When the 5.3 inches Galaxy Note was released three years ago, the age of extra large smartphones has started. Now we expect flagship smartphones to sport 5.5 to 6 inches displays. Smartphone dimensions are crucial to consumers who expect to carry their devices around without a trailer. Most people favor a large screen and phablets are here to stay until the technological paradigm changes.
Two main battles are taking place right now between smartphone manufacturers. Shrinking the bezels is one of them and Sharp raised the bar way up high with Aquos Crystal, its virtually bezelless smartphone.
Thickness is the other relevant dimension. Oppo just released a smartphone that wins the battle, at least for now. Oppo R5 is the world’s slimmest smartphone. This record gets broken fairly often, but Oppo R5 is just 4.85 mm (0.19 inches) thick. The previous slimmest smartphone in the world, Gionee Elife S5.1 is 5.15 mm thick. Considering the overall dimensions, 148.9 x 74.5 × 4.85 mm, expect Oppo R5 to come with a mid-size bezel. The handset weighs 155 grams.
The body of Oppo R5 is made out of “hand polished steel,” so it should have a nice feel. The handset comes with more than decent specs. The 5.2-inch full HD AMOLED screen should satisfy most users, even if the latest flagships offer resolutions of 1440 x 2560. A 13 MP camera sits on the back, while the selfie camera will produces 5 MP images.
The 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor (quad 2.1GHz and quad 1.5GHz) is paired with 2 GB of RAM. The whole pack is powered by a 2,000 mAh battery, meaning that either R5 is incredibly energy efficient, or that Oppo decided to cut down the battery to win the prize.
Surprisingly, Oppo R5 doesn’t have a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Fear not, because you will be able to listen to your favorite tunes through Bluetooth, as well as through a micro-USB adapter that comes in the pack. Unfortunately, R5 doesn’t have a microSD slot.
Oppo R5 runs the companies Android 4.4 version called Color OS 2.0. A couple of gimmicks make the OS fun to play with. Draw a circle and the camera turns on. A V turns on the flashlight, while a W opens WeChat app. If you want the world’s thinnest smartphone, get ready to pay $499 in December, when the handset hits the markets.
