This is what you have been waiting for. The OPPO N1 will be available for purchase starting from December 10, 2013.
The N1 is available with Oppo’s own skinned Android, with CyanogenMod, or with both. Interesting approach that I hope more manufacturers adopt. Too bad the N1 is such an ugly monstrosity – 5.9″ (!) with rotatable camera (!) – compared to its beautiful, elegant, understated, and timeless predecessor.
The phone may be ugly or at the very least terribly understated, but I still find the idea of a rotating camera a good one. I don’t think I’ve ever used the front-facing camera on any phone that I’ve owned, the quality is always so horribly poor that it’s just better not to have image at all. So, why waste space on a camera that’s not going to get used anyways?
The idea itself is nothing new, I’ve seen and even used such ones already in the past myself, but in the recent years no one has dared to even try to bring the idea back. Glad to see at least one manufacturer daring to be different.
I don’t think it’s ugly at all, and apart from the size it looks very comfortable to hold.
I also remember a few PDAs from years past with a rotating camera; I’ve had a Sony Clie PDA and (I believe) Sony Picturebook laptop with the feature. I don’t recall it in a phone, but you’re right, the concept isn’t new. Nice to see a phone manufacturer bringing it back.
your comment makes total logical sense. ..but.. – aesthetically – I’d personally prefer two fixed cameras (same module) front and rear facing (and have only ONE phone camera as far as the OS/apps are concerned) – and toggle between them with a hardware switch on the side.
I thought the OHA prevented Android OEMs from shipping Android forks like CyanogenMod.
It prevents Android OEMS from shipping Android derivatives that do not pass the Android Certification Test. If Cyanogenmod passes the certification test, no harm, no foul.
In reality cyanogenmod is not that much different than the version of Android that Samsung ships: different launcher, some different options in different spots, and some additional apis.
The phone is far from being an “ugly monstrosity”! Maybe it’s not quite as sleek and stylish as it’s predecessor (which won’t be a universally held opinion) but what an OTT comment by Thom.
http://en.oppo.com/assets/media/products/n1/materials.jpg
“Too bad the N1 is such an ugly monstrosity – 5.9” (!) with rotatable camera (!) – compared to its beautiful, elegant, understated, and timeless predecessor.”
Edited 2013-12-02 11:56 UTC
I think you’re proving my point by quoting yourself.
“It’s an ugly monstrosity compared to it’s predecessor.”
Vs e.g. it doesn’t look quite so elegant compared to it’s predecessor.
There’s a world of difference.
I think it’s a monstrosity, you don’t. Neither of us is right, because beauty is an opinion.
Hey, that’s the excuse I give the girls that don’t want to go out with me…
Sad sad.
..A nit-picky point, but surely the Find 7 not the N1 will be the successor to the Find 5 ?
ps- looking for to your take on the jolla phone some time, was well peaved that I held off pre-ordering for too long and lost the chance.
No there isn’t any real difference between those statements. They could both be used in the same situation and mean the same thing.
Thom’s statement could easily just be praise for the older Oppo, while yours could be a terrible insult for the newer one.
By no stretch of the imagination is it an “ugly monstrosity” in comparison.
Will a regular N1 be indistinguishable from the Cyanogenmod one as far as ROMs go?
The ‘O-touch’ feature, basically a touchpad on the back of the phone like the PS Vita but better-integrated, sounds like a really cool feature to me.
I think it’s too huge for me though.
I don’t physically see much from a hardware standpoint. But scrolling w/o touching the screen = WINNING! Well, winning, if it’s done correctly. And there’s the reason for the flip cam.