I very much wanted to like this phone, but the iPhone-inspired design (that's not as smooth and seamless as the iPhone), and the phone's tendency to significantly heat up during gameplay were huge drawbacks for me. On the other hand, the quality 16-megapixel rear camera with OIS does help it stand out slightly amid the competition. Check out the sample shots below.

Like the smaller R9s, battery life seems to be the phone's other strong suit. In our video test, where we loop video in airplane mode until the battery's last gasp, the Plus managed to last 15 hours and 40 minutes, which is pretty good, though not as fantastic as the 22-hour battery life of the cheaper Samsung Galaxy A7.

The R9s Plus is quite expensive for a midrange phone -- it costs around $550, which converts to £450 and AU$730 -- and that's because you're partly paying for the higher-end aluminum body and for the Oppo name. At the end of the day, the OnePlus 3T dominates the R9s Plus in both performance and value -- it's the far smarter buy. And if the 3T isn't to your taste, there's always the Asus ZenFone 3 or Samsung Galaxy A7, both strong midrange contenders.