Oppo R17 Pro review: Charges rapidly & takes good pictures but price is not justified

Price: Rs 45,990
Rating: ****

Specifications: Snapdragon 710 octa core, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage (nonexpandable), 6.4-inch amoled screen (2340 x 1080 pixels, 19.5:9 aspect), in-display fingerprint, triple rear camera (12MP f1.5/2.4 + 20MP f2.6 + TOF 3D sensor), 25MP f2.0 front camera, WiFi ac, BT5.0, 3,700mAh, 183 grams.


Pros: The fastest charging phone around (bar none), dual aperture camera captures great photos & portraits, fast fingerprint & face unlock.

Cons: Price not justified for SD710 (esp. when OnePlus is around), TOF 3D camera not really useful at the moment, Radiant Mist colour a bit too loud, no official IP certification.

That Oppo and OnePlus are closely related is known to most. But it’s a straight up battle brewing between the popular OnePlus 6T and Oppo’s latest flaghip R17 Pro (also called the RX17 Pro in some markets). If you look at them from the front, it’s almost impossible to tell them apart (Oppo’s ColorOS gives it away though). Around the back, they not only look but also feel very similar (especially if you’re comparing the Thunder Purple or Midnight Black 6T, since they have the same satin feel back panel as the Oppo here).

In terms of colour, the R17 Pro is a lot brighter and the exact opposite of subtle. The one we received is called Radiant Mist: a vivid interplay of multiple blues and purples that extends from the glass back to the aluminium frame. Oppo calls it fog lighting (and they explain: a dynamic design composed of light and water). If you like your phone to be noticeable from across the room, this is for you! There’s also a more understated Emerald Green available.

So Oppo has included a lot of good bits on this phone — it’s almost flagship class. There’s three cameras on the back (and it gives you some really nice results), premium design/materials, a beautiful amoled screen, good battery life and a magical fast charging system they call SuperVooc. Seriously, the speed at which this phone charges leaves everything else in the dust! It will go from 0 to 40% in about 10 minutes. And you can get a full charge in about 35 minutes. Needless to say, you have to use the supplied 50 watt charger and cable to get these results.

However, the one important bit they left out was the flagship processor. While the OnePlus 6T gets the Snapdragon 845, Oppo users will have to ‘settle’ for the Snapdragon 710. The 710 is no slouch but it’s no 800 series processor either. Oppo’s ColorOS is not going to help matters either because it is going to be slower/ heavier than OnePlus’ Oxygen OS any day of the week. Going forward, you will see the same 710 on mid-range phones, which makes the price seem somewhat unjustified. We think — it’s ok to be more expensive than the 6T but not ok to downgrade and then charge more.

That being said, you may value things like the charging speed and camera quality more, and that’s fine too. The camera is definitely more capable than the OnePlus because of one key area: better low light photos. Oppo’s marketing message around the phone is to ‘seize the night’ and it’s a promise they live up to. This is the first phone maker apart from Samsung to have a main camera with adjustable aperture. It can automatically go from f2.4 to 1.5 in low light (we would have liked the ability to control aperture in Expert mode, like Samsung allows). In addition, the dedicated night mode takes a leaf from Pixel’s computational photography book by combining multiple photos. It works for the most part to give you detailed night scenes but it still stops short of the Pixel 3/3XL in terms of overall quality. The ToF 3D camera serves no apparent purpose, at least for now. Maybe a software update will add some features later.

So there’s a lot to like but consider this — the 8/128GB version of the 6T with the same screen, capable cameras, Dash Charge (not as fast as Super VOOC, but close), indisplay fingerprint and much faster Snapdragon 845 processor is Rs 4,000 cheaper! Why wouldn’t you just go for that instead?