Oppo Joy 3

The Oppo Joy 3 is the successor to the Oppo Joy, with just the right amount of upgrades in the things that matter, such memory, operating system, and the camera.

The smartphone runs Android 4.4 KitKat, with Oppo's Color OS 2.0 UI adding additional features. The most notable includes the support for gestures when the screen is off: users can double tap on the phone's display to wake it up, swipe on it with two fingers to play or pause music, and draw a circle to instantly open the camera. Oppo also adds a few camera features like Beautify and Audio Photo, and the phone comes with a design that is more premium than other devices in the price range.

The Oppo Joy 3 increases the screen size from the original to 4.5-inches, though the resolution remains more or less the same at 854x480 pixels. As a result, the screen might be considerably less sharp, though it should suffice for most viewing purposes. A quad-core MediaTek MT6582 CPU clocked at 1.3GHz handles the processing part, and thanks to the low display resolution, should be adept at powering through all but the most demanding of use cases. There is 1GB of RAM, which is double of what the original Oppo Joy had and should ensure sufficient multitasking for most users.

On the imaging front, the Joy 3 comes with a 5-megapixel camera on the back for taking pictures and shooting videos, with Oppo's custom camera modes adding to the experience. The front camera is a 2-megapixel unit that can take selfies and allow users to make video calls via web services like Skype and Google Hangouts. To store photos, users can take advantage of the 4GB of internal storage, which can also be used to install apps. A microSD slot can allow you to expand available storage, with up to 32GB cards supported by the device.

The Joy 3 comes with a 2,000 mAh battery that should be able to last through the day on light to medium usage, but might left the user wanting if they are using their device continuously for long periods of time. The device supports all the standard connectivity options, including 3G (only one SIM slot supports 3G), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.