Introduction
The formula for the smartphone to top all others is the industry's
elusive philosopher stone. Being complete newbies, but keen as a bean,
Oppo's take is perhaps the weirdest. Yet it seems to work.
The standard ingredients include the latest chipset, a robust screen,
and a high-megapixel camera. But why not try something crazy like a
rotating camera that can do the best selfies in the industry? That
seemed to be last year's brief. This year the module is motorized and
can rotate all by itself. The camera has also seen a substantial
upgrade.
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| Oppo N3 official photos |
Last year's Oppo N1 had a rotating 13MP camera, a 5.9" 1080p display
and a CyanogenMod ROM, as an alternative to Oppo's very own Color OS.
This year the camera is 16MP, the sensor and pixel size have gotten
bigger but that's about it as far as bigger goes. The phone is tangibly more compact, which has a simple explanation: a slightly smaller 5.5" 1080p IPS display.
There's no CM this time but Color OS is in at version 2.0 bringing
Android KitKat and this time there is no longer an app drawer.
Among the other things that make the N3 a better phone is a new
chipset (Snapdragon 801 over the S600 of old) and a fingerprint scanner
on the back where the O-Touch pad used to be.
Key features
- Optional Dual-SIM (micro SIM resides in microSD card slot)
- 5.5" IPS LCD display of 1080 x 1920px resolution, around 403ppi
- Android 4.4.4 KitKat with Color OS 2.0 on top
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset, quad-core 2.2GHz Krait 400 processor, Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM
- Motorized 206-degree rotating lens, 16MP 1/2.3" sensor, Schneider Kreuznach certified, 1.34µm pixel size, dual LED flash
- 1080p video recording at 30fps and 60fps, 720p slow motion video at 120fps
- Fingerprint sensor doubling as a trackpad and button
- O-Click Bluetooth remote comes in the bundle, can control the camera and locate the device
- 32GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot
- Cat. 4 LTE (150/50Mbps); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.0; GPS/GLONASS; microUSB, USB On-The-Go
- 3,000mAh battery with Oppo's proprietary VOOC rapid charging tech (75% battery in 30min)
Main disadvantages
- No 4K video recording yet
- Comparably large and heavy for the screen size
- QHD resolution would have been nice
- No FM radio or IR blaster (we're nitpicking because of the high asking price)
- Hard to get in brick-and-mortar stores outside of Asia
What was good about the Oppo N1 is even better here - the body is
still a lovely blend of high-quality matte plastic and aluminum. The
frame that runs around the phone breaks for a bit toward the bottom
where a notification LED forms what Oppo likes to call Skyline
Notification 2.0.
Oppo did well with the successor, building on the strengths of the
N1, and ditching some of the things that were a little over the top (the
huge footprint and 5.9" aren't everyone). Can Oppo finally step out of
Asia with a global winner?
Well, for one, the N3 is yet to be available on the shelves of
walk-in stores around the world. You do get shipping to most locations
outside Asia and an international warranty to go along. But most people
don't feel comfortable buying their phone from outside the country, let
alone across continents.
Then there's the issue of carrier subsidies - many people get their
phones on multi-year deals from their carriers without worrying about
pricey upfront obligations - this isn't an option with the Oppo N3.
Another thing to note is the asking price of $649, which sure looks
steep. Most of the points above are valid for pretty much every
smartphone to come out of China these days - few of which can match
Oppo's vision and creativity.
In and of itself, the Oppo N3 is a great smartphone with a quirky but
potent-looking camera propped on its forehead. As a successor, it's all
an Oppo N1 user can ask for - the screen is smaller but we think it
suits the device better, the chipset has seen a big improvement, and the
camera (the focal point of the package) has improved the most.
OK, the N3 has our full attention. Off to unboxing and a hardware checkup after the break.
Ample retail box
Oppo, as usual, offers a generous retail package for its flagship
smartphone. We're treated to their latest quick charger - the VOOC mini
rapid charger. It's got a 5A A/C adapter that's said to charge the N3
up to 75% in just 30 minutes.
Next up is a fine pair of headphones with brushed metal accents, a
set of various earbuds, a SIM ejector tool, a microUSB cable and the
O-Click Bluetooth remote 2.0.
The O-Click remote works just like it did with the N1, pairing with
the phone via Bluetooth. You can make the phone ring the remote or the
remote ring the phone.
The O-click easily fits on a keychain, so you'll no longer scramble
for misplaced keys. It works the other way around too - finding a
misplaced phone.
The remote can be set to start beeping if you walk out of connection
range to make sure you don't leave without your phone. The O-click will
also flash upon incoming calls or messages if you have the phone on
silent and it can also double as a camera shutter remote. This time
around, it can also control the rotating module.
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| The Oppo N3 retail box contents |
The Oppo N3 is a hefty device by any measure. At 161.2mm tall, 77mm
wide and 9.9mm thick, it's a tad thicker than its predecessor but a
little lighter - still a hefty 192g.
It's looks immense compared to a 5.5" LG G3 (146.3 x 74.6 x 8.9 mm,
149 g) and it can even give the 5.7" Samsung Galaxy Note 4 a run for its
phablet money (153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5 mm, 176 g).
The 5.5" Apple iPhone 6 Plus (158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1 mm, 172 g) is
shorter and thinner and even the 6" Motorola Nexus 6 (159.3 x 83 x 10.1
mm, 184 g) is shorter and lighter.
Design and build quality
The Oppo N3's body is a mixture of polycarbonate and metal - what
Oppo calls industrial-grade aluminum alloy 7075 micro-arc frame.
The design of the N3 follows the one of its predecessor, a tall
forehead above the screen, housing the rotating camera, and a subtle
chin accommodating the controls. The corners of the N3 are ever so
slightly rounded but the phone still feels sharp and solid in the hand.
The aluminum frame feels a little cold to the touch, especially if
you haven't been holding the device in your hands for a while. The matte
surface on the sides provides enough grip.
The front houses the 5.5" 1920 x 1080px IPS LCD of around 403ppi.
Above it is the most interesting part of the Oppo N3 - the motorized
lens. On the front it houses the earpiece and the proximity sensor.
Under the display sit three capacitive buttons for menu, back and
home. The keys are hard to spot against the black panel unless backlit.
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| The Oppo N3 front and the motorized lens |
The bottom of the Oppo N3 forms a subtle chin, which gets lit up by
the N3's notification LED, forming what Oppo calls Skyline Notification
2.0.
The chin is part of the aluminum frame, which runs all around the
device. At its bottom, are the main microphone along with a
micro-grilled loudspeaker.
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| The bottom arc • Skyline notification |
The back is a matte polycarbonate surface with a metal Oppo logo near
the top and a fingerprint scanner directly under it, which Oppo calls
Touch Access. The software can handle up to five fingerprints and
scanning doesn't involve swipes - just place your finger on it and
you're good to go.
It acts as a button and trackpad as well - you can press it up or
down and you can also control the camera and scroll through webpages
with it, similarly to the O-Touch area on the back of last year's N1.
The second, noise-reducing microphone is directly below the motorized
lens. The lens itself is housed in a premium plastic body with a faux
leather finish.
The lens itself is slightly elevated on a metal plate of its own.
Etched inside are two round elements - the dual LED flash and the 16MP
camera lens itself. The optics are Schneider Kreuznach certified.
The lens can be moved 206 degrees with a finger but can also be moved
via the touchscreen while in the camera app and also with the O-Click
Bluetooth remote.
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| The Oppo N3 back |
The right side of the Oppo N3 has the 3.5mm headphone jack located high
on the side. Under it is a volume rocker with pleasing press feedback.
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| The Oppo N3 right side |
The power button is on the left - we found it very responsive although we needed some time to adjust to its location.
At the bottom left sits the microUSB 2.0 port.
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| The Oppo N3 top |
The Oppo N3 is big and extra solid, the construction looks and feels
premium. If Oppo had settled for a non-rotating camera lens, the phone's
top and bottom bezels could have obviously been a lot smaller. Truth be
told, the Oppo N3 is too big for a 5.5" device - but it has a better
reason than most. The sturdy aluminum frame feels extra sharp and
precise, too.
Display
The 5.5" 1080p IPS LCD of the Oppo N3 is quite punchy. Colors pop out and viewing angles are splendid. At little over 400ppi, the screen is very sharp and even the tiniest of text is comfortably readable.
We ran our in-depth screen test on the Oppo N3 and it proved an adequate
performer. However the new 5.5" panel has seen a slight decrease in
quality over its predecessor - blacks aren't as dark and the contrast is
a little lower. Still, the numbers show a very good brightness level
and an adequate contrast ratio.
atio.
| Display test | 50% brightness | 100% brightness | ||||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | |||
| 0.31 | 290 | 931 | 0.59 | 551 | 937 | |
| 0.25 | 285 | 1118 | 0.47 | 553 | 1164 | |
| 0.33 | 280 | 842 | 0.68 | 580 | 852 | |
| 0.22 | 248 | 1135 | 0.4 | 448 | 1123 | |
| 0 | 291 | ∞ | 0 | 399 | ∞ | |
| - | - | - | 0.63 | 594 | 947 | |
| 0.14 | 109 | 763 | 0.72 | 570 | 789 | |
| 0.17 | 208 | 1197 | 0.52 | 705 | 1361 | |
| 0.39 | 317 | 805 | 0.75 | 598 | 799 | |
Outdoor visibility is quite good on the Oppo N3. It's not the best around but it is much better than some of its peers like the Oppo Find 7 or the OnePlus One.
Battery life test
The Oppo N3 comes with an ample 3,000mAh battery. The capacity sounds promising but the battery sadly underdelivers.Our proprietary battery life test resulted in an endurance rating of 64 hours of mixed use - that's how long you can expect the phone to last on a single charge if you do an hour each of calling, surfing the web and watching video a day.
The Oppo N3 managed a good call time of a little over 14 hours and acceptable browsing and video playback times. It was the 240-hour stand-by that brought the scores down. Don't get us wrong, 64 hours isn't a bad score, it's just not up to par with the class-leading rivals, most of which are phablets anyway.
Connectivity
The Oppo N3 offers quad-band GSM (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900),
penta-band 3G (850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100) and septa-band LTE (700 /
800 / 900 / 1700 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 ) including TD-LTE 2300MHz.
The phone has dual-SIM support right out of the box. The main SIM
slot houses a nano SIM card, while the second compartment is shared by a
micro SIM and microSD card - you can't have both at the same time.
Local connectivity is covered by dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac with
DLNA, so you can easily play media (photos, videos, music) from
DLNA-enabled storage devices or push content from your phone to a
DLNA-compatible TV or music player. There's display sharing over Wi-Fi
as well.
Bluetooth 4.0 is also on board with A2DP, EDR. GPS and GLONASS support is enabled.
There's no FM Radio on board, nor an IR port. NFC and USB On-The-Go are available.
Color OS 2.0 on top of Android KitKat
Oppo N3 runs on Oppo's proprietary Color OS v2.0, which is another
name for a heavily skinned Android 4.4 KitKat. The Oppo's launcher
customizations run very deep, they keep all Google apps and services,
and even bring quite a few of its own - themes support, new lockscreen,
homescreen, and settings menu among others.
If you are not into custom UIs, there is a preinstalled theme called
Jelly Bean, which replicates the stock Android Jelly Bean UI for you as
close as possible.
Here's a quick Color OS rundown on video to get you started:
The Color OS default lockscreen uses swipe gesture for unlocking. It
also has shortcuts for the Phone and Messaging apps. Double tap to wake
works on the homescreen, but not on the capacitive keys.
Oppo N3 features a fingerprint scanner on its back, so your can
protect you lockscreen by a fingerprint-recognition security. Naturally,
you'll have to setup a password in case you can't unlock it with your
finger for some reason. The fingerprint sensor over the back doubles as a
wake up key, when this type of security is up.
The fingerprint security can also be used for encrypting apps - you'll need your finger to open any encrypted apps.
The lockscreen also has a hidden flashlight shortcut - a press and
hold of the Home button (the screen needs to be awake) turns on the LED
flash on the back of the device. It turns off when you let go of the
Home button.
The Oppo N3 doesn't have an app drawer, so all of your app shortcuts
are available on the homescreen. And the apps above the dock are
organized in a grid of 4x5.
Widgets are available as well, though there are hardly as many as some other Android smartphones offer these days.
Naturally, folders are available, so you ca group your apps the way you like.
Exclusive space is Oppo's custom homescreen page. Currently, there
are only two available - Photo and Music spaces. Photo space takes up a
whole homescreen and features a live viewfinder so you can take shots
straight from your homescreen plus a shortcut to the full camera app.
Below you get a timeline with all your recent photos and you can share
them very easily.
The second Exclusive space homescreen pane is the Music space. It
features a cool, if slightly unintuitive design with a vinyl for
changing the currently playing song and stopping/resuming playback. You
can change songs, or go directly to the music player or the Phone app
from here.
Oppo's Color OS supports themes, one of which changes the appearance and
functionality of Color OS to match that of stock Android. There are
plenty of awesome themes available for free in the Oppo's Theme Store.
By default the notification area will show one row of quick toggles, a
brightness slider and a shortcut for enabling auto brightness mode, the
current notifications plus a shortcut to go into settings. If you do a
drag gesture from the quick toggles row you get two more lines of
toggles. There's also a Kill all apps button there.
A long press on a toggle will bring up its respective settings entry. By the way, you can access the notification area even if you slide down from any empty part of the homescreen (not just the top), which helps a lot with the single-handed use on a big screen smartphone like this one.
The task switcher is pretty close to the one found in Apple's iOS. All your apps are shown in a horizontally-scrollable grid of thumbnails, which you swipe either up to close or tap to open. Oppo has added a Kill All toggle at the bottom.
A long press on a toggle will bring up its respective settings entry. By the way, you can access the notification area even if you slide down from any empty part of the homescreen (not just the top), which helps a lot with the single-handed use on a big screen smartphone like this one.
The task switcher is pretty close to the one found in Apple's iOS. All your apps are shown in a horizontally-scrollable grid of thumbnails, which you swipe either up to close or tap to open. Oppo has added a Kill All toggle at the bottom.
Then there's the Gesture panel. You access it just like you would open
your notification area, but you need to start your swipe from the bottom
of the screen. You can perform various gestures in the Gesture panel to
open different apps. For instance drawing a circle would open the
camera app but you can assign any apps to any gestures you want.
The Gesture & motion menu deserves our attention as well. It
holds all the gestures and motion tricks that make your life with the N3
easier. For one, you can swipe with three fingers across the screen to
capture a screenshot or pinch with several fingers to launch the camera
and more.
The Motion options are very useful, too - flipping the device will mute the ringer, raising the ringing Oppo N3 to your ear will automatically answer the call and more. The Motion menu also offers Air Gestures on the homescreen - you can swipe through the panes by waving your hand over the display.
One hand mode is available too, activated by an upward swipe from the bottom left or right corner. When done, this will minimize the UI into a more compact window, making it possible to use and operate the handset with just one hand.
Overall, Color OS strives to be more feature rich than stock Android and has been customized quite deeply. It is still Android though, so users who are familiar with the OS won't have trouble knowing their way around Color OS. In fact most of Oppo's additions are quite welcome and improve the overall user experience.
The default view is a grid of folders, with a name and number of images for each folder labeled underneath. You can't filter images by location, time, people or tags like you would in the stock app. Images inside folders are arranged on a rectangular grid and you have two options - image selection mode and start a slideshow. You can select multiple images (folders too) and then Share and Delete options become available.
The interface for video selection is pretty basic too - a list of all available files. While watching a video you get a timeline scrubber, play/pause along with forward/back controls, a lock option (which locks the display against accidental touches) and a pop up toggle.
The player supports subtitles too, but there's only an on/off toggle here, you can't manually pick the subtitle file (so it would have to have the same name as the video file to work, and be in the same directory). Also, some foreign language subtitles didn't display all characters correctly.
The music app supports Wave MaxxAudio as well as Dirac HD Audio. The Maxx Audio enhancements apply on all music-related apps and games no matter if you are using headphones or the loudspeaker. There are a few Wave presets you can use, but you can also create a custom preset by yourself.
The Now playing interface is split into two - the current playlist and the album art/music controls screen. You can swipe between the two. By default the player will look for lyrics and display them under the album art, which imitates a vinyl record. You can add album art if it's not built inside the tracks (but the player won't look for it automatically).
There's a playback mode button (normal, shuffle, repeat track) and a toggle for audio enhancement. That toggles Dirac HD on and off.
By the way, the music player successfully played a 16-bit FLAC file so there is hardly a format it won't play.
Plug in a pair of headphones, though, and issues begin to appear. The frequency response gets slightly shaky, the stereo crosstalk rises and the volume level, while still above average, is no longer that impressive. We also get a bit of intermodulation distortion, so we can't give a perfect overall mark, but the results are certainly good.
And here go the results so you can see everything for yourselves.
The Oppo N3 consistently performed very well throughout this review
but it was not the best in any department. Still, it didn't let us down
anywhere and we'll be happy to see it gain more market share than the
N1, which hardly made it outside China.
There's little doubt a more competitive price will certainly help the N3 make the splash it deserves. As for Oppo, the company is trying to distance itself from the discounter image. They have been delivering quality and innovation consistently enough but users' expectations won't change overnight.
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The Motion options are very useful, too - flipping the device will mute the ringer, raising the ringing Oppo N3 to your ear will automatically answer the call and more. The Motion menu also offers Air Gestures on the homescreen - you can swipe through the panes by waving your hand over the display.
One hand mode is available too, activated by an upward swipe from the bottom left or right corner. When done, this will minimize the UI into a more compact window, making it possible to use and operate the handset with just one hand.
Overall, Color OS strives to be more feature rich than stock Android and has been customized quite deeply. It is still Android though, so users who are familiar with the OS won't have trouble knowing their way around Color OS. In fact most of Oppo's additions are quite welcome and improve the overall user experience.
An Oppo gallery
The Gallery on the Oppo N3 is a custom job, but surprisingly one with less features than the vanilla app. Obviously, Oppo has approached this interface with a less-is-more mindset.The default view is a grid of folders, with a name and number of images for each folder labeled underneath. You can't filter images by location, time, people or tags like you would in the stock app. Images inside folders are arranged on a rectangular grid and you have two options - image selection mode and start a slideshow. You can select multiple images (folders too) and then Share and Delete options become available.
Video player
The Oppo N3 comes with a pretty simple-looking video player, which supports DivX, AVI, MKV, MP4, etc. We had no issues playing files all the way up to 1080p resolution and the only real setback were certain files with XviD video or AC3 sound.The interface for video selection is pretty basic too - a list of all available files. While watching a video you get a timeline scrubber, play/pause along with forward/back controls, a lock option (which locks the display against accidental touches) and a pop up toggle.
The player supports subtitles too, but there's only an on/off toggle here, you can't manually pick the subtitle file (so it would have to have the same name as the video file to work, and be in the same directory). Also, some foreign language subtitles didn't display all characters correctly.
Music player with Maxx Audio and Dirac HD
Oppo's latest music player has a simple interface and is very easy to use and navigate. The music player UI is pretty straightforward - your music library is organized into a local list of all music, favorites, artists, albums and folders. There's also an option to add a playlist.The music app supports Wave MaxxAudio as well as Dirac HD Audio. The Maxx Audio enhancements apply on all music-related apps and games no matter if you are using headphones or the loudspeaker. There are a few Wave presets you can use, but you can also create a custom preset by yourself.
The Now playing interface is split into two - the current playlist and the album art/music controls screen. You can swipe between the two. By default the player will look for lyrics and display them under the album art, which imitates a vinyl record. You can add album art if it's not built inside the tracks (but the player won't look for it automatically).
There's a playback mode button (normal, shuffle, repeat track) and a toggle for audio enhancement. That toggles Dirac HD on and off.
By the way, the music player successfully played a 16-bit FLAC file so there is hardly a format it won't play.
Audio quality is good
The Oppo N3 did splendidly in the first part of our audio quality test, where it had to show how it works with an active external amplifier. The phablet achieved excellent scores top to bottom and garnished them with nicely high volume levels - in fact it provided some of the loudest output we've seen.Plug in a pair of headphones, though, and issues begin to appear. The frequency response gets slightly shaky, the stereo crosstalk rises and the volume level, while still above average, is no longer that impressive. We also get a bit of intermodulation distortion, so we can't give a perfect overall mark, but the results are certainly good.
And here go the results so you can see everything for yourselves.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| Oppo N3 | +0.03, -0.14 | -93.2 | 93.2 | 0.0036 | 0.058 | -93.7 |
| Oppo N3 (headphones attached) | +0.45, -0.10 | -93.6 | 92.3 | 0.021 | 0.385 | -53.4 |
| Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro | +0.04, -0.05 | -94.3 | 93.3 | 0.0012 | 0.012 | -93.3 |
| Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro (headphones attached) | +0.03, -0.06 | -94.2 | 91.2 | 0.011 | 0.041 | -78.1 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 4 | +0.01, -0.04 | -96.6 | 93.4 | 0.0015 | 0.0086 | -94.2 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (headphones attached) | +0.03, -0.02 | -96.8 | 93.5 | 0.011 | 0.035 | -55.2 |
| +0.04, -0.04 | -94.0 | 94.0 | 0.0013 | 0.0064 | -72.0 | |
| +0.10, -0.04 | -94.0 | 93.9 | 0.0016 | 0.087 | -64.1 | |
| HTC One Max | +0.14, -0.14 | -93.8 | 93.8 | 0.0009 | 0.015 | -94.1 |
| HTC One Max (headphones attached) | +0.26, -0.02 | -93.6 | 93.6 | 0.026 | 0.080 | -80.4 |
| LG G Pro 2 | +0.02, -0.23 | -93.8 | 94.2 | 0.0040 | 0.029 | -93.3 |
| LG G Pro 2 (headphones attached) | +0.07, -0.02 | -93.7 | 93.4 | 0.050 | 0.039 | -73.5 |
There's little doubt a more competitive price will certainly help the N3 make the splash it deserves. As for Oppo, the company is trying to distance itself from the discounter image. They have been delivering quality and innovation consistently enough but users' expectations won't change overnight.
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