SO, WHAT ABOUT THAT CAMERA?
Living with this phone means constantly being annoyed by accidentally moving the camera and getting into camera mode without wanting to. But for selfie lovers a 13-megapixel camera that rotates up to 206 degrees is a narcissist’s wet dream. Throw in a decent-ish single-LED flash and a 1/3.2 Sony sensor and you might be looking at the most affordable super-selfie phone in town. Fortunately Oppo makes taking pictures really easy. Surprisingly for a smartphone that’s key highlight is its camera, the camera app is surprisingly light on features.
Not that there are no features at all though, there are still some little features or extras built into it. There is of course, considering the “selfie” taking nature of the phone, a Beautify mode to enhance your facial features (in case it takes too long to load up Photoshop). There’s even an Ultra HD mode that allows you to take images up to 24-megapixels. How it does it is by taking six successive images and then picking out the best parts of those photos and combining them into one single image. Great function if you’re looking at taking large prints. And for some reason Oppo thinks you will want modes like ‘audio photo’ and ‘GIF pictures’. The rotating camera also has the added benefit of allowing you to take photos at angles that you might have problem getting if you were using a normal smartphone.
Overkill, Oppo, but if you just want the best camera phone you can get without breaking the bank, the Oppo N1 Mini looks pretty good.
As you can see from the sample image we’ve taken, image quality is pretty good, with decent colour reproduction and good level of details. We’re still testing it with more shots but suffice to say, the camera is definitely the highlight of the Oppo N1 Mini.
CONCLUSION
If you compare the Oppo N1 Mini to anything of the same price point from Samsung, there’s no doubting the Oppo is a better bargain. For decent specs at a reasonable price, it’s a great choice for the shutter-happy folk. But if you need more than the ability to take GIF photos of your cats, you might want to look for more bang-for-your-buck from Xiaomi, Huawei or Lenovo or wait for the next Nexus model to come around.
At a Glance
Price: RM1,398
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, 1.6Ghz
RAM: 2GB
Capacity: 16GB (no MicroSD expansion)
Screen: 5-inch IPS LCD with 16 million colours, 1280 x 720 resolution
Camera: 13-megapixel with F2.0 aperture
OS: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with Colour OS
Size: 148.4 x 72.2 x 9.2mm
Weight: 150g
