Oppo’s Bubble selfie screen is crying out for Qi 2 | The Verge
Overview
Tech Expand Amazon Apple Facebook Google Microsoft Samsung Business See all tech
Reviews Expand Smart Home Reviews Phone Reviews Tablet Reviews Headphone Reviews See all reviews
Details
Science Expand Space Energy Environment Health See all science
Entertainment Expand TV Shows Movies Audio See all entertainment
Policy Expand Antitrust Politics Law Security See all policy
Gadgets Expand Laptops Phones TVs Headphones Speakers Wearables See all gadgets
Verge Shopping Expand Buying Guides Deals Gift Guides See all shopping
Streaming Expand Disney HBONetflix You Tube Creators See all streaming
Transportation Expand Electric Cars Autonomous Cars Ride-sharing Scooters See all transportation
Gadgets Close Gadgets Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Gadgets
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Mobile Close Mobile Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Mobile
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Oppo’s Bubble selfie screen is crying out for Qi 2
This magnetic add-on is only compatible with a handful of Oppo phones — none of which have magnets of their own.
This magnetic add-on is only compatible with a handful of Oppo phones — none of which have magnets of their own.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
The Bubble needs additional magnets to actually attach to a phone.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
The Oppo Bubble is a smart second screen for your phone, one that can be attached and detached at will, connects wirelessly, and serves as either a selfie screen or a wireless camera remote. It’s the best version of this idea I’ve used yet, but also a frustrating reminder that it could be even better if only Oppo and other Android OEMs would get on board with Qi 2.
The Bubble is a bit like a smaller — much, much smaller — version of Insta 360’s Snap or the Dockcase Selfix phone case. It’s a tiny puck, just 7mm thick and 27.5g, with a 1.73-inch circular OLED touchscreen. It has its own 550m Ah battery — though Oppo won’t say how long to expect that to last — and because it connects to your phone wirelessly, there’s no need to worry about a cable, though there’s a USB-C port for charging when you need to.
It’s pointedly simple. You can access the phone’s camera to take photos or record video, including cycling through a few basic zoom options across the rear lenses. The screen is circular, so it’s not the ideal way to frame a rectangular photo, but it works well enough. And while it’s a touchscreen, there’s no support for tap-to-focus.
Slap the Bubble on the back of your phone with the help of a magnetic mount and it becomes an easier way to take selfies with the rear lenses. But with 33 feet of range, it can also double as a camera remote. Oppo includes a silicon bumper case and a cute star-shaped lanyard attachment in the box, suggesting it thinks this might be just as popular a use case as attaching the Bubble directly to the phone. Leaning into the cutesy aesthetic, the usual wallpaper options are joined by a few digital “pets” to pick from, though these merely cycle through a few animations — there’s nothing interactive about them.
The Bubble doubles as a camera remote when it’s not attached.
There’s a range of cute characters, but they don’t actually do much.
There are three screen brightness presets, a shortcut to lock the display, and a single button that doubles as power and an optional camera shutter. Unlike the Insta 360 Snap, there’s no option for a ringlight. Since it taps directly into the Oppo camera app, rather than mirroring your display, you can’t use it with other imaging apps like Instagram — but you also don’t risk accidentally mirroring private material to a second screen without realizing.
The obvious downside to the Bubble is that it’s Oppo-only. It works with the company’s Reno 16 phones, also launched outside China today, along with a few other Reno and Find X phones. But you can’t use this with any other Android devices, which means it won’t be an option for most people. The upside of the locked-down design is that the Bubble can pair to a compatible phone in seconds and can access the camera even while the phone is locked.
Attached to a Reno 16 Pro with stick-on magnets, the connection is fairly weak.
Then there are the magnets. Oppo still hasn’t released a single smartphone with Qi 2 charging magnets inside, meaning to attach the Bubble to the back of your phone you’ll need to either buy a magnetic phone case or stick a magnetic ring (included with the Bubble) directly to the back of your phone. It’s frankly daft that this magnetic accessory works exclusively for phones that don’t have any magnets, but that’s the mess Android manufacturers, Google aside, have made for themselves by stubbornly refusing to adopt Qi 2 so far.
It doesn’t help that the included stick-on magnetic ring is simply too weak for the job. The Bubble slides about all too easily, and I’d definitely be worried about dropping it. The stronger magnets on Oppo’s official Reno 16 magnetic case work better, but you still can’t use the button without a second finger to brace the Bubble from the other side — just pressing it is enough to push the whole device off its magnetic mount.
The Bubble isn’t perfect, and its €129 price (about
Dominic Preston Close Dominic Preston News Editor Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Dominic Preston
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Gadgets Close Gadgets Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Gadgets
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Hands-on Close Hands-on Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Hands-on
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Mobile Close Mobile Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Mobile
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Reviews Close Reviews Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Reviews
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Tech Close Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All Tech
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
I drove the Slate Truck — there’s more to it than EV minimalism
Meta launches cheaper smart glasses without Ray-Ban
Charlie Kirk’s legacy is a 30-year sentence for moving zines
Google is finally opening the Play Store to outside payments
Key Takeaways
- Tech Expand Amazon Apple Facebook Google Microsoft Samsung Business See all tech
- Reviews Expand Smart Home Reviews Phone Reviews Tablet Reviews Headphone Reviews See all reviews
- Science Expand Space Energy Environment Health See all science
- Entertainment Expand TV Shows Movies Audio See all entertainment
- Policy Expand Antitrust Politics Law Security See all policy
