OnePlus One vs OPPO Find 7a first look

This year, big OEMs such as Samsung, Sony, and HTCplayed it safe and chose a more evolutionary path for their new flagships. Meanwhile, smaller phone makers such as OPPO and OnePlus don’t have the luxury of playing safe. OPPO really upped the ante in the specs race with its Find 7 and Find 7a, while the debutants at OnePlus disrupted the specifications vs. price balance with the OnePlus One.

The two device share their roots, especially with the Full HD version of the Find 7 that we have, and it’ll be quite interesting to see how they compare. Here’s a quick look at the OnePlus vs OPPO Find 7a!

Design

As mentioned in the hands-on video, at first glance, the OnePlus One and the OPPO Find 7a feature a common design aesthetic, with smooth and sleek  lines framing an overall angular design.

The similarities carry over to the all-black front; both phones come with a minimalistic, yet premium look, with no embellishments to draw the eye from what’s on the screen. You get the same capacitive button layout at the bottom of the display, but the OnePlus One comes with the option to switch to on-screen keys if you so desire. The OnePlus One display is slightly raised though, and is surrounded by a chrome ring, that further enhances its high-end look.

The minimalism continues as we turn to the back, with both featuring the same 13 MP rear camera, with a dual LED flash below it, and the OnePlus and OPPO logos towards the centre of the backplate. You get a smooth finish on the OPPO Find 7a (the premium version offers a carbon fibre back plate,) with the OnePlus One featuring a smooth, hard plastic back.

Considering how similar these devices are, it’s no surprise that the dimensions are also almost identical, with the OnePlus One ever so slightly longer, almost 1 mm wider, and nominally thinner and lighter than the OPPO Find 7a.

What struck me about the feel, however, was how the weight distribution seems much more even on the OnePlus One. As a result, it was nimbler and easier to perform hand gymnastics on. However, thumb stretching will definitely be required with both phones, that fall just out of the comfort zone when it comes to one handed use.

Display

As you’ll find out as we keep going in this comparison, the OPPO Find 7 and OnePlus One are two exceedingly similar devices.

The OPPO Find 7 version that we have, the non-Quad HD device, features the same 5.5-inch LTPS LCD display as the OnePlus One, with the latter also featuring TOL (Touch ON Lens) tech that eliminates the distance between the touch sensors and the display panel, and is also significantly more shatter resistant than other OGS screens.

As expected, colors pop, there are no issues with brightness, and viewing angles are fantastic.

The Find 7a and the OnePlus One are both 1080p, resulting in a pixel density of 401 ppi. The better option is the premium version of the Find 7, with its Quad HD resolution and 538 ppi density. But until we get our hands on that version of the phone, as far as this comparison is concerned, things are definitely pretty head to head.

Performance and hardware

As expected from any current flagship device, both phones feature the best processing package on the market, with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, backed by the Adreno 330 GPU. The processor of the OnePlus is clocked at a higher 2.5 GHz, compared to the 2.3 GHz of the Find 7a, and the One does come with 3GB RAM, one more than the 2GB of RAM of the Find 7a. In either case, performance is lightning fast, and multi-tasking is a breeze.

One benefit the OPPO Find 7 has over the OnePlus One is the inclusion of microSD expansion over the 16GB of in-built storage, while the OnePlus One attempts to make up for it with the availability of a 64GB version.

The OPPO Find 7 also brings some real style to its notification LED, as the Skyline notification bar permeates throughout the bottom portion, hindered only by the fact that it only shines blue. This is compared to the more conventional blinking notification light found in the earpiece of the OnePlus One.

When it comes to the battery, the OnePlus One comes with a slightly larger 3,100 mAh battery, while the Find 7a has a 3,000 mAh unit, which is removable though, giving you the opportunity to carry around a spare. This is where the comparison gets skewed in favor of the OPPO Find 7a, however, as the VOOC fast charging technology really puts it ahead of competitors. Being able to charge your phone from 0 to 100% in about an hour os an invaluable trait of the OPPO Find 7a. This is something you simply do not get with the OnePlus One, whose charging times will be much more conventional.

Camera

Not to keep harping on the same point, but the camera package of the OnePlus One is also identical to what is available with the OPPO Find 7a.

A Sony ExmorRS 13 MP camera with f/2.0 aperture and dual LED flash promises to deliver amazing shots, made more precise, distortion-free, and detailed by the 6 physical lenses. If selfies are your thing, the 5 MP distortion-free front-facing camera with a lens that allows for an 80 degree capture should work wonders for you.

As you’ll see in an upcoming review, we had a good experience with the Find 7a camera, and we can definitely expect more of the same with the camera of the OnePlus One.

Software

We finally come to an area where there is a significant difference!

The OnePlus One runs CyanogenMod 11S, a special release built specifically for the One to take advantage of all its hardware and features, that is based on Android 4.4 Kitkat.

You get a clean and minimalistic stock-like experience, with various customization options available easily from the device’s theme engine and store. Useful software features such as Voice commands let you wake the device, or you can launch your favorite apps by drawing pre-set gestures on a sleeping screen. As mentioned before, you can also choose between on-screen and capacitive navigation buttons to suit your preference.

On the other hand, the Find 7a runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, which is somewhat disappointing as we’d have expected a current Android smartphone release to feature Android 4.4 Kitkat. You get OPPO’s Color OS on top, which falls somewhere between stock and TouchWiz on the colorfulness and brightness scale. Additions include support for various gestures, as well as a range of widgets and other small enhancements.

Color OS’ general look is much more ethereal and its interface is not as flat, and, in a number of ways, as practical as CyanogenMod, which takes a core stock experience and builds upon it. However, many of the gestures or features you might use in one are found on the other, like tapping to wake the phone. And, with OPPO’s openness to custom ROMs, it’s entirely possible to transform your Find 7a to offer a similar experience to that of the OnePlus One.

Specs Comparison

Gallery

Conclusions at a glance

The biggest goal OnePlus set out to achieve with the One was to provide a premium device at an incredibly low price point. The OPPO Find 7a is cheaper than most other 2014 flagships, but price remains the biggest differentiating factor between the two phones: the OPPO Find 7a is available from $499, while the OnePlus starts at an incredible $299.

We can argue that you get what you pay for in either case, with the core Android experience presented beautifully by the OnePlus One, and VOOC charging, replaceable battery, and expandable storage in the OPPO Find 7a more than enough to make up for the difference. As a big proponent of fast charging, I think the extra $200 is justified, along with the other additions, but if you don’t need those extras, the OnePlus is the absolute steal.

Stay tuned with Android Authority as our comprehensive review of both the OPPO Find 7a and the OnePlus One will be coming very shortly!

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