Oppo F1 Plus Review - A Worthy Flagship Camera Phone!
There haven't been many proper selfie phones in the local landscape, but the few that have been out all looked to be quite interesting. One such example is the Oppo F1 Plus, which is a clear and intended upgrade to the original "selfie expert," the Oppo F1. What does the Oppo F1 Plus bring to the table? And is it worthy of its current status as Oppo's flagship camera phone?
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| Oppo F1 Plus review |
Now that that's out of the way, it should be easier to frame the F1 Plus from the perspective of a prospective smartphone buyer. Physically, it is not at all imposing. But on paper, the Oppo F1 Plus is actually one of the more impressive Android phones available right now, if based purely on specs.
Disclaimer: This unit was provided by Oppo Philippines for an honest review
Oppo F1 Plus Specs
Display: 5.5 Inch FHD IPS LCD 1920 x 1080 resolution w/ 2.5D curved glass and Gorilla Glass 4 protection at 401 ppi
CPU: 2.0 GHz 64 Bit MT6755 Helio P10 octa core processor
GPU: Mali T860
RAM: 4 GB
ROM: 64 GB expandable via micro SD card slot up to 128 GB
Back Camera: 13 MP w/ PDAF and LED flash
Selfie Camera: 16 MP
Battery: 2,850 mAh battery w/ VOOC Flash Charge
OS: Android 5.1 Lollipop w/ Color OS 3.0
Connectivity: WiFi, 3G, LTE, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, A GPS, GLONASS, dual SIM (hybrid)
Others: Fingerprint sensor, Colors: white / gold, rose gold
Dimensions: 151.8 x 74.3 x 6.6 mm
Weight: 145 g
Price: 19,990 Pesos
Unboxing / Accessories
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| The box |
This is supported by the experience you'll get with unboxing the handset. For something so slim, it has such a big box. Inside you'll find the OPPO F1 unit, the usual documents, a SIM ejector tool, and OPPO's proprietary VOOC fast charger and micro USB 2.0 cable.
On one hand, it's kind of disappointing how such a highly-marketed phone is still stuck with USB 2.0 instead of Type C, but at least it supports quick charging. For most people, that might be a reasonable trade off.
Build Quality / Design
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| Oppo F1 back (there's just a hardly noticeable camera protrusion) |
In any case, the F1 Plus's design and build quality don't indicate anything about it being "old" at all. It has an durable full metal frame with prominent Oppo branding at the back. Also take not that it has a great type of finish that isn't prone to scratches. In front, the 2.5D curved glass screen is protected Gorilla Glass 4 that makes it durable enough to take hard drops at times.
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| Speaker grill, micro USB charging port, microphone, and cramped 3.5 mm jack below |
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| Volume rocker at the right |
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| Power button and micro hybrid slot |
In terms of design, the Oppo F1 Plus is a handet that you won't be afraid to flaut to everyone. It has that gorgeous combination of iPhone, Samsung, and Sony design in a very slim and well curved profile. Oppo also ensured that it has one of the slimmest bezels in town for that added sleek profile.
There are a total of three hardware buttons on the F1 Plus right side, and nothing on the left. As for the Home keys, there's a hardware Home button with a built-in fingerprint scanner below the display, and it's flanked by two capacitive touch keys on either side.
Display Quality
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| The beautiful screen of F1 Plus with slim bezels |
Its 5.5 inch Full HD screen looks gorgeous, and it's simply so slim for such a feature-rich device. The display can adjust its brightness automatically thanks to a built-in ambient light sensor. And it worked without problems throughout our testing.
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| Multitouch result |
The screen uses a multi touch panel hiding behind a layer of scratch resistant Gorilla Glass. So you don't need to worry if you plan to use the F1 Plus without a screen protector. We certainly didn't.
It's an LCD panel that looks like an AMOLED screen.
There's enough sharpness, vibrance, and color accuracy on the F1 Plus that we can confidently say it's among the best phones with a 5.5-inch screen out on the market right now. It may not be a Quad-HD or 4k display panel, but it makes the most out of every pixel that's on the screen.
Audio
As for the audio quality and performance, the Oppo F1 Plus is equally excellent. The built-in speaker does a great job of blasting stereo music when playing MP3 files or streaming Spotify. For watching movies, it isn't the loudest, but it definitely gets the job done on quiet places.
When listening to music on the F1 Plus through headphones, the experience is good enough to make it a dedicated digital music player. It comes with enjoyable and fairly natural tones with great balance and overall details for a phone. Spotify's extreme high quality music files can shine through a pair of good headphones, and we didn't ever need to pump up the volume all the way to the maximum.
Note: This phone also plays 192 KHz / 24 bit lossless audio files
Microphone-wise, it performed on an above average level as well. It's great for calls and even for recording videos on a not so noise environment.
Battery
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| Battery test scores |
When it comes to battery life, the Oppo F1 Plus is reliably long-lasting. It's got enough juice in it to last about a full day of use, with several hours of screen-on-time, and even with a non-stop 4G LTE connection.
The good thing about the Oppo F1 Plus battery is that it can be recharged quickly via the supplied VOOC fast charger.
It can reach about 75% in around 30 minutes, and gets fully charged in just a little over an hour.
On one hand, you can be happy about the fast charging tech that's built in to it, but on the other hand, it's non-removable. That might put a damper on your plans to keep a phone for more than a year or two.
In our testing, we never needed to remove the battery or do a forced shutdown on the phone, so unless your experience to ours is much different, we doubt that you'll need to worry about the fact that the battery is not removable.
Camera
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| The camera at the back |
As a camera-phone, the Oppo F1 Plus is undoubtedly one of the best Android-powered models out right now. At the back it's equipped with a great type of 13 MP w/ PDAF and LED flash. In front, there's a monstrous 16 MP selfie camera w/ a lot of beautify functions and strong screen flash. We'll just let the following sample photos speak for themselves.
In low light, the Oppo F1 Plus doesn't struggle as much as the competition. It's still a perfectly usable camera-phone at night. And for selfies, the bright screen which serves as a make-shift light-bulb serves a better purpose than a blinding front LED flash unit.
Unsurprisingly, the front camera delivers a top-notch performance. If you can remember the camera specs, you'll know that the front cam on the F1 Plus is actually better than the rear cam. And for taking selfies, it's really no slouch at all.
Arguably, the selfie camera of the F1 Plus is the best of what we have locally right now, a selfie lord phone.
What's interesting about the cameras on the Oppo F1 Plus is that they are partnered with a camera app that supports a ton of extra features like slow-mo video capture, 4K video recording, and even time lapse photography. Because of all that, you'll really be able to maximize the use of the impressive camera hardware.
However, we find the camera software of the lower-end Oppo F1 more feature packed. It doesn't have a default long exposure night mode, and light painting capabilities.
For videos it can shoot in 1080p in both front and back that should be decent as long as you have a tripod, but it's a shaky when handheld. It's average in that department which is acceptable enough for most.
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| Camera interface |
However, we find the camera software of the lower-end Oppo F1 more feature packed. It doesn't have a default long exposure night mode, and light painting capabilities.
For videos it can shoot in 1080p in both front and back that should be decent as long as you have a tripod, but it's a shaky when handheld. It's average in that department which is acceptable enough for most.
Rear Camera Samples
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| Daylight window shot |
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| Daylight shot |
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| Normal vs HDR |
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| Close-up photo |
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| Food shot |
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| Excellent dynamic range for a phone |
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| Night shot |
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Great front camera for groufies |
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| No filter |
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| Beautify mode |
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| Tested selfie screen flash |
Performance
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| Benchmark scores |
And speaking of impressive hardware, the Oppo F1 Plus can sit comfortably alongside many of today's top flagship phones from other brands. From the 4 gigs of RAM and the 64 gigs of storage, to the speedy octa-core processor and the latest version of its custom-made OS, it's bound to wow you in more ways than one.
Many times we've found ourselves quietly enjoying the features of the F1 Plus, not once worrying about experiencing lag or running into freeze-ups, and we'll suddenly remember that the reason we're having such a problem-free experience is probably because of the innards.
It's also capable of running most of the modern heavy games decently.
And that's a good thing. As a smartphone, the F1 Plus does the one thing that it's really meant to do when we need to use it for one thing or another: it just fades into the background and let's us do our work. At times we'll wonder, why is the performance so good? And then we'll recall that it has a lot of memory and storage to spare, plus a capable processor for computing, good graphics, and a dependable battery.
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| The custom IOS like UI of Oppo |
The Color OS software used here also looks nice and functional. It may look too iPhone-ish, but at least its very fluid and loaded with most modern features on a phone.
Of course, the overall configuration will not be to everyone's liking. The battery could have been bigger than 2850 mAh, and the chipset could he more powerful. But Oppo decided to invest in some features more than others, and so it cannot please everybody.
Pros - Sleek profile and eye-catching design, vibrant and responsive touchscreen, excellent selfie and rear cameras, lots of room for files via int. and ext. storage, color OS 3.0 is way better than the last version, fingerprint scanner works in an instant, super fast charging time, 3.5mm headphone jack is at the bottom
Cons - Home key needs to be pressed to read fingerprints, no front LED flash, speaker placement at the bottom
Verdict
If the OPPO F1 Plus is the only phone that OPPO releases this year, it will be enough to please those that are among its target demographic.
It has a gorgeous screen that's bigger than average, comes with lots of room for file storage, runs a version of the Android OS that's at least unique if not preferable to stock, and it will muscle through practically any smartphone task you throw at it.
It's also one of the slimmest, lightest, and most well built handsets in its price range, which really makes it something to keep an eye on. Oh, and it takes impeccable photos from both the front and the back.
For selfie addicts, it's the best selfie phone in the country yet, a must have.
GIZ Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
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