Oppo N1 with rotating 13 MP camera debuts in India for Rs 39,999

Popular Chinese smartphone maker and electronics brand Oppo has finally made an entry in the Indian market, with the launch of the Oppo N1. While Chinese brands usually are seen as non-premium or even cheap, the N1 has a vaunted price tag of Rs 39,999, which shows Oppo’s ambition for the Indian smartphone market. At the price range, it’s going square against the HTC One Max, Nokia Lumia 1520 and the Galaxy Note 3.   The N1 comes with a number of “firsts”. The most intriguing part about the phone is the 13-megapixel rotating camera that can be used for video calls on the front as well. It is also the first phone to officially support CyanogenMod, the most popular aftermarket Android ROM. In addition, the phone will run Oppo’s Color OS, based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, featuring 410 supposed design ‘improvements’ over Google’s vanilla UI.   A quick look at the specifications shows that N1 comes with a hulking 5.9-inch 1080p IPS display. It gets a quad-core Snapdragon 600 SoC clocked at 1.7GHz, 2GB of RAM as well as 16GB or 32GB of internal memory. The N1 will come packing a massive 3610mAh battery, so at least usage time should be close to if not more than a day.   The USP of the N1, as we have stated before, is the rotating camera. The 13MP camera with CMOS sensor and f/2.0 aperture is impressive in itself, but there’s a specially-designed Fujitsu IPS imaging chip, which should help boost individual aspects of a picture. The camera has a 6-piece lens design, which Oppo says is the first of its kind on Android. The entire camera rotates 206 degrees allowing it to act as a front-facing camera as well. Oppo says the rotation has been tested 100,000 times and this means you can swivel it 40 times a day for 7 years, before it decides to conk off. There’s a dual-mode flash as well designed to work for front and back shots.   The N1 comes with the O Click, a Bluetooth accessory that can be attached in a keyring and can be used to take pictures remotely or sound an alarm if you can’t find the phone. The phone also has a touch panel on the back, which allows users to perform various tasks with simple gestures. This includes taking a selfie with a tap on the back.   We will be bringing you more details of the India-specific model soon, so we will find out if the CM version will be coming along side the regular N1. Stay tuned for more.