Oppo N1 announced with rotating camera & official support for flashing CyanogenMod

While we’d heard Oppo would be bringing a new high end smartphone to the masses, it has finally been made official. It’s the Oppo N1, a 5.9 inch smartphone with a Snapdragon 600 processor sitting inside. This unique device features a 13 megapixel rotating camera that can be horizontally swiveled for up to 260 degrees of range.

Thus, it acts as both the rest and front camera, and any other angle you might need. The unique sensor features a 6-element f/2.0 lens that’s supposed to be able to deliver stunning imagery, though we can’t vouch for that promise ourselves just yet.

The self diffusing LED flash means you can use it to create ample lighting for not only rear images, but front ones, as well (we’ve always wanted a phone with front-facing flash). The camera can be awakened at any moment simply by twisting the lens a bit, giving you the ability to quickly launch the thing in situations where you don’t have a ton of time to waste. Oppo is also interesting their O-Touch and O-Click technologies. Simply put:

O-Touch Panel
O-Touch is an entirely new way of using your smartphone. A 12 cm2 rear touch panel makes one handed use for the large N1 screen comfortable and easy. With O-Touch you can scroll, tap, or snap photos – all without your fingers blocking the display.

O-Click Control
O-Click lets you remotely operate the N1 camera even when you’re away from the device. Simply position the N1 and step back. If you misplace your device, find it by setting off an alarm on the phone. O-Click fits on your keychain and supports a range of up to 50 meters, staying connected to your OPPO N1 via Bluetooth (BLE).

The Oppo N1 is also the first device that will launch with support for flashing CyanogenMod from the device’s stock recovery. It’ll ship with Oppo’s Android 4.2.2-based color user interface, but they are giving users quite the excellent choice without having to go through convoluted rooting and bootloader unlocking steps.

To top all of that off, they’ll also be releasing a special CyanogenMod edition of the N1 that will come preinstalled with the community-driven AOSP-based ROM. We’d heard they’d look to do something like this last week after the announcement of Cyanogen Inc, a company dedicated to developing CyanogenMod and turning what was once a grassroots movement into a fully legitimate business (which was capable of raising $7 million in funding to start).

This is a great first step for CyanogenMod, and we aren’t surprise at Oppo’s desire to be one of the first looking to get on board for the ride. As for the rest of the device, take note of the following list of specs:

There’s no word on pricing or a solid release date just yet, though Oppo plans to bring it out early December. We’ll be contacting Oppo to see if we can’t find out which exact markets this thing is headed to. In the meantime, let us know if you’d be in for one if it did launch in your area in the comments section below.
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