Oppo R7s review: Filling the gaps

Synthetic benchmarks

The Oppo R7s is powered by the Snapdragon 615, much like the R7, R7 Plus, R7 lite, R5, R5s and R1x in the company's own lineup, as well as countless other smartphones this year. Unlike any of these, the R7s comes with a whopping 4GB of RAM, so you'd have little trouble switching between apps, even if you tend to keep all of them open at the same time.

In the CPU-centric benchmark GeekBench the Oppo R7s scores virtually the same as the R7 Plus - meaning a top result for Snapdragon 615 devices. It's also a substantially better performer than the company's own R5, R7 and R1x, all of which were running KitKat at the time of testing (and likely for good).

The Samsung Galaxy A7 posts lower figures, and the Motorola Moto X Play is even further down the chart. The Samsung Galaxy A8 scores higher than the Oppo R7s here, but do note that we had the Exynos 5430 powered version for testing.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• OnePlus 2
  4429
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  4242
• Moto X Pure Edition
  3433
• Sony Xperia Z3+ final
  3402
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  3375
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  3321
• Oppo R7s
  3206
• Oppo R7 Plus
  3204
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  3094
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (Z3580)
  2922
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  2880
• Oppo R5
  2806
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  2717
• Oppo R7
  2683
• Motorola Moto X Play
  2608
• Oppo R1x
  2507
• LG G3
  2370
• ZUK Z1
  2341
• OnePlus X
  2297

In Antutu the R7s scores very close to its larger brother too. Again, you'd be hard pressed to find a better-performing Snapdragon 615 device. The R7s does lose to 800-series Snapdragons though, be they old or new. The Zenfone 2 with its Intel Atom inside is also superior, as far as Antutu goes.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  50875
• Moto X Pure Edition
  50629
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  49554
• Sony Xperia Z3+ final
  49441
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (Z3580)
  48361
• OnePlus 2
  47207
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  46307
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  45632
• ZUK Z1
  43088
• LG G3
  42038
• OnePlus X
  39990
• Oppo R7s
  37857
• Oppo R7 Plus
  37750
• Motorola Moto X Play
  37020
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  35038
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  31436
• Oppo R5
  31417
• Oppo R1x
  30187
• Oppo R7
  29452

Basemark OS 2.0 is more of the same - excellent results for the chipset, but not on par with the high-end offerings. Here the R7s trails the R7 Plus for the first time, but is again comfortably ahead of the Galaxy A7 and Moto X Play.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• OnePlus 2
  1622
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  1353
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  1233
• Sony Xperia Z3+ final
  1226
• OnePlus X
  1213
• LG G3
  1189
• ZUK Z1
  1178
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  1089
• Oppo R7 Plus
  968
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  939
• Oppo R7s
  930
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  813
• Motorola Moto X Play
  809
• Oppo R7
  757
• Oppo R1x
  753
• Oppo R5
  710

It's graphics performance, where Qualcomm's uber popular midrange chip shows its weakness, even more notably so on FullHD displays like the one on the Oppo R7s. Still, the various R7's are yet again leading the pack ahead of similarly equipped devices. The Snapdragon 8xx devices are simply in a different league, with the S810-powered ones firmly on top.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• OnePlus 2
  21937
• Sony Xperia Z3+ final
  20767
• Moto X Pure Edition
  14598
• ZUK Z1
  13596
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (Z3580)
  13414
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  13075
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  12096
• LG G3
  10580
• OnePlus X
  10572
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  8838
• Oppo R7
  5382
• Oppo R7 Plus
  5349
• Oppo R7s
  5302
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  5062
• Motorola Moto X Play
  5032
• Oppo R5
  4855
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  4802
• Oppo R1x
  4018

GFX Bench reiterates what we already know from Basemark X - the Adreno 405 bundled with the Snapdragon 615 isn't quite up to the task to push FullHD resolution at high frame rates. The differences are almost non-existent among S615 phones in the offscreen test, and grow to marginal in the onscreen routine.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• ZUK Z1
  28
• OnePlus 2
  22
• Sony Xperia Z3+ final
  21
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  15
• Moto X Pure Edition
  15
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (Z3580)
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  13
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  11
• LG G3
  11
• OnePlus X
  9.9
• Oppo R7 Plus
  6
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  6
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  6
• Oppo R7
  5.9
• Oppo R7s
  5.9
• Oppo R5
  5.8
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8
• Motorola Moto X Play
  5.8
• Oppo R1x
  4.9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• ZUK Z1
  28
• OnePlus 2
  22
• Sony Xperia Z3+ final
  21
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  14
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  12
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (Z3580)
  12
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  11
• OnePlus X
  10
• Oppo R1x
  9.6
• Moto X Pure Edition
  9.3
• LG G3
  7.7
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  6.4
• Oppo R7 Plus
  6.3
• Oppo R7s
  6.2
• Motorola Moto X Play
  6.1
• Oppo R7
  5.9
• Oppo R5
  5.8
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  5.8

JavaScript is also traditionally not the S615's forte, as indicated by the Kraken benchmark. And even so, Oppo's models are among the better ones at it. General web page handling, as measured by Browsermark, is another area where the Oppo R7s is an average performer. It's also the first test, where we see it lose to the Galaxy A7 and Moto X Play.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  4506
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (Z3580)
  5057
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  5094
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  6382
• OnePlus 2
  6808
• Moto X Pure Edition
  6910
• OnePlus X
  7295
• LG G3
  7632
• ZUK Z1
  8409
• Sony Xperia Z3+ final
  9204
• Oppo R7
  11257
• Oppo R5
  11656
• Oppo R7s
  11679
• Oppo R7 Plus
  11908
• Motorola Moto X Play
  12236
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  12266
• Oppo R1x
  12826
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  13609
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  15815
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  18665

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Moto X Pure Edition
  2132
• Xiaomi Mi 4c
  2113
• OnePlus 2
  2055
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  1992
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (Z3580)
  1853
• Samsung Galaxy A7 (S615)
  1655
• Motorola Moto X Play
  1483
• LG G3
  1453
• Sony Xperia Z3+ final
  1436
• Oppo R7
  1433
• Oppo R7s
  1411
• OnePlus X
  1406
• Oppo R5
  1319
• ZUK Z1
  1278
• Oppo R7 Plus
  1224
• Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
  1171
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  793
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  748
• Oppo R1x
  627
• Huawei P8lite (Snapdragon 615)
  501

Overall, nothing we didn't expect from the Oppo R7s. Top-notch CPU and general performance, mediocre frame rates in 3D gaming and average results in the web-related benchmarks. Oppo's got a knack for squeezing the best out of the Snapdragon 615, but even so it can't break out of the chip's inherent limitations.