At first glance, the Oppo R7 Plus looks like a lot the Apple iPhone 6s Plus—to the point that my colleague mistook it for one. That's not a bad thing, considering Apple's phablet is one of the best-looking devices on the market, and you can get the unlocked R7 Plus for nearly half the price ($499.99; 32GB). In addition to its premium design, the R7 Plus offers snappy performance and terrific battery life. That said, the market is recently awash in similarly priced unlocked Android smartphones, making competition at this price range particularly fierce. And that makes issues like mixed camera performance and a heavy Android layer stand out even more. The Oppo R7 Plus is a solid, attractive, phablet. But the Motorola Moto X Pure Edition gets you more for your money, and remains our Editors' Choice.

Design and Features

The R7 Plus is gorgeous. It has chamfered aluminum edges, an all-metal back, and a minimal bezel surrounding the 6-inch display. It measures 6.22 by 3.23 by 0.31 inches (HWD), and weighs 6.77 ounces, making it large, even for a phablet. It's also very square, which makes it a strain to hold unless you have enormous hands. For most people, one-handed use isn't possible with this phone; you can't reach across the screen with your thumb, so actions like pulling down the notification shade and accessing the Settings menu will require the use of a second hand.

It would have helped if the device had more of a curve to it, like the 5.7-inch Moto X Pure, or rounded edges, like the 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus. Fortunately, both the Volume and Power buttons are placed closer to the middle on either side of the phone, making them easy to reach. There's a fingerprint scanner on the back, directly under the camera. Your forefinger rests naturally around there, so the placement works well. The fingerprint scanner is responsive, on par with devices like the iPhone 6s Plus, the OnePlus 2, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 5. On the downside, there's no NFC, which rules out Android Pay. 

The R7 Plus has a 6-inch 1,920-by-1,080 AMOLED display. It produces very rich colors, but at 367 pixels per inch, it isn't quite on par with the competition. Given the Quad HD displays on the Moto X Pure and ZTE Axon Pro, it's clear that we've reached the point where even modestly priced phones can be expected to boast 2,560-by-1,440 panels. That's not to say there's anything wrong with the R7 Plus, but placing it side-by-side with rival devices, the display looks noticeably less crisp. That said, games and video are well-rendered, it gets bright enough to see in direct sunlight, and viewing angles are good. 

The phone has a single rear-facing speaker on the bottom left side. It's not particularly loud, and at the highest volumes, it sounds tinny. The placement makes it easy to inadvertently muffle with your hand while gaming. Sound quality was much better when connected to a Bluetooth headset, with more volume, bass, and depth.

Network Connectivity and Battery Life

The the R7 Plus is a dual-SIM device with GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz), WCDMA (850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz), and LTE (1/2/4/7/17) bands. That means it's missing T-Mobile's band 12 and AT&T's band 29, both of which help to improve speeds on those networks. I tested the device on AT&T in midtown Manhattan and found the network connectivity to be average. 

Call quality on the R7 Plus is generally good. Voices retain a crisp, natural tone, but the earpiece volume doesn't get very loud. While that's fine for quiet environments, outside with traffic, it can be hard to hear the voice on the other end. Speakerphone volume is similarly not loud enough to carry on a conversation in a noisy environment. Noise cancellation is decent, dampening background sounds like music and traffic, but there's the occasional distortion when loud noises are continuous.