Oppo's been prepping its photography-centric N1 for quite some time, but at last, the teasing stops today as the company unveils its first N-Lens series device in Beijing. We're looking at a 1.7GHz quad-core APQ8064 phone with a 5.9-inch 1080p display, a backside touch panel (for scrolling and taking photos) and a generous 3,610mAh battery, but the focus is obviously on the camera. Not only do you get a 13-megapixel imager with an f/2.0, 6-element lens plus dual LED, but it's also rotatable over 206 degrees! While THL's W11 beat the N1 to being the first phone with both a front and back 13-megapixel cameras, it's not as versatile as the latter's implementation, and it's ultimately all about the image quality.
In case you're wondering, Oppo said the N1's swivel camera has passed a 100,000-time rotation test, which works out to be seven years of usage if you rotate it 40 times a day. This is quite reassuring, given that you can also activate the camera -- which takes just 0.6 seconds -- with a rotation of over 120 degrees. Oppo also boasted that its camera's been tested in over 100 scenarios, which is apparently the highest in the industry. Other features include long exposure of up to 8 seconds, an updated version of Oppo's beautification algorithm, and support for video beautification in China's popular IM app, QQ.
On the software side, the phone will come with Oppo's new ColorOS, which is the result of a 10-month development involving 243 developers, 20,000 testers and 43 new patents. Some of the coolest features include live weather themes that interact with the icons (such as snow settling on top of them, or lightning bolt reflecting on them), as well as a drop-down board for drawing patterns to trigger specific apps, plus a notification of your call recipient's weather for a more personal touch.
In addition to ColorOS, Oppo's also bringing CyanogenMod on board, making the N1 the first collaboration product since the formation of Cyanogen Inc. (its founder and CTO Steve Kondik was at the event). This ROM will be available later for the N1, but there'll also be a special edition of the device that will come with Cyanogenmod pre-installed -- the first such product in the world.
The price? From CN¥3,498 or about US $570 for the regular N1, and you get an option of either 16GB or 32GB of built-in storage. Folks who are already using China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network can head to Oppo's Chinese website to pre-order, and expect full availability in October.
