, at least on paper. However to substantiate this and test out the real worth of the Oppo Find 7, let’s dive into the detailed review and check out how this device scores on several parameters including performance, looks and features.

 

Looks premium in the box, not so much outside it

Oppo find 7  (1)

The first thing a buyer would notice about the Oppo Find 7 is its snazzy packaging in which the device is delivered. The hard plastic, black box is certainly among the finest retail packs we have seen so far and speaks of premiumness more than anything else. The same goes on even after opening the box and looking at the way the phone is presented, though it carries a more utility-based design than a premium one. The device feels solid and has quite a sturdy construction as far as its build quality is concerned; the materials used for the construction include plastics mainly and surely help make it lightweight.

Oppo find 7  (2)

Apart from the phone, another thing worth noticing inside the box is the massive wall charger. In terms of specifications, the charger outputs a 4.5-ampere charge current, which is more than twice the most powerful wall chargers we have seen supplied with other devices.

In terms of additional accessories or freebies, you get zilch, though all standard accessories including USB cable and a stereo headset are included in the box. Check out the unboxing video of the Find 7 here.

A design that enhances utility

Oppo Find 708

The device is bigger than your average smartphone and thanks to its 5.5-inch display, falls firmly in the phablet category, muck like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the Gionee Elife E7. However, even with a large display, the Oppo Find 7 manages to offer comfortable usage experience to users with it reduced bezel size. The size could still be an issue for those with small hands, especially as far as one-handed usage is concerned, but some functions can be easily handled with a single hand, unlike many other phablets which are a strict no-no for one-handed tricks.

Oppo Find 714

The front of the device is not entirely covered under glass and only a portion of it is exposed towards the bottom. Here also Oppo has innovated with the use of a curved, blue breathing light. This light takes care of notification and has only one colour to offer, but despite that, the gentle blinking action surely is commendable.

The back features a textured finish, and is actually the only differentiating factor in the two colour variants that are offered by the company. Out of these, the white one features a textured matte white finish, and the other sports a black carbon fibre texture. Both offer protection against scratches and promote better grip while using, thanks to the matte texture.

Oppo Find 717

The smartphone has an overall weight of 171 grams, which isn’t much for a device carrying a 3000mAh battery and a 5.5-inch display, and is still well under the easy-to-use limits. However carrying the supplied charger around could be a bit of a task, as it is almost equal to an Apple MacBook Pro charger in terms of size and weight. However, the Find 7 can easily be charged with any other smartphone charger as well, though you won’t get the fast charge functionality supported by the supplied charger.

India’s first smartphone with a 2K display

Oppo Find 744

When the iPhone was launched, Apple came up with the philosophy of why the retina display carries a lower resolution and not the full HD resolution as most other flagships offer. The human eye, as per Apple, can only see or distinguish the difference between pixels up to 320 pixels per inch and anything beyond that doesn’t makes any difference for the eyes practically. Well from 320ppi, the Find 7 shoots the resolution straight to twice that on a regular, full HD resolution bearing smartphone with a whopping 1,440×2,560 pixels resolution to offer with its 5.5-inch display, taking the pixel density to an insane 534ppi.

The display on the Oppo Find 7 is quite literally, a scorcher, and only the recently-launched LG G3 can boast of the same high resolution in the smartphone category so far, at least in India.

Oppo Find 745

In terms of sharpness and brightness levels, the Find 7’s display is superb, though the colour intensity seems to be a bit on the lighter side, and we are not really happy with the contrast levels offered. The user interface is also to be blamed largely for the same and the use of pale colours for the home screen is one of the key reasons for our gripes. In terms of overall display performance, the refresh rates are quite fast and therefore, we didn’t notice any trails or distortion even while playing HD or THD level games.

Oppo Find 746

Sometimes, having a 2K resolution display can be a bit of a downside as well, as we did notice a few games which are not designed for up scaling, running in a windowed mode. While on the other hand, everything from viewing videos to internet browsing, Facebooking to even document creation, everything works wonderfully well with the Find 7 and if the company could just tweak the colours a little bit, it could make the experience even better.

13-megs of awesome but with an over-hyped feature

Oppo Find 721

Let us start with the features offered by the Oppo Find 7 with its camera first, and one of its headlining features is the capability to generate 50-megapixel images. This, from a 13-megapixel camera sound like a cool idea. In reality, the feature isn’t as exciting as the company made it sound. The idea behind the 50-megapixel or the Ultra HD shot, as it is called, is to stitch together four consecutive shots taken at full 13-megapixel resolution and offer a single 50- megapixel shot. However, it seems more like a gimmick, since we found out the quality of the Ultra HD image to be worst than a regular 13-megapixel one.

IMG20140704114637IMG20140707133514Oppo Find 7 camera test fast motion capture

Other than the gimmick, the camera on the Oppo Find 7 is a beauty and offers great looking images, be it day or night, right from close-ups to long shots. The fast shutter allows users to capture shots of fast-moving objects with ease as well. Video capture provided on the Find 7 maxes out at 4K resolution of 2160p resolution at full 30 frames per second. However, 4K videos can only be played back on a similar resolution-based television. .

Oppo Find 7 camera test Ultra HD vs regular shot

There are no complaints about the camera apart from the Ultra HD shot and if you wish to check out the camera quality then head over to our camera review of the Oppo Find 7. Here’s a look at a few camera samples in full resolution.

Colourful Android on ColorOS

The software bit on the Find 7 is based on Android 4.3, on which the company has layered its very own ColorOS user interface for added functions and usability. The first thing you would notice in the unconventional approach the user interface takes to offer access to all the important things right from the home screen itself. By default there are three home screens offered by Oppo but more can be added if need be. Out of the many innovations the brand has done, the widgets offer maximum functionality to the users. For instance, the camera widget also shows a live preview and allows users to capture images without bringing up the whole camera UI.

Oppo find 7  (15)Oppo find 7  (16)Oppo find 7  (2)

Unlike the Oppo N1, the Find 7 does not have a touch panel on the rear. However, you do get a dedicated gesture pane that drops down when you swipe downwards from the left side, while a swipe on the right side brings the notifications and quick settings panel.

Talking more about gestures support, some of these can work directly from standby mode and are definitely quite useful. For instance, you can simply draw the letter ‘O’ and it will open the camera or perform the action associated with the gesture. The device can wake up simply by tapping on the screen twice and saves the users from reaching out to the power key every time.

Oppo Find 742

Nevertheless, Oppo really needs to reconsider their choice of colours for the UI.. The display offered by the device is great but when a person looks at the display all they see are the pale colours, which in turn raises question on the quality of display.

Full-on performance and 4G ready as well

The Oppo Find 7 is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 801MSM8974AC chipset clocked at 2.5Ghz. Along with being the latest chip on the block, the Snapdragon 801 is also ready for 4G cellular networks and also supports Indian cellular frequencies, making it a part of those handful of smartphones that can support the latest4G networks, so rest assured, you are ready for the future. In addition to this, the device comes with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and NFC as standard connectivity options while for cellular connectivity, it comes in a single SIM variant only.

Oppo Find 750

However, if you are not just looking for future readiness, the Oppo Find 7 is also there for you by offering breakneck performance with its top-notch hardware. Along with the latest and the fastest mobile phone processor the device comes loaded with 3GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage, and if just in case you are thinking that 32GB is not enough, then you can also expand the storage to an additional 128GB using a microSD card as well.

Oppo Find 749

The hardware combo gives the Find 7 ample computing muscle to do full justice to HD games and offers flawless and buttery-smooth multitasking capabilities as well. We actually tried to choke the device by opening a number of applications and multitasking on it, but we failed to tire the Oppo Find 7. Therefore, if you are thinking of a smartphone that is fast enough for present times and will last without getting outdated, this is the one you should consider.

30 minutes to recharge the battery

Quick-charge is a feature that most Android smartphone makers are trying to incorporate in their devices wherein they can make the batteries reach a considerable charge percentage within a few minutes. Well, Oppo has tried to taking this literally to the next level by offering a whopping 70 percent battery charge within 30 minutes.

Oppo battery test06

This has been made possible with the use of VOOC or Voltage Open Loop Multi-Step Constant-Current Charging technology, which charges different cells in the battery individually, thereby facing less resistance and offering faster charge. The supplied charger literally sprints, making the battery attain a 75 percent charge and then gradually reduces the charging current when the charge level increases in order to protect the battery.

This absolutely justifies the gigantic charger with a sleek smartphone. In addition to offering lightning-quick battery recharge, the VOOC charging is also safe for the battery and does not harm its longevity in any form.

Oppo battery test11

In terms of the battery life offered, the device did manage to offer close to six hours and ten minutes of video playback in our battery drain test. Now do consider that the Find 7 offers twice the resolution of an ordinary smartphone and moreover, if used with the VOOC charges you can charge it back in about an hour.

To substantiate the claim we put the Oppo Find 7 head to head with another generic Android smartphone charging with the supplied charger and it came out with flying colours.

Verdict

The Oppo Find 7 is a brilliant piece of hardware that might offer relatively plain Jane looks, which is purely subjective, but there too the company and its designers have managed to offer utility. The Find 7 offers one of the fastest hardware combinations available for a smartphone at present and it’s evident with the top-notch, breakneck performance it shows in applications and games. The display is good, though the pale colours spoil the show, especially with the ColorOS user interface.

Oppo Find 739

As for a device, the Oppo Find 7 is one of the fastest ones on the block today, but not perfect to be honest. The UI takes away a large chunk of the fun due to its pale colour schemes and the 50-megapixel gimmick is really a worthless feature to have.

Oppo Find 706

Competing with devices like the Samsung Galaxy S5 (Review|FAQs) and the Apple iPhone 5S, Oppo certainly has some advantages in form of LTE support and powerful computing muscle. And to add to it the VOOC charging feature is just what most smartphone users need in their devices today. If you still have some doubts and queries about the Find 7, do check out the FAQs to find out answers for some more queries related to this device.

Price: 37,990

Editor’s rating: 8/10

Pros

2K resolution display

Powerful performance

VOOC charging technology

Cons

Dated Android version

Ultra HD shot is just a gimmick

 

 

Photos and video by Pratik Vyas