source : Forbes

Oppo R5 Review: Should You Buy The World's Thinnest Smartphone?

 

                                                                                                                                              image : Android authority

Strictly speaking, while the Oppo R5 is the thinnest smartphone you can buy in the world, there are a handful of prototypes that are thinner than the 4.85 millimetres of the R5. There is going to be a race to shave off fractions of a millimetre to claim the crown of ‘thinnest smartphone’ and that means anyone looking for the ultimate fashion smartphone is going to be changing handset rather frequently.

It also leads to a general question of ‘when will thin be too thin?’ The good news is the Oppo R5 finally provides an answer to that question. It’s just that the answer (‘slightly thicker than the R5′) is probably not the answer that Oppo would have wanted.

That said the R5 is not being pushed as the all-rounder flagship (that would be the Oppo N3, and I’ll be taking a closer look at that handset here on Forbes next week). Given that ultimate power and features can be sacrificed, the R5 is a fascinating look at what can be left out of a smartphone in the name of fashion while remaining a functional and usable smartphone.

Sacrifice Almost Everything For Thin

The Oppo R5 dimensions set the scene well. At 4.85 mm, the handset is incredibly thin. The 148.9 mm x 74.5 mm dimensions hold the 5.2 inch screen comfortably with relatively thin bezels on the left and right hand side of the screen, while the top and bottom bezels provide a reasonable amount of dead space to hold the device one-handed. Below the screen are the usual Android soft keys. They are outside the screen but capacitive-based.

At 155g, the R5 feels heavier than the size suggests it should be. This is down to the metal back plate which gives the handset a notable amount of torsional rigidity, which is further helped by the metal surround on the edges of the device. Plastic pieces top and bottom allow radio signals to reach the outside world, and the camera lens is mounted top left in this plastic.

It feels well-made and solid. Given how thin the R5 is, I found this both surprising and reassuring.