2014 sees the year where Chinese gadget manufacturers come to maturity. We see the wild success of Xiaomi and Oppo besides Huawei and ZTE already pushing their way to the front of the pack.
With their success comes the threat to the likes of HTC and particularly Samsung and LG. Both Xiaomi and Oppo are eating into the marketshare of Samsung who was the leader just a year ago with their wild success of the Galaxy Note 3.
Today, we do a review of Oppo‘s top of the line device named Find 7.
Take a quick look at the Find 7. It comes with an outstanding Snapdragon 801 Quad-core Krait 400 at 2.5 GHz. This is monster of a CPU giving the Find 7 an outstanding performance from the compute standpoint.
Complemented by a generous 3 GB RAM which is seriously needed for the Android OS, the Find 7 is truly a nifty piece of work. It comes standard with 32 GB of storage which is very adequate and if not, you can add external SD memory card to boost the device.
The camera is awesome. Oppo went for a Sony Eximor sensor with a 6 piece lens kit at f2.0 supporting 4K recording with HDR. The front camera is equally incredible using a 5MP with f2.0 as well. Great pictures and selfies awaits.
The Find 7 comes with Oppo’s latest image signal processor dubbed Pure Image 2.0, and this is what enables the 50-megapixel “Super Zoom” (Ultra HD) creation: the camera takes 10 consecutive shots extremely quickly, and then it automatically picks four best shots to combine them into a 50-megapixel still. Be duly reminded that this mode captures at file sizes greater than 10MB.
From the aesthetic looks of the phone, the Oppo Find 7 is solidly built, has a firm feel and a wee tad heavy at 171g. The screen is an awesome 5.5-inch Quad HD (2K) with 538 ppi, if not the highest resolution at this time, much better even over Apple’s iPhone 6.
Knowing that such a high resolution screen will be feeding heavily off the battery, the Oppo Find 7 comes with a 3,000 mAh removable battery as well as a fast charger (rated 4.5A) that can take you from 0-100% in less than an hour. This is Oppo’s answer to a power hungry device and it works. Just remember to bring it along. Oppo is already getting ready the similar charger for the car cigar lighter. Once that is available, you only need to get that and you can completely recharge your Find 7 while driving.
Now, for some other neat features that are little, if ever, spoken about regarding the Oppo Find 7.
Other Neat Features
1. The Oppo virtual keyboard is probably one of the best I have used. It’s dictionary and intelligent suggestion of words far surpasses even the Go Keyboard so popularly used. For most cases, after typing 2 letters will be good to select your choice of the next word and the suggestions are usually the correct ones.
2. There is an ambient blue notification light that is used for all kinds of notifications of message arrivals and even charging. It is not the usual dot but a 1 cm line that can even blink by displaying from middle to the sides all the way to the edges. It is a very neat, unobtrusive and elegant way to notify.
3. Oppo Find 7 allows you to turn on a blank screen with 2 quick taps anywhere on the screen. To lock it, you can tap twice on the Home icon to do the trick. It beats looking for the Lock/Power button on the left side.
4. The size of the Oppo Find 7 is properly dimensioned to fit the coat pocket or even the shirt pocket comfortably. It can easily fit a men’s trouser front pocket. However, it is not recommended to place any device, much less the Find 7, in your back pocket in case you sit down and break it unknowingly.
5. Particularly with the width of the Find 7 which fits neatly in one hand, a left or right handed operation is quite easily done. The task menu can be brought up with a long press on the left Menu button. So typing is also easy with the thumb.
6. Color OS is a very light launcher by Oppo. I tend to use Smart Launcher which is even more light weight and easy to use. It comes with an option to clear the entire screen except for the clock which gives me a very clean Home Screen. After using Samsung’s launcher for years, the Oppo’s Color OS is a very welcome change indeed.
7. Oppo also has an awesome sound production. The MAXX chipset produces some briliant sounds and also coming from a pair of incredible performance speakers at the back of the device. Using a good pair of headset will give you a very enjoyable well rounded sound with adequate bass and treble. Voice is crystal clear.
8. The Find 7 comes with a Smart Cover much like the one Samsung made for the Note 3. This Smart Cover replaces the standard back cover with a front cover as well. It has a viewing hole that the Find 7 has customized to show the notification bar, clock and date nicely. Opening the front cover will wake up the Find 7.
9. One point to note when using the Find 7 is that the QHD 2K screen, while being absolutely gorgeous for general viewing, is not quite well suited for long duration purposes like games and GPS maps like Waze. It tends to get VERY hot, both the screen and the ultra fast processor (more so the screen). You have to regularly place it in front of the air-cond vent in the car to help it get cooler. The heat may be just too hot. In this aspect, the Find 7 is not your gaming machine although it has superb graphics. Maybe the next edition.
10. Although the Find 7 has a great camera sensor from Sony IMX214 CMOS BSI 1/3.06″ CMOS sensor of 13MP resolution and a nice 6 lens configuration at f2.0, the wide angle does show significant distortion on the sides. This is particularly noticeable when you are taking a group picture of people and the ones on the sides will have their faces broadened. This will not matter if the objects taken are not faces. Great for scenery shots for sure.
Overall, the Oppo Find 7 is a wonderful device to use, fast, beautiful screen and camera, and very nice to hold. It is not the type that shouts at you but is quietly elegant and unassuming. It does the work and more at half the price of its competitors in the LG and Samsung models.
Go China!!!
Proud 2B Malaysian 
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