We’re gonna cut straight to the point: Not only is the new Oppo R5 insanely skinny enough to be called the world’s thinnest smartphone, but it’s also a remarkably good smartphone. Whoever the engineers are at Oppo they’ve put the rest of the industry to shame by managing to cram such incredible specifications in to the smallest body yet.
But first, the main attraction. The Oppo R5 measures 4.85mm in depth throughout just about the entire length of the handset, meaning that it’s 0.3mm thinner than the previous world record holder the Gionee Elife S5.1 (which is 5.15mm thick). In fairness, the R5 has a slightly larger screen to spread all of its internal components out over, but it’s still an impressive feat.
More impressive still is the quality of these internals. Where the Elife S5.1 was a thoroughly average handset, the R5 is a genuine high-end device. Its 5.2-inch display is full 1080p HD, and it has an octa-core processor with two quad-cores of 2.1GHz and 1.5GHz respectively. There’s 2GB of RAM and a 13MP main camera to round it all off (with a 5MP front-facer to boot).
Appealing specs indeed, but with a couple of trade-offs. The first is that there’s only 16GB of internal storage, with no room for microSD expansion. The second is that it’s so slim that Oppo couldn’t actually fit a 3.5mm headphone jack into it. Instead you’ll have to either use the bundled micro-USB adapter or use a wireless Bluetooth set.
There’s also the fact that the battery is just 2,000 mAh in size. Whilst we don’t know just how problematic that could be without first using the device, for comparison’s sake the Sony Xperia Z3 has a display of the same size and resolution with a battery of 3,100 mAh. That’s more than 50% larger, and whilst the Z3 has one of the best battery lives we’ve ever seen it doesn’t bode too well for the R5.
The upside of this smaller battery is how quick it is to charge, though. It uses VOOC charging, which also features in the Oppo Find 7 and the OnePlus One, and can take the battery from flat to over 75% charge in just 30 minutes.
It’s set for a December release and you’ll be able to get its reinforced aluminium frame in either grey, gold or silver colour variants. It’ll cost $499 off-contract, and we don’t know of any planned UK or European release as yet. Sorry if we got your hopes up.
