Pushing differentiation to the extreme: OPPO N3 full experience with electric rotating lens

There are not many domestically produced smartphones positioned in the mid-to-high-end market, and those that dare to challenge in this market always have a few "unique skills".

Last year, OPPO released the world's first large-screen smartphone N1 equipped with a rotating camera. The unique design made people exclaim that mobile phone photography can be played like this. Not long ago, OPPO once again brought us this series of iterative products OPPO N3, which not only has an electric rotating lens for the first time, but also adds OPPO's patented VOOC "flash charging" technology and new design elements, etc., which once again push the differentiated experience to a new height.

Appearance: Smaller but more beautiful

In the earlier unboxing experience, we have had a general understanding of the appearance of OPPO N3. Like OPPO N1, it still continues the aesthetic style of OPPO mobile phones. The screen size has been reduced from 5.9 inches in the previous generation to 5.5 inches, which is rare in the iteration of mobile phone products. The size of the whole machine has been better controlled, and the 1080P resolution screen display effect is still outstanding.

Due to the "big forehead" caused by the rotating lens, OPPO N3 is definitely a "big phone". Its aspect ratio of 161.2x77mm is much larger than the LG G3 with the same 5.5-inch screen at 146.31x74.64mm. The weight of 192g is also quite heavy when held in the hand.

Different from other large-screen mobile phones, the power button of OPPO N3 is located on the left side, while the volume adjustment button is located on the right side. Although it seems a bit unusual, it is much more convenient to adjust the volume when making calls with the right hand.

It is worth mentioning that the card slot on the left side of the body can hold two cards, and the outer card slot can support nanoSIM card and microSD card replacement. Dual SIM dual standby or increased storage capacity, OPPO N3 also began to support this feature.

The side of OPPO N3 has a metal frame design that runs through the entire machine. The biggest benefit is that it further improves the strength of the whole machine. In addition, although the frame is made of metal, OPPO only uses a matte coating on the main surface of the frame that is consistent with other parts of the machine, which looks restrained and unified, which is completely different from the practice of some other mobile phone products that also apply metal paint to the plastic frame.

Of course, the biggest highlight of OPPO N3 is the bottom of the body. The hollow design not only ensures that the metal material will not block the mobile phone signal, but also brings a beautiful star ring breathing light. Although we have seen similar designs on Sony LT26 i and other machines before, at the press conference, OPPO emphasized that the curvature of the bottom edge has been precisely calculated to achieve the best visual experience. When the machine is placed in a dark place, the transparent breathing light does make OPPO N3 particularly unique.

System hardware: balanced performance and smooth experience

OPPO N3 uses ColorOS V2.0.1 system developed based on Android 4.4.4. It pursues simplicity and practicality in desktop operation. Different from the current "flat" style, the icon design of ColorOS looks more realistic and highlights the three-dimensional sense, and the "frosted glass" drop-down menu also makes the overall interface look more layered.

Compared with last year's N1, OPPO N3 has added fingerprint recognition function in hardware. Except that the recognition button is placed on the back of the body, the response speed and accuracy are not much different from the industry-leading Apple iPhone. The press-type recognition experience is much better than the "friction, friction" on the Samsung Galaxy S5.

In terms of operation, the user needs to press the fingerprint six times for the first time. The system supports up to five different sets of fingerprints. In addition, the fingerprint recognition of OPPO N3 also supports encrypted access to specific applications, which makes fingerprint recognition no longer just a tool to unlock the screen. However, in general, it cannot be used as a HOME button.

When you see the lock screen of OPPO N3, some people will definitely ask: Is there no shortcut to take photos? In fact, OPPO N3 supports multiple preset and custom screen-off gestures. You can start the camera by drawing an "O", and even... it supports screen-on gestures.

In terms of parameters, the OPPO N3's Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and 2GB of RAM seem a bit mediocre among high-end models. The score of less than 40,000 points in the benchmark software will certainly not satisfy the eyes of the "benchmark party". Is such a configuration enough?

In actual use, the whole system runs smoothly, and in general multi-tasking, more than 1/4 of the RAM space can be guaranteed to be available. As for large-scale games that test the performance of the device, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, which is in the first echelon of mobile processors, can handle it easily. Running "Need for Speed ​​​​17" has stable frame rate and sufficient screen effects. Therefore, ordinary users have no need to worry about the performance of OPPO N3.

Battery life: VOOC "flash charging" shows its power

This year, OPPO applied its patented VOOC "flash charging" technology to its flagship product equipped with a rotating lens for the first time, which also gave us more expectations for the battery performance of OPPO N3.

Using the 5V/5A VOOC "flash charge" charger with incredible output specifications, OPPO N3 only needs about 30 minutes to charge its own 3000mAH capacity battery from 5% to 80%, and the full charge time is maintained within one and a half hours. The excellent performance is amazing.

Of course, charging fast is one thing, and how long it can be used is another. Under the conditions of 70% screen brightness and 30% external speaker volume, playing a 45-minute 720P resolution MP4 format video from 100% power, OPPO N3 consumes about 9% of power per month, which shows that the 3000mAH large battery capacity of the machine can meet the normal use of a day without any problem, which is at the mainstream level of smartphones.

In the battery options menu, OPPO N3 also comes with a super power saving mode, which can retain only basic functions such as phone calls and text messages when the battery is less than 10% to save power. The low battery alarm mode of the OPPO N3 system is also different from that of ordinary Android phones. The trigger points are set at 20% and 10% remaining power, just like Apple iPhone.

Electric rotating lens: further enhances the fun of taking photos

The biggest attraction of choosing OPPO N3 is the rotating camera on the "big forehead" of the phone. The rotating camera equipped with OPPO N3 can not only complete a maximum rotation of 206 degrees, but also rely on the motor inside the body to rotate electrically and use the speed gear to accurately rotate the progress to 0.012 degrees. Compared with N1, the gameplay of rotating lens has taken another step forward.

In actual experience, to complete the fast and slow rotation of the lens, you only need to slide on the screen quickly or slowly. In addition, you can also rotate the lens through the O-click component or the fingerprint recognition control panel on the back. When you exit the photo mode or answer a call during the photo shooting process, the lens will automatically reset itself, which is quite user-friendly. Unfortunately, O-click is not provided in the random accessories of the machine, so we cannot experience the remote control of the mobile phone photo taking function for the time being.

The biggest advantage of OPPO N3's electric rotating lens is taking panoramic photos. Turn on the panoramic mode and place the phone horizontally, and the OPPO N3's electric rotating lens will automatically scan the scene you want to shoot. Users only need to temporarily stabilize the phone, and the success rate of panoramic photo synthesis will be greatly improved. However, since the lens rotates from the back of the machine to the front, the direction of the photo is vertical in panoramic mode, and the posture of holding the phone will be a bit awkward. A good solution may be to buy a tripod.

As the mechanical structure becomes more complicated, it is inevitable that some people will worry about the life of the OPPO N3 electric rotating lens. To this end, the official answer is that it can be used 250,000 times, which means that if you "turn" it ten times a day, it can be used for about 68 years.

In addition to the electric rotating lens that brings more diverse photo modes, the OPPO N3 has also made comprehensive improvements in the camera itself. It uses a 16-megapixel main camera certified by Schneider Electric of Germany, with a unit pixel area of ​​1.34μm, and uses the second-generation PURE IMAGE 2.0+ original image engine technology that is better than OPPO Find 7 in software algorithms, supporting synthetic shooting of up to 64-megapixel photos.

When the "Ultra HD Picture Quality" mode is turned on in the camera mode, users can choose between 32 and 64 megapixels. In this mode, it takes longer to take pictures, and the result is that the final photo is larger and has richer details. A 13.5MB photo with a resolution of 9216×6912 allows us to finally take a clear picture of the Land Rover downstairs from our boss's office on the tenth floor.

In addition, the machine's built-in shooting mode also has a significant improvement in capturing night scenes. In comparison, the effect is obvious.

The rotating lens also makes the OPPO N3 a "selfie artifact" with a 16-megapixel front camera. In fact, in selfie mode, what is more powerful than the camera is OPPO's built-in beauty effect.

Although the selfie of OPPO N3 in "Natural" mode can make users confident enough (please ignore the fat man on the screen), it still provides a variety of post-production effects such as "Fresh", "Japanese", "British", etc. You can even control the degree of beauty by voice... Anyway, there is no need for OPPO N3 users to "Meitu Xiuxiu" anymore.

Summarize:

There is no doubt that this year's OPPO N3 is another product full of personality. It takes courage for people to accept its price of 3,999 yuan, but it is undeniable that in the current market, you can no longer find a second product that is similar to it or has similar functions.

In today's mobile phone market, different manufacturers are facing serious homogeneity phenomenon, but OPPO has taken a different route from other domestic mobile phone brands from the very beginning. Whether it is the cooler electric rotating lens or VOOC "flash charging" technology, OPPO N3 can be regarded as the continuation of OPPO's differentiated innovative spirit. It brings together more functions and features, and the evolution of OPPO N3 also appears to be more complete and perfect.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.