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Galaxy S5 vs Oppo N3 – price, specs and features compared

• Egon Kilin
• October 31st, 2014

The Oppo N3 was just launched a couple of days ago and it has created quite the hype around itself. Oppo also launched the world’s thinnest smartphone, the Oppo R5, just FYI. While the Oppo N3 was a highly anticipated device and many were wondering whether it would be the powerhouse it was rumored to be, it didn’t turn out that flashy. The Galaxy S5 might actually be more interesting, even if it’s an older flagship than the Oppo N3. Nonetheless, the Galaxy S5 remains a flagship and one of the best selling ones, to be precise. We’re not sure how the Oppo N3 and Galaxy S5 size up next to each other, but finding out is the purpose of this comparison.

The Galaxy S5 has been dissected and reviewed many times, but we never compared it to a phone with a rotating, motorized camera like the Oppo N3. MOst people were excited about the Oppo N3 because it promised a smartphone with a rotating, motorized camera like its predecessor, the N1, The issue with the Oppo N1 was that it had been much too bulky and the camera wasn’t that great either. The Galaxy S5 on the other hand, was Samsung’s best flagship up until the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge hit the market.

The Oppo N3 price was also revealed at the Singapore event where they launched the R5. The Oppo N3 price is in line with other flagship prices, like the HTC One M8, Galaxy S5 and LG G3. If you want to get your hands on the swiveling goodness, you will have to muster up around $650 for the unlocked Oppo N3. The handset should go up for sale sometime later this year, hopefully by the time the holidays hit. While the Galaxy S5 price is around the same, you can still get great deals on Samsung’s flagship at Best Buy, Amazon and even e-Bay. If you want to save even more on the Galaxy S5, you can even get a refurbished phone for almost half the price, unlocked. I would rather recommend the unlocked Galaxy S5 or Oppo N3 because with contracts, you tend to pay more than the retail value of the phone.

While the Oppo N3 was highly anticipated and we actually expected it to be a powerhouse that would rival the Galaxy Note 4, it actually turned out to be close to the Galaxy S5. That doesn’t mean that the device is not worthy of the cash, but we would have liked to see something more eye-catching. The Oppo N3 specs include a 5.5 inch display with a 1920*1080 resolution and 403 ppi pixel density. The Galaxy S5 display is a bit smaller, measuring 5.1 inches with the same 1080*1920 resolution and a higher 43 ppi pixel density. The Super AMOLED screen on the Galaxy S5 offers a brighter and crisper display which looks a bit better than that of the Oppo N3, which is an IPS LCD touchscreen.

One of the new features of the Oppo N3 is the fingerprint sensor on the back which is said to work surprisingly well. The Galaxy S5 fingerprint sensor is embedded in the home button on the phone, but it has been known to encounter trouble with registering your fingerprint ID. Nonetheless, we haven’t had the chance to properly test out the sensor on Oppo’s new phone, so we can’t give an accurate verdict on that yet. At the same time, a good thing Oppo did with the new phone is that the company ported the notification LED from the Oppo Find 7. The notification LED on the Find 7 was one of the favorite features of many Oppo fans and we are glad to see it reappear on the Oppo N3. We would have liked to see more colors available for the LED, but alas, Oppo kept with the boring blue of the Find 7. While the Galaxy S5 doesn’t have such a notification light, it makes up for that stylistic feature with a more practical one: IP67 certification.

Let’s get the novelties out of the way though. The newest feature we’ve seen on the Oppo N3 is the reiteration of the swiveling camera from the Oppo N1. The camera on the top of the device can be rotated either manually, via the O-click Bluetooth remote control or through the camera application. You can get a 206 degree rotation out of the faux-leather encrusted camera sensor. While the design of the camera doesn’t really match the metallic design of the Oppo N3, it would match the Galaxy S5 design perfectly. The sensor has also been improved, the swiveling camera now encompassing a 16 MP sensor with a dual LED flash and a great app to accompany it. It acts as both the rear camera and front camera of the device, so that you can get high quality photos no matter which angle you choose. The Galaxy S5 camera is just as good, with a 16 MP sensor, LED flash and great camera app. The front camera on the Galaxy S5 doesn’t compare with the Oppo N3 though, measuring only a  MP sensor. Once again. we don’t have a comprehensive portfolio of sample images from the Oppo N3, so final judgement would be unfair. Nonetheless, judging by specs and what we have seen so far, the Galaxy S5 rear camera and the N3’s swiveling camera produce photos just as detailed and colorful.

The Galaxy S5 specs are already well-known, but we should detail them a bit nonetheless. Galaxy S5 specs include a quad core Snapdragon 801 CPu with an Adreno 330 GPU, backed by 2 GB RAM, 16 or 32 GB internal storage and a microSD card slot if you need it. The Oppo N3 specs are amore or less the same, with the same Snapdragon 801 CPU, Adreno 330 GPU, 2 GB RAM, microSD card slot and 32 GB internal memory available. Spec-wise, these phones should perform equally well and from our brief time with the Oppo N3, it performs great. We can’t complain about the Galaxy S5 performance either, the handset being able to handle loads of intensive games and apps as well as multitasking. Performance can be affected by the UI though. The Galaxy S5 sports TouchWiz and has been criticized by many for being too cartoonish and colorful. That shouldn’t be a problem, since the Android 4.4 KitKat OS on the Galaxy S5 should be getting the Android 5.0 Lollipop update soon enough. Samsung is already working on a new version of TouchWiz to complement the latest Android OS, so we are curious to see how that will turn out. The Oppo N3 runs on Android 4.4 KitKat with ColorOS 2.0 on top, which to me seems just as colorful and cartoonish as TouchWiz. We don’t know when and if the Oppo N3 will be updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop. That remains to be seen.

The Galaxy S5 design is well known and nobody is too pleased with the plastic design of the phone. The perforated faux leather back panel of the Galaxy S5 isn’t very impressive either. The Oppo N3 design on the other hand involves a metal frame and a plastic back panel that looks a bit better in my eyes than the Galaxy S5 design. Overall, design-wise, I would say the Oppo N3 looks better than the Galaxy S5, save for the poor choice of materials on the motorized camera. The Galaxy S5 battery performance has been pretty good so far, the device pulling its juice from a 2800 mAH battery. The Oppo N3 battery is slightly larger, measuring 3000 mAH, which should make for a pretty good battery life. We still need to perform an Oppo N3 battery test, though. That being said, keep in touch for when we do so we can update you on that.

Overall, the Galaxy S5 design is less appealing than the Oppo N3, but that depends on personal preference. The Galaxy S5 battery life has been pleasing so far, so if you’re set on getting your hands on it, you probably won’t be disappointed. The Oppo N3 battery life is still a mystery, so keep your socks on and wait for our future reports on that. The Galaxy S5 performance compares pretty well to that of the N3, and we don’t see why either would top the other. At the same time, the Galaxy S5 is known to be pretty speedy, while Oppo’s handsets have had their bumps. The Galaxy S5 display is and footprint are a bit smaller than the Oppo N3, which means that it is a bit easier to maneuver. Camera performance on both phones should be top-notch, but if you want something surprising, and a high quality selfie shooter, the Oppo N3 has a package deal for that. So, which would you like to hog around in your pocket?