Updates, completeness, And innovation. There are few smartphone manufacturers that can boast these characteristics all together and, among all, one in particular has stood out among the others in this eventful 2021. Next year is almost upon us and it seemed right, before awarding the best and worst smartphones of the last 365 days, take stock of what the brands to keep more under the magnifying glass in the next months.
The prize “Revelation of the year” obviously does not mean that it was the best producer or that it produced the best products ever, but rather the one that was able to amaze the most: either for a shorter history on our market or for many improvements and innovations made in a very short time.
The brand that we feel like rewarding is, therefore: Oppo. Let’s see why.
Updates
One of the most important aspects in the Android world, but not only, is that of updates. Operating systems generally are subject to constant revisions to correct security holes and add new features, the security patch, for example, represents the main weapon against intrusions and privacy issues. Only those who constantly update their devices can be considered a serious and reliable company, which respects the customer and follows him even after the purchase,
Until last year Oppo made a few too many delays that made us turn up our noses but, if we look at what has happened in recent months, everything has changed. Oppo Find X3 Pro for example is already updated to Android 12 with ColorOS 12, all mid-range and high-end smartphones have already received the November patches and some also from December.
OPPO then confirmed that the update to Android 12 with ColorOS 12 will arrive on over 100 of its devices (considering the many variants of its smartphones marketed between Asia, Europe, and the rest of the world) and in the following image you can see the roadmap:
Speaking of updates then it is only right to talk about the operating system itself, which we have repeatedly defined as reactive, stable, fluid, with a few frills and a lot of substance. The ColorOS in version 11 has improved a lot, especially aesthetically, reaching a good maturation in the ColorOS 12 version. You can certainly do more by adding a desktop mode and other goodies that we will see soon since Oppo PC Connect seems to arrive in February.
Completeness
We mean the term completeness in terms of the product range. In the Oppo line-up three main strands stand out in a nutshell:
- the A-series, which is the cheapest like Oppo A54, A74, and A94;
- the Reno series;
- the Find series.
The latter is the most exclusive range, which the company defines: for those who want to explore technology in its new shades. Beyond phrases made in practice Oppo is one of those companies that undoubtedly like to innovate, or in any case, try to explore new paths, an example is the microscope sensor of Oppo Find X3 Pro, a camera never seen on smartphones and that goes beyond macro photography because it allows you to see in the micro such as filaments or particularities of objects or plants.
The real novelty of Oppo Find X3 Pro, however, is the Full-Path Color Management System, the first system on Android created to maintain 10 bits of color depth and the DCI-P3 color space from taking a photo to the display, which in other words means being able to shoot and see the result at its fullest potential.
In this regard, just one year later, Oppo is ready to do more and has demonstrated this by pre-announcing the MariSiliconX during the InnoDays: an image co-processor capable of results, so far at least on paper, amazing thanks to a computational evolution of artificial intelligence.
The new MariSiliconX has a computing capacity of 18 trillion operations per second (TOPS) and an energy efficiency of 11.6 TOPS per watt when working with 8-bit integers (INT8). This also means reduced consumption, a comparison provided by the manufacturer alongside the Find X3 Pro consumes 1693 watts to process only 2 frames per second, with that of MariSilicon X equal to 797 watts elaborating the same model but on 40 frames. In short words? It will be possible to apply the noise reduction even on a video in real-time by seeing the result directly on the screen.
Alongside the Oppo Find X3 Pro, two workhorses this year, two smartphones that have certainly given Oppo many surprises in terms of sales to customers in terms of yield: Oppo Find X3 Neo and Oppo Find X3 Lite. While the RENO series undoubtedly stands out for its “sparkling” design. The finishes are decidedly different and more pleasant and even Oppo Reno 6, the cheaper of the two, is still very well cared for.
Innovation
The third point is undoubtedly innovation, or the result of investments in research and development. Oppo has historically made important contributions throughout its history:
- 8 years ago, for example, it launched the Oppo N1, the first smartphone with a rotating camera, to use the main one also for selfies;
- in the following years it launched the first smartphones with 5 MP and 16 MP on the front camera;
- in more recent years it has instead focused on recharging and was the first manufacturer to offer fast recharge nicknamed VOOC recharge, it quickly went from 30 to 65W, without particular overheating and excessive degradation of the battery;
- in 2021, it is the first manufacturer to have ever made a smartphone with a display that is rolled up, we saw it at the beginning of 2021 and unfortunately, it never arrived on the market, but still the proof of engineering efforts not just;
Up to these days where Oppo, during the Inno Days, unveiled its first commercial folding smartphone: Oppo Find N. It is a compact product, with a 5.4-inch display, which once opened offers a large display from 7.1 inches becoming a small Tablet. If you are curious and still don’t know it, find more information here. At the moment on its marketing in Europe, there is no certain information but there are good hopes of seeing it also in Italy.
For all these series of reasons, Oppo is undoubtedly the brand that surprised the most during 2021. There are other very valid producers on the market, some even better, but the peculiarity of the Chinese house is that it has twisted its cards. short time, a sign that it will probably have even more say in the 2022.
