OPPO R17 Pro Unboxing and First Impressions

OPPO has a new premium smartphone in town, the R17 Pro. It's their first handset equipped with the new Snapdragon 710 SoC and a triple-camera setup.

Meet OPPO R17 Pro

In addition, the R17 Pro arrived with a stunning gradient design, massive screen with a small notch, In-Display fingerprint scanner, and the SuperVOOC charging solution.

By the looks of it, the OPPO R17 Pro could be a great option if you want a phone with premium design, capable specs, innovative features, and great cameras.

Sounds fun right? But, is it worth the price? Let's find out!

Unboxing/Accessories

Unboxing

The OPPO R17 Pro arrived with a black box with neon R17 Pro print. Inside, it has everything you will need right off the bat.

Everything inside

You will see the 10V/5A 50W SuperVOOC charger, USB Type-C data/charging cable, earphones with mic, translucent TPU flexible case, pre-installed screen protector, SIM ejector tool, and the paper documents.

Build Quality/Design

Stunning gradient design

To my eyes, it is the most premium OPPO yet. It arrived with a unique sandwiched metal and glass design. At the back, it uses a 3D fog glass with a new condensing grading process. It made the colors blend on the back of the phone for an eye catchy gradient effect.

Stunning premium build/design!

In the middle, it has a metal frame with smooth curves. In front, it has a massive 6.4-inch screen with Corning's Gorilla Glass 6 protection. Gorilla Glass 6 is the toughest glass protection for smartphones yet.

It has no IP water resistance rating, but the general construction of this device is solid.

Top

Left

Right

SIM tray

Design-wise, it is one of the most striking looking phones in the market today. We like its stunning gradient color which is different from the other gradient designs from the other brands. The phone also has sleek overall curves and nicely trimmed antenna lines.

The camera hump is just a bit too big for my taste. I recommend you to put a case to protect the camera.

In front, it has a big 6.4-inch AMOLED screen, but the bezels are slim enough to make it look like a small phone. It has an impressive 19:5:9 screen aspect ratio and an 91.5 screen-to-body ratio.

The notch on the of the screen is one of the smallest around too. OPPO dubbed it as the waterdrop notch. The notch houses the 25MP AI selfie camera.

We also like that this device has a slim 7.9 mm body despite having a large 3,700mAh battery. The phone measures at 157.6 x 74.6 x 7.9 and weighs at 183 g.

Most of the buttons and ports are on familiar placements. It has a microphone on the top, speaker/USB Type-C, and SIM tray below, volume rocker at left, and power button at right.  

Personally, I also noticed that the glass back design of this device is not prone to fingerprint smudges unlike other phones with glass back. It has a nice texture there as well.

It has no 3.5mm headphone jack and the back is a bit slippery to hold. Other than that, this device has one of the best build and design around.

Initial findings

Small bezels, tiny notch

1. Like what we mentioned above, this has one of the best construction in town. The screen is also one of the better looking screens around. It has an FHD+ AMOLED screen with great color accuracy and sunlight legibility.

2. Under the hood, it is one of the first with the Snapdragon 710 octa-core processor in town. It is a chip built under the 10nm process commonly found on flagship devices. It is clocked at 2.2GHz and Adreno 616 GPU.

This chip is more powerful than the usual Snapdragon 660/Helio P60 found on other phones. It is a clear step-up if you are coming from the F9. 

But, it is underpowered compared with SD845 phones like the Find X.

OPPO also paired it with massive 8GB RAM and 128GB expandable storage. They also made sure that it has a large battery capacity and speedy wireless charging. It goes with 3,700mAh (2x 1,850mAh) of battery with the 50W SuperVOOC flash charge solution.

3. On the software part, it boots with OPPO's latest ColorOS 5.2 skin. It is a clean looking skin with minimal bloats (most of them are even removable) that's based on Android 8.1 Oreo OS.

Triple-cam!

4. This device is also one of the very few with a triple-rear camera setup. It is also one of the first triple-camera phone with a variable aperture camera setup. 12MP (f/1.5/f/2.4) + 20MP f/2.6 + 3D TOF depth camera with PDAF focus, OIS and dual-tone LED flash.

OPPO claimed that it is one of the best camera phones for low light photography. It goes with the AI Ultra-clear Engine to capture low light images better. (Watch out for our camera samples)

In addition, it has a Time of Flight (TOF) 3D camera for 3D depth information. It will allow users to take 3D photos which you can even view on your TV.

We will further explore its 3rd camera to know its purpose better. It will come be available on a software update soon.

5. It has no LED notification, but you can choose to "turn on the screen" for notifications.

This phone also has most of the features you will find from most high-end smartphones today.

It has an 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5, OTG, GPS, A-GPS, and dual SIM slots. This phone even the modern In-Display fingerprint scanning solution.

Related: OPPO R17 Pro: First Camera Samples with mini Samsung Galaxy Note9 Comparison

OPPO R17 Pro Specs

Display: 6.4-inch 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 6 protected AMOLED screen w/ 2340 x  1080 resolution at 402 ppi

CPU: 2.2GHz 64-bit Snapdragon 710 octa-core processor

GPU: Adreno 616

RAM: 8GB

ROM: 128GB expandable via microSD card slot up to 256GB (dedicated)

Back Camera: 12MP (f/1.5/f/2.4) + 20MP f/2.6 + 3D TOF depth camera w/ PDAF, OIS and dual-tone LED flash

Selfie Camera: 25MP f/2.0 w/ AI Beauty Recognition and screen flash

Battery: 3,700mAh w/ SuperVOOC flash charge

OS: Android 8.1 Oreo w/ ColorsOS 5.2

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), 700MHz 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5, OTG, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: Fingerprint sensor, 3D face unlock, Colors: radiant mist

Dimensions: 157.6 x 74.6 x 7.9 mm

Weight: 183 g

Price: PHP 38,990

As of the moment

The R17 Pro is a proof that OPPO can create devices with flagship worthy devices. The craftmanship, features, innovations, and cameras of the R17 Pro is impressive.

Our only issue is the price. The PHP 38,990 price tag is more than what we expected.

That's it for now but I'll be taking reservations with regards to my final judgement for the OPPO R17 Pro.

For our review: OPPO R17 Pro Review - Incredible charging speed and low light cameras