OPPO, the Chinese smartphone brand has crossed a year in India. With a series of smartphones already in their title, OPPO is one of the brands that are known for premium quality and high-end hardware. Though most of their smartphones are placed in the upper mainstream segment to high-end, OPPO has managed to keep the budget segment a little happy too. With the recent launch of the Neo 5, OPPO seems to have tried settling in between the rivals of Xiaomi, Motorola and Samsung. So how is the OPPO New 5 and is it worthy of a budget spend?
Well, those hunting for a budget smartphone can surely try their hands on the OPPO Neo 5. The device is pretty compact with a comfortable form factor—thanks to the 4.5-incher display. The phone also has a slim profile and weighs 135g, creating a perfect grip in your palm. The OPPO Neo 5 has been given an extremely glossy shell, causing the rear panel to be a fingerprint smudging nightmare. The display too has the same issue, and you would need to clean the device frequently and much often if you are outdoors. Fortunately, the display and rear panels ship with a factory-fitted scratch-resistant layer/plastic. However, the manufacturer has deliberately given the rear panel a mirrored finish for a cause.
The OPPO Neo 5 sports a very robust build quality. Rugged and firm, the device feels rock solid and not as flimsy as you see on other similar handsets in the category. With a neat, matte-finished metal trim sandwiched between the two black high glossy display and rear panel, the OPPO R5 gets a chic look too. The front panel does not sport any physical buttons, but includes the usual three-button capacitive touch controls for home, back and menu. The top sports the regular—camera, earpiece and sensors. The left and right sides are occupied with the volume rocker and power buttons, while the top and bottom sport the earphone and micro USB sockets, respectively. The rear panel highlights the main camera and alongside is a single LED flash and towards the bottom is a large speaker grill. Below the rear panel are three slots around the non-removable battery. These slots are for the micro SD card and two SIM slots, of which, one embraces a micro SIM and the other, a nano SIM.
Under the hood, the OPPO Neo 5 is powered by a MediaTek MT6582 processor, which contains an eight-core 1.3GHz processor and coupled with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage (expandable) and an 8MP rear camera. The display is a 4.5-incher with a resolution of 480x854 pixels. Fueling the device is a 2000 mAh battery and the operating system powering the Neo 5 is Color OS v2.0.1, OPPO’s home-brewed flavor of Android, based on KitKat.
As far as the product is concerned, it is not meant for a power user, but is a good option for those who need a smartphone for light everyday communication. Using chat and social apps and browsing the internet or watching casual videos and music playback is what the device can offer smoothly. Casual to moderate gaming can be done, but you won’t enjoy it as much, and you should not expect it either. As for multimedia such as audio and video, the handset can do great. No complaints here.
The Color OS brings you a unique blend of beauty and functionality. The operating system is OPPO’s own home-brewed custom aftermarket version of Google’s Android operating system, but themed and skinned with beauty. Live icons and animated features give the OPPO smartphones a unique identity, unlike the bland counterparts of that on the rivals. The Color OS operating is smooth and fluid and does not tend to slow down the phone.
Moving to the camera, the OPPO Neo 5 has an 8MP sensor, which is now a standard on almost all low-end budget smartphones. However, the trend is changing and most upcoming budget smartphones will not carry a 13MP camera as a standard. The camera on the Neo 5 is just about average. Taking shots in broad daylight is good enough, but low-light areas and dark environments are a bit of a disappointment. Images in low-light are filled with noise, especially when zoomed in. broad daylight images are fair. However, the contrast and brightness are not managed properly—shadowed areas are dark while brighter areas get overexposed. Photos captured apart from these are good enough and worthy for casual sharing and printing. Don’t expect too much on the photography level as the camera is just about average. We leave you with a few photos clicked from the Neo 5 below.
To round up the experience with the Neo 5, we did find the handset very comfortable to use and the user interface is something that you will definitely like. The eye-candy and fluid user interface make it fun to use, and the form factor of the Neo 5 is just about right and comfortable for all hands. Priced at Rs 9,999, we feel that the OPPO Neo 5 is a bit highly priced, especially with other similar handsets dominating the same price range. However, if you are looking for a rugged smartphone for casual daily usage, the Neo 5 is a great choice. If you are a power user and require more screen size, then you have other handsets from OPPO, which would please you.
