We are just a few weeks away from 2019 and all the major tech brands are already done with major launches of this year. Oppo, however, is not yet done. It managed to turn some heads earlier this year with a few smartphones, with the Oppo F9 Pro and Oppo Find X being the most popular ones. But it wants to end the year by staying in the news because of its Oppo R17 Pro.
The smartphone was introduced in China with the RX 17 Pro moniker and has now made its way into the Indian market. It’ll cost you Rs 45, 990 and is already available to buy online.With the given price, Oppo seems to make its position strong in the market, which is currently not yet crowded and is a segment where you get last year’s flagship smartphones ( for now) . This also means some of the closest rivals come from the sibling brands - OnePlus 6T and Vivo Nex, both of which are using Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor.
Oppo has not gone for something ‘new’ this time like it did for the Find X but has instead used the tried and tested design, something similar to what we saw with the OnePlus 6T. Keeping them side by side is likely to give you a tough time differentiating which is which. It’s not a bad design by any means though. Oppo R17 Pro is fairly easy to use. It is light but slippery.
While the metal sides bring the ‘premium’ factor onboard, the plain backside with the triple rear camera setup in the middle gives a clean look. Oppo says it used a ‘matte glass’ back panel, which interestingly looks similar to what OnePlus used in OnePlus 6 variants. Oppo has adopted the gradient back panel, something that is increasingly becoming a trend these days. Huawei and Honor have been doing this since long but Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus are the recent entrants in this game. This definitely makes the R17 Pro appear ‘different’ but for some the bright colour gradient might just be a turn off. It managed to turn a few heads towards itself while we used it in public.
As for the ports and buttons, you can find the power button and the volume buttons on the right and left sides that are also easily accessible regardless of which hand you are using to operate it. There’s a mono speaker at the bottom that unfortunately is poorly placed as your hands will be blocking it almost every time when in landscape mode. The type-C port is at the centre and the SIM card tray is on the right.
The 3.5mm headphone jack is gone this time around but you do get a type-C earphone in the box. Also, there’s no 3.5mm to type-C converter inside. Another downside here is that the rear camera bump is visible and can be felt easily. What’s worse is that the bump makes the handset wobble on a hard surface
We have been using the smartphone since past few days as our daily driver, wondering what makes it worth the price in a market like India. What will make the customers turn towards R17 Pro? Well, there are quite a few factors. But there is one major drawback as well.
