Oppo has announced its latest smartphone, the R819. The handset is ultra thin at 7.3mm and users can choose to run stock Android or Color ROM out of the box.
While most people in the U.S. aren't familiar with Oppo and its smartphones, the company is looking to change that and it has an interesting plan. The Oppo R819 is a very impressive smartphone in terms of features, design, and software. Oppo is looking to differentiate itself from the crowded Android smartphone market by taking a unique approach in allowing users to choose what flavor of Android they'd like to run on the smartphone.
The Oppo R819 is one of the thinnest and lightest smartphones in the world. The handset is 7.3mm thin and weighs 110 grams. It features a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 HD IPS (in plane switching) LCD display with a pixel density of 312ppi (pixels per inch). The smartphone has a Mediatek MT6589 chipset with a 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex A7 processor, a SGX544 graphics processing unit (GPU), and 1GB of RAM to keep things running smoothly. It includes 16GB of internal storage, but there is no expansion slot included to increase storage.
Its camera capabilities include an 8-megapixel Sony Exmor BSI with f/2.0 aperture and a 2-megapixel front facing camera that has an 88-degree viewing angle. Both cameras also can record 1080p video. Its wireless connectivity options include Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 800.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, GPS, FM Radio (RDS, RBDS), and Dual SIM slots. The handset is packing a 2,000 mAh battery and runs Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean with some customizations from Oppo.
When Oppo releases the R819 in September it will give users the ability to choose at least three different versions of Android to run on the smartphone. Users will be able to download Oppo's Color ROM, which lays a skin over Android, similar to Samsung's TouchWiz and HTC's Sense UI. The company will also provide an option to install a ROM that will load the R819 with a completely stock version of Android 4.2.1. Oppo has also announced that it plans on releasing Android 4.3 for the handset soon.
The Oppo R819 will be available unlocked and for sale on online retailers in September for $349.00.
