Oppo N1 CyanogenMod edition review: Pure mind

Google Now slightly updated

First introduced in Jelly Bean 4.1, Google Now is one of the most interesting additions to the OS. Google's voice-activated personal assistant is in the same neck of the woods as Apple's Siri, but it learns constantly from your daily routines.

It's accessed by holding the home button and gives you short overview of information it believes is relevant to you right now in the form of cards. Going to work in the morning? Google Now knows this and lets you know there's a big traffic jam on your usual way to the office, so it offers you a re-route.

It can interpret a lot of things from your search history as well. If you've been searching for, let's say, your favorite football team, Google Now will prepare a card showing you the next match the team is playing and will provide you score updates once the game begins.

Google Now

Google Now has been getting smarter and, if you allow it, can scan your email for upcoming flights, deliveries or restaurant reservations and duly notify you. There are also numerous kinds of cards like birthdays (yours and those of your contacts) and what distance you've walked in a particular month. The last one could definitely feel creepy for some users, but it's easily turned off in the Google Now settings menu. The latest addition to Google Now cards are TV and Offers.

Google has also integrated Voice Actions. They can handle stuff like sending messages (SMS or email), initiating a voice call, asking for directions, taking a note or opening a site. Google Now can also launch apps, check and manage your calendar and look for nearby places of interest and stuff like movie openings in theaters.

Google Now settings

One big advantage of since Jelly Bean is that dictation doesn't require an internet connection to work. You can dictate text anywhere in the interface where the on-screen keyboard is available - be it Messaging or a note taking app - without the need for a data connection as long as you have the required language packs installed (and those only take about 20-25MB of your storage per pack).

Google Now

Making voice typing available offline also made it faster as it's not dependent on your connection. What's even more impressive is that the transition hasn't cost it anything in terms of accuracy.

Synthetic benchmarks

The CyanogenMod Oppo N1 has a Snapdragon 600 chipset, which is not exactly top of the range any more. The Snapdragon 800 is already powering a dozen flagships, while its Snapdragon 805 successor is just around the corner.

Not that four Krait 300 cores is something to frown at, but they don't allow for the same instantaneous loading times or stuff like 4K video recording.

So let's dig right into it. Starting off with BenchmarkPi and Linpack. Both focus on the processing skills - BenchmarkPi focuses on individual cores while Linpack measures multi-threaded performance. In both cases the Oppo N1 performed as expected - matching its Snapdragon 600 peers and falling somewhat short of the Snapdragon 800-powered beasts.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• LG G Flex
  99
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  99
• LG G2
  99
• Sony Xperia Z1
  115
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  115
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  130
• HTC One Max
  131
• Oppo N1
  131
• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  131
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  132
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  132
• HTC Butterfly S
  135
• LG Nexus 5
  146
• LG Optimus G Pro
  147
• HTC One
  151
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  166
• Sony Xperia Z
  264
• HTC Butterfly
  266
• Oppo Find 5
  267
• HTC One X+
  280
• LG Optimus G
  285
• HTC One mini
  293
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  305
• Meizu MX3
  307
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  330
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  350
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  359
• Nexus 4
  431

Linpack is putting all four Krait 300 cores to the test and the CyanogenMod Oppo N1 didn't do as well as its ColorOS sibling.

Linpack

Higher is better

• LG G Flex
  1102
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  1081
• LG G2
  1054
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  1034
• Sony Xperia Z1
  1004
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  818
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  791
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  788
• LG Optimus G Pro
  743
• HTC One Max
  723
• Oppo N1
  688
• HTC Butterfly S
  669
• HTC One
  646
• Sony Xperia Z
  630
• HTC Butterfly
  624
• LG Optimus G
  608
• Oppo Find 5
  593
• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  544
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  413
• LG Nexus 5
  393
• HTC One mini
  320
• Meizu MX3
  289
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  214.3
• Nexus 4
  213.5
• HTC One X+
  177.7
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  175.5
• HTC One X
  160.9
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  141.5

The next benchmark we ran is GeekBench 3. It measures CPU and memory performance and, interestingly, the CyanogenMod version of the Oppo N1 scores significantly higher than the ColorOS one here.

Geekbench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  2937
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2670
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2638
• Apple iPhone 5s
  2561
• LG Nexus 5
  2453
• LG G Flex
  2254
• LG G2
  2243
• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  2032
• HTC One
  1972
• HTC One Max
  1899
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1869
• LG Optimus G
  1623
• Meizu MX3
  1579
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1315
• LG Nexus 4
  1288
• HTC Butterfly
  1257
• Oppo N1
  1207
• Oppo R819
  1047
• HTC One mini
  887

Quadrant and AnTuTu gauge the overall device performance. Here CyanogenMod Oppo N1 scored close to the regular version. In AnTuTu 4 it managed to get almost exactly the same result as the Snapdragon 800 packing Nexus 5.

Quadrant

Higher is better

• LG G Flex
  20521
• Sony Xperia Z1
  20388
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  20052
• LG G2
  19815
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  18177
• HTC Butterfly S
  13130
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  12446
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  12376
• LG Optimus G Pro
  12105
• HTC One Max
  11914
• HTC One
  11746
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  11346
• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  11079
• LG Nexus 5
  8844
• Oppo N1
  8099
• Sony Xperia Z
  8075
• HTC One X+
  7632
• LG Optimus G
  7439
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  7153
• Oppo Find 5
  7111
• Meizu MX3
  6116
• HTC One mini
  6048
• HTC One X
  5952
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  5916
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  5450
• Nexus 4
  4567

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• LG G Flex
  35831
• LG G2
  35444
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  31109
• Sony Xperia Z1
  30850
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  29185
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  27613
• Oppo N1
  26598
• HTC One
  26389
• HTC One Max
  26348
• LG Nexus 5
  25097
• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  25091
• Meizu MX3
  24391
• LG Nexus 4
  17006

It's time to test the Adreno 320 graphics performance. The CyanogenMod Oppo N1 scores a solid 20fps under the ColorOS variant of the phone and is ranking near the HTC One.

We ran the GFXBenchmark off-screen at 1080p resolution in order to test the raw power of the Adreno 320. It turned out just as powerful as the regular Oppo N1.

GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  68
• Sony Xperia Z1
  60
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  60
• Oppo N1
  58.8
• LG G Flex
  58
• LG Nexus 5
  57
• Apple iPhone 5s
  56
• LG G2
  54
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  43
• HTC Butterfly S
  42
• Meizu MX3
  42
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  41
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  41
• HTC One Max
  41
• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  38
• HTC One
  37
• Oppo Find 5
  32
• Google Nexus 4
  32
• Sony Xperia Z
  31
• Sony Xperia ZL
  31
• Sony Xperia SP
  31
• Apple iPhone 5
  30
• LG Optimus G Pro
  30
• LG Optimus G
  21
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  17
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  17
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  17
• HTC One mini
  15
• HTC One X
  11

GLBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  26
• LG Nexus 5
  23
• Sony Xperia Z1
  23
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  23
• Apple iPhone 5s
  23
• LG G Flex
  22
• LG G2
  22
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  17.1
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  17.1
• Apple iPad 4
  16.8
• HTC Butterfly S
  16
• Oppo N1
  16
• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  16
• HTC One Max
  14
• Google Nexus 10
  13.9
• LG Optimus G
  13.9
• Sony Xperia Z
  13.5
• Meizu MX3
  13
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  13
• Sony Xperia ZL
  12.8
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  6.4
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
  6.3
• HTC One mini
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  4.9

Epic Citadel

Higher is better

• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  59.4
• Meizu MX3
  58.8
• Oppo N1
  58.8
• LG G Flex
  56
• Sony Xperia Z1
  54.9
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  54.9
• LG G2
  51
• LG Nexus 5
  49.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  47.7
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  37.2
• HTC One
  35.6
• HTC One Max
  34.9
• HTC Butterfly
  29.6

The JavaScript performance of the CyanogenMod Oppo N1 stock browser is good enough for us, but certainly not the best we've seen.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Apple iPhone 5s
  403
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  587
• Apple iPhone 5
  694
• Apple iPhone 5c
  704
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  750
• LG Nexus 5
  827
• Sony Xperia Z1
  845
• LG G2
  908
• LG G Flex
  911
• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  955
• Oppo N1
  1012
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1046
• Meizu MX3
  1085
• HTC One
  1174
• HTC One Max
  1295
• LG Optimus G
  1293
• HTC One mini
  1375
• LG Nexus 4
  1379
• HTC Butterfly
  1397
• Oppo R819
  1423

The CyanogenMod Oppo N1 did well at the compound BrowserMark 2 test, and even managed to get very close to the more powerful Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 5s
  3549
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  3041
• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  2941
• Apple iPhone 5
  2825
• Apple iPhone 5c
  2799
• Oppo N1
  2769
• LG Nexus 5
  2745
• LG G2
  2718
• LG Optimus G
  2555
• LG G Flex
  2500
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  2438
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2419
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2398
• HTC Butterfly S
  2378
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  2338
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  2314
• HTC One
  2262
• HTC One Max
  2243
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  2170
• HTC One mini
  2164
• Sony Xperia ZL
  2107
• Sony Xperia Z
  2093
• Meizu MX3
  1832
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1801
• Oppo Find 5
  1797
• Nexus 4
  1794
• Nokia Lumia 920
  1774
• Google Nexus 10
  1773
• HTC Butterfly
  1475
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1247

Vellamo

Higher is better

• LG G Flex
  2977
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2944
• LG G2
  2908
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2904
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  2853
• HTC Butterfly S
  2592
• HTC One Max
  2523
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2418
• HTC One
  2382
• CyanogenMod Oppo N1
  2367
• HTC One mini
  2252
• Sony Xperia Z
  2189
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  2078
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  2060
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  2056
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  2019
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  1936
• HTC Butterfly
  1866
• Oppo Find 5
  1658
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1641
• Meizu MX3
  1619
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1568
• LG Optimus G
  1522
• Nexus 4
  1310