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Oppo N1 Review: Future-Looking Phablet Or Oversized Flop?
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1. Oppo Dreams Big: The N1 Phablet

Nearly seven years ago, the touchscreen-based smartphone passed from imagination to perceived phenomenon thanks to Apple's iPhone. Since then, we’ve witnessed the technology evolve continuously, the proliferation of cloud computing, the birth of two new platforms (Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone), the rise and fall of several entrenched companies, and a fierce, yet farcical war over intellectual property. Meanwhile, amongst this chaos, the concept of the smartphone has coalesced into something ubiquitous.

Today, according to the IDC, around 80% of all smartphones run Android OS, while data from Strategy Analytics show Qualcomm dominating the SoC market with a 54% share by revenue, and a staggering 86% market share in LTE modems. With the OS and silicon variables largely replaced by those constants in the smartphone formula, OEMs, desperate to differentiate, continue tuning their own software packages, cameras, and form factors. The Oppo N1, a unique solution to this difficult equation, offers two OS choices (CyanogenMod, with access to the Google Play Store, and ColorOS, Oppo’s custom Android skin), plus a unique rotating camera and massive 5.9-inch screen. If those choices aren't extreme enough, Oppo also adds a rear touch panel and a remote control dongle.

The mad genius behind the N1 is a Chinese electronics company striving to make innovative, high-quality products. Founded in 2004, Oppo initially focused on the home theater space, but entered the mobile scene in 2008 after seeing an opportunity for exponential growth in the Asian phone market. Oppo received global recognition in 2012 when it announced the 6.65 mm-thick Finder. That was the world’s slimmest phone back then. The Find 5 arrived February, 2013, and was notable for being the first phone with a 1080p screen, as well as being Oppo’s first globally available device. This was soon followed by the R819, and then by today’s subject, the N1, which was the first phone to come preinstalled with CyanogenMod.

The N1 belongs to the phablet fraternity of phones: devices with a screen size larger than the average smartphone, but smaller than a tablet. It's a form factor precipitated from a saturated smartphone market steeped in OEM bravado and enabled by increases in SoC speed and RAM capacity. Its 5.9-inch, 1080p screen is currently among the largest available in a smartphone, and it is enclosed within an equally maximal chassis. With perimeter dimensions of 170.7 x 82.6 mm, it’s slightly larger than both the HTC One max and LG G Pro 2, and dwarfs Samsung’s largest offering, the Galaxy Note 3.

Packed inside the large chassis is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core SoC clocked at 1.7 GHz, 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and either 16 GB or 32 GB of on-board NAND. Storage is not expandable however, since there’s no microSD slot (an unfortunate omission, as this has become somewhat of a standard phablet feature). Most of the N1’s volume is filled with a 3610 mAh, non-removable battery. While that’s 310 mAh more than the One max, and 410 mAh more than the G Pro 2 and Galaxy Note 3, the battery is removable in the latter two.

While the hardware inside the N1 is respectable and should achieve performance parity with the One max, it’s not typical of a flagship device released in Q4 2013. By then, Oppo’s opponents were shipping devices with the faster Snapdragon 800 SoC and more system memory. Clearly, the N1 won’t win any performance benchmarks, but there are still several interesting questions left to answer. Did Oppo include any performance optimizations in ColorOS, or will the leaner CyanogenMod prevail? Can the N1’s large battery feed its equally sizable screen all day long? Is the Snapdragon 600 still enough to power a phablet today?

Benchmarks alone won’t answer the most pressing question, however: is the N1 more than just a smartphone with a bigger screen? After all, it doesn’t make sense to sacrifice portability unless you gain functionality. With the Galaxy Note 3, for example, Samsung includes the S Pen and Multi Window multi-tasking to make better use of the larger form factor. Those are features that clearly target professionals and power users. Likewise, HTC includes premium, front-facing speakers, along with enhanced photo and video editing software, making the One max an entertainment powerhouse. Will the N1’s additional features come together in a worthy phablet, or does it become a big smartphone not worth lugging around?

Availability

Oppo started selling the N1 in December, 2013, but there are no carriers currently offering it on contract with a subsidized price. The only option is to purchase an unlocked phone from one of the retailers listed on Oppo’s website. You have a couple of different options to choose between: white with either 16 GB of internal NAND for $599 or 32 GB for $649. For those living in China, a dark blue, 16 GB model is also available.

The N1 supports quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and penta-band UMTS/WCDMA (850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz), which gives it good global coverage, but limits carrier options in the U.S. Only AT&T and T-Mobile have compatible networks. Sorry, that means no Verizon or Sprint. Also notably absent is support for LTE, limiting bandwidth to either 3G or 4G (HSPA+) speeds.

Accessories

Accessories accompanying the N1 include a Europlug-style AC-to-USB charger (a North American charger is not supplied), USB-to-microUSB cable, earphones with silicone tips and an inline controller/mic, and documentation.

2. Look And Feel: Primarily Plastic, Positively Premium

To many folks, plastic is synonymous with cheap, and using it for the frame in a high-end device is a serious faux pas. While cost reduction is certainly one reason for choosing plastic, there’s another, more pertinent justification for considering the material in a phablet: weight. A structure made from plastic weighs roughly half as much as an aluminum equivalent. For a device such as a phone, which is meant to be easily carried all day, the emphasis on weight increases with size. When you consider that the N1 employs plastic on the front and back of the chassis, and still weighs in at 213 g (or nearly half a pound), the material choice makes sense. Even then, you're looking at 1.9 times the heft of the much smaller, but all-aluminum iPhone 5s.

Of course, there are other design factors to think about, such as durability, rigidity, and thermal conductivity. There, plastic is at a disadvantage to metal. Oppo’s solution is to add a solid aluminum frame around the perimeter of the N1, increasing both its strength and rigidity. The result is a phone that feels just as solid (with no discernible frame flex) as one made from all metal, but without the weight.

The melding of metal and plastic gives the N1 a premium feel that Oppo pairs with a sophisticated appearance. The matte white plastic has a smooth, ceramic-like texture that hides fingerprints well. The aluminum ring is also white, except for the chamfered, polished edges. Polished metal rings also surround the rotating camera module, camera lens, and LED flash.

The front of the N1, dominated by its 5.9” IPS LCD, is almost all Gorilla Glass 3. Normally, I don’t like white phones because I find the border distracting when viewing video, and ambiguous when reading text on a white background. Fortunately, this isn’t a problem for the N1. The white bezel on either side of the screen is so thin as to be nearly nonexistent. It blends into the slim lower bezel with nice compound radius corners. Only above the screen, where the camera module is located, is there any significant white to be seen. The display itself is surrounded by a black border that widens at the bottom where the three backlit, capacitive navigation buttons (menu, home, and back) are located. Centered above the screen is a speaker, which is only active during phone calls. To its right, you'll find an ambient light sensor for automatically adjusting the screen brightness and an infrared sensor that turns the screen off when the phone is held next to your face.

On the slightly curved back surface, printed in shiny chrome to match the polished metal edges, is the Oppo logo. Centered above that is a pinhole for the noise-canceling microphone. The camera lens and stacked, dual-LED flash reside within the rotating camera module.

The top edge is bereft of buttons or ports to make room for the rotating camera, while a pinhole microphone, microUSB port, and 3.5 mm headphone jack are located on the bottom. I like the idea of a front-facing speaker, or even better, front-facing stereo speakers on a phablet, since the larger screen makes watching video more enjoyable. Unfortunately, Oppo sticks with tradition and places a lone speaker on the bottom, where its output tends to get muffled by your hand.

On the left side, near the top, is the micro-SIM card port, while the right side is home to the power button (located just above center) and volume rocker switch (just below center). I find this arrangement to be very awkward when holding the phone in my right hand. My thumb can reach the power button easily enough with just a slight shift of hand position, but the volume rocker is so low that it’s basically off-limits for the same digit. Holding the N1 in landscape mode with one hand on each end of the phone, I really have to stretch to reach the volume rocker, since it’s so close to the centerline.

After nearly dropping the phone a few times while fiddling with the volume switch, I had an epiphany: I was holding it wrong! A phablet isn’t meant for single-handed use; it requires both hands for the full experience. And for a right-handed person, that means holding the phone in my left hand while navigating the screen with my right. Using the N1 in this manner, my fingers are perfectly perched above both the power button and volume rocker.

3. Regarding The Phablet Experience

Of the design parameters for mobile hardware, size presents the most prodigious compromise. Smaller devices promote portability and usability, while larger devices improve functionality. This dichotomy creates a mobility barrier, which (for me at least) exists at a screen size of 5.5". Below that, grab your phone and go—no thought required. Got a new phone? No problem; it still fits in your pocket, purse, or bag, and you can hold a cup of coffee while checking your email. Once you break through the mobility barrier, however, things get more complicated. The pocket in your expensive designer jeans is now next to worthless. The cup holder in your car can’t hold your phone while it charges. And text messages go unsent while carrying your groceries home.

While these issues are mostly trivial and workarounds abound, the point is a phablet will force long-entrenched habits to change. Whether or not cracking the mobility barrier is worth the inconvenience depends on how a larger screen enhances the things you do with your phone. Watching videos and playing games are both more enjoyable as screen size increases. Browsing the Web requires less scrolling, while viewing pictures doesn’t require frequent zooming to see smaller details. The most significant advantage for me is larger fonts. Reading small text on my iPhone 5s for 15 to 30 minutes strains my eyes, triggering headaches. This problem is mitigated by the Oppo N1 and its large screen.

Productivity apps also benefit from the extra space. Taking notes and creating mind maps is a breeze, although reaching the middle keys on the keyboard while typing in landscape mode is tricky unless you have exceptionally large hands. Even I had to stretch to reach some keys with my long fingers.

Another activity that becomes viable with a phablet is sketching or handwriting. Screens below the mobility barrier are just too small to draw on. With a phablet, however, there’s enough room to represent simple objects and write whole words. Granted, if those tasks are important to your workflow, a full-size tablet remains optimal.

I certainly enjoy the N1's larger screen, both for leisure and productivity. However, it does come with a few drawbacks. First, it makes my iPhone 5s screen feel cramped; now I need to spend money on a bigger phone. Second, I have trouble using the N1 with only one hand. Even though my hands are larger, I can only reach about half of the screen. The N1’s size and weight make holding the phone more difficult, too. Only the device's lower half fits within my grasp, while the unsupported top portion tries to wrest itself free of my hand. Watching a movie, reading a book, or having a lengthy phone conversation all create hand fatigue, and I found myself either switching hands frequently or enlisting the help of my other hand for support.

The N1 barely fits inside my pants' cargo pocket in portrait mode. Carrying the extra weight isn't an issue, but unlike my iPhone that just disappears, the bulk of the phablet is noticeable. It's always there, pressing against me, and with my stick-like legs, everyone can see what looks like a big brick in my pocket. It's workable, but not ideal. Carrying it in my back pocket is even less comfortable, and while I don't have a belt clip, I can see how some people might have trouble with the phone poking them in the side when sitting or making certain movements (Ed.: Or just looking silly, for that matter).

Phablet floor syndrome describes the curious condition wherein people with very large smartphones unexpectedly drop them on the floor. This commonly occurs when the afflicted individual tries to remove the device from their pocket or operate it using one hand. Preliminary research implicates a combination of size, weight, and surface texture as the cause. Upon receiving the N1, I experienced a mild form of this disease. Fortunately, I recognized the symptoms early and took precautions. The only known cure is a grippy texture applied to the phablet’s case, which the Oppo N1, with its smooth, ceramic-like coating, doesn't have. If you come into contact with the N1, I recommend buying a case for it with a rubberized texture, lest you fall victim to this disparaging ailment.

Despite the risks and inconveniences, a significant number of people are embracing larger phones. A recent report by Canalys showed that “a third of smart phones shipped in Q1 (2014) had 5"-plus displays,” and 11% of all smartphones shipped in Q1 were beyond the mobility barrier. Furthermore, the sales of smartphones with 5" and larger screens grew 369% compared to 29% year-over-year for the overall smartphone market. These data clearly show a shift to larger, more capable phones, and Oppo’s well-made N1 is set to satisfy this demographic.

4. Camera: Hardware And Software

As the quality of mobile imaging sensors improves, more people rely solely on their smartphones for taking pictures. They're ditching clunky cameras, which now seem like technological holdovers from the pre-convergence era. Not surprisingly, phone manufacturers are focusing on camera performance as a means to differentiate their products and attract new customers. Oppo certainly recognizes the growing popularity of photo sharing sites and the selfie craze, particularly in its home market of Asia, which is why the N1’s defining feature is its camera.

Hardware

Instead of going the two-camera route, using a high-quality sensor on the back of the phone and a cheaper, low-quality unit on the front, Oppo implements a single, premium sensor that’s adaptable to any situation. After all, shouldn’t your selfies look just as good as the pictures you take of your friends? To accomplish this, Oppo places the camera sensor inside a special housing constructed from 67 different components, which can rotate 206 degrees. The high friction pivot rotates smoothly and maintains its position even if the phone is bumped or shaken. There’s a detent in the home position (camera facing rearward) that keeps the module stuck securely in place when it's not in use. The mechanism looks and feels well-built, and Oppo claims rigorous longevity testing shows that the unit can withstand 100,000 rotations.

The lone imaging sensor is the IMX135 from Sony’s Exmor RS series. This 13 MP CMOS has a 1/3.06” format with 1.12 μm size pixels. It's the same sensor used in Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 and LG's G Pro 2, among other high-end Android phones. Sony reduced the size of the sensor by creating a stacked (or layered) structure that separates the back-illuminated pixels from the circuit layer underneath (where signal processing occurs). Conventional CMOS places the processing circuitry next to the imaging pixels, with a supporting substrate below.

Conventional CMOS image sensor (left) vs. Exmor RS stacked CMOS image sensor (right)Conventional CMOS image sensor (left) vs. Exmor RS stacked CMOS image sensor (right)

Even more intriguing is the sensor’s inclusion of W (white) pixels alongside the usual RGB (red, green, blue) variety. The white pixels improve low-light sensitivity by allowing in more light, just like using larger RGB pixels would. According to Sony, increasing the number of white pixels compromises image quality. However, the company was able to alleviate this issue with some advanced signal processing. It will be interesting to compare low-light pictures taken using this approach to those from the iPhone 5s, which uses larger pixels to capture more light.

Sitting in front of the CMOS sensor are six physical lenses to provide a clearer image with less distortion. The lens system has a f/2.0 wide aperture to allow more light to reach the image sensor and a focal length of 4.6 mm.

A dual-LED flash rounds out the hardware located within the rotating camera module. The intensity of the LEDs varies depending on whether the camera is facing the back, where a normal flash mode is used, or the front, where the flash emits a diffused, softer light. It can also be used as a fill light rather than a flash.

To maximize camera performance and gain more control over white balance, exposure, and focus, Oppo employs a dedicated image signal processor (ISP) instead of the one built into Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 SoC. Oppo’s Pure Image software works with the ISP to improve image quality and camera speed, and Oppo claims the N1’s camera boots in just 0.6 seconds with equally fast shot-to-shot times.

Software & Features

The ColorOS Camera app allows you to choose from four different resolution and aspect ratio combinations: 13 MP (4:3), 10 MP (16:9), 3 MP (4:3), and 2 MP (16:9). There’s also a selection of preset camera modes, including Auto, Smart Scene, Portrait, Landscape, Sports, and Night that affect shutter speed and white balance. Unfortunately, there are no manual controls for any of the camera settings beyond the preset values.

The N1 includes autofocus (AF), but no optical image stabilization, although its size and mass do help mask caffeine-induced camera jitter. There’s a high dynamic range (HDR) setting for handling shots with complex lighting, but it has to be toggled manually. There's no auto HDR for the N1. The Camera app can also stitch pictures together into a single panoramic shot.

For taking pictures at night or in other low-light environments, the N1 has a long exposure option that offers several different exposure lengths, including Auto, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 s.

A slightly less useful feature is Beautify, which automatically detects facial features and applies “makeup” to eyes, lips, and cheeks. No, I’m not making this up. There are even presets with different colors and looks, ranging from respectable to tramp. If Oppo’s going to include photo filters, I’d prefer some that do more than make little girls giggle.

ColorOS provides two different ways to launch directly into the Camera app when the screen is off. First, the camera can be rotated 120° so that it’s facing forward. This method is best suited for a quick selfie. The second way takes advantage of the gesture controls in ColorOS. After turning on this feature in Settings, the camera can be opened by drawing the user defined pattern on the screen (the default is a circle). I found this method to be quick and easy, but it does require two hands.

5. Camera: Photo And Video Quality

Still Image Quality

In order to evaluate image quality, I took a variety of pictures under different lighting conditions. All pictures were taken with the native camera app using default or automatic settings.

Pictures from the N1 are compared with those from the iPhone 5s, which contains one of the better smartphone cameras currently available. The iPhone 5s also uses a completely different CMOS with larger pixels, so there should be some notable differences.

Apple iPhone 5sApple iPhone 5sOppo N1Oppo N1

In this outdoor, sunlit scene, the iPhone 5s produces an image with vibrant, accurate color. The N1 on the other hand, is overexposed, creating washed-out colors and overly bright whites that overpower fine detail within the flower petals.

Apple iPhone 5sApple iPhone 5sOppo N1Oppo N1

In this outdoor scene, both cameras produce an image that is less-than-perfect. The iPhone 5s doesn't set the white balance correctly, giving the picture a yellow tint. Color accuracy is better on the N1. However, it again suffers from an incorrect exposure setting. This time, the image is underexposed, resulting in a darker output. There’s also much more noise overall, especially evident in the blue sky. That noise also obscures fine detail and negates the N1’s resolution advantage. Of the two issues, white balance is the easiest to correct in post-processing, so the iPhone 5s picture is preferred.

Apple iPhone 5sApple iPhone 5sOppo N1Oppo N1

Although this dark scene close to sunset would have benefitted from HDR, I left it turned off. Exposure looks good, and even the N1 gets it right. The darker clouds in the iPhone 5s picture have an odd blockiness to them that appears to be the result of an overly aggressive de-noise algorithm. Color and brightness are pretty good with the iPhone also, but the N1 misses on color. There’s not enough yellow from the sun, and the blue sky has an overly dark tone. The larger pixels in the iPhone sensor do a better job capturing light and reducing noise than the additional white pixels in the N1’s CMOS.

Apple iPhone 5sApple iPhone 5sOppo N1Oppo N1

The purple neon looks much better reproduced by the iPhone, where individual tubes can be clearly seen. On the N1, the neon appears overexposed, causing it to look overly bright and washing out detail from the tubes.

Apple's iPhone also shows the setting sun's highlight on the building facade to the left. Plants in the foreground also appear brighter and much sharper than they do on the N1. Looking closely at the blue sky shows that noise levels are fairly similar, with the N1 holding a slim advantage. For the building facade on the left, however, the iPhone exhibits far less noise.

Apple iPhone 5sApple iPhone 5sOppo N1Oppo N1

This scene is indoors with an overhead light providing the illumination; the incandescent bulbs naturally produce light with a yellow tint. In the picture taken with the iPhone 5s, the yellow cast is apparent. And that's fairly accurate. The image from the N1, however, shows an unnatural reddish tint. In addition to the false color, the N1 again produces an overly soft, unfocused picture, which is most obvious when looking at the colored balls at the back of the scene. There’s also far more noise present in Oppo’s image, which is very noticeable on the blue book and those balls. The iPhone’s larger pixels win again.

Apple iPhone 5sApple iPhone 5sOppo N1Oppo N1

This is the same indoor scene, but with the overhead light turned down low. While neither of these images will ever be framed and hung on a wall, the iPhone 5s picture is clearly superior. Oppo's solution suffers all the same deficiencies: reddish tint, blurry, and excess noise.

Apple iPhone 5sApple iPhone 5sOppo N1Oppo N1

And we have the same scene once again, but now each camera’s flash brightens the shot. The "True Tone" dual-LED flash on the iPhone 5s lights an image that’s pleasant to look at. Colors are rich and accurate, there’s almost no noise, and the entire picture is crisp with lots of detail, even showing the subtle pattern of the book cover.

The picture from the N1, while not bad, suffers from poor white balance, giving the image a purple tint. There’s some noise present, but it’s not excessive. The N1, even with its higher resolution, fails to capture the pattern on the blue book cover.

Video

The N1 supports three different video formats: 480p30, 720p30, and 1080p30, all encoded with H.264. Audio is encoded as AAC 48 kHz stereo for all formats. There’s also a slow motion mode, but it’s disappointing. The feature appears to capture at 90 FPS and output at 800x480p30, where most flagship phones capture at 120 FPS and output 1080p30 video. Also, the N1 records its slow motion video without any sound.

The Sony IMX135 sensor provides an HDR movie mode, which records two different exposure settings for each frame, and then combines them via image post-processing. The resulting video is 1080p30-encoded with H.264, and audio is encoded as AAC 48 kHz stereo.

6. Notable Hardware Features

O-Touch, O-Click, Oh My!

In order to improve one-handed use, Oppo adds an auxiliary touch panel called O-Touch to the back of the N1. The roughly 12 cm² area is located below the Oppo logo where your index finger naturally rests when holding the phone. It recognizes basic swipe gestures in all directions, but doesn’t support multi-touch, so there’s no pinch-to-zoom or other gesture controls. O-Touch, therefore, is mostly limited to scrolling through the app launcher, Web browser, photos, etc., but not within widgets on the home screen, including the ColorOS Exclusive Spaces.

There are a few additional perks that can be individually toggled within Settings. O-Touch launches or quits an app of your choice with a double-tap. With the camera open or on the ColorOS Exclusive Photo Space, you can tap and hold to take a picture, though the shutter doesn’t actually activate until you lift your finger. Finally, you can tap and then swipe up/down to control music playback.

I was very excited to try this feature since it offers several potential benefits: easing one-handed use, keeping your fingers from obscuring the screen, and even reducing smudges on the display. My enthusiasm was quickly tempered, however. The touch-sensitive area is too small (an ironic oversight considering the size of the N1), the scroll rate too slow, and the scroll motion itself has no momentum (it abruptly stops when the touch boundary is reached or the finger lifted). Due to these limitations, scrolling with O-Touch becomes a series of short, jerky movements, and trying to scroll any appreciable amount quickly makes your finger resemble an inchworm on meth.

This feature’s potential is further stymied by an ill-defined boundary that’s difficult to locate, either visually or tactilely, which in turn forces that stimulated inchworm to flail about blindly searching for the reactive zone. Also, if you have larger than normal hands (I’m 6’ 3”), the O-Touch area is too low to use comfortably when holding the phone in a natural grip. The only way to keep the inchworm from getting a kink is to shift the phone into a less secure grasp.

Perhaps its most annoying trait however, is the propensity for accidental activation. Oppo doesn't infuse this feature with any intelligence, so any contact with the touch surface is translated into action. After several inadvertent screen jumps and apps seemingly opening and closing at random intervals, it was clear that O-Touch wasn’t living up to its promise of easier navigation, so I disabled it.

While the addition of O-Touch doesn’t solve the phablet’s one-handed navigation problem, it’s not the only novel feature Oppo includes with the N1. O-Click is a coin-sized, remote control accessory made of white plastic with a circular metal ring around its perimeter. There’s a slot on each side allowing it to be clipped to a keyring or worn as a bracelet. O-Click communicates with the N1 via Bluetooth and is activated by a single button.

The O-Click fob performs four different functions, which can be individually toggled on or off within the O-Click settings app. Clicking the fob twice causes the phone to start ringing, revealing its hidden location. Of course, this only works if the phone is no more than about 10 m away (the maximum range of a class 2 Bluetooth device). That limitation is mitigated by what Oppo calls “Anti-lost.” When the fob moves outside of the security radius, the N1 loses its Bluetooth connection and automatically rings the phone as an alarm, hopefully preventing your phone from being lost or stolen.

O-Click also works as a remote control for the N1’s camera, which is a great feature for group shots. With the camera facing forward, lean the phone against something, line everyone up so they appear on the screen, and press the button on the fob. This works quite well, but there’s about a half-second delay before the image is captured. The one thing that would make this feature even better is if O-Click could control the rotation of the camera module remotely, making it easier to line up shots.

Finally, O-Click functions as a notification alert, flashing its green LED when there is an incoming call or message. When you wear the fob on your wrist, it becomes somewhat of a primitive smartwatch. The functionality is compelling, though.

O-Click, while not revolutionary, is a welcome accessory, and most people should find at least one of its functions useful. I'd only worry about its plastic construction. Long-term durability is a concern, especially if it lives on a keyring.

Connectivity

Oppo equips the N1 with the ubiquitous microUSB 2.0 connector for charging and file transfer duties via the USB On-The-Go (USB OTG) specification. The standard makes it possible to connect other USB devices as well, such as keyboards, flash drives, and digital cameras. Conversely, plugging the N1 into a computer allows it to act as a flash drive for transferring files.

Wireless connectivity includes 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, and NFC. Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support tethering, while peer-to-peer data exchange is accomplished via NFC and Wi-Fi Direct. The N1 also supports Wi-Fi Display for sharing video content with HDTVs.

Notably absent from the N1 is 802.11ac, a standard that its phablet peers support. We're surprised that Oppo snubbed the newer wireless standard, especially considering the N1 contains the necessary hardware within the Snapdragon 600 SoC. The N1 does at least support the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.

Audio and Speaker

The sound quality of the single speaker located on the bottom of the phone is average. It's nothing special. Bass from such a small driver is predictably lacking, but this is true for any phone I’ve listened to. On the plus side, it does get very loud without audible distortion ruining the sound. I did notice one anomaly: when changing the system volume, there’s audible static for several seconds afterward, and then it disappears. The volume of the static is independent of the system volume and occurs when the volume is adjusted both up and down. This phenomenon also occurs when adjusting the volume when listening to music or video, and even after pressing play or pause. While audible, the noise is really only noticeable in a quiet room or if you hold the speaker up close to your ear. It's not a deal-breaker, but not something that should happen on a high-end device either.

I also subjectively tested the sound quality of the audio output from the headphone jack using a pair of NAD VISO HP50 headphones and Apple's iPad Air as a reference. Compared to the iPad, music played by the N1 lacks clarity. Sounds blend together, and it's more difficult to discern individual instruments. High notes on the iPad are crisp and detailed, whereas they sound flat on the N1, as if you're listening to cymbals from another room instead of sitting right next to them. Bass notes aren't as tight compared to the iPad. Overall, sound from the N1 just seems dull, which takes some of the emotion out of the listening experience. Most people aren’t going to be this critical, but if music is important to you, and especially if you’re an audiophile, you’ll be unimpressed by the N1's sound.

7. ColorOS Software Tour

In order to attract new customers and build brand loyalty in the lucrative and fiercely competitive smartphone market, OEMs have focused on creating a unique user experience by augmenting Google's Android with their own UI skins, apps, features, and services. Oppo's rendition, ColorOS, is based on Android 4.2.2. Unlike other OEMs that want to confine customers to their own platform, Oppo offers freedom as a feature. If you prefer an experience different from what ColorOS offers, you can get the N1 with CyanogenMod 10.2 installed directly from Oppo. This makes the N1 the first phone to come with a custom ROM pre-installed. In addition, the version of CyanogenMod on the N1 passed Google’s CTS/CDD certification testing, which means it includes access to the Play Store and comes with the essential Google Apps. Another first for a custom ROM.

For an operating system with the word “color” in its name, ColorOS is distinctly lacking just that. Light gray dominates most screens and serves as the background for dark gray icons and buttons. The only color is a hint of green for navigation text and highlights. This color scheme is used consistently throughout the OS, including system screens, dialog boxes, and Oppo’s included apps. The most notable exceptions are the Photos and Video apps, which eschew the gray background for near black.

ColorOS default theme and version informationColorOS default theme and version information

While Oppo uses color consistently throughout its skin, other design elements aren’t quite as unified. For example, Photos and the Notification Shade use the modern flat style, while the buttons in the Music and Calculator apps are 3D. Oppo couldn’t resist skeuomorphism either, adding a gigantic record player to Music, which looks out of place among the modern minimalism elsewhere in the OS. Also, the lame, pastel-colored folders make me cringe every time I see them.

ColorOS Music appColorOS Music app

ColorOS comes with some interesting customization features. Oppo’s Theme app provides access to an abundant assortment of pre-made themes and wallpapers to personalize the UI. You can download as many as you like and then easily switch between them in seconds. While the app is great for accessing online content, it doesn’t allow you to select one of your own pictures for wallpaper, either from the photo album or by taking a picture with the camera.

ColorOS Theme app and home screen with custom theme appliedColorOS Theme app and home screen with custom theme applied

Additional options for customizing the ColorOS launcher are accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. Adding and removing home screens is as easy as pressing plus and minus symbols, and widgets are managed by simply dragging them where you want. There are links for applying locally stored themes and wallpapers, with the added choice of using a photo you’ve taken as wallpaper, or one of several provided live wallpapers (options mysteriously absent from the Theme app). Effects are limited to a couple of different homescreen-switching animations.

Options for the ColorOS launcherOptions for the ColorOS launcher

The ColorOS launcher also includes the Exclusive Space and Live Weather features, accessible by pressing the green button in the launcher options menu shown above. Exclusive Spaces are home screens dedicated to a custom widget from Oppo. There are currently only two spaces available for the N1 (Photo and Music) with more “coming soon”.

ColorOS Exclusive Spaces: Photo space (left) and Music space (right)ColorOS Exclusive Spaces: Photo space (left) and Music space (right)

The Photo space includes a small camera widget that allows photos to be taken directly from the home screen with a photo timeline below. The timeline, however, only shows the pictures taken with the camera widget in the Photo space. In other words, pictures taken with the regular Camera app or third-party camera apps do not appear on the timeline. The pictures taken in Photo space are even saved to a unique folder. Fortunately, the Photos app displays pictures from both the Camera app and Photo space.

The giant record makes another appearance in the Music space. It took me awhile to figure out that you have to press the tone arm (literally placing the needle on the record) in order to play or pause music. With smartphone ownership heavily skewed towards a younger demographic, I wonder how many of Oppo’s customers have even seen a real record player. A CD player or even a cassette tape deck would be more relevant. Better yet, forego the skeuomorphism altogether.

Live Weather is a live wallpaper with a weather theme. Each of the effects, including Dandelion, Sunny, Rain, Snow, Fog, Cloudy, and Thundershowers, can be selected individually, or you can “bind” the wallpaper to the Weather app, which automatically changes the live wallpaper to match the current weather and even time of day. The effects are also interactive. For example, shaking the phone clears off the snow that accumulates on the icons and swiping the screen wipes away the fog. Some people might find this gimmicky, but I actually enjoy the variability, and the wallpapers do look nice.

Notification Shade showing both default and expanded viewsNotification Shade showing both default and expanded views

Oppo bundles several interesting features and apps with ColorOS. For starters, Swype, the popular keyboard that operates by swiping between keys in a continuous motion, is the default. ColorOS also includes a proper App Drawer that supports grouping apps into folders.

One of the security-focused enhancements is App Encryption, which protects selected apps by requiring either a four-digit unlock code or pattern before allowing the software to launch. While useful, the name of this feature is misleading and it might give you a false sense of security, since it doesn’t actually encrypt anything.

Data Saving is a feature that purports to prevent malicious software from sending unauthorized data, like email or SMS spam. Once activated, no apps are allowed to run in the background without first being added to a white list. This approach might prove too inconvenient for the average user and probably would be ineffective if the malicious app gains root privilege. Even though the primary goal of this feature is security, it could also be an effective way of controlling background processes and improving battery life.

Guest Mode allows you to set a separate guest password for allowing restricted access to your phone. After setting the password, you’re confronted with the daunting task of selecting individual contacts, photos, videos, and apps you want to hide from your guest. What really makes this feature unworkable, however, is that any content added after the initial setup is visible by default. You'd have to repeat the setup process every time a guest wanted access.

If the administration overhead isn’t enough of a deterrent from using this feature, its thin veil of security should scare you away. The feature does not use access control lists or file permissions to restrict the guest user. Rather, the ColorOS launcher, working in conjunction with its native apps, simply hides the items from view. There are several problems with that approach. The ColorOS Files app is hidden by default, but there’s nothing stopping your guest from installing another file manager app from the Play Store or, if that’s hidden, a Web-based app store and instantly gain access to all of the hidden content. Also, while hidden pictures don’t appear within the ColorOS Photos app, they do still appear in the Photos Space timeline (assuming the pictures were taken in the Photos Space to begin with). The amount of work required to properly setup and maintain this feature, along with the absence of any real security, render it essentially useless.

Holiday Mode is a convenience feature similar to Apple’s Do Not Disturb, and Permission Monitor provides granular control over every installed apps permissions.

ColorOS Photos appColorOS Photos app

ColorOS also includes gesture controls that can be used to open apps and perform certain tasks. There are four different gestures available when the screen is off. Double-tapping the display wakes the device up, and is certainly one of my favorites. Drawing a circle launches the Camera app, and making a “V” opens the flashlight. Music playback can also be controlled with the screen off by swiping down with two fingers to play or pause the current track, while drawing less-than or greater-than symbols switches tracks.

After unlocking the phone, swiping down from the top-left quarter, or optionally, the top-right quarter of the screen opens the gesture panel. Custom gestures can be created for a variety of tasks, like opening apps, opening a website, start video recording, and calling or messaging a specific contact. Gesture recognition is very accurate, even if the symbol is drawn on a different area of the screen or at a different scale than the recorded gesture.

ColorOS Files appColorOS Files app

ColorOS also comes with an extensive collection of custom apps, including Calendar, Email, Messages, Music, Video, Photos (photo gallery), Phone (dialer), Weather, Calculator, Compass, Sound Recorder, and Flashlight. The file manager (called Files) allows the usual perusal of the file system, but also includes a tab that organizes and aggregates common files by type. This is especially useful for pictures, which are normally stored across multiple folders within the file system. There are also options to turn the N1 into a FTP or DLNA server so that the phone’s files or media can be accessed or streamed from another device on the same Wi-Fi network. Similarly, the Notes app is more than just a simple text editor. It allows pictures to be added either from the camera or the photo gallery, and it even includes simple handwriting and doodle modes.

Oppo’s apps cover all the basic functions, but if these aren’t enough to satisfy your appetite, ColorOS also comes with the standard assortment of Google apps, including the Play Store. Oppo even included the Kingsoft Office suite, which has a smooth interface and seems fairly capable.

Adding an event in the Calendar appAdding an event in the Calendar app

Overall, ColorOS is a reasonably attractive and functional Android skin that could benefit from a little extra polish. I’d like to see the skeuomorphism vanquished and more consistent use of flattened UI elements. It would also be nice if the Camera app exposed some additional photography controls, especially since the automatic controls don’t always produce optimal results. Finally, if Oppo’s security features are to be taken seriously, they need to move beyond simple tweaks to the launcher app.

8. CyanogenMod Software Tour

If you feel Oppo’s ColorOS strays too far from stock Android, you can opt for the CyanogenMod version of the N1 instead. Installing a custom ROM on the N1 is a painless procedure, but you can also order it directly from Oppo with CyanogenMod pre-installed.

CyanogenMod default theme and version informationCyanogenMod default theme and version information

The customized version of CyanogenMod 10.2 for the N1 has an Android 4.3 core, a more recent version than what ColorOS uses. A lightweight skin, CyanogenMod preserves the design philosophy of Google’s Android, including the basic color palette, icons, and apps. Rather than trying to rebrand Android, the developers of CyanogenMod focus on bringing an up-to-date, highly customizable, and enhanced version of Android to people who wish to rid their phone of bloatware, or those who've been abandoned by their carriers and left with no official upgrade path.

Trebuchet 1.0, the launcher included with the N1 build, contains an abundance of customization options, including the ability to change the number of rows and columns on the home screen, set the number of home screens, hide icon labels, rearrange the Quick Settings panel, modify the Status bar, and many more. Unlike ColorOS, apps in the App Drawer can’t be rearranged or grouped into folders.

CyanogenMod also includes a theme engine for personalizing the UI and long pressing on the home screen opens a menu for changing the wallpaper.

CyanogenMod with Google apps and app switcherCyanogenMod with Google apps and app switcher

Unfortunately, CyanogenMod doesn’t fully support all of the N1’s unique hardware features. While O-Touch performance was disappointing with ColorOS, it’s crippled in the alternate OS. Gone is the ability to launch an app by double-tapping, replaced by a single long press to launch the Camera. Also absent is the ability to control music playback. O-Touch can still activate the shutter when taking pictures, but instead of the tap-hold-release trigger, it requires a double-tap. Of course, that action jiggles the phone and leads to blurry pictures. Scrolling with O-Touch (when it works at all; it works in the Browser app, but not the Chrome browser) is an imprecise affair, since smooth scrolling isn’t supported. Instead, there’s a single large scroll once a swipe gesture is complete, which, when coupled with the aforementioned hardware shortcomings, makes O-Touch a feature better left disabled under CyanogenMod.

The ColorOS gesture controls aren’t fully supported either. There is no gesture panel or any gesture capability once the phone is unlocked. Gesture controls do work when the screen is off, however, sharing the same four gestures with ColorOS: double-tap to wake up the device, draw a circle to launch the Camera app, make a “V” to open the flashlight, and music playback controls.

The N1’s O-Click remote is fully supported by CyanogenMod, but the option to automatically open the camera when the camera module is rotated is missing.

While lacking some of the features and functionality of ColorOS, CyanogenMod does have a few unique enhancements of its own. The DSP Manager app will enhance the sound generated by the N1. There are several functions, including an equalizer, bass boost, and loudness compensation that can be tweaked independently for headphones, Bluetooth, USB, and the built-in speaker.

CyanogenMod DSP Manager (left) and File Manager (right)CyanogenMod DSP Manager (left) and File Manager (right)

Another potentially useful feature is Profiles, which are context-aware groups of settings and preferences. Profiles can be created for any number of different environments, like home, work, car, or silent, and can be selected manually by long pressing the power button and selecting the Profile option, or triggered automatically when a specific Wi-Fi or Bluetooth network is detected, NFC tag encountered, or by a time-sensitive alarm. There are even third-party apps that provide additional methods for switching profiles.

CyanogenMod also provides some essential security enhancements. Similar to the Permission Monitor app in ColorOS, Privacy Guard provides granular control over app permissions. Another great security feature is the option for full disk encryption.

What’s Your Favorite Color?

Deciding between Oppo’s ColorOS or CyanogenMod depends on which features are most important to you. ColorOS fully supports all of the N1’s unique hardware features and includes gesture controls. CyanogenMod offers better security features and gives you more control over your phone. Both operating systems support themes, come with a variety of apps, including the usual assortment from Google, and can access the Play Store. If you have trouble deciding, Oppo makes it easy to switch between the two, so just try both!

9. How We Tested Oppo's N1 Phablet

Benchmark Suite

Our current Android test lineup is comprised of six key sections: CPU, GPU, GPGPU, Web, Display, and Battery.

CPU
AnTuTu X, Basemark OS II Full, Geekbench 3 Pro, MobileXPRT 2013
GPU
3DMark, Basemark X 1.1 Full, GFXBench 3.0 Corporate
GPGPU
CompuBenchRS
Web
Browsermark 2.0, JSBench, Peacekeeper 2.0, WebXPRT 2013
Display
Brightness (Min/Max), Black Level, Contrast Ratio, Gamma, Color Temperature, Color Gamut Volume (sRGB/AdobeRGB)
Battery
Basemark OS II Full, BatteryXPRT 2014, GFXBench 3.0 Corporate

Test Methodology

All handsets are benchmarked on a fully-updated copy of the device’s stock software. The table below lists other common device settings that we standardize to before testing.

Bluetooth
Off
Brightness
200 nits
Cellular
SIM Removed
Display Mode
Device Default (non-adaptive)
Location Services
Off
Power
Battery
Sleep
Never (or longest possible interval)
Volume
Muted
Wi-Fi
On

Comparison System Specs

The table below contains all the pertinent technical specifications for today’s comparison units:

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is joining us today to represent the N1's main competitor in the phablet market. And as usual, the iPhone 5s, Nexus 5, Meizu MX3, and Xiaomi Mi3 are in attendance to represent the latest SoCs from Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Nvidia (respectively).

10. Results: CPU Core Benchmarks

The four Krait 300 CPU cores powering the N1 are based on a customized ARM Cortex-A15 design. Running the familiar ARMv7 instruction set, it features a hardware L2 prefetch engine, which preemptively grabs data from main memory and stores it in the L2 cache, and the usual improvements to branch prediction. Both Krait and the -A15 increase the number of instructions that can be executed out-of-order, relative to the previous-gen Scorpion and -A9 cores (although the early and late stages of the pipeline are still in-order). A larger instruction window further improves out-of-order execution performance.

Further improvements to Cortex-A15/Krait include increased memory bandwidth and a wider design overall. The number of instructions decoded per cycle increases from two to three and up to four instructions can be executed in parallel. The integer pipeline depth also increases from 10 to 11 stages for Krait and 15 stages for -A15, which was originally intended to help scale clock rate.

Qualcomm’s Krait 400 CPU inherits all of the improvements made to the Krait 300, but moves to a newer 28 nm HPm process (versus the 28 nm LP process for Krait 300). This change alone helps Krait 400 scale to higher frequencies and thus, better performance.

For comparison, Apple’s A7 SoC is much wider than the Cortex A15 and Krait cores decoding, issuing, executing, and retiring up to six instructions per cycle. That’s twice the IPC of the -A15 and sometimes even greater due to restrictions on mixing certain integer and floating-point instructions in parallel. Likewise, the A7 has a larger out-of-order window size, or reorder buffer, holding up to 192 micro-ops versus 128 for the -A15 and only 40 for Krait.

While this isn’t an exhaustive comparison, it’s clear that Apple’s A7 should hold a decisive advantage in CPU performance. Krait 400’s clock speed advantage should keep it competitive with the A15 based SoCs. However, the performance of Oppo’s N1 is likely to fall short of the opposition due to the lower-clocked Krait 300 cores.

AnTuTu

AnTuTu is an Android system benchmark designed to test the performance capabilities of four major aspects of mobile devices: Graphics (encompassing 2D, UI, and basic 3D), CPU (fixed, floating­-point, and threading), RAM (read and write), and I/O (read and write).

The Nvidia Tegra 4-powered Xiaomi Mi3 jumps to the top of the chart in AnTuTu with strong results in the UX (multitasking), RAM, and GPU (3D graphics) tests. Even though the Nexus 5 and Note 3 share the same SoC, the Samsung phablet’s overall score is 14.3 percent lower, due in part to its low score in the RAM test. As expected, the Krait 300 cores hold the Oppo N1 back in the CPU test.

Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa, with its lower-clocked Cortex-A15 CPU cores and PowerVR SGX544 MP3 graphics engine, relegates the Meizu MX3 to last place, just barely losing to the Oppo N1. With ColorOS running the show, the N1 scores better in the UX and RAM tests, while the CyanogenMod-equipped N1 scores better in GPU. Regardless of OS, the N1 shows the third-slowest I/O scores.

Basemark OS II

Rightware is an experienced multi-platform benchmark developer. The company leverages this experience with Basemark OS II, an all-in-one tool designed for measuring overall performance of mobile devices. It scores each device in four main categories: System, Memory, Graphics, and Web. The System score reflects CPU and memory performance, specifically testing integer and floating-point math, along with single- and multi-core CPU image processing using a 2048x2048 pixel, 32-bit image. Measuring the transfer rate of the internal NAND storage (Memory) is done by reading and writing files with a fixed size, files varying from 65 KB to 16 MB, and files in a fragmented memory scenario. Calculating the Graphics score involves mixing 2D/3D graphics inside the same scene, applying several pixel shader effects, and displaying 100 particles with a single draw call to test GPU vertex operations. The benchmark is rendered at 1920x1080 off-screen 100 times before being displayed on-screen. Finally, the Web score stresses the CPU by performing 3D transformations and object resizing with CSS, and also includes an HTML5 Canvas particle physics test.

The Nexus 5 posts the highest overall score in Basemark OS II. Once again, we see the Note 3 trail the Nexus 5, particularly in the System and Memory tests. In the CPU-dependent System test, the Note 3’s performance is similar to the Oppo N1, with its 1.7 GHz Krait 300 cores. Monitoring the Note 3’s CPU usage during testing reveals that it fails to reach its maximum clock frequency, topping out at only 1.5 GHz. The underachieving CPU performance isn't the result of thermal throttling. Instead, the Note 3 seems to be a victim of Samsung’s overly aggressive frequency scaling algorithm in Android 4.4.

Looking at each category individually shows the iPhone 5s dominating System and Web, both CPU-intensive categories. The execution width of the two Cyclone cores in Apple’s A7 SoC trumps the clock rate and core count advantage held by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800. Once again, the N1 does poorly in the CPU-focused tests.

The Snapdragon 800’s Adreno 330 GPU gives the Note 3 and Nexus 5 the highest scores in the Graphics category, with nearly double the performance of the PowerVR G6430 GPU in Apple's A7. The Achilles heel of PowerVR’s Rogue architecture is triangle throughput. That's the one area where performance is less than the previous-generation Series5XT. Based on the wide margin of victory, it seems the Graphics tests in Basemark OS II stress the triangle setup engine far more than the pixel and vertex shaders. This being the case, the Graphics score for the Meizu MX3 is a bit of an anomaly. Even though it has a higher-clocked Series5XT GPU than the one found in the iPhone 5 (which outperforms the iPhone 5s in triangle throughput), the Meizu MX3 is easily beat by the iPhone 5s. Either the MX3’s aggressive clock rate is causing thermal throttling or it’s being held back by driver issues.

The Oppo N1 manages to keep pace with the iPhone 5s thanks to its Adreno 320 GPU. The Nvidia GeForce ULP GPU in the Tegra 4-powered Xiaomi Mi3 can’t match the performance of the iPhone 5s or the devices sporting Adreno GPUs.

Google’s Nexus 5 nets the high score in the Memory category, while Oppo’s N1 garners second-place honors. The SanDisk MLC NAND used in the Xiaomi Mi3 exhibits especially poor performance in this test.

Geekbench 3

Primate Labs’ Geekbench is somewhat of an industry standard due to its comprehensive database and wide cross-platform compatibility (Windows/OS X/Linux/iOS/Android). This benchmark produces two sets of scores: single-­ and multi­-threaded. For each, it runs a series of tests in three categories: Integer, Floating Point, and Memory. The individual results are used to calculate category scores, which in turn generate overall Geekbench scores.

The performance of the iPhone 5s in the Single-Core benchmark is simply amazing. Apple’s custom A7 architecture dominates every category, with a 1.51x margin of victory in Integer, 1.57x in Floating Point, and 1.24x in Memory, giving it a 1.5x margin overall. Not only is the A7 the first 64-bit mobile CPU running the ARMv8 instruction set, but the architectural changes Apple made produce a generational jump in performance.

Clock frequency propels the Snapdragon 800-powered Nexus 5 into second place, followed by the Meizu MX3 and Xiaomi Mi3 with their Cortex-A15 cores. The Note 3 posts the lowest score in both the Integer and Floating Point tests, held back by its broken frequency scaling algorithm. Oppo's N1 posts the lowest Single-Core score of the group.

The Multi-Core benchmark tells a different story, and this time, quad-core configurations are the hero. Still scathing from its defeat in the Single-Core benchmark, the Nexus 5 uses all four of its Krait 400 cores to slay the mighty iPhone 5s.

Even with half as many cores, the iPhone 5s claims second place, going so far as to post the highest memory score. Further demonstrating its IPC advantage, the two lower-clocked cores in the A7 achieve 93% of the Integer performance of the Nexus 5’s four Krait 400 cores, and 86% of the Floating Point performance.

Once again, Xiaomi's Mi3 outscores the Meizu MX3 in both the Integer and Floating Point tests. This isn’t surprising given the 12.5% frequency advantage its Cortex-A15 cores have over those in the Meizu MX3. Clock speed doesn’t tell the whole story, however. Looking at each test individually shows the Mi3 with a 28% performance advantage in integer math and 35% in floating-point. Memory bandwidth can’t explain this discrepancy, since the Meizu MX3 actually scores higher. The most likely explanation lies with the broken ARM big.LITTLE implementation in Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa SoC.

Specifically, there is a glitch in the cache coherency interface (CCI-400) that connects the two CPU islands to the rest of the SoC, which doesn’t allow it to use the Core Migration (where a thread can move within a pair of Cortex-A15 and -A7 cores, but not across pairs) or Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) modes (where the OS is aware of all eight cores and can schedule threads to whichever core it chooses). Instead, the SoC uses the less efficient Cluster Switching mode where either all four -A15 cores or all four -A7 cores are active, but never both at the same time. Not only is this a less efficient use of resources, but there is a big penalty when switching between CPU islands: all caches are synchronized via main memory rather than the speedier on-chip interface. If the Meizu MX3 starts the tests running on the slower 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 cores and then switches to the more powerful -A15 island, the resulting pause in processing could account for the lower benchmark scores. The lesson: more isn’t always better.

The N1 comes in last by a large margin. What’s interesting though is the difference between running ColorOS and CyanogenMod. The N1 running CyanogenMod is about 1.5x faster in both the Integer and Floating Point Multi-Core tests, while they’re essentially equal in the Single-Core tests. CyanogenMod 10.2 is based on a newer build of Android (4.3 versus 4.2 for ColorOS) that includes several performance enhancements. Other than CPU Input Boost, which helps software integrate better with the device’s CPU, most of these improvements are for improving 2D/3D graphics rendering. Other phones upgrading from Android 4.2 to 4.3 don’t exhibit such large jumps in performance, so the difference in multithreaded performance is unique to ColorOS.

MobileXPRT 2013

Principled Technologies’ MobileXPRT 2013 is a modern SoC benchmark for Android. It consists of ten very real ­world test scenarios split into two categories of testing: Performance and User Experience. The Performance suite contains five tests: Apply Photo Effects, Create Photo Collages, Create Slideshow, Encrypt Personal Content, and Detect Faces to Organize Photos. Performance results are measured in seconds. The User Experience suite also has five tests: List Scroll, Grid Scroll, Gallery Scroll, Browser Scroll, and Zoom and Pinch. These results are measured in frames per second. The category scores are generated by taking a geometric mean of the ratio between a calibrated machine (Motorola’s Droid Razr M) and the test device for each sub-test.

In this CPU-focused test, the device ranking remains largely the same with the Nexus 5 putting its clock rate advantage to good use. The Note 3 plays it conservative and splits the Xiaomi Mi3 and Meizu MX3. Oppo's N1 with ColorOS places last, but comes in second when running CyanogenMod. The 1.24x improvement is attributable to CyanogenMod’s better threaded performance.

The N1 takes the longest to complete the encryption test. However, it does well applying the photo effects and creating photo collages, which is encouraging for a phone that emphasizes its camera.

The unit of measure for the User Experience Tests is frames per second. Values for each individual test are shown within the bar graph. The number to the right of each bar is the computed score.

There is only a 13 percent difference between the best and worst performers. All of the devices are capped by v-sync in the List Scroll, Grid Scroll, and Browser Scroll sub-tests. The Oppo N1 with ColorOS manages a second-place finish behind the Nexus 5 in Gallery Scroll, besting CyanogenMod by 6 FPS, or about 13 percent. The Meizu MX3 finishes last primarily due to its low score in Gallery Scroll.

11. Results: Web Benchmarks

The tests on this page are JavaScript-­ and HTML5­-heavy selections from our Web Browser Grand Prix series. Such tests are extremely meaningful to mobile devices because so much of the in­-app content is served via the platform's native Web browser. These tests not only offer a view of each device’s Web browsing performance, but since these tasks are traditionally so CPU­-dependent, browser benchmarks (especially JavaScript-­heavy tests) are a great way to measure SoC performance between devices using the same platform and browser.

In order to keep the browser version even across all Android devices, we're employing a static version of the Chromium­-based Opera on that operating system. Due to platform restrictions, Safari is the best choice for iOS based devices, while Internet Explorer is the only game in town on Windows RT.

Browsermark 2.0

Rightware’s Browsermark 2.0 is a synthetic browsing benchmark that tests several performance metrics, including load time, CSS, DOM, HTML5 Canvas, JavaScript, and WebGL.

While we realize that Browsermark 2.1 is now out, the newer version seems to have issues completing on several of our reference handsets, so we’ll continue to run version 2.0 for the time being.

The iPhone 5s easily wins the first Web browsing benchmark. Since the browser tests aren’t heavily threaded, the quad-core SoC’s main advantage over the A7 is nullified. Due to its higher IPC and strong integer performance, the A7 is likely to dominate all of the browsing tests.

Impressively, the Oppo N1 with CyanogenMod comes in second, again placing ahead of ColorOS, albeit by a mere two percentage points.

The one outlier in this benchmark is the Nexus 5. In the other CPU-centric tests, it places near the top. However, in this benchmark, it drops all the way to the bottom of the chart. That sounds worse than it really is, though. The difference between it and the highest-scoring Android device is less than five percent.

JSBench

Unlike most JavaScript performance benchmarks, JSBench could almost be considered real­-world, since it utilizes actual snippets of JavaScript from Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo!.

After running this benchmark on the iPhone 5s, I asked Siri how winning JSBench felt, and she smugly replied “Exactly 6.74 times better than coming in second place. I think I look good wearing gold, don’t you?”

The Cortex-A15 finds a way to propel the Meizu MX3 and Xiaomi Mi3 ahead of the Krait 400-based phones by a small margin, reversing the trend seen on the previous page. The N1's slower Krait 300 cores relegate the phone to last place, with no discernible difference between the two OS choices. Samsung's underclocked Note 3 matches the performance of the N1's Snapdragon 600 SoC.

Peacekeeper 2.0

Peacekeeper is a synthetic Javascript performance benchmark from Futuremark.

The iPhone 5s continues its winning ways, while the Nexus 5, Meizu MX3, and Xiaomi Mi3 group together in second place, narrowing the iPhone’s margin of victory to less than two.

The Note 3 slides down the chart to nearly tie with the N1, both devices performing about 40 percent slower than the Nexus 5.

WebXPRT 2013

Principled Technologies' WebXPRT is an HTML5-­based benchmark that simulates common productivity tasks traditionally handled by locally-installed applications, including: photo editing, financial charting, and offline note­taking.

There’s no change at the top of the chart. The iPhone 5s finishes with a clean sweep of the Web browsing benchmarks.

The Nexus 5 is the best of the rest. Oppo's N1 puts in a strong performance, actually posting a better score than the more powerful Note 3. In fact, the Note 3 consistently underperforms in Web browsing, behaving more like the Snapdragon 600-powered N1 rather than the Nexus 5.

As for the N1, it’s worth mentioning that for Web browsing, there’s effectively no performance difference between CyanogenMod and ColorOS. This isn’t too surprising given the single-core emphasis of browsing benchmarks. Our CPU tests show that CyanogenMod only has an advantage when multiple cores are utilized.

12. Results: GPU Core Benchmarks

3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited

Futuremark has become a name synonymous with benchmarking, and the company’s latest iteration of 3DMark offers three main graphical benchmarks: Ice Storm, Cloud Gate, and Fire Strike. Currently, the DirectX 9-level Ice Storm tests are cross­-platform for Windows, Windows RT, Android, and iOS.

Ice Storm simulates the demands of OpenGL ES 2.0 games using shaders, particles, and physics via the company’s in-­house engine. While it was just released in May of last year, the on-screen portions of Ice Storm have already been outpaced by more recent mobile chipsets, with Nvidia’s Tegra 4 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 both easily maxing out the Extreme version (1080p with high-­quality textures). However, Ice Storm Unlimited, which renders the scene off-­screen at 720p, is still a good gauge of GPU­-to-­GPU performance.

The two Snapdragon 800 devices demonstrate the best overall scores, with the iPhone 5s trailing close behind. The N1 sits between Xiaomi's Mi3 and Meizu's MX3, which posts the lowest score.

Looking more closely reveals a battle between the latest generation GPUs in the Graphics test: the Adreno 330 in the Note3/Nexus 5 and the PowerVR G6430 in the iPhone 5s. Nvidia’s GeForce ULP GPU in the Tegra 4-powered Xiaomi Mi3 outperforms the Adreno 320 in Oppo’s N1, while the older PowerVR SGX544 MP3 GPU in the Meizu MX3 finds it difficult to compete with the newer silicon.

In the Graphics test, the Adreno 330 is 1.71 times faster than the N1's 320 due to its clock speed (450 MHz versus 400 MHz) and ALU (32 versus 24) advantage.

The Physics test performs threaded physics simulations on the CPU. Like the other multi-core CPU tests, the iPhone 5s, with its dual-core A7 processor, is at a disadvantage and posts the lowest result. As expected, the quad-core SoCs perform well and are ordered mainly by clock frequency.

Basemark X 1.1

Based on the Unity 4.0 game engine, Rightware’s Basemark X is a cross­-platform graphics benchmark for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. This test utilizes Unity’s modern features via the OpenGL ES 2.0 render path. Features like high poly count models, shaders with normal maps, complex LoD algorithms, and extensive per-­pixel lighting (including directional and point light), along with a comprehensive set of post process, particle systems, and physics effects, test how a modern game might look and run. Basemark X is an aggressive test that still hasn’t been maxed out by the latest mobile SoCs.

The iPhone 5s holds a significant advantage at the Medium Quality setting. Of course, with its 1136x640 screen resolution, it only needs to render about one-third as many pixels as the other devices running at 1920x1080. Will it be able to maintain the lead in the Off Screen test?

The Note 3 and Nexus 5 pretty much tie for second. Only able to draw about half as many frames per second, the N1 is no better than the Mi3 in Dunes, but pulls ahead by a small margin in Hangar.

The iPhone 5s extends its lead at the High Quality setting by only dropping 17.5 percent compared to the Medium Quality test. The benchmark score for both the Note 3 and Nexus 5 drops by 30 percent.

At the High Quality setting, CyanogenMod is about 35 percent faster than ColorOS running on the N1. It looks like CyanogenMod might be the better OS choice for gaming.

In the Off Screen tests, the benchmark scenes are rendered at a standard resolution, independent of the device’s native configuration. This levels the playing field, neutralizing the inherent advantage held by lower-resolution devices, and allows us to easily compare SoC performance.

The Medium Quality test shows a tight battle between Adreno 330 and PowerVR G6430 (Rogue). In Dunes, this ends in a draw. Rogue, however, takes the lead in Hangar.

The N1 and Mi3 are both about 50 percent slower than the leaders.

The iPhone 5s pulls ahead of the Note 3 and Nexus 5 when scaling up the scene quality. It appears Rogue handles the more complex lighting effects and bandwidth demands of the larger textures better than the Adreno 330.

While OS choice doesn't matter for the N1 with medium-quality textures, CyanogenMod gains a 1.3x advantage in the High Quality test.

13. Results: GFXBench 3.0

Kishonti GFXBench 3.0 is a cross-platform GPU benchmark supporting both the OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenGL ES 3.0 APIs. It comprises both “high-level” game-like scenarios, along with more “low-level” tests designed to measure specific subsystems.

The OpenGL ES 2.0-level T-Rex HD, a holdover from GFXBench v2.7, simulates a modern game using several complex effects, including motion blur, parallax mapping, and complex particle systems.

The low-level tests include Fill, which measures fill rate by rendering four layers of compressed textures; Alpha Blending, a test that renders layers of semi-transparent quads using high-resolution, uncompressed textures; ALU, for measuring shader compute performance; and Driver Overhead, which measures the CPU overhead of the graphics driver and API by making a lot of draw calls and state changes. See GFXBench 3.0: A Fresh Look At Mobile Benchmarking for a complete test-by-test breakdown of this benchmark.

In the synthetic tests we’ve seen so far, the Adreno 330 and Rogue GPUs offer similar performance. However, in the T-Rex benchmark, which attempts to demonstrate the performance of a typical, modern game, the iPhone’s Rogue crushes the Adreno 330 in the Note 3 and Nexus 5. Its score, no doubt, is boosted by rendering the fewest number of pixels.

The N1 manages to finish ahead of both the Mi3 and MX3, but is 2.5 times slower than the iPhone 5s and 1.6 times slower than the Note 3. In this real-world gaming test, there’s no performance difference between ColorOS and CyanogenMod.

Taking the T-Rex rendering off-screen doesn’t change the order at the top of the chart, but does significantly close the gap to the iPhone 5s. With everyone processing the same number of pixels, we again see very similar performance between Adreno 330 and Rogue.

Even though the MX3 and Mi3 render the same number of pixels on- or off-screen, they both see a frame rate increase when rendering off-screen, and even swap positions in the rankings. It appears Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa and Nvidia’s Tegra 4 encounter a bottleneck between the frame buffer and display.

Rogue’s poor fill rate performance holds the iPhone 5s back in this test, allowing the Note 3 and Nexus 5 to claim the top spots. Even the slower Adreno 320 in the N1 is competitive with Rogue. For comparison, the N1 is about 1.5 times slower than the Note 3. The performance differential between the Adreno 320 and 330 seems to be hovering around 1.5x.

Running the Fill test off-screen produces results virtually identical to the on-screen benchmark.

Once again, Rogue’s poor fill rate performance holds the iPhone 5s back. The results in this metric essentially mirror those in the Fill test, which makes sense due to the functional overlap between them. Even the 1.5x performance delta between the N1 and Note 3 remains.

The only real difference is the Mi3, where the 1.3x deficit between it and the MX3 in the Fill test grows to 2.4x in Alpha Blending. It’s possible the Mi3 is using slower RAM. While I was unable to determine the speed rating of the SK Hynix module, the Geekbench 3 Memory test helps corroborate my theory. In the Single-Core test, the performance delta between the Mi3 and MX3 is again 1.3x, and in the Multi-Core test, where memory bandwidth is further taxed, the delta grows to 1.5x. The Alpha Blending test requires even more bandwidth, so it makes sense that the Mi3 performs worse.

Again, there’s no real change when running this test off-screen.

The on-screen ALU test is v-sync limited; the iPhone 5s, Nexus 5, and Note 3 all max out. The N1 comes close to the ceiling, but the Mi3 and MX3 fall significantly behind.

Rendering off-screen removes the v-sync constraint and yields more interesting results. The Adreno 330 shows off its shading prowess, easily defeating Rogue. The Note 3 is 1.17 times faster than the Nexus 5 and 1.79 times faster than the iPhone 5s. The N1, Mi3, and MX3 all fail to improve their scores.

The Driver Overhead test shows the iPhone 5s with nearly twice the performance, or almost half of the overhead, of the Mi3 in second place.

The N1 registers 21 percent less overhead when running ColorOS than CyanogenMod. Perhaps Oppo includes some driver tweaks to help performance. If so, they don't produce any tangible benefits in graphics performance.

The off-screen results are nearly identical, except the iPhone 5s manages to improve its already-impressive score.

14. Results: GPGPU Benchmarks

CompuBench Mobile is a benchmark that tests the compute performance of multi-core systems supporting the RenderScript API, which is a component of the Android operating system. The compute API is similar to CUDA or OpenCL, and can distribute parallel tasks across all compute cores, including the CPU and GPU (as of Android 4.2, RenderScript is expanded to run on the GPU, in addition to the CPU of supported systems). On compute-capable GPUs, the benchmark runs on the graphics engine. Otherwise, the tests stress the CPU cores. The sub-tests cover the following categories: Computer Vision (Face Detection), 3D Graphics (Provence - ray tracing), Image Processing (Gaussian Blur, Histogram), Physics (Particle Simulation – 4K), and Throughput (Julia Set, Ambient Occlusion).

All devices tested meet the requirements for RenderScript support: a compute-capable GPU and Android 4.2 or higher.

The Note 3 can pick a familiar face from the crowd quickest. Oppo's N1 with CyanogenMod comes in second and shows that the Snapdragon 600 SoC is a capable computational engine.

Based on their extremely low scores, it appears that the N1 running ColorOS and the Nexus 5 don't leverage their GPUs. Both devices support RenderScript, so either the API is disabled or the included GPU driver doesn’t include support.

The N1 does well in the ray tracing test, tying Samsung's Note 3. Again, the Nexus 5 trails the Note 3 by a significant margin, despite sporting similar hardware. Likewise, the N1 running ColorOS is more than twice as slow as when it’s running CyanogenMod, unable to fully use all of its compute resources.

The Nexus 5 finally gets the memo extolling RenderScript's virtues as it posts the best scores in all three Image Processing sub-tests. The Note 3 falls behind the Nexus 5 with scores similar to the N1 running CyanogenMod. ColorOS, however, still fails to enlist the help of the N1’s Adreno GPU. Apparently, the Gaussian Blur (RS Intrinsic) test ran only on the CPU for all devices, since the ranking is similar to all of the other CPU benchmarks.

In the Physics test, the N1 (CyanogenMod) is back on top, outperforming both Snapdragon 800-based devices. It’s closely followed by the Xiaomi Mi3. Obviously, RenderScript support is broken in ColorOS.

The Nexus 5 dominates the Julia Set Throughput test, showing more than four times the performance of the next-fastest device. After confirming this result with the CompuBenchRS online database, we contacted Kishonti (the benchmark’s developer) for an explanation. Kishonti stated that newer RenderScript drivers enable GPU acceleration for more tasks. The driver for the Nexus 5 apparently enables GPU support for the specific operations performed during the Julia Set test.

The remaining devices appear to run Julia Set solely on the CPU. Oppo's N1 with CyanogenMod utilizes all four of its Krait 300 cores while running this test. ColorOS only uses two of the four CPU cores for Julia Set, which explains why its score is roughly half of the value achieved using CyanogenMod. We saw similar behavior when running the Geekbench 3 Multi-Core benchmark. Clearly, ColorOS has trouble utilizing all four cores under heavy load, limiting the N1 to dual-core-like performance.

15. Brightness, Black Level, Contrast Ratio, And Gamma

Brightness

Brightness (also referred to as white level) measurements are taken by recording the luminance output of each device displaying a full white pattern, with the device’s brightness slider set to minimum and maximum values.

The Meizu MX3 achieves the lowest minimum brightness level, while Oppo's N1 brackets the group on the high end at 17.5 nits. Fortunately, all of these devices get dim enough that they won’t sear your retinas when you use them in the dark.

The backlight in the iPhone 5s outshines all others. With a much smaller screen to illuminate, Apple can spare some extra juice for its pixels without taking a huge hit out of battery life. That's a luxury the larger screens can’t afford.

Oppo’s N1 also gets very bright at over 400 nits, coming in just behind the iPhone 5s. Oppo overshadows its remaining competition, although all of the devices (except the rather dim AMOLED display in the Note 3) get acceptably bright.

In order to make device comparison possible, the rest of our display measurements, along with our battery testing, are performed with the screen set to a standardized white level of 200 nits.

Black Level

Our black level measurement is the luminance output of a full black pattern after the luminance output of full white has been standardized to 200 nits. AMOLED displays will always measure a black level of zero, since their pixels simply turn off to render black.

The Note 3's Super AMOLED screen wins this test by default by producing a true black. The N1 also performs well, placing ahead of the iPhone 5s. The impressive black level recorded while running ColorOS (half the value achieved when running CyanogenMod) suggests that Oppo provides some screen optimizations for its in-house OS.

Contrast Ratio

Contrast ratio is the difference between a full white pattern and a full black pattern. Due to their zero reading on black level tests, AMOLED displays are said to have an infinite contrast ratio.

The N1 shows the best contrast ratio of the group, if we ignore the Note 3’s infinite result. The N1/ColorOS combination, with its low black level, achieves an astounding ratio of 1706. Even without the tweaks in ColorOS, the N1 still manages a better contrast ratio than the iPhone 5s. The screens in the Mi3, MX3, and Nexus 5 all have ratios below 700, negatively impacting their display quality compared to the chart's top end.

Gamma

Gamma compensates for the linear brightness levels displayed by a screen, versus the nonlinear way our eyes perceive light. A gamma curve of 2.2 is what we want to see, as a screen with a gamma less than 2.2 appears brighter and with less shadow detail, while a gamma larger than 2.2 displays heavy shadows with fewer highlights.

The factory-calibrated screen in the iPhone 5s gets closest to the optimal gamma value. The Note 3 and N1 with ColorOS also come close, while the Nexus 5 is the furthest from ideal.

Color Temperature

Color temperature is a measurement in Kelvin, which is used to describe how “warm” or “cool” a given display is. Ideally, as long as you're not viewing your device in direct sunlight, this should be in the 6500 range. Higher color temperatures result in a cool, bluish hue, while lower temperatures deliver a warm or reddish tone.

All of the tested devices have a color temperature above 6500, but the higher temperatures displayed by the MX3 and Note 3 give their screens a noticeable blue tint. The Mi3 comes closest to the ideal value, while the N1 is only about ten percent over, regardless of operating system.

Color Gamut

Our volume measurements are compared against both the sRGB and AdobeRGB color gamuts. A reading of 100 percent on sRGB and 72 percent on AdobeRGB is optimal for viewing the vast majority of digital consumer content. A lower reading is typically accompanied by an overly red or yellow image. Meanwhile, a higher reading is usually too blue/green.

The Note 3 manages to appear as a wide-gamut display in the sRGB color space, easily surpassing the 100 percent mark, which tends to produce overly vibrant, or “neon,” colors when viewing standard sRGB content. Curiously, it only covers 59 percent of the AdobeRGB color space, the second-lowest overall.

When running CyanogenMod, the N1 displays a respectable 91 percent of sRGB and 63 percent of AdobeRGB. However, with the screen controlled by ColorOS, coverage drops to only 77 percent of sRGB and 53 percent of AdobeRGB. This is disappointing, especially considering how well the N1 with ColorOS performs in the other display tests.

16. Results: Battery Life And Performance

Basemark OS II

Basemark OS II comes with a demanding battery test that almost completely drains the phone from 100% power to calculate a final score that represents its power and longevity.

The N1’s large, non-removable 3610 mAh battery provides excellent run-time and leads the pack by a significant margin. It scores about 30 percent better than the iPhone 5s, which is known for its endurance.

What’s bad for performance is a boon for battery life. The Note 3’s overly aggressive frequency scaling algorithm helps it outlast the higher-clocked Nexus 5. It also lasted about 20 percent longer than it did when running Samsung’s benchmark-gaming version of Android 4.3.

BatteryXPRT 2014

BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android estimates battery life. It’s modeled in part after the MobileXPRT benchmark, which consists of ten real­ world test scenarios encompassing various photo operations and encryption.

BatteryXPRT 2014 can be run in two different modes: Airplane mode, which estimates battery life for a device with no Internet connectivity, and Network mode, which estimates battery life for a device connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi or cellular data connection.

Both the Note 3 and N1 perform well. Samsung's offering lasts the longest in Network mode (an hour longer than the N1 with ColorOS). When connectivity is turned off, however, the Note 3’s advantage over the N1 drops to about 18 minutes.

Operating system choice impacts the N1’s battery life by a small amount, as ColorOS lasts seven percent longer in Airplane mode and 12 percent longer with Wi-Fi turned on than CyanogenMod.

The N1’s brilliant battery life loses some of its luster when we take performance into consideration, though. While it outlasts the Nexus 5 by four to seven hours, the N1 is also 33 percent slower. Considering the large advantage in battery life, this might not be a bad tradeoff.

Even though the N1 with ColorOS lasts longer than the alternative OS, CyanogenMod performs 37 percent better. In this light, CyanogenMod appears to be the better choice for performance per watt, since it provides a big speed boost for a 12 percent battery life hit.

GFXBench 3.0

GFXBench 3.0 measures battery life and performance stability by logging frame and battery discharge rate as the T-Rex test loops at least 30 times. The results are given in two scores: estimated battery life in minutes and the number of frames rendered on the slowest test run (to gauge if a device is throttling).

Looking at battery run-time in isolation, the N1 makes a lasting impression. With ColorOS installed, the N1 runs for 4.7 hours. That's nine percent better than the 4.3 hours from CyanogenMod.

Once again, taking performance into account affects our perception of the battery life results. The iPhone 5s might only run for 1.9 hours, but it maintains a minimum of 41 frames per second without even a hint of thermal throttling.

If the iPhone 5s is the hare, sprinting towards the finish line, then Oppo's N1 is the tortoise, plodding along at 39 percent of the hare’s pace. However, this tortoise stays in the race nearly 2.5x longer. To gauge who truly wins the race, we need to calculate the “distance” each device travels. In this case, the distance traveled is really the total number of frames rendered and velocity is analogous to frames per second. Thus, the total number of frames rendered is simply FPS times battery life.

The overall winner then is the Note 3 with 312,780 frames rendered before its battery gives out. Behind the Note 3, the finishing order is: iPhone 5s (285,360), Oppo N1 (269,760), Nexus 5 (204,240), Xiaomi Mi3 (159,720), and Meizu MX3 (98,670).

These results illustrate the complexity of battery life discussions. There are numerous variables like battery capacity, screen size/efficiency, CPU speed/efficiency, GPU speed/efficiency, etc. that factor into the equation, making it nearly impossible to guess overall performance by looking at the specs for any single piece of hardware.

17. A Phablet For A Niche Market

With its N1, Oppo hopes the light from its large 5.9" screen acts as a beacon, luring consumers to the company's phablet on a global scale. But, simply making a phone bigger isn’t enough. For the N1 to join the phablet elite, it needs a stylish appearance, cutting-edge performance, and a unique set of features that complement the spacious screen and compensate for a loss of portability.

The N1’s hybrid aluminum and plastic chassis gives it a premium feel. And the matte white finish, combined with tasteful chrome accents, completes a stylish package that competes with the best-designed smartphones.

Inside the attractive chassis is a Snapdragon 600 SoC with four Krait 300 cores and Adreno 320 graphics, matched up to 2 GB of RAM. The choice of second-tier silicon handicaps the N1 relative to its peers, most of which sport a faster Snapdragon 800 SoC. Unsurprisingly, the N1 fails to distinguish itself in any of our CPU or GPU benchmarks.

Even though the N1’s performance doesn't garner any honors, it's still a capable smartphone. During my time with the N1, I never felt like I was waiting on the hardware to catch up. Frame rates remained playable in the few games I tried, and UI scrolling performance was generally smooth once content finished loading. The only stuttering I encountered was app-specific (Evernote was a bit choppy), so I can’t pin blame on the SoC, per se. While the N1 might not be the best choice for hardcore games or taxing software, it’s more than adequate for media consumption, casual gaming, and general productivity apps.

The N1 fails to secure any bonus points for its lack of a microSD slot, and the big 3610 mAh battery isn’t removable either. However, the power source's extra capacity overcomes the power draw from a 5.9" IPS display, helping the N1 charge into first place through several battery life benchmarks.

Oppo's open OS policy is refreshing and commendable. Recognizing the impossibility of creating one operating environment able to satisfy everyone, the company provides two solid, but very different offerings.

ColorOS makes it easy to personalize your N1, and the included gesture support helps automate common tasks. Still early in its development, the ColorOS UI design needs further refinement, and many of its features seem incomplete (App Encryption and Data Saving) or are unworkable in their current state (Guest Mode).

CyanogenMod eschews the extensive skinning used in ColorOS for a more Google-like experience that should appeal to Android purists and power users. Its tunable interface, support for Profiles, and true encryption are all great features, but you lose the gesture control and support for the N1's unique hardware offered by ColorOS.

The choice of operating system must be decided by supported features and aesthetics, since our benchmark results don't identify a clear winner in performance. ColorOS and CyanogenMod exhibit similar performance in the CPU benchmarks. Oppo’s OS handles the photo editing tasks in MobileXPRT 2013 a little better, but CyanogenMod shows a clear performance advantage in the Geekbench 3 Multi-Core test. There is no significant difference between the two in our CPU-dependent Web browsing tests.

CyanogenMod, benefitting from the enhanced graphics engine in its newer Android 4.3 core, achieves slightly better scores in a few of the GPU metrics. The difference in real-world gaming should be negligible though, except for a few very specific scenarios. The CompuBenchRS benchmark, which tests GPU compute performance, is the one test that scores both packages quite differently. ColorOS is the big loser, unable to run RenderScript code on the Adreno GPU. We also discovered an issue where ColorOS doesn’t properly utilize all four CPU cores under heavy load. This isn't the result of thermal throttling and the cores weren’t completely disabled, since they briefly powered up during system events. ColorOS either uses a buggy driver or a mistuned power management routine. While ColorOS limits the N1's Snapdragon 600 to dual-core performance in some scenarios, the lack of real-world, threaded applications means the issue isn’t a deal breaker. It's only noticeable when running specific benchmarks or certain games.

Ultimately, the N1's defining feature isn't its large screen or choice of operating systems, but rather that unique rotating camera. The front-facing camera was once an afterthought. But that's quickly changing. The Internet shows that while people like taking pictures of cats, they love taking pictures of themselves. Using the N1, your front-facing shots can look just as good as the rear-facing ones. The rotating camera module serves its intended purpose well and exhibits excellent craftsmanship.

A well-designed product isn’t just about the quantity of unique features, but the quality of their execution. Mediocre picture quality dulls the shine of Oppo's versatile, rotating camera. The iPhone 5s (with a good, but not excellent camera) produces superior images under all lighting conditions compared to the N1, which has issues with properly setting exposure and white balance, excess noise, and a tendency to create blurry, unfocused pictures.

O-Touch, the secondary touch panel on the back of the N1 that promises to ease one-handed use, is also marred by poor execution. An active area that’s too small and difficult to locate, slow scroll rate without any momentum, and frequent unintended inputs severely limit its usefulness when using ColorOS. Performance is even worse with CyanogenMod due to an immature software driver.

Starting at $599 for 16 GB of internal storage and $649 for 32 GB, the N1 hits the median price point for an unlocked phablet. For about the same price though, both the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and LG G Pro 2 give you a faster Snapdragon 800 SoC, support for Cat4 LTE, a microSD slot, and a removable battery. The Note 3, with its S Pen and Multi Window multi-tasking, and HTC One max, with its premium speakers and enhanced media-editing software, both make good use of their large-format screens. The N1, on the other hand, fails to capitalize on that big display. Its rotating camera, the one feature setting it apart from other smartphones, would work just as well on a phone with a smaller screen. So, you end up carrying around a larger, heavier phone for the sole benefit of viewing content more easily.

The Oppo N1 is not a bad phone, but with so many strong contenders in the phablet arena, it’s difficult to recommend unless you are a selfie fanatic or just love the rotating camera. Still, Oppo demonstrates a penchant for creativity and industrial design with its N1, and I look forward to seeing what this emerging company does in the future.

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