Oppo announced the Find 5 smartphone in December last year, when it found itself up against the exciting new Droid DNA, one of the first devices to feature a 1080p display. Although at first it seemed like the phone wouldn’t be released outside of China, Oppo later made it available through its own Oppousa.com website, where the device could be purchased, unlocked, for $500.
Now, Oppo has decided to branch out even further, opening a new web store for Europe, where the Find 5 can be ordered for 400 euros, or about £340. For once, the price is almost identical to the U.S. dollar cost, a refreshing change from the often sizable markup Europeans must deal with on electronics.
So what do you get in return for your 400 euros? The Find 5 has a 5-inch, 1080p IPS LCD touchscreen, and is powered by a 1.5GHz, quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor with 2GB of RAM. The phone has 3G HSPA+ connectivity, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and GPS. Flip the 8.9mm thick device over, and you’ll find the lens to a 13-megapixel camera with an HDR shooting mode, plus 1080p video recording.
Google Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is installed, but Oppo’s website makes a point of saying various other ROMs are supported, including CyanogenMod, Pac Rom and Paranoid Android. If you decide to leave the Oppo standard, the company promises to update the device twice a month with new features, which sounds ambitious, but will surely please owners if it can deliver.
Of course, Oppo is relatively unknown as a smartphone manufacturer, particularly outside of China, but there’s no denying the Find 5 is very well-priced for its specification. In the UK, a 16GB Nexus 4 – which has a lower screen resolution, a smaller screen, and an 8-megapixel camera – costs £280 from Google, while an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S4 costs around £500, potentially making the Find 5 attractive to those who want S4-level specs for a much lower price.
You can visit the new European site here where the phone is available to buy in both white and Midnight colors, and with either 16GB or 32GB of storage space.
