I don’t understand why smartphone manufacturers are so obsessed with thinness. Especially when it comes at the expense of other important features. But being the 'best at' this or 'most' that still gives you bragging rights and that's what Chinese OEM Oppo appears to be after with the R5. At just 4.85mm thick, it's a pretty impressive form factor, though not without trade-offs.
For one, the internal battery in the Oppo R5 is just 2,000 mAh, which is especially small when you consider the display on this Android device is a pretty standard 5.2-inch 1080p AMOLED. Oppo hasn’t gone all out on the SoC side, including a modest Snapdragon 615 inside the device with 16 GB of storage that can’t be expanded upon. The protruding camera doesn’t blow away its competitors either, at 13 megapixels without optical image stabilization.
The Oppo R5 is clearly designed to destroy its competitors in form factor rather than hardware. So what does a super slim smartphone deliver? Is it actually worth using over a thicker device with, potentially, better hardware?
