Introduction
Oppo unveiled the R11 and R11 Plus with a press event held in Shenzhen, China last week. These two phones are the latest additions to the popular R series and combine premium design and build quality, with excellent performance, innovative camera experience, and, of course, above average selfie photography.
Oppo R11 and R11 Plus are the first phones to come out with the Snapdragon 660 chip - the new upper mid-range chart topper by Qualcomm. With the help of the Spectra ISP and Hexagon 680 DSP, the new chip should boost the low-light and portrait photography skills, and even offer increased performance and battery life in certain use cases.
The R11 duo is not that far from the flagship tier with the addition of an AMOLED screen, a dual-camera with a secondary telephoto lens and a high-res selfie camera with both camears offering high-quality simul ated bokeh effects. The ample batteries and the companys proprietary VOOC fast chargers are welcome additions and highly-appreciated in the long specs sheet.
Oppo R11 key features
- Body: All-metal unibody, Gorilla Glass 5 screen protection
- Display: 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED, 401 PPI
- OS: Android 7.1.1 Nougat with ColorOS 3.1
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 660, octa-core Kryo 280 processor (4x 2.2GHz + 4x 1.8GHz), Adreno 512 GPU, 4GB RAM
- Storage: 64GB internal, microSD expansion (uses SIM 2 slot)
- Rear Camera: Dual 16MP f/1.7 regular + 20MP f/2.6 telephoto camera, PDAF, LED flash, Portrait mode with bokeh effects, 4K at 30fps video recording
- Front Camera: 20MP, f2.0, Portait mode with bokeh effects, 1080p30/480p120 video
- SIM: Dual nano SIM support
- Connectivity: 4G, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/GLONASS, microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
- Battery: 3000mAh non-removable, VOOC Flash Charge support
- Misc: Fingerprint sensor
Oppo R11 Plus over Oppo R11
- Display: 6.0-inch 1080p AMOLED, 367 PPI
- RAM: 6GB
- Storage: 128GB
- Battery: 4000mAh
Shared shortcomings
- Using a microUSB connector instead of USB-C (but this might have to do with the VOOC charging)
- No EIS in 4K and 1080p60 mode
Lets not forget that in terms of competition, the Oppo R11 isnt trying to match the flagships of the day. Instead, they are focusing entirely on providing great user experience and customer satisfaction. Apparently , a USB-C connectivity port and video stabilization werent high on their targeted users wishlists.
Oppo R11 is going to launch worldwide in black, gold, rose gold, and an exclusive red color in just a few days at an expected retail price around $440. The Plus model wont be available in red, and its release details are yet to be revealed.
Unboxing the Oppo R11
The Oppo R11 comes in a regular paper box, which contains everything you need to get you started. There is a 20W VOOC charger, a VOOC-compatible microUSB cable, a pair of headphones with integrated mic, and a transparent silicone case.
Oppo R11 retail box • its contents • the contents • the silicone case
There is a pre-applied screen protector on the Oppo R11, and its up to you whether to keep it or choose to rely solely on the Gorilla Glass 5.
Design
Oppo R11 is made entirely of metal, something we are already accustomed to in the mid-range class. The phone is just 6.8mm slim, with sleek profile, refined antenna lines, and a small camera hump.
Oppo R11
The highlight of the new design are the refined antenna lines, which now flow with the top and bottom edge. Those are carved out of the shell during the manufacturing process and they dont intervene with the unibody part at all. Its only naturally for Oppo to adopt this design shift as most of the makers have already switched to the new trend.
The entire metal piece has matte finish, including the antennas. There camera hump is accented with a tiny metal rim, polished for a mirror-like effect. There is a similar polished chamfer serving as a border between the screen glass and the metal back cover. While those two are very good at accenting on the camera and the screen, they are prone to scratches and the effect may be eventually ruined over time.
Oppo R11 employs a familiar combination of controls - two capacitive Task and Back keys flanking a centered clickable Home key. The fingerprint scanner is embedded within the Home keys surface and is of the always-on kind. It worked flawlessly and blazing-fast during our time with the R11.
The 5.5" AMOLED screen, one of the R11s key features, is bright and punchy. It looks sharp even with its 1080p resolution, which creates a pixel density of 401 ppi. Its far from the VR-friendly and flagship-grade 1440p, but its more than enough for the R11.
Everything else about the R11 is business as usual - the volume keys are on the left, the power button, an d the hybrid SIM slot - on the right. The top is rather clean, while the bottom hosts the 3.5mm audio jack and the good ol microUSB port. At first we frowned when we saw that Oppo still hasnt transitioned to a USB-C port but we suspect it may have to do with their VOOC quick charging solution in which case the tradeoff is worth it.
The sides of the Oppo R11
Handling the R11 is nothing short of a premium experience with goo d grip and the feel of sturdiness. We are not that keen on the sharp chamfers just before the screen glass, though, even if they look good or improve the grip - they just felt oddly pointy on our fingers.
Oppo R11 vs Oppo R11 Plus
The R11 Plus has a bigger 6.0" screen over the regular R11. Its 1cm taller, half wider, and 1mm thicker. It has also gained some noticeable 33 g over the R11s fine 150 g of weight.
Oppo R11 Plus vs Oppo R11
Sizing those two next to each other reveals not that of a shocking difference and we can confirm in real life the R11 Plus didnt look or feel bulky at all. Its a well done, upsized version of the R11, which gets to keep all the designs highlights and feels equally sleek and comfy.
Oppo R11 Plus
Oppo didnt appear to be as keen on pushing the Plus model as much as some other makers, but if you dig the R11 but want a bigger screen - Oppo has you co vered. Were yet to hear the pricing of this one though.
Software
Oppo R11 3 runs ColorOS 3.1, based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The level of customization runs deep within the ROM, making it rather far off from the standard Google-developed mobile experience. Units sold outside of China still come with the full Google suite, which means plenty of doubled apps provided by both Oppo and Google.
The user interface is the familiar mash-up of Android in functionality and Apples iOS in looks. Theres no app drawer on the default launcher. Instead, every app you install gets dumped onto the homescreen.
The homescreen • no app drawer • the task switcher • settings
The Lockscreen features a constantly changing slideshow of images. The notification shade features only notifications and nothing else. The toggles, brightness bar, music controls, Oppo Quick Share, and various app shortcuts are all placed in a Control Center-like second shade, which you pull up from the bottom. Yes, iOS through and through.
The lockscreen • the lockscreen • notification shade • the control center • Phone Manager
Unlike iOS, however, the UI here is theme-able and there are various themes you can download from the Oppos Theme store.
Finally, there is a Phone Manager quite similar to what Huawei and Xiaomi have with the same name. It has memory cleaner functions, handles the app permissions and encryption, virus scan, among other things.
Performance
Oppo R11 is the first smartphone to feature the Snapdragon 660 chipset. The new chip by Qualcomm offers a powerful octa-core processor housing the companys custom Kryo 260 cores - four of those cores are ticking at 2.2GHz and the other four at 1.8GHz. Oppo says the new CPU will offer 20% performance bump over the Snapdragon 653 found inside the Oppo F3 Plus.
There is a new Adreno 512 GPU which sho uld offer 30% performance increase over the 510 GPU inside the Snapdragon 653 platform.
Oppo R11 has 4 gigabytes of RAM, while its Plus version will pack 6 gigs.
Indeed, Geekbenching the Oppo R11 revealed a noticeable performance increase when processor tasks are concerned, both multi-core and single-core. It did better than the F3 Plus featuring the previous S653 chip and it even want that far from the results by the flagship Snapdragon 835 inside the Mi 6.
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 6
6719 - Samsung Galaxy S8
6656 - Oppo R11
5777 - Oppo F3 Plus
4695 - Oppo F3
2798
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy S8
1991 - Xiaomi Mi 6
1929 - Oppo R11
1596 - Oppo F3 Plus
1438 - Oppo F3
764
There is at least 30% jump in the graphics performance as promised, and the Adreno 512 easily takes the spot of our favorite GPU for the upper mid-range class.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 6
41 - Samsung Galaxy S8
36 - Sony Xperia XZs
32 - Huawei P10
22 - Oppo R11
15 - Oppo F3 Plus
10 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
9.1 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
6.2 - Oppo F3
4.5
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 6
25 - Samsung Galaxy S8
25 - Sony Xperia XZs
20 - Huawei P10
14 - Oppo R11
8.6 - Oppo F3 Plus
6 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
3.4 - Oppo F3
2.4
Basemark X
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy S8
42370 - Huawei P10
39433 - Xiaomi Mi 6
38541 - Sony Xperia XZs
33815 - Oppo R11
20350 - Oppo F3 Plus
16695 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
14732 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
10446 - Oppo F3
6148
Finally, the compound tests are usually the most important tells of a smartphones performance and here the Oppo R11 is behaving close to a flagship-grade. Sure, it isnt as good as the latest Galaxies and Mi 6 with the Snapdragon 835, but its very close to the still flagship-grade S820 platform and thats quite an achievement for a mid-ranger.
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 6
3547 - Samsung Galaxy S8
3376 - Huawei P10
2910 - Oppo R11
2386 - Sony Xperia XZs (S820)
2386 - Oppo F3 Plus
1890 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
1537 - Oppo F3
1085 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
1050
AnTuTu 6
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Mi 6
177326 - Samsung Galaxy S8
174435 - Sony Xperia X Zs (S820)
133574 - Huawei P10
126629 - Oppo R11
118677 - Oppo F3 Plus
91458 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
75051 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
61616 - Oppo F3
53008
Oppo R11 and its Snapdragon 660 are easily leading the upper mid-range class in terms of performance. Qualcomm did a wonderful job with the 660 chip, while Oppo did the smart thing of adopting it first. This gives Oppo a big edge over the current crop of mid-rangers and makes the R11 an easy pick when performance is concerned.
The S660 is manufactured at the 14nm process and is quite energy-efficient. We are yet to perform our battery life test on the R11, but we can already appreciate how cool the R11 remains on the outside after going through various benchmarks for the better part of an hour.
Oppo R11 hopes on the dual-camera train
The R11 features a dual camera on the back with one 16MP IMX398 regular sensor with f/1.7 lens and a 20MP IMX376 sensor with f/2.6 telephoto lens. Those two are set up to provide 2x optical zoom with image processing handled by the Qualcomm Spectra ISP.
Besides zoom, the dual camera offers Portrait mode where you can blur the background behind the subject. Even if you have to take your own photo, the R11 has a solid 20MP selfie camera on the front, which is also capable of similar simulated bokeh effect (or even better) thanks to the Qualcomms powerful processing.
Here is the kicker though - you should forget about the resolution of the camera sensors. The R11 outputs 16MP regular stills, 16MP telephoto samples, and 8MP Portrait shots. We are not sure why the portrait shots in particular are downscaled in the post-processing, but we guess it might something to do with processing speed even though the chipset is plenty powerful.
The regular samples turned out great with lots of detail, excellent contrast, and lively colors. The dynamic range is quite high, too. There is little to no oversharpening and the only thing we can mention is the somewhat high noise levels in the sky.
Oppo R11 16MP regular camera samples
The telephoto camera does an excellent job at providing 2x optical zoom without any loss in quality. It is as good as the default one, though the sam ples are a bit sharper and this can probably be contributed to a stronger sharpening applied in the camera processing.
Oppo R11 16MP telephoto samples
The telephoto camera is used only in good light conditions, just like the other dual-camera solutions by other manufacturers. If its a low-light photo, the R11 will instead crop and upscale the image from the normal f/1.7 camera, which is better suited for low-light shooting thanks to the wider aperture and the OIS.
The portrait shots are taken at 8MP resolution, and the bokeh effect is as good as it can get. There are minor artefacts here and there, but those are definitely on par with what weve seen so far from other makers.
Oppo R11 8MP Portrait samples
You can also take Portrait samples with the 20MP selfie camera. Surprisingly, here the bokeh effect sometimes turned out even better than what we got from the rear dual camera - especially when it comes to the edge detection of your subjects hair, sunglasses, clothes, among other stuff.
Oppo R11 20MP selfie samples
Oppo R11 20MP selfie Portrait samples
The f/1.7 lens are great for low-light shooting and even though the Oppo R11 doesnt offer any kind of stabilization the night shots turned out great.
Oppo R11 16MP low-light photos
As we said, the telephoto camera is not used for low-light images, but the crop&upsize from the main camera works pretty well.
Oppo R11 16MP low-light telephoto samples
Slow-shutter shooting is available in manual (Pro mode) on both cameras. Using Pro mode we were able to force the use of the telephoto camera in low-light conditions. This turned out a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the differences between the light captured through the f/1.7 and the f/2.6 lens. Both samples below were shot at ISO 100 with 16 second shutter speed.
Finally, the 180-degree panoramic images are flagship-worthy. They are about 2,500px tall and can continue for up to 25MP. The quality is on par with the still images with plenty of detail, excellent colors and contrast, and good sharpness.
Oppo R11 panoramic images
Videos
The Oppo R11 is capable of capturing 4K, 1080p, and 720p videos at 30 fps. You can use the regular or the telephoto camera for those. The 4K videos turned out a bit softer than wed have liked, but with enough detail and great contrast.
And here is another 4K video shot with the telephoto camera. The image processing looks as good as with the regular camera.
First impressions
Oppo R11 is a great example of how a 2017 upper mid-range smartphone should be built. It has a nice AMOLED screen, premium metal design, excellent camera package both for regular and selfie photography, and blazing-fast performance for the class.
We have spent just a few days with the R11 and we already like it a lot. We are yet to test its battery life, screen performance, audio capabilities, among other musts from our review routine, but things are looking promising.
Its been a while since Oppo has impressed us that much with a smartphone - probably since the Find 7 era. With the R11 the company is back on track of making memorable phones. Fingers crossed, Oppo will keep up the momentum and will deliver even more surprises later this year. Meanwhile, stay tuned for our full R11 review - its already in the works.
! ( hope useful)
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