Oppo R5 announced as new world's thinnest phone at 4.85mm

Smartphone manufacturers try various things to differentiate themselves from the pack and the race to be thinner, leaner, and slender doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon. We have already seen devices like the Gionee Elife S5.5, BBK Vivo X3 and the Huawei Ascend P6 battle for the slimmest crown, but they have all stepped down to make room for the Oppo R5.

The China-based manufacturer is known for devices like the Oppo N1, Oppo Find 7 and the most recently announced Oppo N3. But they have drawn special attention to themselves with the announcement of the world's slimmest Oppo R5. The handset measures in at 148.9 x 74.5 x 4.85mm and is the first device to come with a sub-5mm waist. But thats not all this device has to boast about.

Inside the device, Oppo has fitted a phase-shifting, heat-absorbing material that adorned the device with optimal thermal efficiency, as Oppo puts it. Oppo has also outfitted the handset with some decent hardware including a 5.2 inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and a 64-bit 1.5GHz Snapdragon 615 processor with eight Cortex-A53 cores.

You also have the Adreno 405 GPU taking care of the graphics and 2GB of RAM ensuring smooth multi-tasking. On the back of the device, we can find a protruding 13MP, f/2.0 Sony IMX214 camera sensor, which has a number of interesting features, like Fast Focus, subsequent re-focus, and Ultra HD, which stitches several images and creates a 50MP one. You have a 5MP camera in front for video calls and selfies.

Obviously the svelte frame hasn't left much room for the battery, which is only 2000mAh in size Fortunately, thanks to Oppo's VOOC mini charger, you get 75% of battery juice for 30 minutes plugged in the charger.

The handset has been priced at a decent $499, but availability details have not yet been disclosed... Would you consider purchasing the world's thinnest smartphone ?