Oppo N1 Officially Announced; Rotating Camera, Official CyanogenMod Support & More

[dgstorm]

The picture above shows water, but that may simply be an image on the phone. As far as we know it has not been reported to be water-resistant.​

There is an intriguing new found about to hit the market in December and most of its details have been revealed by the manufacturer. The Chinese OEM Oppo just unveiled their N1. It comes decked out with some very good specs and several unique features. First, here's a breakdown of its primary specs:

• 5.9 inch 1080p HD display
• 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor
• 2GB of RAM
• 16GB or 32GB of internal storage
• 13MP Rotating 6-element camera
• WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS
• 3,610 mAh battery
• Android 4.2
• Official support for CyanogenMod - with optional special edition CyanogenMod version coming later

As you can see, except for the massive battery, most of the specs are a bit mid-range; however, it does have a few distinguishing characteristics. First, the camera is unique in that it has the ability to swivel/rotate, so that it works as both the front and rear camera. Not only does it offer some truly unique camera angles, it also includes a 6-element f/2.0 lens that supposedly offers vibrant picture quality. Just twisting the camera turns it on, so it makes it quicker for you to get that candid shot.

That's not all this phone has to offer. It includes built-in support if you wish to flash a CyanogenMod ROM on the device. Oppo also plans to offer a special edition version of the N1 which will automatically come with the CM ROM configured on the device.

The phone includes some enhanced software functionality as well. Here's a quote with the details,

O-Touch Panel
O-Touch is an entirely new way of using your smartphone. A 12 cm2 rear touch panel makes one handed use for the large N1 screen comfortable and easy. With O-Touch you can scroll, tap, or snap photos – all without your fingers blocking the display.

O-Click Control
O-Click lets you remotely operate the N1 camera even when you’re away from the device. Simply position the N1 and step back. If you misplace your device, find it by setting off an alarm on the phone. O-Click fits on your keychain and supports a range of up to 50 meters, staying connected to your OPPO N1 via Bluetooth (BLE).

Oppo indicated that the phone will be priced at $570 off contract. We will keep an eye on this and let you know what international markets the device releases to. Expect it first in Asia, and perhaps Europe.

Source: PhoneArena

 

[johnomaz]

Well, now we know why CM is turning into a company.

 

[tgyberg]

Nice, CM out of the box! Kinda hard to imagine!

 

[HarvesterX™]

No LTE bands, which I understand considering that Oppo isn't a known player in the United States. Not good news for anybody wanting this phone and on Verizon. I would have also preferred a Snapdragon 800 dual core to this 600 quad core... It's a better processor even though it is two cores smaller. Other than those issues, I am really into the rest of the design. The camera should he durable enough to last 5 years and more (from swiveling it around all the time). If I was on T-Mobile I'd feel really comfortable buying this phone, but then again I'd feel more comfortable just buying a Nexus 5 but this is a phone that's great for those interested in a great camera experience (the touch panel on the back if the phone is awesome).

The materials sound interesting as well. A "ceramic like" material.. Hmm.

 

[djspy]

Mid-range specs? Are you kidding me? What the hell are top range specs to you? People are really jumping the shark when it comes to specs. This is ridiculous.

 

[cereal killer]

Great looking handset. Nifty little trick with the camera. I like what I see so far with this handset.

 

[FoxKat]

Interesting, yes - with regard to the camera, however is this just ONE camera for both front-facing and rear-facing? If so, I think it may be a down-grade (i.e. no being able to video conference and see both what's in front of you and yourself.

 

[dgstorm]

Mid-range specs? Are you kidding me? What the hell are top range specs to you? People are really jumping the shark when it comes to specs. This is ridiculous.

Technically speaking, since several manufacturers have already announced their flagship devices have Snapdragon 800 processors, then that relegates the Snapdragon 600 to mid-range status. If you look at Qualcomm's chipset lineup, that is where it is meant to fall. You have the Snapdragon 400 in the low-end, the 600 is the mid-range, and the 800 is the high-end. Don't get me wrong. When it comes to actual performance of the device, I agree with you that many of these specs are amazing.

However, the primary way the industry categorizes a device is by the processor. It looks like Oppo decided to cut some of their costs by going with Qualcomm's mid-range chipset, thus it will likely be considered a mid-range device. Will it have an inferior experience because of these specs? Probably not at all. We have reached a point where it almost doesn't matter what chip is in our smartphone. They are all snappy, smooth and responsive. Perhaps the future speed of smartphones will be determined by more multimedia and gaming activities.

 

[Crankintopwater69]

As HarvesterX said,800 Snapdragon and 4.3 would've been smoking.

 

[akhenax]

The HTC One has a Snapdragon 600 processor in it. Is that a mid-range device?

I get where djspy is going with this. I think we should be more forgiving when it comes to processors, and look at the device as a whole when it comes to Low end, Mid and High end.

The battery size on this beast alone, should be enough to warrant it "High End" merrits.

 

[Crankintopwater69]

The HTC One has a Snapdragon 600 processor in it. Is that a mid-range device?

I get where djspy is going with this. I think we should be more forgiving when it comes to processors, and look at the device as a whole when it comes to Low end, Mid and High end.

The battery size on this beast alone, should be enough to warrant it "High End" merrits.

I definitely see your point but IMO coming into the game at this point where basically everybody is starting to rock the 800 Snapdragon to me Oppo would've come stronger to hole with the 800.But hey,thats just me....



Sent from my HTC One rockin Jelly Bean 4.1.2

 

[MissionImprobable]

Have to agree with the comments in regards to relaxing on the spec bashing. I don't think this phone is going to lack in any way for even the most intense use at this point. I also don't think CM would get on board with something that isn't going to get the job done for their initial release as a viable company. If I'm wrong I have no problem eating crow, but I'm not getting the feeling that this will be some middling device simply because it doesn't offer the best of the best of the best.

 

[Crankintopwater69]

I wouldn't call it bashing,we're just giving our opinion on a really nice device.I think the Note 3 should've come with the 64 bit like the Iphone since Samsung makes the chip.I'm not bashing the Note just giving my 0.02.

 

[acousticshade]

I wouldn't be too quick to jump at getting a phone with mid range specs. When I bought my first smartphone, a HTC Eris, it had mid range specs at the time. At the end of my two year contract, it was a dog.

Now my Rezound I bought about 3 months after it was released so it was a tier 1 phone for about another 4 or 5 months after that and now at the end of my 2 year contract, it still runs pretty well. I could probably hang on to it for another 6 months and be fine.

A phone with mid range specs is perfectly fine at the time of purchase, but, you run the risk of being frusterated by its performance near the end of your contract. Of course that totally depends on what you do with your phone also.

Finally, the spec war issue all depends on the release date of this phone. Released today, probably not a huge deal. Released 2 months from now and its definitely in the middle of the pack.

 

[dgstorm]

To be clear... I don't think anyone here was bashing the specs. I did call the device "mid-range" in the article, but that was just for the sake of categorizing the device. I can definitely agree that many of its specs are "high-end" and that you do have to take everything as a whole, but at some point it just becomes a game of semantics and subjective opinion.

I guess I could have made up a sub-category and called it "upper-mid-range," "lower-high-end", or maybe even "almost-high-end."

Regardless of how we categorize it, this is a remarkable device in many ways, and will probably offer a very competitive experience. It will be disappointing if it doesn't come to the USA.