Oppo’s new phone with ‘rear touch panel’ coming in September

By Andy Boxall Published August 22, 2013

Oppo N1 Teaser — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Oppo’s name may not have the same recognition in the smartphone world as Samsung, HTC, or Nokia, but thanks to the decision to sell its Find 5 device in the US and Europe through its own website, it’s gradually growing in stature. Now, it has confirmed a new device named the Oppo N1, which will launch in September.

The phone has been leaked, and is expected to be Oppo’s attempt to grab a piece of the camera phone action. This week, through its official Facebook page, Oppo confirmed the N1’s existence and its arrival next month, but didn’t provide any detail. However, this message was followed by a teaser image letting us know about at least one of the N1’s headline features.

You can see the image above, and it’s not very subtle. Remove Oppo’s wording and you’ve got a picture that belongs on the cover of a risqué romance novel. Anyway, as you can see it says, “Don’t just touch the front, the back is also interesting.” It then adds, “Rear touch panel. A brand new user experience.” So, the Oppo N1 is going to have a second touch panel, but on the rear of the device.

Adding controls to the rear of a phone is suddenly very fashionable, after LG debuted the G2 with its rear-mounted volume controls. Since then, we’ve seen a leaked picture of the HTC One Max with what could be a fingerprint scanner below the camera lens. Back in February, we got some hands-on time with the Yotaphone, which has an E Ink screen on the back.

Oppo’s teaser makes the N1 sound closer to the Yotaphone than the G2, as it has a small touch sensitive panel below its rear screen. It’s going to be very interesting to see what Oppo comes up with for the N1, and what exactly the touch panel will control.

In addition to the rear touch system, the N1’s camera has caught our attention, thanks to talk of a special N-Lens and a new imaging chip called OWL. We’re wondering if it has anything to do with DigitalOptics’ Lytro-like Mems|cam, which allows you to focus on different points in a picture after it has been taken. Oppo is one of the companies said to be interested in DigitalOptics’ tech, which will go into production soon.

While this is speculation on our part, the Oppo N1 and its rear touch panel is real. Now all we have to do is wait for its official announcement.

Senior Mobile Writer

Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

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Oppo’s 3 new Reno 7 phones come with midrange specs and affordable prices

oppo reno 6 pro 5g snapdragon 870. Credits: Oppo official.

Oppo has released several smartphones in 2020, including the Oppo Find X3 Pro, as well as models in the Oppo Reno 6 series. There are also potential plans to introduce a foldable phone in the market by as early as December 2021, though any official word from the company is yet to be received. In the meantime, Oppo has unveiled three smartphones as a part of its Reno 7 series smartphones -- the Reno 7, the Reno 7 Pro, and the Reno 7 SE. All three models will support 5G.

Oppo Reno 7
The base Reno 7 will have a 6.43-inch full HD+ AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 90Hz. It's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor with a reasonably sized 4,500mAh battery that can charge at 60-watts. The phone has an 8-megapixel ultrawide and 2MP macro camera sensor, same as the more premium Oppo Reno 7 Pro, but strangely enough, has a more powerful rear camera at 64MP, as opposed to the 50MP Pro model (more on that below). There's also a 32MP selfie camera.
Oppo Reno 7 Pro
The Reno 7 Pro sports a 6.55-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate. It has a 50MP primary camera, as mentioned before, and the same two other cameras as the base model. It boasts a powerful 32MP selfie camera in its hole-punch cutout. This phone also has a special feature in the form of a ringed notification light that is present between the back panel and the rear camera setup. Additionally, the battery charger is slightly faster, at 65W. Last, but not the least, the phone is powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 1200 chipset. The Reno 7 is priced at 2,999 yuan ($579) for its 8GB RAM and 256GB storage variant, and 3,299 yuan ($616) for its 12GB RAM variant.
Oppo Reno 7 SE
Finally, the Oppo Reno 7 SE is the budget model, equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC, and it uses the same display as the Reno 7. The charging speed for its 4,390mAh battery is much lower, at 33W, and it has a lower resolution 16MP selfie camera. Its triple camera setup consists of a 48MP primary sensor, a 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor. It comes in two variations priced at 2,199 yuan ($344) for its 8GB + 128 GB model, and 2,399 ($375) for the upgraded variant.
Price and availability
The Oppo Reno 7 is the base model, and it will have three of the aforementioned variants priced at 2,699 yuan ($422), 2,999 yuan ($469), and 3,299 yuan ($516), respectively.
The Reno 7 and Reno 7 Pro should be available in China from as early as December 3, with the Reno SE being ready to purchase starting December 17. Oppo is expected to release these models to the rest of its global market starting January 2022, with more official release dates expected to be confirmed soon.

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