ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

IT'S RED. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?

Author
glennzb,
Publish Date
Tue, 7 Aug 2018, 5:53PM

IT'S RED. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?

Author
glennzb,
Publish Date
Tue, 7 Aug 2018, 5:53PM

At the beginning of the year, OPPO was one of the first cabs off the rank with its latest flagship device, the R11s.

 

It was a major progression for one of Asia's biggest phone brands, because while last year's phones took pretty great pics, especially selfies, the user experience left a little to be desired.

 

Well, it's only August and OPPO has taken another giant leap forward...

 

 

The R15s PRO is a thing of beauty - and not just because it comes in Ruby Red, although the way it catches the light is truly mesmerising. You can choose Cosmic Purple if that's more your style and to be frank, it looks pretty damn fine too.

 

Whereas previous OPPO's seemed to make a deliberate effort to imitate the latest iPhone, the R15s Pro finally seems to have its own personality and it truly is stunning to look at. The glass back and steel bezels all feel like pure luxury.

 

Given all this, it seems quaintly retro to find both a headphone jack and a microUSB charging port instead of the USB Type-C version pretty much every new release phone has moved to now. Apparently, OPPO's amazingly fast VOOC flash charger is only designed for microUSB, so probably worth it for the impressively quick top-up. In saying that, can't the VOOC designers just redesign it?

 

On the subject of headphone jacks, I'm pretty relaxed either way although I know some people think forcing customers to use bluetooth connected listening devices is some kind of crime against humanity, so having that hole there will be good news for them.

 

The other controversial issue for high-end phone users right now is the notch. This is where the massive 6.28 inch screen stretches past the camera and speaker at the top of the phone to make the most of the forward-facing real estate. It's great to have your notification banner up there out of the way... when you're using the phone in portrait mode. Turn the phone sideways and things get a bit screwy. Some notched phones figure out you're watching full screen content and blank out the notch bar accordingly - not so with the R15s Pro. That means if you're watching movies or TV, there'll literally be a notch out of the picture on one side. Hard to know if these issues are up to OPPO or the app developers to solve, I just hope someone does, because other than that, this phone is one of the best looking in town.

 

The launcher/home screen setup is still a bit of an iOS throwback - no app drawer, just pages of icons. This is always easily remedied with my favourite launcher, Nova. However, once you actually start using this device, prepare to be impressed with its speed and power. The specs compare extremely favourably with just about every other phone on the market. A more than healthy 2.2GHz octa core processor, a whopping 6GB of RAM and 128GB is plenty of storage.

 

While I had run into a few stuttering issues on previous models, I experienced none of that this time round. Apps opened quickly and ran reliably - especially when I figured out how to ignore battery optimisation settings for the ones I wanted to keep running in the background.

 

The R15s Pro introduces a new range of gesture controls, a combination of swipes from different places on the screen instead of the more traditional home and go back buttons. While quite different to other phones, these didn't take long to get used to and I actually found them pretty intuitive. The operating system, ColorOS 5.0, is a major upgrade and a real breath of fresh air, although I was often disappointed to find the app I was using didn't support split-screen use - perhaps another opportunity for OPPO and developers to sit down and improve the functionality.

 

In short, the R15s Pro is the first OPPO that hasn't made me feel like I'm using a phone developed for a completely different market that's forcing itself to fit with New Zealand conditions.

 

What I've never had an issue with is OPPO's photographic functionality. OPPO has consistently impressed me with its forward facing cameras and it was using an OPPO when I first discovered I could take a self portrait that wasn't totally hideous. the R15s Pro steps things up yet again, with lots of AI doing some hard work behind the scenes to produce extremely clear and vivid shots from both front and rear (dual lens) cameras, even in poor light.

 

 

I mean, tell me that's not the best picture of beans you've ever seen.

 

The 20MP selfie-cam introduces a new level of 3D facial recognition, which not only enables a damn fast face unlock feature, but also means you can do those silly live AR stickers if that's your jam. More importantly, you can now shoot selfies in HDR which makes bad light much less of an issue.

 

Perhaps the camera configuration on the R15s Pro isn't technically the best around, but for a pictorial numbskull like me, it's certainly the best available for the price.

 

At $899, it's far from the cheapest OPPO ever released, but that's probably because there's absolutely nothing cheap about it. The feel, the user experience, the power and the cameras, all genuinely first class.

 

Oh, and did I mention you can get it in red? Oh boy.

 

As for the photos, just look at the beans and get back to me.

 

 

 

Click here for more information on the OPPO R15s Pro

 

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you