Android

OPPO F7 review: The new Selfie Expert

OPPO Reno12 F 5G Coming Soon

The latest Selfie Expert is here and it is packing a large display, and 25MP front camera. But is it any good? We’re here to find out.

This is our review of the OPPO F7.

oppo f7 philippines review

OPPO F7 Philippines Review

I have been using the OPPO F7 for a few weeks, and today, we’re going into detail on what the phone offers potential users.

Before we start with the review, let’s take a quick look at the phone’s major specs. The OPPO F7 features a 6.23-inch display, a MediaTek P60 processor, 4GB RAM, and 64GB of storage.

Carrying on the Selfie Expert tradition, the handset comes with a 25MP front camera with AI Beauty Technology and AR stickers. While the rear camera is equipped with a 16MP shooter.

oppo f7 philippines initial review

Inside the retail box, the OPPO F7 comes with a jelly case, a pair of earphones, a travel charger, a microUSB cable, some documentation, and the SIM eject tool. I love that most OPPO phones come with its own case. This one has exact cut-outs for the camera, the fingerprint sensor, the ports, and the speaker. It has slight lip that raises the screen, protecting it if you put face down on a surface.

Design and Build

The F7 features a sleek and minimalist 19:9 body with a front glass, and a glass-like back. It is beautiful and has a premium look that I like, but the glossy back is a fingerprint magnet.

In the hand, the phone feels good. It is solid with a sturdy build. I like that it has good weight as well, rather than being too light and feeling cheap.

oppo f7 philippines review

The front is mostly display, with rounded corners and surrounded by thin bezels. The small notch houses the front camera, the earpiece, and the sensors.

oppo f7 philippines initial review

The volume rocker is on the left, and the power button is on the right. At the bottom you have a single speaker, the micro USB port, the mic, and the audio jack. Another mic is available at the top for stereo recording when shooting videos.

The back is topped with a glass-texture panel, and has the fingerprint scanner, the single rear camera with the LED flash, and the OPPO logo. The fingerprint scanner is traced with a silver ring with a slightly different hue, giving it distinction from the rest of the back.

I am a bit disappointed that OPPO didn’t put too much effort at slimming down the camera bump. It is raised a few millimeters, and has a bit of a sharp feel when you run your finger over it.

oppo f7 philippines review

I mentioned in my initial impressions post about the elevation of the display from the body, and how it detracts from the seamlessness of the design. It still does, but after using it for awhile, I noticed that it has a purpose after all. It actually helps me grip the phone better, and prevents it from slipping out of my hand.

Display and UI

The handset comes with a 6.23-inch Super Full Screen full HD+ IPS display with a resolution of 2280 by 1080, and a pixel density 405 ppi. It is bright and has well saturated colors, and generally looks good. The screen is sharp and has good detail as well.

The notch gets in the way while watching videos, and playing games in full screen. But you can disable that in the settings. You can control which app or game will play in full screen, preventing it from stretching to overlap the notch.

ColorOS may have started as an homage to iOS, but it is slowly coming into its own. It still has some borrowed elements, but the overall, it looks clean, consistent, and attractive.

oppo f7 philippines review

oppo f7 philippines review oppo f7 philippines review

The phone came with a few pre-installed apps, namely Facebook, WPS Office, and iReader. It also came with Google’s suite of apps, as well as the OPPO’s own apps.

Performance and Benchmarks

The OPPO F7 comes with a 2.0GHz octa-core MediaTek P60 processor, paired with 4GB RAM and a Mali-G72 MP3 graphics chip. The P60 processor is a “super mid-range premium” chip manufactured using the TSMC 12nm process.

We ran a few benchmark apps and got the following scores:

  • AnTuTu Benchmark – 140,490 points
  • Geekbench – 1,534 (single-core) / 5,871 (multi-core)
  • 3D Mark, Slingshot Extreme – 1,080

When it comes to gaming, the F7 did a decent job as well. It ran PUBG, Hearthstone, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Lara Croft Go, and Marvel’s Contest of Champions without much problems. The phone felt warm while playing though, but not to the point of it becoming problematic.

Call Quality

Call quality is great. There are no problems here. It was clear on both ends of the call.

Camera

The handset comes with a 25MP front camera and a 16MP rear shooter. Image quality is decent, with good colors, ample details, and reasonable sharpness. Focus performance is fast, locking on to subjects without much problems. In low light, noise is noticeably, but despite that, images are fairly useable, especially if only for social media.

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The front camera is pretty good as well. The Selfie Expert captured a fair amount of detail with decent colors. I like beauty mode because it does a good job of smoothing out pores and wrinkles. Just don’t set it too high or else the photo will look artificial. OPPO also added AR stickers to its camera. Its a fun way to spruce photos. There are 14 stickers to choose from.

oppo f7 philippines review oppo f7 philippines review oppo f7 philippines initial review

Battery Life

The OPPO F7 comes with a 3,400 mAh battery. With moderate usage that involves a few games, YouTube, some social media, and camera use, the phone will last a good work day. Charging takes a bit over 2 hours. Too bad it doesn’t support fast charging, (although its not expected at this price point).

Conclusion

At PHP17,990, the OPPO F7 maybe priced on the higher end of the midrange segment, but it does offer a lot of good things that justifies it. You get a large 6.23-inch full HD+ display, a high performing octa-core MediaTek P60 processor, 4GB RAM, and a generous 64GB storage. It also has an impressive AI-powered 25MP selfie camera with AR stickers, and a decent 16MP rear shooter.

Also Read: 

The OPPO F7 will officially launch in the Philippines on April 19, 2018, with a suggested retail price of PHP17,990. You still have a chance to pre-order until April 20, 2018 and get a free Olike Magic Music Lamp.

OPPO F7 specs:

  • 6.23-inch Full HD+ Super Full Screen IPS Display (2280 x 1080; 405 ppi)
  • 19:9 Aspect Ratio, 88% Screen-to-body Ratio
  • Corning Gorilla Glass 5
  • 2.0GHz Octa-Core MediaTek P60
  • Mali-G72 MP3 GPU
  • 4GB RAM
  • 64GB Storage +microSD up to 256GB
  • 25MP Front Camera, f/2.0, AI Beauty Technology 2.0, Group Selfie Beautification, Vivid Mode, AR Stickers
  • 16MP Rear Camera, f/1.8, PDAF AI Scene, AI Album
  • Wi-Fi a/b/g/n
  • Bluetooth v4.2
  • GPS, A-GPS
  • MicroUSB Port, OTG
  • Fingerprint Sensor (Rear Mounted)
  • Face Unlock, AI Board
  • ColorOS 5.0, Android 8.1 Oreo
  • 3,400 mAh Battery

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Bryan is a geek at heart and a tech enthusiast by choice. He has a strong background in corporate communications, marketing services, and customer relations having worked in the telecommunications and banking sectors for over two decades. In his spare time, he enjoys watching clips on YouTube and binge watching shows on Netflix.

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