Acer Nitro 5 Spin review

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Acer Nitro 5 Spin

The Windows 2-in-1 market is showing remarkable flexibility (no pun intended), with a wide variety of form factors and configurations aimed at all kinds of users. There are 2-in-1s for productivity, 2-in-1s for creativity, and 2-in-1s that can act as gaming notebooks in a pinch. And then there are even more niche machines, like gaming 2-in-1s that can also do productivity work. As an example, Acer has its Nitro 5 Spin, a 2-in-1 that’s clearly designed for gaming while offering the ability to spin the display all the way around.

Our review unit came equipped with a quad-core eighth-generation Intel Core i7-8550U, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB PCIe solid-state drive (SSD), a 1TB 5400 RPU SATA hard disk drive (HDD), and a 15.6-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 or 141 PPI) IPS display. It’s priced at $1,100, inching it into premium territory and pitting it against some serious competition.

Is it possible to make a great convertible 2-in-1 with gaming as its primary focus? Read our Acer Nitro 5 Spin review to find out.

A design that’s gaming first, 2-in-1 second

The Nitro 5 Spin’s deep black chassis with red trim along the keyboard deck and red hinges immediately gives it away as a gaming-focused notebook. Open the lid and you’ll see copious amounts of red on the keyboard as well, along with the telltale dedicated WASD keys that stand out whether the backlight is on or off. But while it’s clearly a gaming aesthetic, it doesn’t sport any weird angles or jet exhaust venting like with the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 that will stand out in a coffee shop.

And, unlike many gaming notebooks, Acer utilized an all-metal build in the Nitro 5 Spin that’s similar in quality to pure productivity notebooks like the Lenovo Yoga 720 15 and HP Spectre x360 15. There’s just the slightest bit of flex in the lid, but otherwise it’s a robust enough build that it inspires confidence carrying it around. The hinge is well-designed with good grip and a fluid motion, allowing the display to be lifted into clamshell mode with one hand while holding things together in multimedia, tent, and tablet modes.

Of course, it’s a large 2-in-1 thanks to its 15.6-inch display and large bezels that make the chassis almost an inch wider than it might have been. It’s relatively thin, coming in at 0.70 inches – that’s just slightly less than both the Yoga 720 15 and the Spectre x360 15. But it’s also heavier than both of those 2-in-1s at a hefty 4.85 pounds. That means that you’ll be less inclined to use it as a tablet, at least while it’s tucked away in the crook of your arm, unless you spend plenty of time in the gym.

The Nitro 5 Spin’s deep black chassis with red hinges and trim along the keyboard deck immediately gives it away as a gaming-focused notebook

As with most larger notebooks, the Nitro 5 Spin makes good use of its chassis size and packs in plenty of ports. There’s a USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 port (unfortunately, without Thunderbolt 3 support), two USB-A 3.0 ports, a USB-A 2.0 port, a full-size HDMI port, and an Ethernet jack. For wireless connectivity you get the usual 2×2 MU-MIMO 802.11ac and Bluetooth radios. Oddly enough, there’s no SD card reader, which would have been nice to have.

Input is mediocre, but those WASD keys are nice to have

As mentioned earlier, the red-trimmed and backlit (one brightness level) keyboard sports handy WASD keys for gaming, and that’s where the major accolades end. The keys lack travel and have an abrupt bottoming action that’s a bit jarring, but they’re snappy which again likely appeals most to gamers. Fitting in a numeric keypad meant squeezing the layout a bit, with some keys on the right-hand side – notably the Alt and Ctl keys – smaller than we’d like.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

The touchpad is a decent size and is a Microsoft Precision version. Windows 10 multitouch gestures are therefore reliable and precise, and the surface is conducive to fast swiping. The Windows 10 Hello fingerprint scanner is in the upper right-hand corner of the touchpad, which means it’s a bit in the way, but it responds quickly for password-less login.

Finally, the display support multitouch, and the Acer active pen is a $50 option. It’s nothing special, with only 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity versus the 4,096 levels and tilt support on competitors like the Microsoft Surface Book 2 15. It works, but you’ll want to use it with the Nitro 5 Spin laying on stable surface given the 2-in-1’s significant size.

A display that’s average for productivity but superior for gaming

The Nitro 5 Spin comes with a 15.6-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 or 142 PPI), which is becoming more and more typical of today’s notebooks. It’s also a good resolution for an entry-level gaming system, which can then play modern titles at native resolution with some level of performance.

When subjected to our colorimeter, the panel that Acer chose for the machine is just about average compared to run-of-the-mill 2-in-1s, it falls short against more premium versions, and it’s better than the typical gaming notebook. Compare contrast, for example – the Nitro 5 Spin is right in line with the Yoga 720, falls short of the ultra-expensive Surface Book 2 and Dell XPS 2-in-1, and beats out the Inspiron 15 7577 Gaming.

The same is true for brightness, where the Nitro 5 Spin is good but not great at 292 nits and color gamut. Color accuracy is a real weakness, and gamma is too dark at 2.4, which impacts video and photo viewing.

In our own daily usage, we didn’t have complaints about the display, but it didn’t knock our socks off either. That’s pretty much the definition of “average,” but it is worth nothing that gaming notebooks in this price range sometimes come up short in contrast, brightness, and color gamut.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Acer spent some time creating a powerful audio system for the Nitro 5 Spin, and it shows. Two front-firing speakers mate with a dedicated subwoofer to provide quite a bit of volume and some real punch for watching movies and TV. Given the notebook’s size, there’s even some stereo separation, which adds to the audio experience. You’ll notice some distortion above 80 percent volume or so, but you don’t really need to turn it up that loud to fill a medium-size room.

Solid performance for both gamers and workers

Many gaming notebooks — like the HP Omen 15 — opt for 45-watt Intel CPUs, but the Nitro 5 Spin makes due with the eighth-generation Intel Core i7-8550U, a 15-watt processor. That means that it performs almost as well, but is far more efficient.

Acer Nitro 5 Spin Compared To

Dell XPS 15 2-in-1

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1

HP Spectre x360 13-ae002xx

HP Envy x2 (2017)

Asus NovaGo

Acer Switch 3

HP Omen 15

HP Spectre x360 15-bl075nr

Origin EON15-S

Lenovo Yoga 720 13-inch

Acer Spin 7

Samsung Notebook 7 spin

Huawei Matebook

Acer Aspire R7 (late 2013)

Acer Aspire R7

Acer tuned the Nitro 5 Spin quite well, and it squeezes out all of the CPU’s performance. It competes well against other similarly-equipped notebooks such as the Surface Book 2 15, and it even competes with the very fast Intel Core i7-8705G in the Dell XPS 2-in-1 with its higher power rating. That’s true in both the Geekbench 4 synthetic benchmark, although the Dell’s faster CPU managed a better score in our Handbrake real-world video encoding test.

Acer equipped the Nitro 5 Spin with a 256GB Micron 1100 SATA SSD and a secondary spinning hard disk drive (HDD). Unsurprisingly, the SATA SSD was considerably slower than the PCIe SSDs in our comparison group. It’s not something you’ll notice in most real-world tasks, and you’ll likely be loading your games from the larger HDD that’s going to be the real storage bottleneck.

Overall, the Nitro 5 Spin is fast enough for most anything you’ll throw at it, be it productivity apps or gaming, and you’d hope to get some extra efficiency as well. But you’ll likely find faster PCIe SSDs at this  price point, particularly with most 2-in-1 competitors.

Somewhat disappointing entry-level gaming chops

Acer equipped the Nitro 5 Spin with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU. That’s usually good enough for solid entry-level 1080P gaming in most modern titles, as long as you’re willing to set graphical detail at a medium setting.

The gaming 2-in-1’s synthetic 3DMark benchmark tests are in line with what we’d expect for the GPU, competing with the Yoga 720 15, Microsoft Surface Book 2 13, and Asus VivoBook Pro N580. Unsurprisingly, it falls down against dedicated gaming systems with faster GPUs like the Dell Inspiron 15 7577, and it can’t keep up with the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL graphics in the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1.

In real-life gaming, though, the Nitro 5 Spin was a bit disappointing. It only managed 41 frames per second (FPS) in Battlefield 1 at 1080P with medium graphics, for example, which is slower than the 63 FPS managed by the Asus VivoBook Pro N580, the 55 FPS scored by the Yoga 720 15, and the 53 FPS in the Surface Book 2 13 in “Best performance” mode. Its 44 FPS in Civilization VI in 1080p with medium graphics is also lower than most machines in our comparison group.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Ultimately, while you can get a better gaming experience out of the Nitro 5 Spin than you will from even some other 2-in-1s, with the Yoga 720 15 being a prime example for most games. Acer’s 2-in-1 may look like a gaming machine, but in real-world testing its gaming chops are mostly skin deep.

Not bad for a gaming notebook, but heavy and short-lasting for a convertible 2-in-1

The Nitro 5 Spin has a relatively small 50 watt-hours of battery capacity tucked away in its generously-sized chassis. Although its CPU is efficient, that’s not a lot of juice for a machine with a 15.6-inch display even if it is “only” Full HD.

Unsurprisingly, battery life was unimpressive. Acer’s 2-in-1 managed only three hours in our Basemark test, which isn’t a bad score for gaming notebooks but falls well short of 2-in-1s like the Surface Book 2 15 and the smaller Asus ZenBook Flip 14. Only the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 was worse at just over two hours, although we’ll note that our review unit was equipped with a power-sucking 4K display.

In our web browsing test, the Nitro 5 Spin managed under seven hours, which fell short of the Yoga 720 and the Surface Book 2 15. Again, the XPS 15 2-in-1 fell short against other 2-in-1s. Finally, in our test that loops a local video until the battery runs out, the Nitro 5 Spin couldn’t make it to nine hours, where the Yoga 720 15 and ZenBook Flip 14 lasted for around an hour longer and the Surface Book 2 15 was spectacular at more than 20.5 hours.

It’s large, heavy, and the battery life is mediocre at best. That’s another knock against the Nitro 5 Spin as a convertible 2-in-1 even as it’s a decent enough result for a gaming notebook.

Our Take

The Acer Nitro 5 Spin has some serious aspirations. It wants to be both a gaming notebook and a productivity 2-in-1, and it certainly packs in the right components. Unfortunately, although it looks the part, it’s not a terribly competitive gaming notebook. And like many 15-inch convertible 2-in-1s, it’s just too big to use as a tablet, meaning you’ll mostly just be swiveling the display around for watching video. In the end, the Nitro 5 Spin is a Jack of two trades and a master of none.

Is there a better alternative?

The 15-inch 2-in-1 market is chock full of good alternatives. We’ve already mentioned the Lenovo Yoga 720, which is slightly lighter, packs in similar components, and performs just as well if not better. And, it’s a bit less expensive at $1,000 for a Core i5-7300HQ, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB PCIe SSD, and without the 1TB HDD.

If you can spend some additional money, you could consider either size of Microsoft’s Surface Book 2. The 13.5-inch model has a slightly faster CPU and a GTX 1050 that’s a bit faster in real-world gaming, and the 15-inch model has a significantly faster Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 that blows the Nitro 5 Spin away in playing modern games. Or, you could opt for a dedicated gaming notebook like the Dell Inspiron 15 7577 and eschew the 2-in-1 form factor completely. For $950 or so, that would net you an Intel Core i5-7300HQ, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 with Max Q that will be a real step up in gaming. You’ll give up some things, though, such as in the svelte chassis, the display, and in battery life.

How long will it last?

The Nitro 5 Spin is built well enough that you shouldn’t worry about it falling apart on you, and it’s equipped well enough for years of productive use. It’s not a long-term gaming solution, though as its GTX 1050 won’t keep up with newer titles and it’s not the fastest implementation to begin with. The one-year warranty is standard, neither better nor worse than most competitors.

Should you buy it?

No. If you want a gaming notebook, then buy one. Don’t bother with a convertible 2-in-1 that just pretends to be for gaming. Even if that’s what you are looking for, this isn’t the best of the options.

Internet-free Samsung Galaxy J2 Pro aimed toward keeping students on task

Samsung has announced the launch of its Galaxy J2 Pro smartphone in South Korea. The device supports all the basic functions of a phone such as calling and texting, but it can’t connect to 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, or Wi-Fi.

The Internet-free device is geared mainly toward students who need to focus on studying without any distractions. Not being able to constantly access the outside world on their phone — whether it’s social media, games, or even a web browser — might make it easier for them to stay on task. But it can also be an option for people who don’t need to access the internet from their smartphones and only need to make phone calls or send text messages.

In terms of specs, the Galaxy J2 Pro comes with a 5-inch QHD Super AMOLED display, along with an 8-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera. Under the hood, is a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM, and a 2,600mAh replaceable battery. For storage, the device also has a microSD slot.

The Galaxy J2 Pro is available in two colors — black and gold — and costs $190 U.S. When it comes to aesthetics, it’s curved design and glossy look doesn’t make it seem too outdated in comparison to other budget phones.

There’s not much else to the device other than an offline “Diodict4” electronic dictionary application that can be used for foreign language learning. Other features include a calendar app, an FM radio, and a calculator. While there is an LTE modem in the phone, it’s disabled for any tasks other than calling or texting people, The Verge notes. But you can choose a data plan that puts a limit on how many texts you’re able to send out.

Samsung is also currently running a special promotion in honor of the new device for students between the ages of 18 and 21. Once students have completed the College Scholastic Ability Test — a college-entrance exam taken in South Korea — after 2019 and 2020, they’ll be able to trade in their Galaxy J2 Pro for a Galaxy S, Note, or A Series phone — as long as it was released after 2018.

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‘Shenmue’ I & II return on PS4, Xbox One and PC this year

Die-hard Shenmue fans don’t just have the crowdfunded Shenmue III to look forward to anymore. Tonight at the Sega Fest event, Sega announced the first two games in the series will be re-released later this year for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Fans can expect both physical and digital releases, while the games promise a “definitive version of these all-time classics.” Relive Ryo Hazuki’s quest for revenge with the classic or updated controls, options for either Japanese or English voiceovers and an updated UI. You can check out the reveal trailer with some pre-release footage after the break.

You’ve asked, we listened and we’re extremely excited to finally announce that Shenmue I & II are coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC in one package! Both games will feature Japanese and English voice overs, the choice of classic or modern controls and more! #ShenmueSaved pic.twitter.com/EvtcEt5pgn

— SEGA (@SEGA) April 14, 2018

Source: Shenmue

Waymo formally applies for fully driverless car tests in California

Waymo has officially applied to the California DMV to test autonomous cars without drivers in the state. A source told the San Francisco Chronicle that the company will start trials around its Mountain View headquarters where it’s been testing its self-driving Chrysler Pacific minivans, though those had personnel behind the wheel just in case. Eventually, they’ll expand no-trial driving to more of the Bay Area, the source said.

The California DMV had predicted they’d be ready for automakers to start testing driverless cars on public roads in April, and started accepting applications on the 2nd of the month. The new rules also allow testing vehicles without steering wheels, foot pedals and mirrors. Waymo is actually the second company to apply for driverless testing in California. The DMV confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle that two have submitted appropriate paperwork (the first applied earlier this month), but declined to identify either.

In place of a backup driver, the DMV would require companies to link their test vehicles to remote operators, who could take over in the event of an emergency. Back in March, Arizona’s governor opened up driverless car tests in the state, and notably won’t require the same wired-in operators waiting to step in. It should be noted that in the fatal crash involving an autonomous Uber car just weeks later, a test driver had been behind the wheel.

Via: The Verge

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ revives microtransactions for cosmetics

Star Wars Battlefront II’s pay-to-win loot crate fiasco more or less ended when Electronic Arts made it so the game’s Star Card power ups could only be earned through gameplay. A month later, the company is cautiously reintroducing the buy-with-real-money Crystal currency, but you can only use it to snag cosmetic upgrades. Oh, and there’s a new stormtroopers-versus-ewoks mode that will be available on April 18th for a limited time.

Set during the events of Return of the Jedi, Ewok Hunt is a last-man-standing battle pitting players on either side of the imperial occupation of Endor’s moon. A lone player starts as one of the stealthy, furred natives hunting down the others, who are all stormtroopers. When someone playing one of the Empire’s foot soldiers dies, they rejoin the game as an Ewok, whittling down the survivors until they’re all eliminated or they last long enough to be extracted.

The reintroduction of microtransactions-bought Crystals is potentially dicey, but EA made it clear in the announcement and FAQ that they can only be used to purchase items that don’t affect gameplay. Plus, if you want, you can use the play-generated Credits currency to pick up these ‘Appearances’ instead. The Battlefront II team has added 50 more of the cosmetic options to the game with this update, including Han and Leia in their Endor outfits as well as The Last Jedi costumes for Rey and Kylo (no, not shirtless).

Now that the pay-to-win furor has died down, the game’s team will release more limited-time modes like Ewok Hunt along with ‘Seasons’; Season Two will start in May, and news about it will drop early that month.

Source: Electronic Arts

Facebook removes Pages of two groups run by Richard Spencer

Earlier this week, during his testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Mark Zuckerberg responded to a question from Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY) about hate groups by saying, “We do not allow hate groups on Facebook, overall. So, if there’s a group that their primary purpose or a large part of what they do is spreading hate, we will ban them from the platform, overall.” But while that may be the policy, it has proven to be a bit difficult to implement. Following that testimony, Vice News found that a number of organizations the Southern Poverty Law Center considers to be hate groups still had Facebook presences, including two linked to white nationalist Richard Spencer. After Vice approached the platform about them, Spencer’s Pages were taken down.

The Pages in question belong to the National Policy Institute, Altright.com — both of which are run by Spencer — and The Nationalist Initiative, a spinoff of another group connected to the Charlottesville rally. Vice asked Facebook about “several other prominent hate groups” and as of this afternoon, these three Pages had been taken down while others remain functional.

In recent months, a number of companies have removed groups or individuals for hate speech, and for racism in particular. Google, Facebook, Reddit, Squarespace, Spotify, OkCupid and Twitter are among those that have done so. In 2016, Twitter temporarily suspended Spencer from its platform, though his account is currently active.

Via: Vice News

Sega brings ‘Football Manager Touch 2018’ to Nintendo Switch

It’s officially official: We told you it was coming soon, and now a few days later Football Manager has made its way to the Nintendo Switch. As for which version it is, if you had money on Touch, you’re a winner. Meaning, this is a version of the game that’s the same across Linux, Mac, mobile platforms and PC. The Switch version uses both touchscreen and traditional Joycon controls, and it’s the first console version with the full 3D match engine. It’s currently on offer through the Nintendo eShop for $40 (US) / £30 (UK) — so decide now if you really still have time to finish a few more shrines in Breath of the Wild.

#NewSigning… 🤝 pic.twitter.com/6iIXQX2AUG

— Football Manager 😎 (@FootballManager) April 13, 2018

Source: Football Manager, Nintendo

The FCC leaked pictures of a gold iPhone X

On the same day that an Apple memo urging employees to stop leaking company info leaked, the company is now dealing with another, well, leak. But, this time it wasn’t anyone from inside Apple who spilled the goods; it was the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). As spotted by 9to5Mac, a gold iPhone X appears to have arrived at the FCC offices, which is surprising considering Apple hasn’t made an official announcement about the new color on its flagship smartphone. The tones on this iPhone X are quite shiny and, at a glance, look like a darker version of those on the gold iPhone 8. One of the main differences with the gold iPhone X is that it has black bezels, whereas the gold iPhone 8 comes with white ones. Apple just tried a similar formula with the Product RED iPhone 8 Plus we checked out yesterday.

Even though the FCC isn’t a random person on the internet who claims to have a gold iPhone X, don’t get too excited about it until Apple confirms its existence. Something worth noting, as 9to5Mac points out, the leaked iPhone X has a model identifier of “A1903,” which is different than the “A1865,” “A1901” and “A1902” that are already out on the market. If this gold iPhone X is indeed the real deal, though, then it probably won’t be too long until Apple launches it.

We reached out to Apple for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: FCC

Retouch Me review: a photo correction service for those with no photo editing skills

How many times have you snapped a selfie and, upon seeing the result, found yourself wishing you had more hair volume or that you were skinnier? These imperfections can be easily adjusted using professional editing programs like Photoshop. But what do you do if you don’t know Photoshop? You ask a friend… or you can install an app to help you with editing.

These days, there’s an app for everything. So why shouldn’t there be one for getting flawless photos and selfies? Enter Retouch Me, a photo correction service which puts you in direct contact with trained designers, who are available at any hour of the day and night.

Setup

Setting up the app is pretty simple. Just grab it from the Google Play Store and install it on your Android device. The app is free to download, but if you want to get your photos and selfies retouched you will have to pay cash.

Once you fire up the app, you’re prompted to pick a photo you want to get retouched (or to take a new one).

Select an image and start tapping on the adjustments you want the designer to do to them. Options are grouped into two categories: Body and Face.

You can pick from numerous options including:

• Slimmer waist
• Flat stomach
• Remove fat folds
• Remove skin flaws
• Longer legs
• Thinner arms
• Remove tattoos
• Iron clothes
• Remove pimples
• Whiten teeth
• Enlarge eyes
• Enlarge lips and many more

But to get your photo retouched you need stars. To see your star balance, check the bottom left of the screen.

How do you get stars? Well, you’ll have to purchase them using real money. 20 starts cost $1, while purchasing 80 will take you back with $3.99. If you want to go big, you also have the option of buying up to 3000 stars.

You can also earn stars (or credits). You can watch an ad for one star or like RetouchMe on Facebook or Instagram for five stars each. Writing a review on Google Play will get you an additional 10 credits.

Once you stocked up on stars, pick the retouches you want to apply to your photo. For example, a nose correction, ear reduction or lips enlargement will cost you 10 stars.

Smoothing the skin takes more effort so it will take you back with 20 stars. But the majority of options cost 5 or 10 stars.

After you decide on the retouches you want to be applied, you simply tap the Send to Designer button in the upper right corner and wait. It takes up to an hour before you get the edited photo back.

So, how are the results? In my experience, they were ok, but nothing out of the ordinary. I sent in a few pics and asked the app to smooth my skin, remove a pimple and add more volume to my hair.

While the designer who retouched my image(s) did everything I asked for, it’s nothing I couldn’t have done myself using a photo app like AirBrush.

For another image, I requested a bosom enlargement, as well as a tan. As you can see below, the retouches are a bit awkward.

Once you get the results back, you can easily compare the old and new image to be able to see the differences more clearly. You can also rate the designer who retouched your photo and opt to have the RetouchMe logo on your pic.

From the same window, you can also share the retouched images on social media (Facebook, Twitter) or save it to your device.

Conclusion

RetouchMe is a very intuitive app, so anyone will be able to get their photos retouched easily. Photo retouching apps are as easy as ever, so there are plenty of options to make these alterations on your own. But, that being said, if you want to just have someone else take on the task RetouchMe is the way to go.

If you want to find out more about Retouch Me, you can visit its website or find it in the Google Play Store.

Oppo R15 Pro hands-on: Notch too bad

Oppo is slowly creeping into just about every region of the world. Whether in China or India, the company has become synonymous with the rapidly expanding Asian phone market. This isn’t a company that makes flagships though (that’s OnePlus‘ job); it makes affordable mid-ranged devices for everyone. But what happens when the line between a high-end and budget device begins to blur?

That’s what Oppo is trying to accomplish with the new R15 range. This is the Oppo R15 and R15 Pro hands-on.

Oppo wants to blur the line between budget and flagship by sacrificing small features it thinks people will overlook.

Generally, we judge a smartphone’s worth by the age of its SoC. Does it have the newest Snapdragon? Flagship. Latest Exynos? Flagship. Last year’s Snapdragon? LG. What Oppo is trying to do with the R15 is create a mid-range device that, besides the chipset, is so similar to other current high-end devices that the line between them gets seriously blurred.

The Oppo R15 and Oppo R15 Pro use the Mediatek Helio P60 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 respectively, which are, by definition, mid-range options. If you take the brains out of the equation, the 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM will likely throw you for a loop. The number-crunching SoCs don’t run at the highest clock speeds, but you’ll be able to store your entire media library on this thing (with optional expandable storage) and jump between apps faster than you can blink.

See also:

Everything you need to know about Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 (video)

Following yesterday’s keynote teaser, Qualcomm has followed up by lifting the lid on its latest mobile platform – the Snapdragon 845. The chipset sports improvements across the board, ranging from new processing technology to an …

Oppo wants this phone to be full of compromises you don’t really notice. This phone isn’t QHD. It’s got the oh-so strange resolution of 2,280 x 1,080. But… it has an OLED panel.

Do you see what I mean? The OLED screen overshadows its relatively low resolution. The 20MP front-facing camera and 18.99:9 (or 2.11:1) aspect ratio make the phone’s notch seem like a less of a problem. The compromises at the core of this phone make it affordable, and the “misses” are almost always overshadowed by a benefit the average user will likely care about more.

That front-facing camera I mentioned earlier is paired with some “AI” tech that can map cat ears to your face and help soften your skin. It’s a gimmick and will probably get old after one or two photos, but it’s still fun. Oppo can brand the features whatever it wants as long as they map accurately to my face, which they do.

USB Type-C needs to become the standard for every device.

The rear cameras (I say this casually as dual cameras are normal now) are high quality too. The standard model carries resolutions of 16MP and 5MP, and the Pro variant sports 16 and 20MP shooters. The resulting images looked good, though a bit washed out, during our hands-on time with the devices. Oppo also showed us the phones in an extremely well lit and photogenic room, so we’ll have to take this thing out into the real world to test it in a more realistic environment.

The bottom of the phone houses a speaker, Micro-USB port, and a headphone jack. The lack of USB Type-C is something I personally don’t think Oppo has any excuse for, but it’s just another compromise, this time overshadowed by being able listen to your music with normal headphones, instead of having to rely on Bluetooth or dongles. VOOC Flash Charge is also available on this device, so while I will not forgive the abandoning of a reversible connector, it will still be able to get a quick battery boost from a few minutes on the brick.

Biometric security options include an elongated fingerprint reader on the rear (the correct placement) and a face unlock feature. The face unlock feature is already acting inconsistently in my first day with the phone, so I would likely just use the fingerprint sensor to avoid unnecessary annoyances.

Other compromises include a lack of proper waterproofing (forgivable) and NFC capabilities (unforgivable), though Oppo told me it may add these features to select markets as it releases the device in new regions. The severity of these compromises are obviously tailored to the user, but an NFC chip should be included in every phone on the market, no matter the cost. I live in San Fransisco, but contactless payments and NFC chips are everywhere!

See also:

Turned off by the notch? Cover it up with this free app!

Love it or loathe it, the notch is 100% here to stay. Whether you blame Essential or Apple for popularizing the notch, the reality is that more and more OEMs are opting for display cutouts. …

If you like iOS, you’ll like the Oppo R15’s ColorOS 5.0. There is no app drawer and swiping to the left reveals an eerily familiar set of widgets and quick functions. You can even enable swipe-up gestures to get rid of the navigation bar and take advantage of the extremely small bezels. I don’t really care if this is a blatant copy, I like it. This OS is based on Android 8.1, so kudos t0 Oppo for at least giving us the latest Google has to offer (for security’s sake).

The Oppo R15 and R15 Pro are very attractive phones, depending on how you feel about the notch. The standard model comes in three colors including Rogue Red, Frost White, and Nebula Purple (a gradient from dark purple to black). The Pro comes in Infinity Black and Ruby Red (another gradient from red to black). Why all these companies got together and decided to make gradient phones I will never know, but I’m very happy they did.

We’ll have the opportunity to spend much more time with the Oppo R15 and Oppo R15 Pro in the coming weeks. Until then make sure you watch the video above to get a good sense of what the phone looks like and stay tuned to Android Authority for more gradient-colored notch device news and reviews.