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OPPO N3 rotating camera might look strange

• Egon Kilin
• September 15th, 2014

OPPO has been a notable presence on the market in the past few months with the OPPO N1, N1 Mini, Find 7, Find 7a and Neo 5. Lately, we’ve heard rumors of an OPPO event coming up next month with the OPPO N3 as the main attraction. The OPPO N3 has been rumored to come as the successor of the OPPO N1, bringing improvements to its screen and camera, at a time when HTC is preparing the HTC Eye and the Galaxy Note 4 launch date coming up. 

The OPPO N3 will probably be a selfie-phone with a rotating camera, but the images leaked to GSMArena show a device with a tubular rotating camera which might not fit well with most smartphone users. The OPPO N3 looks odd enough, even odder than Sony’s perfume bottle resembling Xperia C3 selfie-phone. The renders that GSMArena picked up are in no way a confirmed design for the OPPO N3, but if they are, OPPO might find itself in a conundrum.

The OPPO N3 has the usual square, slim design, judging from the renders, but the camera seems to be comprised of a tubular part which houses the speaker, the LED flash and probably the mic for calls. The tubular structure on the OPPO N3 is obviously bigger and thicker than the phone itself and does not seem to be in accordance with the overall design of the smartphone. Even though the OPPO N1 and N1 Mini were praised for the their design, the OPPO N3, if ending up looking like this, will surely be ostracized because of the design.

The OPPO N3 is a complete redesign of the N line, and it comes as an innovative concept, but it seems uncomfortable at best. Since the top part of the phone will be comprised of this tubular rotating structure, it will surely feel uncomfortable in a pocket and a case would be very difficult to make for the phone, without looking like something out of a bad sci-fi movie. 

There could be a benefit of this OPPO N3 design, because it would allow for infinite angles (not infinite, but close) for shooting and will probably pack a strong camera to rival those of the original N1’s 13 MP shooter, Sony Xperia Z3’s 20.7 MP camera, the Galaxy Note 4 16 MP camera, the HTC One M8’s 4 Ultrapixel camera, the iPhone 6 8 MP camera and the Galaxy Alpha’s 12 MP camera. If the OPPO N3 is intended to be a selfie-phone, like the N1 was, it will probably rival the HTC Eye and might not adopt the tubular structure, rather it might choose a design similar to the GoPro camera accessory or the Lumia 1020 whopping 41 MP camera design.

Nonetheless, the OPPO event will surely reveal what the company has in mind for the OPPO N3. The event is said to be held sometime in October, but no other details have been revealed by the company. Take all this information with a grain of salt, because the render has not been confirmed by the OEM. OPPO will be at the XDA Dev Con in Manchester between September 26-28, so we might learn something from that conference as well.