I’ll be honest, I am not a fan of Hrithik Roshan and definitely not of Sonam Kapoor. And this phone’s TV Commercial between overs, both during the World Cup and now the IPL, get on my nerves.
So when the Chinese smartphone maker sent the Oppo F1 Plus for a review, I was reluctant.
At Rs 26,990 the F1 Plus is not your regular affordable Chinese smartphone, but does it have what it takes to be your first choice?
It stands against a big band of smartphones when it comes to pricing, like the recently launched Xiaomi Mi 5 and Samsung Galaxy A7.
What’s Good?
Oppo F1 Plus offers a lot on paper and delivers on most of its promises. The phone is not a flagship smartphone and Oppo is not shying away from saying that.
The display of the Oppo F1 Plus is a 5.5 inch one with a resolution of 1920X1080 pixels. It has a similar AMOLED display the one’s you’ll find on the Galaxy A7 and this one is protected by Gorilla Glass 4. The display is sharp, crisp and offers good viewing angles.
The 2.0GHz MediaTek MT6755 (Helio P10) packs in 8x Cortex-A53 cores and is backed by a 4GB RAM. It’s a new silicone chip and surprisingly does not heat up the phone. In fact, the performance on the Oppo F1 Plus is seamless and it can handle any kind of user with ease. The Android Lollipop-powered device is loaded with Oppo’s Color OS 3.0 and it does not hinder like many of the bloatwares that are on phones these days.
There is also a standard 64GB internal storage that can be expanded upto 128GB.
The 2850 mAh battery with VOOC Flash Charge gives you a decent battery backup of a day and the fast charging by Oppo is a tried and tested one that delivers.
The Oppo F1 Plus is one of those few phones that have a less powerful rear camera as compared to the front one. We are talking purely about the sensor here. The F1 Plus has a 13-megapixel rear camera is a f/2.2 unit that comes with Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF). It’s a decent camera that clicks images with ease. The missing bit is the optical image stabilisation on it.
The front camera is a 16-megapixel fixed-focus f/2.0 unit and it is perfect for selfie lovers. In fact, it’s better than what it’s competitors have on offer. The image results are good and the beauty mode also does not overdo things.
To top it all, the F1 Plus comes with a decent fingerprint scanner as well. It is a bit moody but works most of the time.
What’s Bad?
The Oppo F1 Plus has everything going for it but design. It looks just like the iPhone 6s. Even the feel of the Oppo F1 Plus is just like the iPhone 6s. The design lines the contours and even the central home button feels like a cheap copy of the iPhone.
In fact, the camera app on the Oppo F1 Plus is well quite similar to the camera app on.. any guesses?...Spot on! The iPhone’s iOS.
The phone is a bit slippery, so you have to be careful while handling it.
Overall, if you think of the Oppo F1 Plus in the first go without diving into its features, you get the impression of a cheap iPhone.
Why Buy it?
The Oppo F1 Plus offers a lot of goodies that one would desire on an Android phone, but all that comes at a worrisome price of Rs 26,499. It’s not a phone that outdoes the Xiaomi Mi5, but if you are in the market looking for a Samsung Galaxy A7 then the Oppo F1 Plus should be your first preference because it is more affordable and better than the A7.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)