Oppo F7 vs Vivo V9: Battle of the notches, in-depth comparison to best suit your needs
Oppo F7
Rating: ****
Price: Rs 21,990
Pros: Premium finish, notch style display, excellent hardware and performance, great battery life, fantastic front camera, good quality rear camera, rich feature set with AI, fast face unlock
Cons: Rear camera bokeh effect won’t work with objects, no 4k video recording, no front flash, blocky design, incoming notification icons are obstructed by notch
The F7 has a 6.23-inch, 19:9 aspect notched screen. It’s an impressive display with wide viewing angles and rich colours. Similar to the Vivo V9, it has slim bezels (top and sides) and a chin. On closer inspection, you can make out that the bezels on the Vivo V9 are slimmer by a tiny fraction. Unlike Vivo, the Oppo F7 gives you the option to adjust the screen temperature. The F7 also lets you control which apps run in 18:9 aspect ratio, in case the notch is blocking the interface. However, the Oppo also lacks optimization for incoming notification icons due to the notch.
We feel the F7 looks premium thanks to the glossy finish back panel. Like many glossy backs, it is prone to fingerprints and smudges but it looks like a glass back. With its rectangular and blocky design, the phone feels chunkier than the Vivo V9 even though the difference in size is negligible on paper.
In terms of chipset, a Mediatek Helio P60 powers the F7 and proves to be a fantastic performer. Combined with 4GB RAM, the P60 keeps everything running smoothly. At one point, we had over 30 apps running in the background while playing 3D games without any hitch. Battery life is also fantastic — a single charge easily lasts a full day with around 20% battery to spare.
In the camera department, the F7 has a 16MP f1.8 rear camera. The lack of a dual camera at this price is a potential turn-off. That being said, the camera offers up some crisp photos. In low light, the photo quality takes a beating thanks to noise and loss of detail. There’s a softwaredriven portrait mode which works well only if it detects a human. With images of objects, the bokeh effect does not work — Oppo needs to look into this. We like the new Super Vivid mode in the camera that boosts overall colour saturation (you also get a live preview). We found it puzzling that video recording was capped at 1080p — everyone expects 4k video recording at this price.
On the front it has a 25MP camera — while the number of megapixels don’t really matter, they do pique the interest of selfie lovers. The F7’s front camera delivers fantastic selfies — sharp detail and rich colours. Oppo has improved the AI beautification compared to the Oppo F5 — the AI now applies beautification according to your gender. For men, it improves the jawline and removes marks while for women it enhances eyes, lips and removes marks. The front camera is used for the face unlock on the Oppo F7 — it’s the first phone that comes close to speed of face unlock on the OnePlus 5T. Face unlock works instantly (even in low light) and you can set the screen to wake up when raised — again, similar to the OnePlus 5T.
On the software side, the F7 is Oppo’s first device with Color OS 5.0 based on Android 8.1. It comes with a useful full screen multitasking feature — in landscape mode, you can swipe inwards to get quick access to apps or function near the notch and you can open them in a floating window. The smart assistant (a panel on the home screen) shows you a list of quick functions, weather, steps, favorite contacts and upcoming calendar events. Other useful features include a game mode, iPhone X style gestures, clone apps, split screen function and screen recording.
Vivo V9
Rating: ****
Price: Rs 22,990
Pros: Sleek design, notch style display, good day to day performance, great front camera results, dual rear camera with AI, 4k video recording, feature-rich interface, Motorbike mode
Cons: Plastic back picks up scratches quickly, average battery life, incoming notification icons are obstructed by notch, display has a warm tone that cannot be changed
The V9 has a 6.3-inch display with 19:9 aspect ratio — it is most definitely an impressive screen with sleek bezels (top and sides) and a small chin. Compared to other smartphone screens, the V9’s display has a warmer tone — a slight red tint is visible when compared with other phones. Vivo offers optimisations for third party apps to use the notch too — you can select which apps run full screen, in 16:9 or 18:9 aspect ratio.
One issue is that due to the notch, you do not see icons for unread incoming notifications on top. It seems that the notch is actually increasing fragmentation in Android rather than becoming a coveted feature. Apart from the display, the first thing you notice about the V9 is that it is surprisingly lightweight — just 150 grams, and this is largely due to the plastic back. It doesn’t really stand out because it has the same design language as the Vivo V7/V7+: a matte finish rear panel and faux antenna lines on the top and bottom. We do like that the sleek design and curved back makes it comfortable to hold. The downside is that the plastic is prone to wear and tear — we saw scratch marks within a few days.
No complaints when it comes to performance and gaming. The Snapdragon 626 with 4GB RAM keeps everything running smoothly. At times (with over 20 apps running in background) we noticed some sluggishness with 3D games or while scrolling through a Facebook feed. Battery life is average at best. It can last from 9 am to 6 pm, but you will have to charge it twice a day.
V9 features a 24MP front camera with AI beautification and AR stickers. The camera takes fantastic photos with crisp details and good colours. For beautification, you can choose the beauty level manually or let the AI do it’s job. We think the AI beautification did a pretty good job. The portrait mode also does a good job with edge detection as long as there is enough light. You also get a group selfie mode and a professional mode for the front camera. Vivo also uses the front camera for Face unlock on the V9 and it works well, although it does not have the raise to wake screen and unlock feature as the Oppo F7.
Around the back is a 16MP + 5MP dual camera setup with an AI powered bokeh mode. This gives the V9 an advantage over the Oppo F7 in delivering a superior bokeh effect. Photos taken from the V9 capture good details, natural colour and the edge detection is great. However, in low light, the camera suffers from visible noise in most photos. Vivo also offers the option of adjusting focus in an image after its taken — always a useful feature. Another advantage of the V9’s rear camera is that it is capable of recording 4k videos at 30 fps in good quality.
V9 is also one of the first devices from Vivo to come with FunTouch OS 4.0 based on the latest Android 8.1. There are a number of handy features in the user interface such as game mode (disables notifications and rejects incoming calls), iPhone X style gestures for control and navigation, Motorbike mode, and a one-handed mode.
What’s Inside The Notch?
The notch on top of both these phones is smaller than the one on the Apple iPhone X. The notch is here to stay and we can expect this trend to continue on almost all new Android phones this year. Here, the notch houses the earpiece, front camera, notification LED and the usual sensors (ambient light & proximity). In the interests of keeping the notch small, neither of them offer a front LED flash
Common Features: Dual nano SIM slots, dedicated microSD slot (up to 256GB supported), 3.5mm audio out, microUSB, USB OTG support, 4G VoLTE, WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, face unlock, Android 8.1
Conclusion: Oppo F7 or Vivo V9?
Thanks to the 19:9 aspect ratio screens, both phones are about the same size as a phone with a 5.5-inch 16:9 screen or a phone with a 6-inch 18:9 screen. From the specifications and feature set, it’s clear that both Vivo V9 and Oppo F7 are very similar. If you keep them side by side with the display off, it is difficult to tell them apart. The front cameras on both perform the same and you can’t go wrong with either of them in this department. However, when it comes to performance, the Oppo has the advantage because of the stronger Helio P60 processor and better optimised user interface. Oppo also has the advantage with a more premium appearance, faster face unlock and better battery life. Where the Vivo wins is in the rear camera department. The Vivo dual camera captures a better bokeh effect and is capable of 4k video recording. If the camera is your main priority, the Vivo V9 is the one to get. If you need an all-round performer, the Oppo F7 is better.
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