Between Samsung Galaxy S III and OPPO Find 5 (pretty much detail about the latter)

Choosing a new gadget, we, logically, want it to be better and more interesting than the old one. For some, it is important that the device matches tendencies, someone needs a large number of cores and a more powerful graphic component, someone relies on the camera, including me. And we are all in search of the very One! I almost found it - it turned out to be OPPO Find 5, however, in some ways my Samsung Galaxy S III turned out to be better, so I delayed the purchase. Yet Find 5 subdued me. Want to know what?

Selection criteria or how girls choose

I belong to that small category of people who are not keen to buy all the latest in the mobile market. What’s important to me is that the gadget meets all my needs, namely:
1) It was pretty (I’m a girl =))
2) Served me faithfully for as long as possible
3) I was smart
4) I had a large screen (I personally can’t imagine how it can be convenient to type text on a 4.3-inch screen)
5) Loud speaker (very important in a noisy city, especially in Moscow)
6) An entertaining interface (device chips, a bunch of settings, an interactive shell)
7) The most important thing is the camera! (I have repeatedly said in reviews that I like to photograph everything around, especially since it is sometimes easier to take a smartphone with you than a huge bandura under half a kilo or more)

And now my Samsung Galaxy S III is ideally suited to all criteria. However, we all know that modern smartphones do not last long (no, if you are just calling on the device or it was released some far back in 2008, then I’m sure you have it more alive than all the living!) And there’s no getting away from the new purchase . So a year later, I began to think about what would be great (although not necessary) to buy a new smartphone, but since there isn’t much need for it, these thoughts remained thoughts until I got acquainted with the OPPO brand and its the flagship Find 5. Moreover, the manufacturer claims that the device is no worse than the modern flagship SGS4, HTC One and Sony Xperia Z. Why OPPO, not Samsung, HTC or Sony? Or maybe Nokia? And now there will be a typically female answer - because! The answer is: there are a lot of not-so-flattering reviews from journalists about SGS3, well versed in gadgets; I never liked HTS and that's it; Nokia is a closed OS (in fact, like the iPhone), and Sony Xperia Z does not produce very high-quality cards, and its design is rude, somehow it didn’t hook. But OPPO's appearance does not seem to be banal, not glossy plastic, but a matte soft touch, there is a white color and in general it is beautiful! He also has an unlock screen with a cute cat (but more on that below).

Therefore, OPPO. I wanted it! But before running to the store, succumbing to emotions, I decided to take advantage of the privilege of a reviewer and take the coveted device for a test to weigh all the pros and cons. Yes, you say what to weigh - I went and bought it, if I want and like it. But I have to go with this device for a long time! And I do not want to buy a gadget, which I then get tired of after 2 months. In general, they somehow instilled in me that everything should be approached wisely and not be exchanged for trifles. Oh, it’s not in the steppe, let's talk about a smartphone ...

Appearance and equipment

The box at OPPO Find 5 is made in black. Cover on the magnet. Inside we see a bath for a smartphone, and underneath it is standard equipment - headphones, a microUSB cable, a charger, a key for removing a micro-SIM slot and documentation.



As I said, I like OPPO Find 5 outwardly.
It has a monolithic body, pleasant to the touch. The entire front side is occupied by a screen (Gorilla Glass 2) with a small white plastic strip at the bottom.

The back side is equipped with a 13 megapixel camera, dual flash, microphone (for noise reduction), a speaker and the word OPPO.


Compared with SGS3, it certainly looks more stylish (oh, and I do not like this word, but it fits here very well!). They are almost identical in size, but Samsung seems thicker.



The edges of Find 5 are pointed, those of SGS3 are rounded.


You can look at the off screen, like in a mirror, on both smartphones :) Oh, don’t say that you’ve never done it like that — didn’t look smart like a mirror?


On top of the front panel is a 2MP camera, proximity and light sensors.


Below are the control keys placed under the screen. They do not burn very brightly, they respond very easily to touch, which causes some inconvenience when typing - they are located close to the screen and the frames around the screen themselves are so small that it is very easy to make a couple of extra taps.


On the right "side" are the volume keys. Feel easy.

On the left is the power key and micro-SIM compartment

Here is a strange arrangement of keys, usually the power button on the right, and the volume keys on the left.

At the bottom there is a microUSB port and a microphone, at the top there is a 3.5 mm headphone input

Screen

Now the Full HD screen does not surprise the sophisticated gadgetman, however, not many smartphones can boast a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. Is that the flagships. But quite recently (in November 2012) the first smartphone in Russia with a Full HD screen - Sharp Aquos Phone 930 was introduced, remember this? He still did not have normal optimization, and few games were adapted for Full HD. Now, high-resolution smartphones not only work smartly, they can also work on a single battery day! What progress has come to! =)

I like the screen - juicy, bright, and not so acidic (I've never noticed before, to be honest), like my SGS3 - the difference is felt after three days of using Find 5.
Yes, even if you put them side by side and put one picture on the screen, then the difference is felt. But I can’t completely determine whether I like AMOLED or IPS more


. Viewing angles are good. Brightness only now I would like more. And the ability to adjust the brightness from the quick settings panel.

Gorilla (which Glass) protects the display from scratches and attacks of keys, combs, scissors and other monsters of a handbag. But, I think, over time, the defense will be slightly broken. I judge by my SGS3, whose gorilla is "older", but which has passed the defense a little after a month of use.

10 touches, voila!

Shell

I can safely call one of the OPPO Find 5 features its original shell - this is not bare Android, but very beautiful, I would even say an “interactive” cover. You can easily find an overview of this shell on the Internet, for example, here keddr.com/2013/08/color-rom-luchshaya-storona-oppo-find-5 But I would like to dwell on what caught me and what, I think it will be interesting to users.

A lot of themes .
Oh, well, any android has it, the skeptic will say. Anyone, I agree. Yes, but just once in a year I did not think to update the theme of the design of my phone. Although no, I’m lying, I thought about it, went to the Play Market, introduced the “Theme of Design” and it hung - well, somehow not really, to be honest. About nothing. Maybe I'm looking badly? But here’s the whole thing, what you need to look for, somehow write correctly, somewhere to read about it ... But in Find 5, everything is simple - there is a special shortcut, click on it and, voila, three sections - wallpapers, themes and lock screen.


Everything is clear, with screenshots. Everything is beautiful and bright. Well, straight soul rejoices. Actually, what did I do, how did I get to the Find 5 test? That's right, I set myself a new theme and a lock screen with a cute kote =)
Labels, by the way, also change depending on the theme. Straight and not find out some!




Cats are my passion, and here such a cute cat sways from side to side, flies on a rocket, eats jam and stomps on a soft pillow. And when you need to unlock the screen, you need to draw along the path and the cat will leave on a scooter. Well, just mimimi!




Pop-up SMS Messages
Perhaps (yes, I'm almost sure) this feature is often found on smartphones, but for me it was a revelation. For example, you’re sitting on Twitter, you receive a message and it is displayed in a small window right in the middle of the screen, while the application in which you are sitting does not go into the background and does not close. And you can read the whole message and even reply to it. Or just close this window and continue to do what you did before - read twitter or watch a movie.

It seems to me that this option is very convenient, since you do not need to exit the application, make unnecessary movements to open the message window and read the entire text. In my SGS3, messages arrive and appear in the notification curtain. To read completely, you need to open the curtain, poke on the message, the message will open in the standard message window. And then read it right away.

The rest of the message menu is standard, it only looks, of course, more beautiful.


Gestures
Not many smartphones can boast of these “gesture” functions.


Instant photo
A widget on your desktop in the form of a polaroid card, clicking on which you will launch the camera and you can immediately take a photo that appears below the card, framed by a frame. You can create a whole chronology of photos and immediately send these photos with captions to friends.

Not to say it’s necessary, but it seems to me funny.

Feedback directly on the phone
. OPPO Find 5 has a built-in “Feedback” application, which allows you to send questions directly to a technical support specialist via the Internet. And do not call.


Ability to save data to the “cloud”
An account is created that allows you to save your data — photos, music, text documents, etc. — to network storage.

Standard applications

There are not many pre-installed applications - almost all from Google, but there is also Facebook, Kingsoft Office, NearMeCloud (an application that allows you to drop data from your phone into the "cloud" and store it there). Otherwise, everything is standard, although it is beautifully drawn. Therefore, I just attach screenshots.






The settings are quite extensive, divided into three sections "General", "Audio" and "Screen".



In the notification curtain, by the way, information is displayed on how much traffic you have pumped. In SGS3 this is not, and in other Android smartphones I have not seen this yet. By the way, the quick settings bar can also be customized.


The video player plays without a problem files larger than 2 GB. At least, I watched the illusion of deception in HD-quality without any problems. But I am not a special supporter of watching films on such small diagonals. If you watch a movie, then on a big screen, or better, in a movie theater. But this is my opinion.

Performance

OPPO Find 5 is running a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with a frequency of 1.5 GHz, Adreno 320 is responsible for the graphics, and 2 GB of RAM. All this should ensure the smoothness and stability of the device. In principle, the way it is. There were no crashes or freezes. In general, to a simple layman this device will seem nimble and fast :) But for those who like numbers, I
’ve attached the test results: Antutu - 20 974
Quadrant - 7570
Vellamo - 1,743


As for games. I'm not a gamer, so I somehow do not really need a powerful machine that supports 3D games. The maximum that I play is Subway Surfers. She is on OPPO Find 5 goes with a bang =)

Bateria

Here is a 2500 mAh battery. Taught by the bitter experience of communicating with a smartphone with a Full HD screen (Sharp 930), which discharged after 5 hours of intensive work, I was a little skeptical about a battery that is 400mAh more than my SGS3 battery ...

So, what we have: social network nerd (that is, me ), constantly checking Twitter, VK, Facebook, taking photos for Instagram, checking mail and talking on the phone for about an hour a day. Internet always works. Plus a couple of SMS.
I took off the charge in the morning (at 10 o’clock) and at one in the morning the apparatus squeaked and was cut off from the loss of the last drop of energy. But here it should be borne in mind that I worked for half a day and practically did not use the phone (Wi-Fi worked and there were several incoming calls)
The graphics of battery consumption are here, by the way, no. But you can see what the battery is spent on.

That is, with my standard load on the smartphone, it will live a little less than a day. In principle, the Samsung Galaxy S III lives the same, although here you can attribute the already accumulated battery.

In general, I was pleased with the autonomy of the work. Of course, I want the smartphone to work as fast as possible, and I hope that such devices will soon appear, moreover, not thick ones, such as Highscreen Boost, but quite thin and light.

Sound

The phone must be loud! Otherwise, why do you need a phone? :)

The Find 5 speaker, like most phones, is located on the back of the device. When you put the phone on the table, the sound is muffled a little.

I can’t say that I’m such a super connoisseur of high-quality music, in general, I don’t understand whether the music from the speakers sounds high-quality or not. Well that sounds. Well, I like it. No hissing, hoarseness of the speakers did not notice. So everything is buzzing? The speaker, by the way, is loud (although this is not the Nokia N95, which you will hear in the next apartment). Through the headphones (naturally, third-party), the sound is going well. There is even a special setting - “Play sound through the speaker” and “Play sound through the headphones”.




For audiophiles, there are Dolby Effect and Dirac Effect settings. I do not belong to this category of people, so I can’t say anything.

Camera

And here he is, a stumbling block! That's all I like about OPPO Find 5 except the camera.
No, it’s not terrible, but even nothing at all, but worse than SGS3. The frames are slightly blurry, in poor good lighting they are slightly “noisy”. Quite a bit. Someone will say that I find fault, perhaps this is the way it is. But I don’t like how OPPO takes a picture compared to Samsung and that's it! The only macro shot, I admit, is on top of it!

Camera settings, by the way, are not very many. I would say even a little. It is necessary to install something third-party. Of the basic ones, I liked the “Beautiful Face” effect - it removes all acne, bumps and even freckles: D However, a detailed and close examination reveals the so-called “tonal layer”, which covers all the flaws.
Setting the main camera:


Front camera setup:



At first, she wanted to demonstrate the effect of “Beautiful Face” on herself, but then she met her friend, who has many, many freckles. So this effect and freckles even removes! True, the face seems a little unnatural.


But someone turns out to make pretty good photos:

Other features

What else would I like to talk about the device?
It does not have a microSD card slot . And this means that you cannot expand the memory. Therefore, you immediately need to buy an apparatus with 32 GB of internal memory.

With a long load, usually during games, OPPO Find 5 heats up . Not much, of course, but heats up. I, in principle, do not care. In winter it’s even good - you can warm your frozen nose. By the way, from connecting to a computer, it also heats up.

When you connect your smartphone to a computer, you will see a notification prompting you to choose one of the three modes “Charging Only”, “Drive” (then your phone will be visible on your computer as a removable dix) and “Multimedia Mode”. I don’t know if the “Only charge” function is needed? How do you think? It seems to me that this is already superfluous.


Immediately from the Gallery you can switch to photographing mode - at the bottom there is a corresponding line. A trifle, but nice.


For OPPO Find 5, new firmware periodically comes out, which are developed jointly with users. So, the latest version (albeit still a beta version) of the firmware called Color ROM modifies the appearance of the phone. Actually, it is in this shell that contains the main bunch of chips that I described above. Firmware can be downloaded on the official OPPO website. It’s not difficult to install. I did it.


Swipe is not a priori. It will be difficult for those who switch from Samsung to get used to. Or search and install svayp (this procedure was not given to me).

Ah, micro-SIM is inserted here. And it is inserted in a cunning way - with the help of a special key, a bath is pulled out for a SIM card. If you lose the key, then an ordinary paper clip will do, IMHO.

Almost a hero, but not mine

OPPO Find 5 is the first smartphone after, in fact, the Samsung Galaxy S III, which I wanted to buy for myself. He has almost everything perfectly - design, shell, autonomy, speed of work. But there is one thing I can’t put up with, well, no way - the camera. Well, something scares me in her. Perhaps the point here is the same color rendition of the screen, maybe my inner voice says to me: “Wait a bit, your dream smartphone with excellent optics will come out soon!”. I do not know. But for now, I decided to postpone the purchase. Moreover, there is no special need for it. But if it was, then, maybe, I did not wander and would buy it? And maybe it’s the price? It costs OPPO Find 5 for 16 GB - 19,990 rubles / $ 605 (for 32 GB - 21,990 rubles / $ 666). According to its characteristics, it is, in principle, close to the flagships of HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S IV and Sony Xperia Z, which cost 5-6 thousand more. But still, a company that is virtually unknown in the market could make the price even lower. Although, if you look at their prices in China, the difference between our and their prices is small ...

In general, I’ll wait for the weather near the sea when OPPO launches a new smartphone with a better camera (and they say it’s really some kind of cool camera) or when something attacks me, let me go and buy this Find 5. A while I'm sitting with the Samsung Galaxy S III and it seems not bad :)

To summarize:

Pros:
design
original shell (not bare Android, upy!)
Full HD screen
loud speaker

Cons:
camera
lack of a memory card slot
narrow edges around the screen and too close keys to the screen due to which extra presses often occur

PS If something I forgot to mention - write in the comments, the device is still on hand, so I can supplement the review :) Although, it seems to me, there are so many books :)