Oppo F1 review: One of the best phones from the brand

Rating: * * * *

Price: Rs 15,990

OPPO F1 Specifications: 5.0-inch 720p IPS LCD (294ppi), Snapdragon 616 octa core, 3GB RAM, 16GB storage + micro SD (up to 128GB), hybrid slot, 13MP f2.2 rear cam, 8MP f2.0 front cam, WiFin, BT4.0, A-GPS, 2,500mAh battery, 134 grams

+ Sleek unibody design, display with slim bezels, fantastic front and rear camera performance, great day to day performance

- Display is 720p and not 1080p, price is on the higher side, glossy finish

One of the main complaints we had with Oppo phones is the unrealistic pricing. With the new F series though, Oppo seems to have worked on this issue. The first device in the series called the Oppo F1 — it seems to be a phone that is smartly priced in this competitive smartphone segment.

Design and build quality have always been strong on Oppo phones and the F1 continues the tradition. It has a slim and stylish metal unibody design that feels great to hold. The premium look and feel is thanks to what Oppo calls a silk metal finish: it's a semi matte finish that complements the design of the device. What we didn't like was that the front has a glossy finish which is, as usual, a fingerprint magnet that requires constant cleaning. In addition, the Android buttons under the display are not backlit — we expected this for the price.

One feature we loved was the display. It has a 5-inch screen with slim bezels, wide viewing angles and excellent brightness. We did not face any issues using the phone even in bright sunlight.

The settings page has handy display features like eye protection (a blue light filter) and different font sizes. One issue is that the screen has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels which is a big letdown. You can now get a phone with a 1080p display (and therefore, a much higher pixel density) at about half the price compared to the Oppo F1.

Oppo is promoting the phone as a 'selfie expert' because it has a 8MP front camera with f2.0 aperture and a selfie flash feature that uses the display as a fill light while taking selfies in low light. We came away impressed with the front camera performance because it took well lit pics with good details. You also get a useful light adjustment function before taking selfies (to optimise the brightness and contrast).

We did notice that images in very low light lacked details and had visible noise, but they were still good enough to share on social media. The rear 13MP camera is no slouch either. It takes fantastic images and offers multiple shooting modes including ultra HD, beautfy, filters, panorama, HDR, GIF and slow shutter.

Additional modes can be installed from within the camera app by downloading them over the Internet. You can add useful modes including time lapse, RAW, slow-mo, expert mode, super macro and double exposure mode. The focus and shutter speed is equally impressive on the phone and this one of the best cameras we have seen in this price range.

Performance was superb thanks to the Snapdragon 616 processor combined with 3GB RAM. We had no issue playing full HD videos or games like Asphalt Nitro and Shadowgun.

Even with over 15 apps running in the background, we did not notice any slowdown or sluggishness on the device. It comes with 16GB storage which can be expanded with an additional 128GB microSD card (hybrid dual Sim slot). Backup from the 2,500mAh battery was as expected: the phone can do 8am to 8pm with 10% battery to spare. Heavy users will find that they have to reach for the charger by 6pm.

Audio quality is great and the phone works great with 4G connectivity.

There are a few things lacking: fingerprint scanner, Infrared and full HD display (many competing phones in this price range have these features). Overall though, the Oppo F1 is one of the best we have seen from the brand yet.

Oppo F1 Smartphone: Everything You Need to Know

Oppo launched its camera-focused F1 smartphone in January and initially made it available in Europe. The Oppo F1 was priced at EUR 229 (roughly Rs. 16,800) and came bundled with an Oppo Selfie Stick.

The Chinese company within few weeks released the smartphone for the Indian market and priced it at a market operating price (MOP) of Rs. 15,990. The Oppo F1 went on sale in India last month however the exact availability varied from state to state. The company at the India launch had also announced that it would bring a variant of the smartphone, called the Oppo F1 Plus, to India in April at Rs. 26,990.

To recall, the Oppo F1 comes with dual-SIM (Micro-SIM + Nano-SIM) support and runs on ColorOS 2.1 based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. It sports an aluminium body and is slim at 7.25mm and houses a 5-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) resolution IPS display protected by 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4 coating with pixel density of 294ppi. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 SoC (four cores at 1.7GHz and four cores at 1.2GHz), Adreno 405 GPU, and 3GB LPDDR3 RAM clocked at 1866MHz.

In the camera department, the Oppo F1 bears a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/2.2 aperture and single LED flash. It also includes an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with wider f/2.0 aperture (1/ 4-inch sensor) along with software features such as Beautify 3.0, 8 live colour filters, and more. The display also doubles as the flash in low-light environments. The Oppo F1 also includes proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, and digital compass. The smartphone is backed by a 2500mAh Li-Po battery and houses 16GB of inbuilt storage. As for the connectivity, the smartphone supports 4G LTE networks (India bands supported), along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and Micro-USB connectivity.

Oppo being the official global partner of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 also launched the Oppo F1 ICC WT20 limited edition smartphone. The new limited edition version of the smartphone was priced at an MOP of Rs. 17,990.

The Oppo F1 ICC WT20 limited edition to 'fit the spirit of T20' features an ICC World Twenty20 logo on its back panel. The Chinese tech firm will also be giving away the handset to winners of the 'Catch The Six' - Grab a six' and few more contests as a part of its campaign.

The Oppo F1 ICC WT20 limited edition comes with a gift kit that include 2016 ICC World Twenty20 key chain, selfie stick, and a back cover showing the ICC logo. As for the specifications, the Oppo F1 ICC WT20 limited edition smartphone is essentially houses the same specifications as the original Oppo F1 but with a larger inbuilt storage. While the regular version features 16GB of inbuilt storage, the Oppo F1 ICC WT20 limited edition includes 32GB of inbuilt storage.

During our review, we found the general performance of the Oppo F1 to be very good; the interface functioned smoothly, and apps were responsive during multitasking. The phone worked well on 4G and it was cool for the most part.

Real world game performance was also pretty solid, and we didn't notice any issues with heavy or casual games such as Dead Trigger 2 and Alto's Adventure. On average, there was about 2GB of free RAM available for apps. The Oppo F1 handled high-bitrate video files with ease and also supported flac audio. Call quality was also very good as we didn't face any issues here.

The Oppo F1's rear camera captured fairly detailed landscapes and macros in daylight. Even indoor shots had good detailing. The highlight of the Oppo F1 is its front camera, which is an 8-megapixel shooter with an even wider aperture than the main camera. It manages to capture fairly detailed selfies under natural and artificial light while the quality dips a bit in low light. Oppo added a couple of new functions to help people take better selfies. Screen flash used the backlight of the display to illuminate face. We prefer this to a front-firing LED flash that can be blinding. It works provided the phone is at arm's length. There's also a "Palm shutter" feature which lets capture a selfie by waving palm and a "Beautify" filter to take care of those skin blemishes.

There were few things that concerned us during our Oppo F1 review. We found it getting warm during continuous video playback or when using the camera for video recording. The bundled headset felt cheap and didn't sit in ears comfortably, but the audio quality is pretty decent. There's no audio enhancement software. The rear speaker is decently loud for alerts but since it isn't stereo, and it's not the best for watching movies.

The overall camera performance was decent but pictures taken in low light tend to get a bit noisy and were not very clear. The same went for video recorded in low light. There's the same suite of shooting modes for the rear camera which we've seen before, including Expert mode, slow shutter and HDR, among others.

The Oppo F1 is priced at Rs. 15,990, which is not bad considering its overall performance. It has a lovely design and great build quality. General performance is good, and both the front and rear cameras deliver good quality in most lighting conditions. Battery life is also solid, given the moderate capacity. It would have been nice for Oppo to have added some more creature comforts such as NFC or even backlit navigation keys, which are lacking on the F1.