First of all, the Oppo N1 mini is not what it claims to be with its 5-inch display even if phones with large screens are the new normal. ‘Mini’ is not a word to throw around lightly, but the Chinese handset maker doesn’t care.
As long as the Oppo N1 mini is smaller than its predecessor, the moniker is clearly accurate enough for the company. The reference to its size in the name has to do with the device’s proportions in relation to its bigger cousin and not to rivals in the market, you see.
The Oppo smartphone is a beautiful piece of work with its pristine white exterior finished in a matte texture and its eye-catching swivel-hinge camera. The handset is only slightly smaller than the N1 considering the 5-inch screen on the former and the 5.9-inch one on the latter.
But the N1 mini sacrifices the full HD resolution and settles for 720p instead. A 1.6GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor ousts the 1.7GHz quad core Snapdragon 600 chip we’ve seen previously. Also, the 3610mAh battery has been knocked out in favor of a 2140mAh one here.
You can look forward to the Color OS interrupting Android 4.3 instead of 4.2 on the mini smartphone. There’s no O-Touch touchpad on the rear casing of the Oppo handset for scrolling and navigation, a specification meant to support accessing the device’s various functions with one hand only.
Oppo may argue that this is the reason for introducing the smaller N1 and letting it slip through production without O-Touch. Well, putting that aside, you’re still getting 2GB of RAM on the newer device. Its 13MP camera sits beside a flash unit which rotates to the front or back along with the lens.