It was rumored for a long time, and then it finally became official just the other day, and now the Oppo N1 CyanogenMod Edition is available for purchase via the Oppostyle website for $599. To say this is a landmark day is an understatement. The release of the very first device to ship with CyanogenMod installed out of the box makes way for more devices to ship as such, and CyanogenMod to seriously turn the Android custom ROM scene into something completely different for most users. Right now you generally need to traverse the XDA-Developers forums and figure out how well supported your device is, how to get it unlocked, rooted and eventually flashed to an (assumedly) upgraded version of Android. This comes with inherent risks and tends to void warranties in a flash (no pun intended), and is something most people just don’t want to mess around with. The Oppo N1 CyanogenMod Edition ships with CyanogenMod 10.2 right out of the box, which is built on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Using the built-in CyanogenMod updater tool, you can flash to the newest version in minutes and keep up to date without having to worry about silly sideloading shenanigans or voiding warranties.
One thing is quite puzzling here though; why would CyanogenMod, a group that thrives on the cutting edge, ship their first phone to the market with an old version of Android? Simply put: stability. Right now CyanogenMod 11 is the group’s version of Android 4.4 KitKat, and it’s still in the “nightly” status, which means that every night the group compiles a new version for users to test; test being the key word here. Nightlies tend to be riddled with all sorts of bugs, and things can be broken with any given release as features are added. Once builds move to that all-important stable status, they can be shipped with the comfort of knowing you’ve got a nearly completely bug-free phone. The CyanogenMod team has a blog post discussing the release of the phone as well as updating it to CM11 if you’re interested. Staying on the cutting edge will be easier than ever now.
If you’ve not heard of Oppo’s latest flagship phone then you’re in for quite a nice surprise. The phone features all the latest specs including a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, a 5.9-inch 1080p screen, and a 206-degree rotating 13 megapixel camera. The pictures we received from Oppo back in September paint a rather incredible picture of just how good this camera can look, and it’s any wonder given the technology behind it. Remember that you can pick the phone up on Oppo’s Oppostyle website today for $599, just in time for Christmas!