OPPO vs Huawei: Two Chinese brands fighting it out in Africa

Two Chinese smartphone makers are trying to outdo each other across the continents, particularly in Africa. One of them, Huawei, is an established player in the global smartphone market, where as the other one, OPPO, is a rather new player that entered African market in March 2015 but is already proving to be a formidable rival. To get an insight into how the two Chinese companies are differentiating their products from each other, we picked up Huawei Ascend Y530 for a spec to spec comparison with OPPO Joy R1001. Given our African focus currently, we have taken prices from the Kenyan market to arrive at some indicative cost comparison.

DESIGN: We start with the overall shape and size of the two devices. OPPO Joy is 124x63x9.9mm and weighs 125g where as Huawei Ascend Y530 comes in size 132X67X9.3mm and weighs 145g, about 20gm heavier than OPPO Joy. Both, Oppo Joy R1001 and Huawei Ascend Y530 are similar looking, bar shaped devices, curved at all four ends, but with larger length and width and lesser thickness, Huawei gives a relatively sleeker look. Both the models come in black and white colour variants, however, Huawei Ascend Y530 brings in an added colour statement as its black variant comes with a tint of red at the base and the top and the white variant with a silver tint at the base and the top. Design and colour are a matter of personal preference.

DISPLAY SCREEN: OPPO Joy has 4.0” IPS TFT screen that comes with a resolution of 800X480 pixels. The multi-touch, capacitive touch screen is highly sensitive with the glove mode feature that enables access to the screen and operate the phone using gloves. It also comes with added smart function of Gesture Panel that allows users to go to a desired App by drawing a simple picture on the gesture panel. On the other hand, Huawei Ascend Y530 has a larger 4.5” screen with comparable 854x480 pixels but without any added smart features.

OPERATING SYSTEM (OS): Both the devices run on Android Jelly bean, though Huawei Ascend Y530 features Android 4.3 where as OPPO Joy lags behind with Android 4.2 version. Although Ascend has a leg up, both OS are a bit oldish considering that more latest Android versions are now available and being used by various smartphone makers.

PROCESSOR: OPPO Joy R1001 has a MediaTek MT6572 1.3 GHz Dual-Core processor with 512MB of RAM where as Huawei Ascend Y530 carries a MSM8210 1.2 GHz Dual-Core processor with 512MB of RAM, which gives OPPO Joy a slight edge in terms of clock speed. Both the devices have an internal storage of 4GB, expandable up to 32GB via a micro-SD card. On the whole, both the devices are more or less comparable on these accounts.

CAMERA & BATTERY:  Both the devices have comparable 3MP primary  cameras with soft light flash support and 0.3MP secondary cameras. Also, the battery capacity in both the devices is about the same: OPPO Joy comes with a removable 1700mAH Li-Ion battery where as Huawei Ascend has a slightly better 1750mAH Li-Ion battery but without the option of replacing the same with a higher power battery.

CONNECTIVITY & OTHER FEATURES:  On the connectivity front, Huawei Ascend Y530 has a WiFi 802.11 b/g/n support, Bluetooth 4.0 and high speed USB support. OPPO JOY too has the same WiFi but it comes with Bluetooth 2.1EDR support. Furthermore, OPPO Joy R1001 supports additional features like Distance Sensor, Light Sensor and G-Sensor where as Huawei Ascend Y530 comes with Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor and Ambient Light Sensor.

CONCLUDING REMARK: We note that Huawei Ascend Y530 has the design advantage of being sleeker with a colour statement, larger display screen, relatively more advanced OS and slightly higher battery capacity, where as OPPO Joy comes with a slightly advanced version of the processor and offers new features such as the glove mode feature and the gesture panel. Finally, we also noted the price at the Kenyan e-commerce portal, Jumia. Both the devices are priced about the same; Huawei Ascend Y530 is marked at KSh10,500 where as OPPO Joy R1001 costs around KSh11,000. On the whole, the two devices are more or less comparable, with Huawei acquiring slight edge on more fronts than OPPO.

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OPPO’s Joy needs to watch Obi’s Wolverine in Africa

Riding on their significant success in the Middle Eastern markets in a short time, Obi Mobiles, led by former Pepsi Co and Apple CEO John Sculley, launched its eight smartphone-models in Kenya and Tanzania. African market already has established players like Huawei, Samsung, HTC, Tecno and OPPO, therefore it would be interesting to see how Obi manages to create its footprints in the region. At the end, it is the quality of the product that provides credibility. In this context, we have been comparing various Obi models with the competing models to examine the relative quality of the products. In the current review, we have put Obi’s Wolverine S501 up against OPPO’s Joy R1001, with the intention to help customers make a smart choice.

At the very outset we realize that there is visible different in the size and weight of the two devices. With physical dimensions of 124x63x9.9mm OPPO’s Joy comes out as a smaller device than Obi’s Wolverine with dimensions 144x73x9.6mm. On one hand, this difference in physical dimensions reflects in the weight of the devices, making Obi’s Wolverine (167gms) about 42gms heavier than OPPO’s Joy (125gms). On the other hand, it shows up in the size of the display screen, which is an inch smaller in case of OPPO’s Joy (4inch) than Obi’s Wolverine (5inch). However, in both cases the resolution is about the same; Obi’s Wolverine comes with 480x854 Pixels where as OPPO’s Joy with 480x800 Pixels. Therefore, the trade off is between a bigger and heavier device with a larger display and a relatively shorter and lighter device with an inch of smaller display. While both the devices come in black and white, Obi’s Wolverine has this unique leather-like texture at the back. 

At the performance level, OPPO’s Joy seems to lag behind as it comes with an operating system that runs on a slightly outdated Android 4.2 (ColorOS) compared to Obi’s Wolverine that runs on Android 4.4 KitKat. However, OPPO’s JOY takes a leg up over Obi’s Wolverine in terms of processor where JOY has a Cortex A7 1.3GHz dual-core processor while Wolverine has a MediaTek MTK6572 1.2GHz dual-core processor. But then JOY loses out on RAM with 512 MB RAM when Wolverine can boast of 1GB RAM. In terms of storage, both the devices have same internal memory of 4GB and an expandable memory upto 32 GB through microSD. While JOY (with 1700mAh) has a slight upper hand in terms of battery capacity over Wolverine (with 1500 mAh), a relatively advanced OS and larger RAM provide Obi’s Wolverine an edge over OPPO’s JOY. However, significant difference shows up again in the cameras; while both have the same 0.3MP front cameras, Wolverine comes with 5MP rear camera and Joy with 3MP.

In terms of Connectivity, both smartphones support Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n). But JOY additionally provides Wi-Fi Hotspot while Wolverine does not. Both devices provide 2 SIM card slots, but JOY has 1 Regular SIM card slot and 1 Micro SIM card Slot which means the consumer is forced to change their existing SIM card(s) to Regular or Micro. Wolverine on the other hand allows users to use either Regular or Micro SIM in the same slot. In terms of Wireless Networks both Wolverine and JOY are available only on 3G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz and WCDMA 2100 MHz. Additionally, Wolverine is also available on 3G: WCDMA 850 MHz.

In this context, we finally look at the prices in the Kenya market, where Obi’s Wolverine is priced at around KSh12,000 where as OPPO’s JOY is priced around KSh11,000, a difference of about KSh1000. Given several advantages of a wider screen-size, higher OS, bigger RAM, superior rear camera, and the ability to use any form of SIM (Micro or SIM) without any hindrance, Wolverine’s slightly higher price could be justified. However, a smart customer could make the deal even smarter by pushing for a better price bargain.

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