Oppo R9 S hides antenna lines in plain sight

Smartphones with a metal body might look and feel nice to users but they complicate things a lot for the engineers, which must come up with ways to allow radio signals to pass though - and Oppo sure found a nice way to do it in its latest R9 S.

Device like the iPhone (and others) have resorted to using some unsightly plastic bands on the back - particularly ugly on the iPhone 6/6S generation, now better handled on the iPhone 7 where those bands were pushed to the edges of the device - to allow RF signals to pass through, which is kind of what you want to be able to use WiFi and cell service. But we must say Oppo outdid Apple in this department as the antenna lines are barely visible on the R9 S.

How did they accomplish it? They reduced the "larger" antenna bands to two sets of tree lines just 0.3mm think crossing the back of the device. And, provided this doesn't affect signal reception much (no one needs a new antenna-gate) I'm sure it will be quickly be copied by other brands.

At the very least, it serves to show that Chinese manufacturers don't always copy what others have created, and can come up with their own creative solutions as well. In fact, I suspect that in the coming years will begin to see this more and more... and that it will be the rest of the world copying what Chinese manufacturers are doing.