Oppo’s new phone, the Mirror 5 (Rs15,990) has been priced to take on the likes of the Xiaomi Mi4 (Rs 14,999) and Micromax Canvas Knight 2 (Rs 15,839). But, despite a good start, it falls short because of inferior specs.
Has bulk, but good-looking
Oppo Mirror 5 is a good-looking device with a glass finish on both sides of the phone, which is generally seen in high-end phones. While some other phones have also adopted this sort of a design, the Mirror 5 is more elegant in comparison mainly because of the diamond cut finish on the back panel. The other noticeable design element is the metal frame that doesn’t cover the side panel completely and one can see the plastic edges popping out from both sides. The flat design does mean the phone has a slab-like appearance, although the size itself is kept well in check. It weighs 160g which is more than the weight of some of the 5.5-inch phones.
Smooth and consistent performer
Oppo has used Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor and paired it with 2GB of RAM. What we basically experienced was hitch-free performance with no noticeable lag while switching from one app to another. A lot of smartphones tend to heat up while the user is playing games, but during our tests with games such as Dead Trigger 2 and GT Racing 2, the phone remained cool and even the metal sides did not feel warm. The phone comes with 16GB internal storage with about 11 GB free for users. You can add upto 128GB using a micro SD card. The Mirror 5 relies on a 2450mAH battery, which can last a full day without any issues.
Runs the latest Android
The device runs the latest version of Android 5.0 with its own custom interface, known as the Colour 2.0. Unlike what other Chinese brands such as Gionee and Huawei have done, Color OS looks simple and is easier to use—the icons are well spaced out, the animations look well distinguished and there are more optimizations such as a better laid out settings app. All this makes searching for apps and content much easier. Also, Oppo hasn’t cluttered the phone with preloaded apps and the few it has seems useful such as O-Cloud, infrared remote control app and a theme store.
There are some value additions too, such as the Security centre that improves performance by optimizing memory use and the battery load. This is one of the lightest non-stock Android UIs we have seen.
.jpg "The camera works well during daytime. In this image, colours and details have been captured very well.")
Good daylight snapper
Mirror 5 comes with an 8-megapixel camera with a host of fun features such as the Ultra HD mode, Slow shutter mode, Beautify mode and about 13 image filters. On a bright sunny day the camera is capable of churning out sharp looking pictures with accurate colours. Image processing is quick and auto-focus is quite effective too. The camera struggles in low-light though. The 5-megapixel front camera is good for individual selfies only, if the lighting is perfect.
Let down by an average display
Those who don’t like big 5.5-inch phones will like the Oppo Mirror 5’s 5-inch screen. Unfortnately, it has a meagre resolution of 960x540 pixels. We expected at least a 1280 x 720 pixel screen, if not more, simply because a higher resolution means better user experience when viewing web pages and media. Mirror 5’s display looks dull and lifeless in comparison to the likes of the Xiaomi Mi4 and the Micromax Canvas Knight 2’s AMOLED display. What the Mirror 5 is good at is in colour accuracy, visibility under sunlight and wide angle viewing, which makes it ideal for reading, internet browsing and watching Youtube videos at most.
Verdict
The Mirror 5 works smoothly, runs the latest verison of Android, and has a good camera. But, the very low resolution display means we cannot really recommend it.
