The OPPO Find 5 mini smartphone
Coming to the Malaysian market, the OPPO Find 5 mini slots in nicely between the OPPO R1 and OPPO NEO smartphones both in terms of tech specs and features along with pricing. Going for the same slim design as the other two smartphones, it offers features that should make it well-suited for the entry-level to midrange user. Does it suit your needs and purposes? Is it just right for you? Read our review of the OPPO Find 5 mini smartphone to find out.
Design - Slim, flat backed, dotted and semi-premium
The OPPO Find 5 mini was originally based on the former flagship OPPO Find 5 smartphone so it makes sense that Find 5 mini looks somewhat like it. The resulting design is a black front with slim bezels and a white backside with a dotted patterns covered by a transparent glass-like layer. Because of that, the Find 5 mini looks semi premium as only one side looks somewhat like tempered glass. However, since it isn't glass, the Find 5 mini is quite slim at 7.75mm and also lightweight at just 128g. We found the smartphone fairly comfortable to hold despite the mainly flat backside. Build quality is top notch though as the phone is quite rigid with not much flex despite the flat and thin design. The only downside that we can see from this is that the glass-like layer tends to attract smudges and scratches quite easily so getting an extra casing for the smartphone should be one of the first things you do after getting it. Size-wise the Find 5 mini fits well into most pockets and works well one-handed.
The design for the OPPO Find 5 mini is slim and flat backed
Tech specs and Features - 4.7-inch display, 8MP camera and Gesture-based Color OS
Despite being a 'mini' smartphone, the OPPO Find 5 mini is outfitted well with many midrange-level features. This includes an 8MP Sony BSI camera sensor with f/2.0 aperture that also comes with a single LED flash. A Double AR coating and Blue Glass IR Filter help to increase picture clarity and reduces picture noise for better looking shots. A 2MP front camera rounds things up for some decent selfie shots. All the usual camera features are there including a beautify option, Panorama mode and HDR but some newer options like smart remove and the like aren't. However, there is a voice control shoot so you can trigger the camera with just your voice. Featuring a 4.7-inch display, the Find 5 mini offers an IPS screen for better viewing angles with a 960 x 540 pixel resolution which looks good but isn't nearly as sharp as a full HD 1080p or 720p display. Other tech specs are quite good with a 1.3GHZ quad-core processor, 1GB RAM and 4GB worth of storage along with support for up to 32GB microSD while a 2000 mAh battery keeps the lights on. The smartphone offers GPS + AGPS along with 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and 3G connectivity, but only offers Bluetooth 2.1 wireless connectivity.
The 4.7-inch display offers vibrant colours
As is usual of the OPPO devices we've seen so far, the OPPO Find 5 mini comes equipped with OPPO's Color OS. Based on Android 4.2, the user interface adds on a number of mostly gesture based features such as the ability to link gestures to shortcuts. While we found the Swype like keyboard to be quite responsive, it does take some getting used to. The camera widget is still as nice as before, featuring previous shots below the in-picture camera view for a preview of what you've taken before.
The Color OS is very gesture based but has some nice features like the camera widget
Performance - Runs good and fast but a bit too fast for the battery
In terms of performance, we found that the OPPO Find 5 mini handles most apps and games quite well. First-person shooters and 3D runners go quite smoothly but the larger sized games may have some lag to them. Our benchmarks reveal a midrange 17344 score on AnTuTu and a 53.8 frame per second on Epic Citadel.
The OPPO Find 5 mini and it's AnTuTu benchmark score
The phone does get a bit warm after a heavy gaming session but it cools off quite fast as well. We did notice that the battery goes a bit faster than the 2000 mAh it says it offers, resulting in about 4-5 hours worth of heavy continuous use. Turning on the GPS will shorten this time by about 1 hour or so but if you don't and keep it on just WiFi, the Find 5 mini can last a day before needing a recharge.
The OPPO Find 5 mini can handle most games and apps quite smoothly
We found the display to be quite colourful with vibrant colours but images and text on screen aren't as sharp or crisp as other smartphones we've seen. This is understandable due to the lower resolution but it should still handle HD movies quite well. We found audio performance to be quite loud but there are some issues when it becomes too loud such as static on the higher decibels.
The OPPO Find 5 mini running the Epic Citadel 3D benchmark
For the most part, the 8MP camera does quite well in indoor and outdoor situations. It captures most shots well, but does have some issues with very low-light conditions. You can get pretty good sunsets with it but indoor shots with the lights off can get a bit grainy. Selfie shots with the 2MP front camera are good but only with good lighting due to the lower amount fo pixels. We found the flash to be quite even with above average exposure so the Find 5 mini should offer good performance as a cameraphone.
8MP, Auto, Indoors with lights on
8MP, Auto, Indoors with lights off
Price - Lots of competition
Retailing at RM998, the OPPO Find 5 mini faces some rather stiff competition as many former flagship smartphones have dropped in price along with some that have higher-end features and tech specs. A quick search at our sister site of MobileMegaMall.com reveals that this list includes the Samsung Galaxy S3, Sony Xperia SP, Nokia Lumia 1320 and Samsung Galaxy Note. Newer midrange smartphones with higher-end tech specs are also being offered at lower prices, including the ASUS ZenFone 5, ZenFone 6 and Huawei Honor 3C along with various smartphones from Alcatel and Lenovo. We expect that OPPO could do well by lowering the price somewhat considering the recently released OPPO Find 7 smartphone due to the RM1998 pricing but this is just speculation for now.
Conclusion - Perfect for those looking for a slim and flat backed semi premium cameraphone
Just like there are all sorts of people in the world, there are many types of smartphone users and those looking for a flat backed semi premium cameraphone with fairly large 4.7-inch display will really like the OPPO Find 5 mini. Most smartphones today are going for the rounded and curved backside look while most of the slim and flat designed smartphones are in the higher-end price range. While we found the pricing of the Find 5 mini to be rather high for what it offers, this is mainly because there are many newer smartphones coming out for the entry-level to midrange market. Performance-wise, the Find 5 mini does quite well apart from the rather fast battery but it should be a good cameraphone for most users with build quality and design being much better than most smartphones in this class.
Great entry-level to midrange cameraphone for those who like slim and flat backed devices
*TechNave.com would like to thank OPPO Malaysia for the OPPO Find 5 mini review unit. It allowed us to do a more in-depth review and highlight more features.
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