<p style="text-align: justify;">The affordable segment of smartphones today is not only getting powerful hardware but they are also getting aesthetic design and finish. Take for instance the Oppo Mirror 5 which comes with a metal frame in the middle and what seems like front and back glass. However, the back is actually made of plastic with an appealing shiny finish and a polygon pattern underneath, like a shattered mirror. The handset also offers the perfect size and weight which fits and feels perfectly great in the hand.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The back is removable although the battery cannot be removed. The panel covers the microSD card slot and two SIM card slots. The metal frame has a nice brushed finish and apart from housing the volume and power buttons, the 3.5mm audio jack and the microUSB port there is also an infrared blaster port. Oppo has chosen to include capacitive keys at the bottom of the display instead on-screen ones. The 5-inch display itself doesn’t looks that bad on the first glance, but it somehow doesn’t feel very sharp due to its 960x540 resolution. Today smartphones priced at 5K are being shipped with a display that has at least an HD 720p display, however Oppo chose to use a low resolution display. Save costs maybe? Or to get better battery? Whatever may be the reason, it might not appeal to some consumers, but frankly it doesn’t hamper the experience entirely. Even at this resolution things looks great.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/Oppo-mirror5-1.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 501px;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the hardware department a Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor powers the smartphone with 2GB of RAM which provides enough resources to handle daily tasks like checking emails, browsing and checking all your social media accounts. There is 16GB of storage which is expandable upto 128GB. There is an 8MP camera at the back and a 5MP camera in the front both of which work quite snappy. The handset also support 4G LTE connectivity and 2420mAH battery juices up the device.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/Oppo-mirror5-3.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 483px;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Running on Android 5.1.1 with newest version of Color OS 2.1 on top which surprisingly runs very smooth and feels very light. Oppo has done some homework and has cleaned up its user interface and made it quite snappy. It does however look very similar to Xiaomi’s MIUI, maintaining some of the elements of Color OS. The camera app also sees a new look and again would remind you of the app on most of the new Mi smartphones and yes, the iPhone. It has a simple and clean look and performs very smooth along with a bunch of modes and filters. Focusing is fast and even the shutter doesn’t offer any sort of lags. Pictures come fairly good and the app also offers a special UltraHD mode which can interpolate pixels to produce a 24MP image. It isn’t however any better in terms of quality, just a large size. Apart from that you also get a slow shutter mode, a night mode, an HDR mode and also a GIF mode to make small animated images. Since there is an infrared blaster port Oppo has also included a remote control app which supports most of the appliances you might have in your house including televisions, set top boxes, airconditioners, DVD players and projectors.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/Oppo-mirror5-4.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 498px;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The handset is overpriced for the features it offers as it launched with a price tag of Rs. 15,999 and can bought for about Rs. 14,999 which is still expensive considering that handset like the Moto G 3<sup>rd</sup> Gen and even the Xiaomi Mi4i are priced lower and offer better specifications. Go for the Oppo Mirror 5 only if you care more about good looks and a smooth software experience. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Pictures: Kunal Khullar</p>
