The Pitch
Though they often get lumped in withHuaweiand ZTE, Oppo have always had a very particular approach to the smartphone market. They aren’t trying to be the best Android handset around. They’re playing a different game entirely, and their target audience isn’t the same one that HTC, LG and the restare gunning for.If anything, the Android brand that Oppo probably share the largest crossover with when it comes to targetaudience is probably Google themselves.
Much like the the Pixel, Oppo’s phones are aimed at the all-too-common person who wants an iPhone but reels at the expensive asking price. Theirs is a plight that Oppo’s products try to evoke often than Donald Trump cites the struggles of mid-western American coal miners.
With Apple finally making significant strides forward with the iPhone X, 2018is going to be a pretty interesting year for Oppo. However, before “interesting”things like the rumored R13 reveal themselves, the brand are kicking off the year with the R11s: a slightly-updated refresh on last year’s flagship R11.
Specs
The Oppo R11s boasts a 6-inch ultra-wide 18:9 AMOLED FHD+ display and comes powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor and 4GB ofRAM. Under the hood, it pairs this up with 64GB of on-board storage (which can be further expanded via MicroSD. These technical specs are rounded out nicely by a 3200mAh battery, which charges via the Micro-USB port at the bottom of the device.
With regards to software, the R11s runs on Android 7.1 overlaid with Oppo’s friendly neighborhood ColorOS (V3.2) skin. Then, in terms of connectivity, the the R11S comes with Wi-Fi (802.11), 4G and Bluetooth (4.2). There’s no NFC, but the handset does support Dual SIM.Finally, the camera.
The R11s closes out the deal with a dual 20-and-16-megapixel rear camera with f/1.7 aperture and front-facing one boasting a 20-megapixel sensor and a f/2.0 aperture. This is actually a step down from the R11’s dual 20-megapixel rear-camera kit but otherwise a pretty similar configuration.
Design, Performance, Camera, Battery Life and The Bottom Line
Pros
Better display than base R11Great performance for the money
Cons
Face unlock is weaker than competitionLooks dated when compared to iPhone X
Bottom Line
As an alternative to the iPhone 8, the R11s is easy to recommend - the performance is good, the camera rig is nice, it’s got a compelling build quality and slick feel-factor.
Oppo R11s Kenya Review
