Is The OPPO FIND 7 For You

[KOLIO]

I ordered a few days ago from OPPOSTYLE,the official 3rd party reseller for the USA:

http://global.oppo.com/
Buy OPPO Smartphones - Free Express Shipping! - OppoStyle
Find 7 Astro Black (US Version) - OppoStyle
Find 7 White (US Version) - OppoStyle
http://www.oppoforums.com/#oppo-find-7.110

I ordered the Midnight Black version.

It'll be interesting to see how this stacks up against the 1+1 & G3,particularly in the display/smoothness of operation/battery life.

Of course,not to mention the COLOR O/S on the OF7.
The fact that it's based on ANDROID 4.3 really doesn't bother me at all,as I can't really think of too much KIT KAT has as an advantage on JELLY BEAN.

YMMV as to U/I preferences,but,this was one of the reasons I was curious to try this phone.The other being to see if I like OPPO's spin on the 2K/QHD display more so than I did with the LG G3.

ETA is about 7-10 days,looking for an 8/6/14 delivery date.
Anyone curious,or,have questions,subscribe to this thread &/or drop by in about a week & I'll try my best to answer any questions & try out features.

 

[mikedt]

I've got the 7a rather than the 7, bought it in April. so have been using it for a while now, the hardware is beautiful, the software on the other hand, ColorOS, that's a buggy trainwreck fork of Android that should have stayed in China IMO. I've tried various versions of it and always had problems with it, Google Calendar is broken, Voice Notify is crippled and can't select individual apps, music player ignores album order and always plays alphabetical order plus it often shows Chinese characters when songs are not Chinese, crashing and having to pull the battery, corrupting my SD card, many Gameloft and Electronics Arts games not working, has problems with international phone number prefixes and gets confused about them, incompatible with the Amazon app store. I'm using a custom ROM CyanogenMod, and that solved all software problems for me. The fact is I actually bought the Oppo to use a custom ROM, as Oppo doesn't void warranty for rooting and third-party ROMs. I bought my 7a from a local store here.

The fact ColorOS "Based on Android" JB4.3 is not really a problem so far, it's much more about what Oppo have done to Android, with their own heavy customisations and changes to it. Although the fact it is JB 4.3, makes Oppo probably the only major company now making a flagship phone that isn't Kitkat 4.4. Many Chinese manufacturers are producing their own versions(forks) of Android, because Google doesn't really have much say here, manufacturers want to do things their own way and China is a huge market of course, the most well known example is probably Xiaomi's MIUI. There is an issue that some might run into, is that Oppo have partitioned the internal storage for some reason, in that the "apps" and "data" are separated and "apps" is only 3GB in size, so depending on what you're installing you could be running short. There is a movement with some of the custom ROMs, and possibly pressure on Oppo, to move towards unified internal storage.

I'm completely happy with my 7a, don't regret buying it at all, but I was prepared to do my own things with it. But if I ever did have any real problems with the phone itself(hardware), I'm in China and so warranty service is not too far away.

 

[KOLIO]

THX for the input mikedt ! :thumb:

Delivery is WAAAAAY ahead of schedule,will be here on 8/1/2014,NLT 24 HRS from the time of this post.

I had suspected CYANOGENMOD would end up on this device (totally diggin' it on the 1+1),but,sounds like it may end up on there a lot sooner than I'd expected,& possibly before the weekend is out.

Again,MANY THX for the input/review.

 

[mikedt]

I'm happy to reply Kolio, and share my experiences. About the OnePlus, before CM was formally ported to the 7 & 7a, I was using a hacked version of the OnePlus CM11S ROM, because I found ColorOS at the time to be so unworkable, and even now I think there's too many show stopping issues with it. BTW the OnePlus One phones sold in China come with Oppo's ColorOS and not CM.

 

[KOLIO]

Looks like I'll be visiting OPPO Forums & XDA for a CM ROM ASAP.

I'll post in a couple days, probably 8/2/14 & let everyone know if COLOR O/S is still a train wreck on the OF7.

 

[KOLIO]

I've had a very brief time w/the OF7 today & my impressions pretty much line-up w/those of mikedt's on the OPPO FIND 7A:

http://androidforums.com/6665000-post2.html

EXCELLENT HARDWARE! :thumb:
All-around premium quality: DISPLAY/AUDIO/SMOTHNESS/CALL QUALITY are all tops.

I definitely cannot express how much better the display colors & overall sharpness just absolutely kills that of the LG G3.

The COLOR O/S is another story altogether:

I could live w/it,but,cannot stand the COLOR O/S Launcher.
Substituting the launcher w/a 3rd party one (HOLO LAUNCHER is my go-to launcher) hides access to some of the system settings,& are only accessible when switching back to the COLOR O/S Launcher.
Basically,COLOR O/S has potential,but,IMHO,needs a bit of work to be a useable daily driver U/I.

Once I get everything set-up,this is a non-issue,but,I don't see myself running COLOR O/S for very long.

A dose of CYANOGENMOD will make this a device that holds its own w/any other mfgs' flagship model.

 

[mikedt]

ColorOS is nothing but a horribly buggy lobotomised travesty of Android IMO. I don't think they're quite so fussy here in China about things working properly or not, and some issues seem to be with the international version, not the Chinese one. There is actually an expectation for Chinese brands to be inferior to imported brands here. There's no way a western carrier, like in UK or US, could sell a phone with the state that ColorOS is in. The returns would be just too high.

Something I will mention, a feature of the 7 and 7a is rapid one hour charging, or 70% in 30 minutes, which I believe is unique to this phone. However it requires the special Oppo charger that comes with the phone, which is called VOOC. It will charge on a regular USB charger, but then it takes a few hours like most phones. However the problem seems to be for many people, spare Oppo VOOC rapid chargers are impossible to obtain, even from Oppo Style. I managed to obtain a spare one yesterday, from the local Oppo service agent, so it's one for the office and one for home, plus it's a spare in case the original VOOC charger dies or goes missing. I also bought a spare battery, because I like to have a fully charged spare for when I'm travelling.

 

[KOLIO]

C'mon now mikedt,don't hold back & tell us how you really feel about COLOR O/S......

Going on Day 3 w/it & at least for the moment,I'm gonna roll back on my total indictment of COLOR/OS:

Yesterday I finally got a chance to dig-in a bit,as I came across the users manual (sounds lame,but,in this case,as one who's not seen COLOR O/S before,it's actually a useful tool).

Basically,I cleaned up the desktop to my usual one screen,loaded up my folders & installed a nice looking theme (Cool Black) & now,things are starting to resemble the ANDROID O/S I'm more accustomed to.

One oddity that I'm going to contact OPPO about that I'd mentioned previously:

Substituting the launcher w/a 3rd party one (HOLO LAUNCHER is my go-to launcher) hides access to some of the system settings,& are only accessible when switching back to the COLOR O/S Launcher.

Aside from that,this phone has operated very nicely:quick/responsive/beautiful display & audio & AFAICT everything is working the way it's supposed to.

I'm not sure as to if the version of COLOR O/S for my OF7 is the same as yours in the OF7A mikedt.

Here's what I have:

COLOR O/S: v1.2.4i
ANDROID: 4.3
BASEBAND VERSION: Q_V1_P14
KERNEL VERSION: 3.4.0-s8891

The one remaining 'X' factor is battery life:
I think it's gonna be OK,maybe not on par w/some of the best I've seen/used: (LG G-FLEX/G2/1+1/HTC ONE M8),but,not too far behind & enough for a moderate user such as myself to make it through a 16-20 hr. day w/o any compromises or resorting to bare-bones operating mode.

 

[mikedt]

This is what's currently on my Oppo.


I'll tell you what finally done in ColorOS for me. About five weeks ago I gave it a second chance, but then the stock file manager crashed, and ES File Explorer wouldn't go either, and then the whole thing froze out, couldn't even reset by holding power, had to pull the battery out. However when it did restart it was reporting that the SD was damaged, and was offering to format it, which would have deleted everything, restarted again, same thing, SD damaged, inaccessible and it wanted to format it. So I put the SD in my old Samsung Galaxy Win I keep as a spare, which is stock software, JB4.1, that reported it was damaged as well, however it offered to repair it, NOT format it, and it repaired it successfully, nothing lost.

The other major issue I found was that Google Calendar would only show my events and appointments for the previous week, and not everything I ever did. Thing is I need to see everything so I can plan my future work, based on things I'd done previously. And others had reported this one as well on Oppo Forums, events missing from Google Calendar. Also I was seeing frequent home-screen redraws with ColorOS and Nova Launcher Prime, Nova Prime is the launcher I always use, and is buttery smooth with CM, no redraws at all.

 

[KOLIO]

That's what mine will look like soon enough.

How's the battery life w/CM vs COLOR O/S,or,did you run it long enough for a comparison?

Also,as for the accessories,is the spare battery 2800 or 3000 mAh?

 

[mikedt]

Battery life isn't the best I've ever seen in an Android phone, my Samsung is better, at the moment it's showing 82% after 6 hours from fully charged, and that's with some use, playing music, browsing, etc. It will usually go for the whole day. CM did have reported battery drain issues when was first ported, but that seems to have been solved now. The spare battery is 2800mAh, which is the same as the original for the 7a. I got the spare because I sometimes travel by train or bus, and that can sometimes be 24 hours plus without access to a power socket. I've also got an external USB rechargeable power-pack as well, that I used to use with my iPod Video.

 

[KOLIO]

THX!

The 2800 mAh is what's available @ OPPOSTYLE:

Find 7 Original Battery 2800mAh - OppoStyle

It appears the 7 & 7a batteries are interchangeable,(3000 on the OF7,why they made two different batteries,who knows )

I found one e-tailer who supposedly has the 3000 battery for sale.
I sent the link to OPPO to verify that it's legit,still awaiting a response.
That's one thing I'm liking about OPPO & OPPOSTYLE:
They've been very prompt in responding to inquiries,so far no more than 36 hrs response time.
Hopefully I'll hear something back by this time tomorrow.
Otherwise,I'll wait for it to become more readily available,but,I really would like an extended battery option,even if it only adds 1000-1500 mAh.
Perhaps MUGEN will step in on this one....................

 

[zipred]

I vacillated between buying a Find 7a or 7, especially since the lower res display of the 7a was appealing to me. In the end the 7 won, so I ordered it.

Now, I'm here to say the purchase experience was not only enjoyable and trouble free, but OPPO knows what the word courtesy means, they practice it very well. Then it gets even better, their vocabulary includes words and concepts like "sense of urgency".

Oh my, how refreshing after my rather lengthy 85 day experience in OPO limbo land. Otherwise known as OnePlus... the master of invite-mania, once the "Phase One" wait for an invite elapsed, my experience entered "Phase Two" consisting of claiming, validating, and otherwise participating in a minutiae filled series of exotic gyrations designed to impress the customer with OP's well honed skill at finding any conceivable way to muck up what could be a simple order process.


As most of you know, OPPO's Find 7 series ships with Color OS, a very unique compilation of rather festive code, to be kind.

To quote mikedt:
" the software on the other hand, ColorOS, that's a buggy trainwreck fork of Android that should have stayed in China IMO. I've tried various versions of it and always had problems with it, Google Calendar is broken, Voice Notify is crippled and can't select individual apps, music player ignores album order and always plays alphabetical order plus it often shows Chinese characters when songs are not Chinese, crashing and having to pull the battery, corrupting my SD card, many Gameloft and Electronics Arts games not working, has problems with international phone number prefixes and gets confused about them, incompatible with the Amazon app store."

I find his description rather kind and forgiving...



My Find 7's preload of Color OS wasn't a train wreck.

After two days of usage it became rather obvious that a more accurate clear description would be, in all honesty and fairness to OPPO, best described as an unmitigated SHIPWRECK. ha...ha...ha!

You know the kind surrounded by a debris field the size of the Western Hemisphere.

Fast forward to the present, it's day five running ever so swift, smooth and trouble free via my always trusty CyanogenMod.

A fierce looking jet black handset that exudes quality construction, minimalist simple understated style, my OPPO Find 7 puts a smile on my face each time I enjoy a session of work or play.

I can, beyond a shadow of a doubt, endorse this model to those experienced Android users who are comfortable laughing uncontrollably as they wipe every last bit of Color OS away.

No matter what you prefer other than CM, you'll quite likely enjoy customizing this phone to your liking as I have mine.


Thanks OPPO... you've provided a stellar new smartphone for us to enjoy.

 

[KOLIO]

Welcome to OPPOTOPIA zipred! arty:

Ya got a link to the recovery & CM ROM you're using?

I've got an all-in-one toolkit w/GUMMY TWRP 2.7.1.0

I rooted w/it & a SuperSU zip,kept the stock recovery until I decided to go CM.

I've got a slightly more favorable view of COLOR 1.2.4i,heard COLOR 2.0 beta is too much like MIUI,no thanks if that's the direction OPPO is going w/their U/I.

I'm ready to back up the stock ROM & give CM11 a spin on this beast.

EDIT:

KUDOS to OPPO:

Rooting/Installing Custom Recovery/ROM is extremely easy,a huge welcome & breath of fresh air.

Took all of ten minutes to Root/Install TWRP/back-up stock ROM/Install CM11 & GAPPS.

 

[zipred]

Welcome to OPPOTOPIA zipred! arty:

Ya got a link to the recovery & CM ROM you're using?

I've got an all-in-one toolkit w/GUMMY TWRP 2.7.1.0

I rooted w/it & a SuperSU zip,kept the stock recovery until I decided to go CM.

I've got a slightly more favorable view of COLOR 1.2.4i,heard COLOR 2.0 beta is too much like MIUI,no thanks if that's the direction OPPO is going w/their U/I.

I'm ready to back up the stock ROM & give CM11 a spin on this beast.

EDIT:

KUDOS to OPPO:

Rooting/Installing Custom Recovery/ROM is extremely easy,a huge welcome & breath of fresh air.

Took all of ten minutes to Root/Install TWRP/back-up stock ROM/Install CM11 & GAPPS.

WoooHooo, this phones brought back a lot of fun of modding.

Having a no limits warranty (within reason) is a modders dream.

Migrated to this rev, it's quite good. One of the better CM's lately.


https://download.cyanogenmod.org/get/jenkins/78791/cm-11-20140806-NIGHTLY-find7.zip

 

[KOLIO]

Is that any different from the nightlies?

I just loaded up cm-11-20140807-NIGHTLY

 

[zipred]

Ever so slightly, having an associate at CM it's his endorsement I respect. Yet what you're on now is highly likely to impress you while meeting your needs.

 

[KOLIO]

I think I'll try out the version you're running,WHY NOT,RIGHT?!


Just loaded up DarkMaterial Theme:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=darkuimtrl.thyrus.release&hl=en

SCHWEET!

 

[mikedt]

About ColorOS 2.0 beta, I now read on Oppo Forums that the final release has been delayed yet again, more problems apparently. So we got CM, Gummy, Nameless, Mokee, MIUI, etc, all producing good perfectly usable ROMs with no major bugs AFAIK, while the manufacturer still can't get their software right.

WoooHooo, this phones brought back a lot of fun of modding.

Having a no limits warranty (within reason) is a modders dream.

Migrated to this rev, it's quite good. One of the better CM's lately.


https://download.cyanogenmod.org/get/jenkins/78791/cm-11-20140806-NIGHTLY-find7.zip

That's the CM nightlys I been using for weeks now. Not felt the need to try anything else at the moment. I'm currently using 7-31, and seems to be working very well.

 

[KOLIO]

About ColorOS 2.0 beta, I now read on Oppo Forums that the final release has been delayed yet again, more problems apparently. So we got CM, Gummy, Nameless, Mokee, MIUI, etc, all producing good perfectly usable ROMs with no major bugs AFAIK, while the manufacturer still can't get their software right.



That's the CM nightlys I been using for weeks now. Not felt the need to try anything else at the moment. I'm currently using 7-31, and seems to be working very well.

THX for the input on the other ROMS,might have to give 'em a look sometime soon.

Also,as I mentioned to you earlier, I think there might be a port of the 1+1 CM11s ROM available for the FIND 7/7A.

Not to be gushing about the DarkMaterial theme,but,WOW,some of the blacks that are themed throughout are crazy jet black,even as dark as on SAMSUNG devices,if not darker.

I'm liking this a lot,along w/HOLO LAUNCHER HD.

 

[zipred]

Besides looking good DarkMaterial is bound to help extend battery life. I like it. Due to some rather broad acceptance in the developer community, there's an explosion of ROM choices, and all manner of software tools appearing on the scene. Just one more reason we'll have an ever increasing selection to enjoy.

 

[KOLIO]

I vacillated between buying a Find 7a or 7, especially since the lower res display of the 7a was appealing to me. In the end the 7 won, so I ordered it.

Now, I'm here to say the purchase experience was not only enjoyable and trouble free, but OPPO knows what the word courtesy means, they practice it very well. Then it gets even better, their vocabulary includes words and concepts like "sense of urgency".

A fierce looking jet black handset that exudes quality construction, minimalist simple understated style, my OPPO Find 7 puts a smile on my face each time I enjoy a session of work or play.

I can, beyond a shadow of a doubt, endorse this model to those experienced Android users who are comfortable laughing uncontrollably as they wipe every last bit of Color OS away.

No matter what you prefer other than CM, you'll quite likely enjoy customizing this phone to your liking as I have mine.


Thanks OPPO... you've provided a stellar new smartphone for us to enjoy.

Gotta ask:

In your experience/opinion,how would you rate the OPPO FIND 7 QHD/2K Display vs that of the LG G3?

 

[mikedt]

THX for the input on the other ROMS,might have to give 'em a look sometime soon.

Also,as I mentioned to you earlier, I think there might be a port of the 1+1 CM11s ROM available for the FIND 7/7A.

Not to be gushing about the DarkMaterial theme,but,WOW,some of the blacks that are themed throughout are crazy jet black,even as dark as on SAMSUNG devices,if not darker.

I'm liking this a lot,along w/HOLO LAUNCHER HD.

I'm actually using a Samsung S3 type skin, guess because it is dark and I like the icon set, and having had Samsung phones previously, it's what I like and I'm used to. For the launcher, I use Nova Prime, seems to work the way I like and again I got so used to it now.

 

[mikedt]

Besides looking good DarkMaterial is bound to help extend battery life. I like it. Due to some rather broad acceptance in the developer community, there's an explosion of ROM choices, and all manner of software tools appearing on the scene. Just one more reason we'll have an ever increasing selection to enjoy.

I'm pretty sure the Finds are going to be come one of the ROM dev's and modders phones of choice mainly because it's so easy to get started with rooting and other hacking, nothing is locked with it and Oppo doesn't void warranty, unlike ahem...Samsung.

 

[zipred]

True Confessions.

If I changed ROMS, Launchers and the like once, I changed them so many times last night and into the morning, 3 AM to be specific, I can't even remember how many I cycled through without so much as a hitch of any significance. This phone is a modders dream, I've yet to find a phone that's this enjoyable to modify.

I was on a tear, having so much fun with this amazingly good OPPO 7 it felt borderline illegal... HEH!

To the question posed by KOLIO,
"In your experience/opinion,how would you rate the OPPO FIND 7 QHD/2K Display vs that of the LG G3?"

Side by side comparing the exact same page of a web site, playing a video clip, viewing a .pdf file, and using my jewelers loupe for a good look and some fun, I'd say these are beyond a shadow of a doubt, simply fabulous displays.

I don't know what caused me to think of using the loupe, but I'm very pleased that I did. Otherwise frankly it'd be a tie. For my personal tastes I do indeed prefer the F7 display over the G3. Why? My years as a amateur photographer have conditioned me to appreciate good color balance. The Find 7 has it in spades.

Otherwise known as Mr. Verbose at work I could go on and on about these two displays. But at the risk of being banned from this terrific forum because I used up an outrageous amount of space, suffice to say both of these are very good displays. I doubt there's enough difference to disqualify either of these smartphones from ones buying decision.


It's a new day, I'm operating on but a few hours sleep, a Vente Starbucks and the even greater excitement generated by this thrilling announcement:

Lenovo announces the massively impressive Vibe Z2 Pro
-------
http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/863181-vibe-z2-pro-mnp.html