Oppo K3 smartphone - advantages and disadvantages

Today, people around the world willingly buy and use electronics from China on a daily basis. Indeed, sometimes, these are really very original devices, and besides, the price tag on them is often pleasing to the eye. However, if statements about the rise in prices of the latest European or American novelties are generally perceived calmly, then the rise in prices for goods from the Middle Kingdom usually causes a flurry of emotions and indignation on the network (remember at least the story with imitation of Xiaomi). The flagship Oppo Reno could have got into a similar story (of course, on a smaller scale than Xiaomi), but the company's specialists acted wisely, waiting a little time, thereby heating up interest and rolling out a simplified version to the European market. And even if this advertising move is far from new, the effect of it will be for sure - the characteristics of the novelty will undoubtedly attract the attention of users, especially when you consider that the cost of the device will be significantly reduced. However, it is not always worth trusting only the speeches of manufacturers, and therefore this article about the Oppo K3 smartphone, the advantages and disadvantages of which will be laid out on the shelves, will be able to shed some light on all controversial and interesting points and help with the choice.

The intrigue did not work

While some companies are trying their best to keep the specifications and design of the upcoming novelty secret, Oppo has failed to do anything like that. By accident or by design, descriptions and photographs of the K3 hit the Internet and were published on China Telecom, a popular website in China. And if before that, various photos and scraps of rumors flashed on the network only occasionally, then with this post all the speculations were completely dispelled. It cannot be said that the smartphone was too hotly discussed on the forums, however, given its very good features for a budget employee, it is likely that the peak of activity will fall on the days before the launch of the first sales.

Stylish and modern

Customers today are very demanding. They want thin frames, unique colors and, of course, fashionable chips in the details of the case (there is no need to mention the high quality of iron). And here we can safely praise Oppo, because their brainchild has all the necessary qualities.

So, according to the first photos (there was no official announcement yet), "the third one" is likely to be presented in three colors: classic white and black, as well as blue-violet. As you know, the combination of blue and purple has already been used by different brands, and I must admit, it looks very dignified.

Now on the body. The front of the smartphone will be occupied by a large 6.5-inch screen. The frames, as far as can be judged from the photo, will be wide enough and noticeable. But the "chin" will become very small and even rather miniature, at the same time the "eyebrow" will disappear altogether (yes, there will be no cutout for the front camera, since it will most likely be located on the sliding panel inside). On the left edge there will be a pair of separate buttons, probably volume keys. On the right, there is only one power button.As for the location of the microphone, speaker and sensors, there is no information yet, but it is known that the fingerprint scanner will be on-screen, which will appeal to many users.

The back of the smartphone is also quite interesting. Above, just below the middle, the main and additional cameras are located in a column, as well as an LED flash. Directly below them below there is a vertical inscription "Oppo". And that is all. The absence of a "circle" for a fingerprint scanner, an interesting color scheme and an unusual arrangement of modules make the K3 design very attractive. And remembering the large solid screen without cutouts, which looks great, even thick frames can be forgiven.

The dimensions of the device are as follows: 161.2 x 76 x 9.4 mm. You can find fault with this only to the depth, which is a little more than standard. Nothing is known about the material of the case yet, but it is obvious that it will be plastic. The only question is how high-quality and non-slip.

Camera features

The camera is not just one of the devices that a smartphone combines in itself, it is what new products are bought for. And even if it sounds a little pathetic, the reality is that almost all buyers are guided by the performance of the camera, even if they use it very rarely.

Oppo K3 in this context is unlikely to be able to surprise with something, because now super-advanced 48-megapixel modules are in vogue. However, the "troika" is positioned as a budget model, and therefore its 16 megapixel main module with aperture f / 1.8 and 2 megapixels additionally (here there is an aperture of f / 2.4) look quite interesting. Also, do not forget that the front camera will also receive a 16 megapixel sensor with f / 2.0 aperture, packed in a retractable body block.

It's too early to talk about how the device takes pictures at night or during the day, we should wait for the first releases and tests. But based on dry facts and figures, we can conclude that even with not very high-quality components, the K3 will be able to take pictures of average quality in normal lighting conditions, and below average at dusk. Here it will not be superfluous to recall the front-facing camera - with such indicators, it may well make a smartphone a budget selfie machine. At the same time, selfie lovers can get lucky, and engineers will abandon the idea of ​​inserting a flash into a sliding panel, since for such cases they have long come up with a backlight.

With the technical features, everything is clear, now it is worth examining the claimed photo / video capabilities. So, the manufacturer confirms the presence of HDR-mode, and speaks of shooting video in maximum quality 2160p at 30fps. For a selfie camera, the recording quality ceiling is 1080p at 30fps, which is quite good for a device of this level. The manufacturer is still silent about the maximum photo resolutions.

It's too early to draw conclusions about the capabilities of this device, but we can already state the fact - Oppo will definitely have a minimum set of characteristics that allows users to use their capabilities productively.

Looking inside

Chinese manufacturers have long learned to find trade-offs between cost and performance. True, in the end you have to save on the case, the quality of sensors and speakers, but if a person buys a phone for active games, he does not need these functions. The main thing is the presence of a large detailed screen, a more or less voluminous battery and of course an energy efficient filling. Fortunately, Oppo has it all, and even without significant losses in other aspects.

Performance

Today, users around the world can easily assess the power of any phone simply by testing it in one of the popular benchmarks. And Oppo K3 has every chance of getting a good result, because the smartphone uses a mid-level Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 chipset. The features of this ARM chip are in a good balance between performance and power consumption, as well as in price (the seven hundredth series was created as a more affordable version of the top eight hundredth) ... Inside, the Snapdragon 710 has eight Kryo 360 cores, but they are divided into clusters: so 2 cores have a frequency of 2.2 GHz, and the other 6 are only 1.7 GHz.This seems like a sensible approach, because applications rarely use all the power at the same time, which allows the operating system to intelligently allocate resources. The graphics video accelerator Adreno 616 has been selected with similar features.

But the performance of the novelty will definitely be at a high level (archiving, copying, moving operations), because the amount of RAM is as much as 8 GB, and the X15 LTE modem provides the highest download and data transfer speeds of 800 and 150 Mbps, respectively. Today, such an indicator can satisfy any game at the highest settings, so that "ka third" can be considered as an inexpensive gaming device.

Summing up: With such characteristics, the new product will definitely be able to "pull" the most modern games at high graphics settings. The processor lags a little behind the general level, but so far this difference is unlikely to be too noticeable in games.

Vault

Despite the positioning of the company, K3 can rather be attributed to the devices of the middle class. After all, there is even more built-in memory here than in many popular "middle peasants" - 128 GB. It is clear that less will be available (somewhere between 110-113 GB) due to the installed OS and standard applications. However, this is still a very cool indicator, given that other manufacturers only give 64 GB of ROM for the same price.

With the amount of memory, everything is in order and there is only one question: will there be support for external microSD cards. There is no such data among the leaked and published information on the China Telecom resource, but many authoritative foreign Internet publications claim that they will support a card up to 256 GB.

There are also rumors about the possible release of devices of two variations with RAM 8 GB and 6 GB.

operating system

The OS plays an equally important role in the functioning of modern devices, although many users tend to underestimate its importance. It is the "quality and freshness" of the operating system that determines the speed of all processes, device optimization, support for new applications, energy efficiency settings, and so on.

Oppo, as expected, will receive a new version of Android 9.0 Pie (it is quite possible that even "clean", that is, without the manufacturer's proprietary shells). Regarding the shells, there is no data and this can please all fans of a simple Android without any bells and whistles.

Display

You can have the most top-end hardware, but without a high-quality display, all these characteristics will be just numbers. In addition, regardless of the purpose for which the phone is purchased (for music, games, movies, calls), everyone will use the screen. Therefore, it is very important to pay attention not only to the type of matrix, but also to the maximum resolution.

In the "troika" the screen is really large, after all 6.5 inches, has an AMOLED matrix with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 with an orientation of 19.5: 9. Here it is worth mentioning again about the absence of cutouts for the camera, which allowed the company's engineers to achieve an excellent indicator of useful screen area - 79.5%. So it will be really convenient and pleasant to play and watch movies in good quality (dots per inch, which in this model is equal to 409 ppi, is responsible for detail).

And finally, I would like to emphasize again that there are no problems with the screen, and besides, it is equipped with built-in Corning Gorilla Glass protection (version information is not yet available).

Autonomy

It is rare to meet a user who is 100% satisfied with the autonomous work of his device. However, popular brands are in no hurry to equip all new items with voluminous 5000 mAh batteries, preferring to save on this.

But Oppo is far from the worst situation. Yes, you can't do without a power bank, but still a 3700 mAh battery, and even with a 20 W fast charge function, will definitely last more than 6 hours, even if you play games on the network or actively use it.

It is difficult to say how long the battery will last from one charge. Considering the size of the screen and accessories, this should be about 8 hours, and only the first tests can confirm or deny this assumption.

Technologies, communication standards, dimensions

This section is almost always identical for all smartphones of the same level, since they use similar technologies, but not infrequently both pleasant and not so surprises pop up here. So, for example, for Oppo, such a surprise will be the absence of NFC, because by the general level the sensor must be present.

• Wireless technologies: Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, Bluetooth v5 (LE, A2DP functions);
• Network and Internet: GSM, HSPA, HSDPA, LTE;
• Navigation: A-GPS;
• Sensors: Fingerprint, accelerometer, proximity, lighting, compass;
• Dimensions: 2 x 76.5 x 9.4 mm;
• Optional: microUSB 2.0, USB On-The-G, Jack 3.5.

A real surprise for users was the presence of an outdated microUSB 2.0 slot, so you should also pay attention to this point (the transfer speed of the second version leaves much to be desired).

Verdict

Oppo can hardly be called a leader in the Russian market (as well as in the CIS countries), although this model has every chance to attract close attention. Reasonable price (in the region of 320-325 dollars), powerful hardware, nice and modern design with a fantastic beautiful screen, and good cameras will definitely attract buyers who want to buy an inexpensive phone with good characteristics. Also, potential buyers may include gamers - the price tag favorably distinguishes the novelty from competitors, and the manufacturer himself saved on everything except the components responsible for performance (which confirms this statement).

• Powerful iron;
• Affordable price;
• Economical but powerful processor;
• Detailed screen;
• Good selfie camera;
• Nice and stylish design;
• ROM 128 GB;
• Support for external flash memory;
• The presence of a mini jack 3.5 mm;
• Quite good autonomy;
• Fast charging 20W;
• The current version of Android.

• No NFC module;
• Wide enough scope;
• USB 2.0;
• Plastic case.

As you can see from the list above, the advantages of the new Oppo K3 are more than disadvantages, and the main disadvantages of them are the lack of NFC (which, frankly, not everyone needs) and not particularly fast USB.

Quite frankly, the K3 could be one of Oppo's most interesting gadgets in recent memory. It makes no sense to re-enumerate its advantages, we can only say that it is perfect for everyday use, and its purchase will not hit the owner's pocket hard.