Oppo F5 review: Better selfies, and a bigger 'bezel-less' display
Oppo F5 makes for a good option for selfie bufs who who need a larger-screened stylish device.Oppo, which is one of the top five smartphone vendors in India, has unveiled its first device with bezel-less display called Oppo F5. The Chinese smartphone vendor has positioned its brand in India as the ‘Selfie-Expert’ set of devices. Of course, whether customers really need another selfie expert in their life is something that’s up for debate. Oppo is also gearing up to start another manufacturing plant in India, and it will have a capacity to produce 10 million handsets every year.
Oppo F5 Review
Oppo F5 comes with a large 6-inch Full HD+ screen with an aspect ratio of 18:9. Another highlight of Oppo F5 is it uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance selfies. Though there’s no dual camera setup on the Oppo F5, it supports Portrait mode, or ‘depth’ effect as the company calls it, for the front camera. The focus with Oppo F5 is its large display and front camera.
Priced starting at Rs 19,990, the smartphone competes with devices from its Chinese counterparts such as Vivo V7+ and Honor 9i. Both Vivo V7+ and Honor 9i feature bezel-less display and fall in the sub-Rs 20,000 price-bracket. The 6GB RAM variant of Oppo F5 is priced slightly higher at Rs 24,990. We used the Oppo F5 for over two weeks and here’s our full review.
Oppo F5 Specifications: 6-inch Full HD+ display | octa-core Helio P23 | 4GB RAM | 32GB ROM | 16MP rear camera | 20MP front camera | 3,200mAh battery | Android 7.1 Nougat with ColorOS 3.1 |
Oppo F5 price in India: Rs 19,990 starting price
Oppo F5 : What’s good?
One of the best things about Oppo F5 has to be its design. Oppo F5 sports a metal unibody design with muted antenna bands on top and bottom of back cover. We got the Gold colour option of the F5 for review, which looks pretty and quite stylish. Oppo F5 has curved edges, though it helps very little with the grip. More on that later.
On the front, we get a full display with extremely thin, white bezels on the sides as well as top and bottom. There’s no home button, and an oval shaped fingerprint scanner is present on the back. Oppo F5 uses a micro-USB Type 2.0 port for charging, which is a bit disappointing at this price-point and we expected a USB Type-C on this.
Oppo F5 has a 6-inch screen with Full HD+ resolution. The display should not give most users a reason to complain as it is crisp, and has great viewing angles. I didn’t have to struggle with the phone in bright outdoors. Lack of bezels surely enhanced my overall experience as I enjoyed watching videos and playing games on the Oppo F5.
Oppo F5 sports a metal unibody design with muted antenna bands on top and bottom of back cover.Camera department is where Oppo F5 shines. I managed to get some great shots with depth effect turned on and otherwise as well. Details and colour reproduction in pictures were stunning considering the price point. I liked how the selfie camera did not merge the outline of the subject with blurred background while using depth effect, an issue I’ve come across on a few cameras that support this mode.
In my opinion, Oppo F5 is one of the better options when it comes to clicking pictures for social media, thanks to the use of AI, which the company is claiming. I did not feel the need to edit pictures before sharing these on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media accounts. In my opinion, the camera does a pretty good job of enhancing selfies.
Oppo F5 has a 16MP rear camera, which does an equally good job of taking detailed shots. Colours do not tend to look over-saturated, which is great. Both the front and rear cameras are capable of producing good pictures in bright outdoors as well as low-light.
Oppo F5 camera sample. (Image resized for web)
Oppo F5 camera sample. (Image resized for web)
Oppo F5 camera sample. (Left to right: Photo with depth effect turned and with the effect turned off. Image resized for web)
Oppo F5 camera sample. (Image resized for web)I did not face any performance issues with Oppo F5 during the review period. The phone can handle multitasking well as there were no lag in opening apps and I could quickly switch between tabs. However, I did experience a slight lag while launching apps after playing graphics-heavy games like Asphat-8. Oppo F5 also gets warm while watching videos online, but not to an extent that should get you worried. Playing games like Candy Crush Saga, etc for longer duration is not a problem.
Oppo F5: What’s not good?
Oppo F5 has large 6-inch display, which makes it really hard to use with one hand. I struggled especially when playing games like Candy Crush Saga, where I had to go up and down the screen frequently. A silicone back cover is a must for the phone as it is quite slippery. Though it has some sort of a matte finish to give it some grip, I’d still recommend a cover for extra protection.
Oppo F5 has large 6-inch display, which makes it really hard to use with one hand.The Rs 19,990 version of the phone only gives you 32GB of internal storage, which is less in my opinion. Of course, you can always expand storage using a microSD card slot, but I’m not convinced as phones costing less than Oppo F5 offer at least 64GB ROM on-board.
Battery on Oppo F5 will last a day on moderate usage, but be ready to charge the phone at the end of each day. I started with a 100 per cent charge on the phone in the morning, and it was down to 20 per cent at night. My usage includes watching a couple of videos online, browsing social media, and streaming music. On our PCMark battery test, it scored only five hours and 45 minutes.
Oppo F5 takes about two and a half hours to get fully charged from three per cent battery left. I started charging at about 8 PM, and the phone charged up to 67 per cent by 9:45 PM. I’m really disappointed with Oppo F5’s battery capacity and the absence of fast charging technology – especially at this price-point.
On our PC Mark battery test, it scored only five hors and 45 minutes.Let’s just say, I am not a big fan of Color OS. For starters, the notifications tab get cluttered as individual notifications do not go away just by swiping. Swiping on a notification will either ask me to go to Settings or Delete it. There’s a cross button at the bottom, which can be clicked to remove all notifications together from the tab.
The Quick settings menu opens up at the bottom, which contains most important shortcuts for settings and this runs for two pages. This menu can be confusing, especially if one is used to the regular Android way of showing Settings, which is swiping down from top of the display.
Oppo F5: Verdict
With Oppo F5, it comes down to three things – stylish design, display and camera. Oppo F5 makes for a good option for selfie buffs, who need a larger-screen. Oppo F5 is a good option for its overall performance, though be prepared for less storage if you want this for under Rs 20,000. Alternately one could also look at an option like Honor 9i, which offers four cameras and a bezel-less display at Rs 17,999. Honor 9i stands out for its cameras, and is capable of churning out some really good shots even in low-light.
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