Right on schedule, the Oppo K9s has
arrived – in China, at least. The s-phone is a Snapdragon 778G-powered
alternative to the K9 Pro that was unveiled last month and something of an
upgrade over the original K9.
The K9s is bigger than both with its 6.59”
display. Unlike the other two, this is an IPS LCD (instead of AMOLED). It has
120 Hz refresh rate (matching the Pro) and 240 Hz touch sampling rate, 1080p+
resolution and “Panda Glass” protection. No HDR support, though it does cover
100% of the DCI-P3 color space (and 96% of NTSC). The panel’s brightness peaks
at 600 nits. The move to LCD necessitated that the fingerprint reader moves to
the side of the phone. The 16 MP selfie camera is mostly the same as on the
Pro, save for the brighter aperture of f/2.0.
The rear camera, meanwhile, is essentially
the same as before. It starts with a 64 MP main camera with a 26 mm f/1.7 lens.
This one can record 4K video at 30 fps (with electronic stabilization). Next up
is the 120º ultra wide-angle camera and, finally, a 2 MP macro camera. The
larger display on the K9s also helped Oppo fit a larger battery, 5,000 mAh (up
from 4,500 mAh on the Pro). It doesn’t charge as fast as on previous models,
though at 30W it is no slouch either – a 1-100% charge takes 59 minutes.
Charging is done over a USB-C 2.0 port,
there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack next to it as well. Wireless connectivity
includes 5G and Wi-Fi 6 (ax), plus Bluetooth 5.2 (with aptX HD, LDAC and LHDC
codecs). There are two configurations available. The first is 6 GB of RAM
(LPDDR4x, 2,133 MHz dual-channel) and 128 GB storage (UFS 2.2 Gear 4,
two-lane), the other option gets 8 GB of RAM. Note that there is a microSD slot
for more storage and virtual RAM for up to 5 GB more. The chipset is kept cool
by a 0.15 mm sheet of graphite that helps carry more heat to the vapor chamber.
Out of the box the phone runs Color OS 11.2 based on Android 11.
Fans in China can already reserve an Oppo
K9s at CNY 1,700 for the 6/128 GB phone (that converts to ($265/€230/₹20,000).
The 8/128 GB model is CNY 1,900 (US$ 300/€ 255/₹ 22,250). The retail package
includes a charger, cable and a protective case. The phone will be available
from November 1 (in China, there’s no word on global availability yet).
