Chinese smartphone manufacturer OPPO in the beginning of this year introduced a new F-series, with the F1 smartphone marketed as the Selfie phone sporting an 8MP front facing camera with multiple software features. The company is surely on a roll with a rise in the market share, bringing it into the top five in India. Recently, the successor to the F1 called the OPPO F1 Plus was introduced with improved specs and camera as well. The OPPO F1 Plus comes with a 16MP front-facing camera and is being called the ‘Selfie Expert’.
The other specifications of the device are great as well making it a decent device all around. The price tag of Rs. 26,990 at which OPPO has launched the device in is a bit bothering, so let us look at the device in detail from all aspects and then decide if the device is worth the money. After using the Oppo F1 Plus as my daily driver, the full review is being put down from personal experience.
Check the OPPO F1 Plus Specifications.
Design and Display:
When you see and hold the Oppo F1 Plus in your hand, the first thing which you observe is the uncanny resemblance it bears to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, I have been personally asked how much did the iPhone cost you until they look at the huge OPPO logo on the back and closely look at the front home button that isn’t circular, to realize it isn’t the iPhone. OPPO has managed to take inspiration (if we can call it that way) from the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus while designing the device, but the device is premium is both, the look, and in terms of the build quality. It comes with an all-metal body and has rounded glass edges giving easy grip and feel in the hand.
At times, one might even wonder, is it so important to compare the design with the iPhone that is double the price of the F1 Plus? But then, you got to compare and give credits to OPPO for not doing a disaster in any way. The design, though, isn’t the USP of the device.
There is a 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display, and just below that is the home button with the fingerprint sensor located in it and navigation buttons beside it. The power button and the hybrid SIM tray are positioned on the right side, and the volume rockers are on the left side. The bottom has the microUSB port and the 3.5mm headphone jack along with the speaker grill.
The design and build quality are quite impressive; the 5.5-inch display is quite good with good color reproduction, good viewing under outdoor conditions and viewing angles as well. Just to add to the good here, the display is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 4 layer.
Operating System:
The first thing which you will notice is the resemblance to the iPhone even in terms of user interface and the apps which is carried from the resemblance to the iPhone externally as well. It comes with Oppo’s ColorOS 3.0 based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. The OS is smooth and there is no lag whatsoever with all the animations and transitions happening.
What I did not like is the amount of space which the OS and UI take up, ColorOS has taken 10GB of the internal Storage from the device which is a lot for a mobile OS and might affect the device performance in the long run. The resemblance with iOS can be seen in the app icons for calendar, calculator, camera and phone call app along with other animations like card based app switcher view which resembles iOS.
Gestures given with the UI are pretty useful like the ‘O’ to launch camera App, ‘V’ for Flashlight and the automatic switch from loudspeaker to earpiece when you put the phone to your ear and the call automatically goes into mute when the phone is placed face down during a call, along with some other gestures which can be useful in everyday use.
OPPO could have included Android Marshmallow OS which would have been a better option than the couple of years old Android 5.1 Lollipop OS and because of that there is no Doze mode option available, instead the device comes with its own battery optimization tools which allow users to manually control which Apps can run and which Apps cannot run when the phone is locked in the background. Overall the OS and UI although resemble the iOS a lot is pretty smooth looking great and comes with useful gestures.
Performance:
The OPPO F1 Plus is powered by a 2GHz MediaTek MT6755 octa-core processor clocking at 2 GHz and coupled with 4GB of RAM. It comes with 64GB internal storage and expandable up to 128GB using microSD card. There was hardly any lag while using it as my primary device with regular calls, Emails, WhatsApp, Youtube and web browsing. Multitasking was smooth as well. Gaming experience was average in the OPPO F1 plus, the device started heating while playing which was uncomfortable.
Out of the 4GB RAM included, the OPPO F1 Plus usually has over 2GB RAM available easily when no apps are active in the background.
Cameras:
With the tagline of “Selfie Expert”, you know that the OPPO F1 Plus is being sold with selfie camera as one of the USPs and that well does seem to be so well managed here. It isn’t just about the 16-megapixel resolution of the camera.
One of the rare reviews where we focus on the front-facing camera than on the rear one, the F1 Plus has a wide-angle camera for group selfies, and F/2.0 aperture to allow more light for brighter selfies. To be fair, even though it is a fixed-focus camera, I won’t care much about that because the selfies are of great quality. The F1 Plus does produce good captures with the front-facing shooter, no matter the light condition around.
Another well-noticed optimization with the camera is about the exposure. Even if there is plenty of light on the background, the faces are still well recognized and well exposed, thus, you don’t see a dark face because of the bright background.
Check: OPPO F1 Plus Camera Samples
The app features Touch to Capture, Voice shot, self-timer with up to eight seconds, Hand gesture capture, and an option to save the picture normally or to have a mirrored image saved.
The selfie camera also has Beauty mode, Time Lapse, Selfie Panorama, and video recording support of up to 1080p resolution. The rear camera supports Full HD video recording, self-timer, gesture shot, and touch to capture.
The color reproduction with the captures is quite good, and even though there is no OIS included, the pictures don’t seem too shaky even on shaky hands because of the speed of captures. One of the good features of the camera app in the OPPO F1 Plus is the speed of focusing and capture. It is super fast, just as claimed.
Check: OPPO F1 Plus vs. iPhone 6s Plus Camera Comparison
Battery:
The battery life is decent as it lasted through the day with its 2,850mAh battery as my secondary device with lots of photo captures and an hour or two of calls along with some browsing and gaming in between. What is amazing with the battery is the time it takes to charge which is pretty quick when charged with its proprietary VOOC charger and it goes from 0-100% in over an hour without becoming scorching hot either.
When I tried to charge the device while listening to songs, it did not heat up either which is pretty good considering all the other device which support fast charging heat up quite a bit while charging.
Pros of OPPO F1 Plus:
- Great design and build quality
- Amazing front camera
- Decent performance
Cons of OPPO F1 Plus:
- Outdated Android OS
- High price
- Too much resemblance to iPhone internally and externally
Final Verdict:
The Oppo F1 Plus with its appearance both internally and externally taken from another device has impressed me with everyday usage. The F1 Plus has great design and build quality and looks and feels premium to use and hold. The OS and UI are smooth and give a lag free experience. The device is termed as a selfie expert and it does deliver in that aspect, not just with the front camera but with the rear camera as well, it captures real quick and I have tried to capture landscape shots from a moving car and they turned out pretty good without any blurry effect. The front camera captures great selfies and the lighting adjustment is pretty good even in low light conditions.
The price is a bit on the upper end for the specs it offers with certain smartphones from other companies offering a lot more at a similar price range of Rs. 26,900. On the whole looking at the Hardware and Software along with the great cameras, this is a great device if you are planning to spend around 25k for your next device.
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