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Oppo R9 and R9 Plus are official, premium, virtually bezel-free metal build, 16MP cameras and fast-charging in tow

Oppo has taken the wraps off its latest premium mid-rangers, the R9 and R9 Plus, just days after they showed up on TENAA. Both are Android 5.1-based phones running Oppo’s Color OS 3.0, a new, lighter and brighter version of the Chinese manufacturer’s custom user interface. Both also have front and back cameras packed with pixels, relatively capacious batteries, edge-to-edge displays, fingerprint sensors and fast charging.

There’s a lot worth admiring in Oppo‘s newest phones. Although the fact they’re running an Android Lollipop-based OS may not go down well with some tech fans, the battery enhancements, camera quality and build will surely go down well with consumers. Here’s a rundown of the specs:

OPPO R9

  • 5.5-inch (1080 x 1920) AMOLED display – 77.68% sceen-to-body ratio – 1.66mm narrow frame
  • Octa-core MediTek Helio P10 processor
  • 4GB RAM
  • 64GB internal storage (expandable to 128GB)
  • 13MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture and 4K video
  • 16MP front facing ‘Pegasus’ camera 78-degree wide angle lens
  • Fingerprint sensor
  • 2,850mAh battery with VOOC Flash Charge (2 hours use from 5 mins plugged in)

OPPO R9 Plus

  • 6-inch (1080 x 1920) AMOLED display
  • Octa-core Snapdragon 652 processor
  • 4GB RAM
  • 64GB/128GB internal storage (expandable to 128GB)
  • 16MP Sony rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, 4K video
  • 16MP front facing ‘Pegasus’ camera with 78-degree wide angle lens
  • Fingerprint sensor
  • 4,210mAh battery with VOOC Flash Charge

Perhaps the more interesting factoids are those not in the spec sheet. First of all, the new version of ColorOS is claimed to be 25% faster than the previous software, thanks to being far less demanding on the CPU. Its added efficiency in the software has also lead to much better battery performance. Oppo says the Plus’ 4,210mAh battery can handle all day usage, and then some, and is more than capable of lasting from 5am until midnight, even with heavy usage.

The other major breakthrough for Oppo is the new display manufacturing process which enabled the company to create a phone with impossibly slim bezels. There’s only 1.66mm between the edge of the phone and the edge of the displayed content, with very little ‘black gap’ between them. This is thanks mostly to a new gluing process, which enabled Oppo to reduce the glue spray area, but increase the amount of glue to keep the display’s layers together.

The Oppo R9 and R9 Plus will be available to order in China for ¥2799 ($430) and ¥3299 ($505)  and come in both rose gold and golden color variants. Unusually, they don’t both hit the market at the same time. The larger of the two will be available to Chinese consumers on April 12th, while the regular model will be launched next week, on March 24th. Pre-orders for the 5.5-inch model start today at hd.oppo.com.

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