Oppo R819 review: Asian blade

Oppo R819 360-degree spin

The Oppo R819 measures 136.5 x 68 x 7.3mm and weighs 110g. For comparison's sake, an HTC Desire 600 (with a smaller, 4.5" screen) measures 134.8 x 67 x 9.3mm and weighs 130g.

Design and handling

The Oppo R819 has a very standard Android phone design - a rounded rectangle with a silver strip running around its side, a big screen and three capacitive keys on the front. Unlike the Find 5, which was an attractive phone, the R819 is pretty ordinary. Nothing wrong with that, but you'll probably have people asking you what kind of Samsung or LG it is.

Oppo R819

The first thing you notice when you pick up the Oppo R819 is how thin and light it is. It's just the right size to fit in the hand comfortably too. However, the bezels around the 4.7" screen are fairly thick compared to most other phones - by no means huge, but could've definitely been smaller.

The Oppo R819 feels thin and light in the hand

The back of the Oppo R819 is made of a glossy plastic with a subtle diamond pattern to it. It's not the best plastic we've seen, but we like it better than Samsung's favorite hyperglaze finish.

This back cover is actually removable, but there's not much you can do - the 2,000mAh battery is right there, but it's attached with cables and there' no microSD card slot. At least you can easily change the back panel yourself if it gets damaged.

Display

The Oppo R819 has a 4.7" LCD display of 720p resolution and 312ppi. It's sharp, as sharp as a flagship from last season, and sharper than most of the dual-SIM phones on offer.

Oppo R819 screen under a microscope

The display has very good viewing angles with only minor shifts in contrast at extreme tilt. Colors are vivid and the high contrast makes for fine image quality, better than some of the competitors that passed by recently (HTC Desire 600 dual sim, Samsung Galaxy S4 mini duos). It's very good compared to midrange droids in general.

Best of all, the display is bright - we kept it at under half brightness most of the time and that was quite enough. But you can push it to full brightness to help the sunlight legibility. The display is on the reflective side, so visibility under direct sunlight suffers.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Apple iPhone 5
  3.997
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Nokia Lumia 925
  3.402
• Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4
  3.352
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  3.127
• Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
  3.118
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  2.801
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Sony Xperia ZR
  2.672
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• Nokia Lumia 720
  2.512
• HTC One
  2.504
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  2.422
• Motorola RAZR i
  2.366
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2.307
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  2.262
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Oppo Find 5
  2.088
• BlackBerry Z10
  2.051
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• HTC One mini
  2.003
• Oppo R819
  1.957
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Samsung Galaxy Camera
  1.938
• HTC Butterfly
  1.873
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1.865
• Sony Xperia V
  1.792
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• BlackBerry Q5
  1.682
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• LG Optimus GJ
  1.666
• HTC Desire V
  1.646
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1.552
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• Nokia Asha 501
  1.270
• LG Optimus L7
  1.269
• LG Optimus L9
  1.227
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Sony Xperia E dual
  1.203
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  1.180
• Sony Xperia tipo
  1.166
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2
  1.114