Oppo R7 review: Changing course

Phonebook and telephony

The phonebook uses a tabbed interface - it offers groups, contact list and favorites. The UI is pretty standard Android affair, customized to match Oppo's styling.

A tap on a contact's photo brings out Quick contacts - shortcuts for calling, texting, emailing a contact and a bit more (e.g. a Chrome shortcut to visit their web site).

Phonebook

Contact info is displayed as a list of all available details. Custom ringtones can be selected for each contact and duplicate contacts can be merged into a single entry.

Contact syncing tools are very powerful - contacts can be moved or copied between phone storage and a Google account, they can be synced with an Exchange server or Facebook, and you can send / import contacts over Bluetooth.

Viewing and editing a contact

There's an Anti-harassment mode located in the contacts app, which is pretty powerful. You can put numbers in a blacklist, block messages and intercept spam calls. The strange thing is, you can't block people from within the messaging or phone app - only in the contacts app.

The dialer supports Smart dialing just fine (looking up both names and phone numbers).

Dialer

The Oppo R7 scored an average mark in our loudspeaker test. It's on par with the R1x, and thus a bit of a letdown, since Oppo has already shown it can do louder with the R5 and the N3. It did best with the ringing phone sample, so with the right ringtone you may be able to get a pretty loud ringer.

The Oppo R7 is a dual-SIM device and as such offers you the choice to select which card to use for different tasks. You can also add a name for each card for easier distinguishing between the two.

Dual-SIM settings

Messaging and email

The messaging department is pretty standard - there's a list of all bubble-styled conversations organized into threads, with a big New Message button at the bottom and a settings button next to it.

Attaching multimedia to a message will turn it into an MMS. You can add everything from photos, videos, audio to general files. There's even a full blown slide editor if you want to make full use of the MMS standard. The Attach location option is pretty nice too.

Messaging

There is a heavily customized email app for all your other email accounts and it can handle multiple POP or IMAP inboxes. You have access to the messages in the original folders that are created online, side by side with the standard local ones such as inbox, drafts and sent items.

Oppo's built-in email client

The Oppo R7 offers a great Swype-enabled keyboard with big keys and they become even bigger when you switch to landscape mode. There is an option to change the individual key height in both portrait and landscape, which isn't found that often. Themes are available too. You can also have split or mini keyboard layouts.

Placing the device in landscape expands the keyboard immensely and replaces the layout of the original app with just a text box, so you have plenty of room to type.

Keyboard