The Oppo Find 5 the flagship device from a company otherwise not well known to the smartphone community. +OPPO is more well known for their blu-ray players and other tech and has recently made the jump into the high end cell phone market with the release of the Oppo Find 5. Currently available mostly through Chinese retailers the phone is very hard to get ahold of in the states which was part of it's allure for me. With the recent release of the HTC One and the Galaxy S4, I knew those would be the two flagship phones for 2013 (note 3 pending) that the masses would be after. I however stumbled across a review done by +Marques Brownlee here that had me so intrigued by the phone I sold my Note 2 on swappa and began the hunt for a Find 5.
First Impressions
I was able to find probably the only Find 5 in california on craigslist and picked it up one night after work at 11pm (yes, I was that anxious). Upon opening the box I was immediately surprised by the quality of the packaaging as well as the device itself. Everything about the phone screams quality and as I found out later the manufacturer is taking huge steps to set it apart from the rest of the android crowd. Inside you find an apple-esque USB charger and generic looking set of headphones and usb cable. Otherwise its pretty bare aside from the sim tray removal tool. I did like the subtle touch that the tool resembles the companies logo.
Upon powering up the device for the first time I was pleasantly surprised at the crisp sound coming from the speaker. Setting up the phone was much like any other device but landing on the home screen reminded me of a MIUI rom with cartoony icons. I messed with settings for a bit trying to get the homescreen to my liking but ended up installing Nova Launcher as I do on my other devices.
Daily Use
I used the phone for a few days with just a basic launcher installed over top and found it to be quite pleasurable. It came preinstalled with classy notifications, a nice UI skin for menus and the dialer, and was overall very snappy with completing tasks. One thing to note is that because Oppo is so new to the smartphone market they have not optimized their battery consumption to I was finding it to have rather lackluster battery life; especially coming from the Note 2.
The screen on the Oppo is a thing of beauty. The colors are bright without tinting any certain hue (Samsung) and having it nearly edge to edge width wise keeps the size of the phone down. I was able to notice some of the touch matrix on the device at some angles in direct sunlight which is something I haven't seen on any other phone but it doesn't bother me. The full hd resolution is great for watching videos and text is crisp. Scrolling around the web is done smoothly even with ad heavy web pages.
While some will surely complain about the weight of the phone being it is constructed with a steel chassis, I find the heft of the device pleasurable and a validation of the quality of materials used in its construction. It's edges are smart without cutting into your palm and the design of the phone is sleek.
After continuing to play with the phone I did notice a few quirks worth noting. Oppo set the phone up to refresh the recovery partition on each boot which caused the phone to boot to the stock launcher and required changing it back to Nova each time. I also did notice the phone would alert me that Go SMS Pro was attempting to send an SMS at random intervals, and clicking the 'do not ask me again' did nothing after a reboot. I also noticed that the keyboard would also revert to stock at random times.
Because of the above small nuisances I took the forums at Oppo.com and flashed an AOSP based rom to compare the performance. I immediately noticed the above quirks were eliminated and the phone had regained the vanilla android flavor I was used to. Battery life improved and overall satisfaction with the phone had skyrocketed to it possibly being my favorite device of all time.
Oppo and the Community
Now I know the above statement regarding it being my favorite device of all time may seem bold and premature, but I'll tell you why its not. Oppo is commited to listening to its users and patches issues with software updates every 2 weeks or so. This is great in that they listen to the suggestions of users and address them in a very timely manner. In addition Oppo is taking a different stance than other manufacturers in that they are embracing the open source nature of the andorid community. As I posted in an earlier blog entry the company posted to their Google+ page that they are excited to be included in new builds of CM10 and have official support. When a user asked Oppo if rooting or flashing CM10 would void their warranty Oppo responded by saying as long you do not overclock or damage the internal hardware you will retain warranty. With other developer teams such as +Paranoid Android also beginning beta support, the future looks bright for Oppo even as a niche in the market of cell phones.
Closing Thoughts
With awesome build quality, a powerhouse spec sheet, and a manufacturer that supports its device when rooted Oppo has secured itself as a company to look out for. As a previous Nexus snob, seeing someone come out with a phone so well built and embrace the community with fresh builds every two weeks and support third parties as well is a breath of fresh air the +Android world need.
What are your thoughts on the device? Please share & respond in the comments section!
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