Hasta La Gadget!

The folks at CyanogenMod are credited with creating the most popular custom ROMs for Android devices, but they have moved far behind cooking custom firmware. While they still do that, CyanogenMod has now incorporated the company and has diversified its operations. The first ever CyanogenMod phone, built in collaboration with Oppo, is available now. It will be the first smartphone in the world to ship with CyanogenMod flavored Android pre-installed. The smartphone is available for purchase starting today.

The first CyanogenMod phone passed the Google compatibility test recently, which means that it has access to all closed source Google applications and services, including the Play Store. It would feel like just another Android device, which runs CyanogenMod 10.2 based off of Android 4.3. The smartphone itself is an Oppo N1, which touts a 5.9 inch 1080p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM, 16GB onboard storage, a 13 megapixel rear camera and a rear touch panel. There’s no LTE support though, so don’t expect to access 4G high speed data through the device. The CyanogenMod Oppo N1 costs $599 and is available through the Oppostyle website, its in stock right now though shipping will take more than a couple of days, given the fact that Christmas is just around the corner.

First CyanogenMod Phone Available Now original content from Ubergizmo.

Oppo’s N1 that will arrive with CyanogenMod 10.2 right out of the box has recently passed Google’s compatibility test suite (CTS), which would more or less mean it will officially be able to support Google’s Play Store – and that translates to Oppo N1 owners being able to install apps of their choice. It is a historical moment actually, as it signifies the very first time that CyanogenMod has been certified by Google for a smartphone device. Having said that, Oppo did share that the smartphone which will run on CyanogenMod 10.2 will be made available this coming December 24th, but it remains to be seen whether it will still arrive with the $599 price tag just like the standard model.

Well, at least you now have something else to look forward to other than the Nexus and Google Play Edition handsets, if you are in the market for a close stock Android experience. It is nice to see that enthusiasts will be able to finally enjoy Google Play the legit way instead of performing a sideloading process. Would you pick up the Oppo N1 with CyanogenMod right out of the box, or would you still prefer an official stock Android experience with your smartphone purchase?

Oppo N1 Is First Google CTS-Certified CyanogenMod Phone original content from Ubergizmo.

As much as I love stock Android sometimes you just need something different, and that’s essentially been the guiding mission of the folks over at Cyanogen Inc.

They’ve made plenty of strides with their customized version of Android over the past few months, but now they’re on the verge of a big milestone – after officially revealing the thing back in September, Chinese OEM Oppo announced earlier today that its first Cyanogen-modded smartphone will launch internationally in December.

Wait, what? Who’s Oppo?

To really get a feel for what’s going on here, we need to flash back to mid-September. Cyanogen raised $7 million from Benchmark Capital at the time, and the company not-so-subtly hinted that it would forge partnerships with some honest-to-goodness smartphone makers to bring their modified version of Android to a wider audience than just avid phone tinkerers. That first hardware partner wound up being none other than Oppo, a curious Chinese OEM who may be best known for its Blu-ray players that has managed to cultivate a reputation for churning out some impressive (and impressively cheap) Android devices.

The specifics of the arrangement were… interesting, to say the least – Oppo developed its N1 smartphone in such a way that owners can easily flash Cyanogen’s custom Android build, but they’re also producing a limited quantity of those N1s that will ship to consumers with CyanogenMod pre-loaded onto them. It’s worth pointing out that the N1 is no slouch either – it sports among other things a 1.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 chipset, 2GB of RAM, a 6-inch 1080p display, and what the company refers to as the world’s first rotating camera so a single camera module can handle selfies as well as it can landscapes.

Now this is a nice turn of events for Cyanogen fans but this launch could prove to be an important barometer for the Cyanogen team. The Cyanogen-laden version is being pegged as a limited edition release so Oppo isn’t going nuts churning these things out, so an international launch means that both companies will be better able to gauge the sort of demand for honest-to-goodness CyanogenMod phones. And this more widespread launch goes well, Oppo has that much more ammo in its arsenal if it tries to ink similar deals with other OEMs down the road.

That’s not to say the team can just call it a day though – one of their bigger priorities is to complete a dead-simple Cyanogen installer built so owners of existing Android devices can swap their current builds for something a little different. The Cyanogen team has been rounding up beta testers to work on early versions of the installer (which will ultimately wind up in the Google Play Store if everything goes according to plan), but only time will tell when Ma and Pa will be able to flash their smartphones without getting bogged down in the minutia.

Oppo’s already made quite an impression with its N1 earlier today, and now that we’ve gotten our hands dirty with said Android phone, we can confirm that it’s just as dandy in real life. As per usual Oppo standard, the N1 comes with a solid plastic build around an aluminum alloy frame, and we dig the silky matte finish that keeps fingerprints off the body. The O-Touch panel on the back is indicated by some tiny glossy marks, without which it’d be totally invisible. It took some getting used to in order to avoid accidental camera shots, as a one-second press on the panel triggers the shutter; but otherwise, we found the design to be very handy (literally!) and natural for taking selfies. And of course, O-Touch is also great for scrolling. %Gallery-slideshow89992%

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Oppo’s been prepping its photography-centric N1 for quite some time, but at last, the teasing stops today as the company unveils its first N-Lens series device in Beijing. We’re looking at a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 phone with a 5.9-inch 1080p display, an “O-Touch” backside touch panel (for scrolling and taking photos) and a generous 3,610mAh battery, but the focus is obviously on the camera. Not only do you get a 13-megapixel imager with an f/2.0, 6-element lens plus dual LED, but it’s also rotatable over 206 degrees! While THL’s W11 beat the N1 to being the first phone with both a front and back 13-megapixel cameras, it’s not as versatile as the latter’s implementation, and it’s ultimately all about the image quality.

In case you’re wondering, Oppo said the N1’s swivel camera has passed a 100,000-time rotation test, which works out to be seven years of usage if you rotate it 40 times a day. This is quite reassuring, given that you can also activate the camera — which takes just 0.6 seconds — with a rotation of over 120 degrees. Oppo also boasted that its camera’s been tested in over 100 scenarios, which is apparently the highest in the industry. Other features include long exposure of up to 8 seconds, an updated version of Oppo’s beautification algorithm, and support for video beautification in China’s popular IM app, QQ. %Gallery-slideshow89972%

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Source: Oppo