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Introducing the OPPO R819, Run OPPO's Custom UI or Stock Android

Introducing the OPPO R819, Run OPPO's Custom UI or Stock Android

By Alexander Maxham
August 19, 2013

Lately, OPPO has been the manufacturer to watch. Sure they haven’t brought many devices into the US. In fact, the only device I know of they’ve brought here is the OPPO Find 5 which was only available unlocked. But that phone was a beast. We’ve reported on OPPO many times already, especially with how developer friendly they are. Hell, they even sent a Find 5 to the folks at CyanogenMod, and tout that the Find 5 is compatible with Paranoid Android, CyanogenMod and a few other ROMs right on their page with the rest of their features. How much more developer friendly could they get?

For quite a while, we’ve been asking for stock Android phones, aside from the Nexus family. We’ve even asked manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, Sony, etc., to give us an easy way to get stock Android on our phones. Well, OPPO has listened to us. They’ve announced the OPPO R819 which doesn’t have amazing specs, but you can switch to stock Android fairly easily.

The OPPO R819 features:

  • 4.7-inch 720p IPS Display
  • MediaTek quad-core 1.2GHHz processor
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 16GB of internal storage
  • 8MP Sony Exmor BSI rear camera, with a 2MP shooter on the front
  • 2000mAh battery
  • Android 4.2.1

So the specs aren’t crazy like the Galaxy S4 or even the Xperia Z Ultra. But it’s definitely enough to keep the device running smoothly and handle any and everything you throw at it. Additionally, the R819 will be pretty thin at just 7.3mm thin and weighs about 110g. The device will also offer gesture controls for waking, answering and silencing your device. It also gives you the choice of which ROM it’ll ship with. Either OPPO’s “Color ROM” or the Stock Android ROM. I’m sure OPPO will find a way for those that want Stock Android to still check out their “Color ROM” and see what kind of goodies OPPO has in their devices.

The OPPO R819 is a pretty unique device, think of it as a Google Play Edition that’s not coming to the US or Google Play. It’s planned for a September release and is already popping up on various European sites for  â‚¬269 which is equivalent to $359 with today’s exchange rate.