Oppo R15 and R15 Pro hands-on review

Introduction

Oppo just announced its R15 flagship duo, which not only represents the latest and greatest from the world's fifth largest manufacturer, but also comes to show what to expect from OnePlus and Vivo - the other two in BBK Electronics' smartphone trifecta.

The better specced member seemed like a mouthful at first, carrying the clumsy Dream Mirror Edition title, but Oppo assured us that it will be known as the much simpler R15 Pro. With that silliness out of the way, we can take the R15 pair a bit more seriously.

Oppo R15 at a glance

• Body: Aluminum frame, glass back, glass front, Corning Gorilla Glass 5, 155.1 x 75.2 x 7.4 mm, 175 grams
• Display: 6.28-inch AMOLED, 1080x2280px, 401ppi, 2.5D glass
• OS: Android 8.1 Oreo with ColorOS 5.0 on top
• Chipset: Mediatek Helio P60, 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A53, octa-core CPU, Mali-G72 MP3 GPU, 6GB RAM
• Storage: 128GB internal with microSD hybrid (SIM2) expansion slot
• Rear Camera: Dual 16MP, f/1.7, 1/2.6", 1.22 µm, PDAF, plus 5MP, f/2.2, LED flash, 4K video recording
• Front Camera: 20MP, f/2.0, 1080p video recording
• Connectivity: Dual SIM, Dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.2, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, A-GPS/GLONASS, NFC, microUSB 2.0
• Battery: 3,450mAh non-removable, VOOC Flash Charge 5V/4A
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted)

Oppo R15 Pro at a glance

• Body: Aluminum frame, ceramic back, glass front, Corning Gorilla Glass 5, 155.3 x 75 x 7.5 mm, 175 grams
• Display: 6.28-inch AMOLED, 1080x2280px, 401ppi, 2.5D glass
• OS: Android 8.1 Oreo with ColorOS 5.0 on top
• Chipset: Qualcomm SDM660 Snapdragon 660, 4x2.2 GHz Kryo 260 & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260, octa-core CPU, Adreno 512 GPU, 6GB RAM
• Storage: 128GB internal with microSD hybrid (SIM2) expansion slot
• Rear Camera: Dual 16MP, f/1.7, 1/2.6", 1.22 µm, PDAF, plus 20MP, f/1.7, 1/2.8", 1 µm, LED flash, 4K video recording
• Front Camera: 20MP, f/2.0, 1080p video recording
• Connectivity: Dual SIM, Dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, A-GPS/GLONASS, NFC, microUSB 2.0
• Battery: 3,400mAh non-removable, VOOC Flash Charge 5V/4A
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (rear-mounted)

The differences between the include chipset - where the Pro has Snapdragon 660 rather than the MediaTek P60 and the camera - 16+20MP on the Pro vs 16+5MP on the lesser model. The Pro also rocks a ceramic body with a different finish, which gives it its lengthy Chinese name. Battery capacity difference is just 50mAh, which is barely worth a mention and while the chipset limitations mean no Bluetooth 5.0 on the vanilla R15 it's hardly a big deal.

The 6.28" notched OLED panel is shared between the two and so is the Color OS launcher running over Android 8.1 Oreo. Storage and RAM are also unchanged, so one has to wonder if the Pro version is worth the extra cash. That's a question for another day though - one where we will have the full review completed. For now, lets focus on handling the two phones and see how they work beyond the official presentations and fancy promo videos.