This OPPO R9s Smartphone camera review is probably one of my rare articles as I hardly do any phone reviews for Malaysia.
Anyway, over the years I have been using various smartphones, dating back to the first-ever smartphone, the Apple iPhone which I had shipped in the next day after it was released in the USA on June 29, 2007.
I had a very good friend send two units over from the US and the joke was on me when I started using it here in Malaysia. Friends laughed at me back then, but nowadays, it is the most important gadget that almost every human must-have.
OPPO R9s Smartphone Camera Review
Back to the OPPO R9s Smartphone photo review. I bought the R9s on the launch date in January 2017 here in Malaysia as previously, I was using an OPPO F1s and before that, I was a Samsung Note user.
Why the change? You may have guessed it, due to the Samsung issues and also how the previous Samsung's heat up on heavy usage and also the high price factors nowadays for branded smartphones. Yeah, I know right, RM3000+ for a smartphone is a bit too much. But hey, it's totally up to anyone.
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| A temple in the Chinatown area of Bangkok and was taken with an OPPO R9s and unedited |
What made me decide to change from the F1s to the R9s? Well, since I started to pay more attention to my smartphone photography, I wanted to explore this area and many friends and even reviews out there have been quite interesting.
In the top of the list was the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus which has been getting top reviews for their camera and Leica lens.
So with some free time one early January day, I paid a visit to my regular phone shop and Danny, a good old friend has informed me that OPPO was, in fact, launching a new model, the R9s which was superior to the F1s and on par with the Huawei P9.
His staff had a test unit which they took out the Huawei P9, P9 plus and did a side by side comparison.
In the end, the OPPO R9s photo quality was actually a little better than the P9, in terms of realistic colours. Plus the price difference was huge, RM1799 for the R9s versus RM2099 for the P9.
So, they say the dual-lens on the Huawei is supposed to be a step forward in technology, but again, after doing the general user comparison, I saw no difference. Perhaps for those professional users, there may be but again, a majority of buyers are just simple users like me.
OPPO R9s Smartphone Photos
Below are photos were taken in various places around Bangkok, Thailand in early February 2017 as I paid a personal shot visit here for a quick escape.
Instead of lugging my Nikon DSLR, I just brought the OPPO R9s as my main camera to see how it would capture photos.
The photos you see below are all straight from the smartphone and not edited at all. I simply resized them for this article, that is all.
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| A Thai Temple Pagoda |
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| River life at one of the rivers in Bangkok |
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| The facade of a Thai Temple in Bangkok |
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| Thai Dry Yellow Noodles |
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| Thai Tom Yum with Master Noodles |
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| The Giant Ferris Wheel at Asiatique Waterfront in Bangkok |
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| Thai Duck Noodles |
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| A type of Thai sweet dessert |
OPPO R9s Specifications:
The Oppo R9s is powered by 2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor and it comes with 4GB of RAM. Retail price is RM1799.00 in Malaysia.
For anyone out there who is contemplating on what your next smartphone will be, please do your own fact-finding and it is always best to find a phone that suits your lifestyle.
If you are a simple person, then go for something simple and easy, instead of the highest-end model where you only use 20% of the smartphone functions.
If you cannot live without selfies, then find a smartphone that can cater to vanity, built-in beauty mode and a good reverse camera with huge storage. If your whole life revolves around social media, then get a powerful smartphone to cater to your needs.
Conclusion
To me, after a decade of using smartphones, I have been a simple user, taking photos and videos. What matters to me is the battery life, good clear camera, the RAM, processor and storage.
Other things do not really matter much but from what I have noticed in Southeast Asia is that most people want to be in trend and have the latest smartphones. Perhaps it is a lifestyle trend, social status or just having too much money to spend.
You can also see my OPPO R9s Video Review as I did one in January for YouTube. Let me know what you think about my OPPO R9s Smartphone camera review as I would be interested to hear what people think.