Oppo introduced two new metal-clad smartphones in the Indian market today — the R7 Lite and the R7 Plus. Both the devices are priced higher than what we're used to, from other Chinese brands, but if you consider phones that sell offline, in retail stores, the phone competes directly with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy A7, Sony Xperia C4 etc. that are priced in the same range, and have the same specs. The phones are beautifully designed, and on first impressions, seem well equipped to handle more or less all tasks a customer might use the phone for. But that's not all, let’s take a closer look, as we give you our first impressions of the Oppo R7 Lite and the Oppo R7 Plus.
Before we start, here is a quick look at the spec sheet:
| Oppo R7 Plus | Oppo R7 Lite | |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 |
| CPU | 1.5GHz octa-core | 1.3GHz octa-core |
| RAM | 3GB | 2GB |
| Storage | 32GB | 16GB |
| microSD support | Yes | Yes |
| Display | 6-inch | 5-inch |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080p | 1280 x 720p |
| Rear camera | 13MP | 13MP |
| Front camera | 8MP | 8MP |
| Battery | 4100mAh | 2320mAh |
| Thinness | 7.75mm | 6.3mm |
| Price | Rs. 29,990 | Rs. 17,990 |
Let’s start with the similarities first. Both Oppo R7 phones feature a rigid and good looking metal construction. The metal unibody design has a really good feel and are reminiscent of the HTC One M9 Plus. The metal body construction does mean that the batteries are sealed in, but on a positive note, they do support fast charging. While the Oppo R7 Lite uses Qualcomm’s built-in fast charging technology, the bigger R7 Plus offers Oppo’s proprietary VOOC charging technology on top of Qualcomm’s fast charging, says Oppo. Oppo is claiming that the VOOC tech can charge the Oppo R7 Plus, which has a 4,100mAh battery from zero to 50% in just 30 minutes. Now that needs to be tested but at the moment, we will take Oppo’s word for it.
Both phones are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615 SoC. In the short time we spent with the devices, the UI and overall navigation felt quite smooth. Oppo claims they have improved the UI (Color OS 2.1) and have made it faster, but we won’t comment on that before testing the phones extensively.
Coming to the camera, both phones have a 13MP camera, which was fast enough on both phones, even in low light conditions. The R7 Lite have features like hybrid focus and contrast detection autofocus, which are quite new to the segment and from our initial impressions seem promising.
Oppo R7 Plus and Oppo R7 Lite
Moving on to the differences. There are two main differences between the phones, besides the price and obvious distinction of battery size. The R7 Lite is a small one-handed device with a 5-inch display which boasts a 720p resolution. From an initial impression, display felt quite accurate. Adding to this, the thin profile, the phone seemed like a more polished version of the Samsung Galaxy A7. The Oppo R7 Plus on the other hand is a big phone, a 6-incher at that. The display is a 1080p Super AMOLED panel, which is quite bright and has very good contrast. Even though the phone holds a large display and would require two hands to hold, it is not as big as the Nexus 6. The thin bezels and the on-screen buttons have helped Oppo to ensure a smaller footprint. Displays on both phones offer a 2.5D curved glass upping the look of the phone.
The other main difference between the two phones is the fingerprint scanner. This feature is now trickling down the price tree and is now being widely adopted by phones in the mid range segment. We couldn’t fiddle with the fingerprint scanner at the event, but we are looking forward to using it extensively as and when we get the device for review.
The Oppo R7 Lite is priced at Rs. 17,990 and will be available from 10th September across India. The Oppo R7 Plus is Priced at Rs. 29,990 and will be available from 25th September across India.