Review: The Oppo Find 7a is more than a handful

Earlier this year, Chinese smartphone brand Oppo made a splash in the Philippine market with its range of smartphones, which boasted premium builds at entry-level prices.

 

Here, we put the Oppo Find 7a—the company's flagship phone—through its paces. 

 

OPPO Find 7a specs

 

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Quad-core 2.3GHz

 

Memory: 16GB ROM (SDcard up to 128GB) + 2GB RAM

 

Camera: 13-Megapixel Rear + 5Megapixel Front

 

Size/Weight: 152.6x75x9.2mm/171g

 

OS: ColorOS, based on Android 4.3

 

Battery: 2800mAh

 

Features: LTE, VOOC Rapid Charge, Waves MaxxAudio Effect, Ultra HD, Super Zoom

 

Physical Design

 

The first thing you will notice about it is the size - it’s closer to a tablet than a phone. However, it’s far from bulky - on the contrary, it proved to be sleek and light once held. It has a slightly curved back so it won’t lie flat when you place it on a table.

 

 

It’s not a gadget you’d feel comfortable to put in your pocket but it’s easy to hold.

 

The lock button is located on the right side, volume buttons on the left, earphones jack at the top. On the bottom of the screen, there are three more buttons you can use to navigate: the Menu button, Home button and Back button - these don’t light up so it’s a guessing game every time.

 

Display and Performance

 

The interface is similar to that of Samsung’s. It’s easy to play around with the arrangement and design of things so it’s a load of fun personalizing it. 

 

It’s not only the layout that you can personalize - you can create your own ‘gestures’ too. These are lines or shapes or letters you can draw on the screen that will help you navigate the phone. If you set a heart shape as an order to open Facebook, then that’s what it will do. You won’t need to scroll around looking for the app - just draw a heart.

 

One of the things that amazed me when I was tinkering with Find 7a was that I was able to open as many applications that I wanted without it lagging. There was no loading time, no hesitation whatsoever - they just opened right up. 

 

The previous apps that you opened won’t close, too. In fact, some aspects from certain apps get carried over to the next app that you open. For example, when you’re chatting with someone through Facebook (given that you haven’t updated your Facebook and therefore weren’t forced to download Messenger) and you need to check your e-mail - you can close Facebook and open Mail, and your chat bubble will be there, following you in every application that you open.

 

Camera

 

The camera is probably the best feature that Find 7a has. You can literally lose hours playing around with it - I know that every friend I have that picked this phone up got stuck on the camera app and didn’t let go for a while. The quality is great, and it has fun features: GIF, Beautify, Panorama, HDR, Ultra-HDR, Slow Shutter...did I mention GIF? You can make a GIF with just a press of a button. 

 

The video is equally as amazing. It shoots in 720p, 1080p, and slow motion (it records at 120fps!). You can create a good-quality short film with just the Find 7a.

 

The night vision of the camera is definitely the best I’ve experienced in any phone. Obviously, the quality can never be applaudable, but it definitely makes the subject visible when it wouldn’t even be detected in other phones. 

 

Battery life

 

OPPO has the most advanced battery capacity that I’ve encountered. It only takes an hour to charge it fully and you can go two whole days (three, if you’re having a good week) playing games, chatting on Facebook, posting on Twitter and Instagram.

 

To take it a step further, OPPO designed it in a way that you can use Find 7a as a powerbank. With its fast charging capacity, this is a pretty big deal. Just charge it for 10 minutes, find the right cable, and you’re good to go.

 

Conclusion

 

OPPO Find 7a proved to be an innovative and progressive product, even if its apparently commonplace design is nothing to crow about. Its multitasking abilities are impressive, as well as its capacity for memory and battery. And with the recent rise of the phablets, Oppo will fit right in the playing ground.

 

The Find 7 (premium version) and Find 7a (standard version) are priced at Php 25,990 and Php 22,990, respectively. — TJD, GMA News