After plenty of teasing, Oppo has now officially taken the wraps off the Find 7, the successor to the Find 5. Ahead of today’s unveiling, we managed to get a our hands on the Find 7, and here our first impressions of Oppo’s latest flagship handset.

Design

The design of the Oppo Find 7 borrows heavily from the language we first saw with the Find 5, complete with a high-end build quality with steel elements. While the handset might look similar to its predecessor, it has a much better balance weight distribution that feels nimbler in the hands than we expected, despite actually weighing a little more than the Find 5 at 170g versus 165g.

The black slate front has a 5.5-inch screen with capacitive keys at the bottom. You’ll also find an attractive LED light at the bottom, which Oppo refers to as the Skyline light. On the right side of the handset you’ll find volume rockers, with the power button located on the left.

The back of the handset depends on which model of the Find 7 you end up purchasing, the base 1080p model (aka Find 7 A) or the higher-end QHD model. The former has a brushed metal back, while the later has a carbon fiber backing with an attractive textured pattern.

Display

As previously mentioned, the Oppo Find 7 features a 5.5-inch display that comes in either a 1080p or 2560×1440 (QHD) resolution. The higher-end of these models manages to pack an extremely impressive 534ppi, beating out any other device currently on the market.

The Find 7’s 5.5-inch screen fits inside a body that is about the same size as the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which puts the phone right on the line of discomfort when using with one hand. That said, the handset’s size is nowhere near the level of discomfort you’d find from larger phablet devices and we believe it is a size that most users will eventually get used to without much of a problem.

Performance and Hardware

What you get under the hood again depends on the model you’re looking at. The base version of the handset features a Snapdragon 800, with the QHD model will offer a Snapdragon 801. Based on our time with the Find 7, we found that the Android-based COLOR OS flew by very smoothly on both models. Really the only thing we didn’t like here is that you’ll have to hold down the home button to access the recent apps screen.

Unlike the Find 5 and the more recent Oppo N1, the Find 7 offers expandable storage and is also the first Oppo device to handle LTE connections. But probably the coolest hardware feature has to do with the battery.

A 3,000 mAh battery might seem pretty normal considering the fact the phone has a QHD display, but Oppo has built in a technology that allows multi-step constant current charging that should provide 0% to 75% battery life in just half an hour! That’s the best in class charging speed we’ve seen from any smartphone.

Camera

Turning to the camera, there’s a 13MP optic package that features the latest-gen Sony Exmor RS sensor. As for the camera’s software, it’s pretty much the same camera app that we saw in the Oppo N1. Some of the camera app’s special features include the ability to shoot in RAW format, in addition to things like its slow shutter feature.

Overall, all the pictures we took looked rather nice, but we’ll reserve full judgment until we’re able to bring you a full review that really puts the camera through its paces.

Software

Although a newer version of Color OS is expected in the not-too-distant future, the version arriving in the Find 7 is essentially the same as what was offered in the Oppo N1 — though that’s not a bad thing.

The Find 7 is packed full of special features, some of which we found a little gimmicky while others were incredibly useful such as the gesture panel can be brought down by sliding from the left of the dropdown. Once in the gesture panel, you can draw programmable gestures to perform a bunch of different tasks. Another extremely useful feature is the ability to double tap the home button to turn off and wake up the phone.

Even some of the more gimmicky features are still really cool, such as the Sky gestures. These gestures can be accessed by holding the volume button down and then moving the phone around in certain patterns to turn on the torch, camera or even the phone.

Pricing and availability

The Oppo Find 7 will go on sale “very soon” directly through Oppo’s website in various markets. The 1080p model will be priced at $499, or $599 for the QHD version.

Gallery

Final Thoughts

When the Oppo Find 5 first arrived to the market last year, we couldn’t help but be impressed. Despite the fact that the Oppo brand was relatively unknown (and arguably still is), the handset packed plenty of bleeding edge features, and this tradition continued with the Oppo N1. Based on our time with the Find 7, it’s clear that Oppo’s latest handset is no exception.

We’ll be sure to bring you an even closer look at the handset in the months to come, after we’re able to do a full review on the handset.