With the lust for bezel-less smartphones with a notch booming in the mobile industry, many smartphone OEM’s are jumping on to this bandwagon. Oppo, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer, is one such OEM. With the launch of the F7, Oppo has been successful in providing a smartphone that keeps up with the trend. Besides the design, the Oppo F7 offers a pixel-packed 25MP selfie camera backed by A.I. But will a bezel-less display with a notch and a selfie-focused camera persuade you to buy the Oppo F7? Is the phone worth it? Well, let us find the answers to those questions in this full review.
Design
The Oppo F7 is a gorgeous looking device with its glossy back and floating display. Although made mainly out of plastic, the F7 looks and feels great. The phone also sports a notch at the top-front giving it a somewhat of a classy touch. That said, I am not too keen on the use of plastic nor the glossy finish of the device. This combination makes the phone a bit slippery in the hands and prone to smudges. Oppo could have made use of metal to give the phone more of a premium touch. With budget smartphones offering a metal body, it is a shame Oppo skimped out on this inclusion.
Display
The Oppo F7 takes on the current trend of using a 19:9 aspect ratio display with an almost bezel-less look. This gives Oppo the opportunity to squeeze in a large 6.23 inch Full HD (1080*2280) IPS display in a body that is smaller than that of a phablet. A notch sits snug on the top of the phone housing the earpiece, front camera, and an array of sensors. Not only the specification but the actual display is quite good. Text and images on this panel look sharp with accurate colours and optimal brightness. Overall, the display definitely is one of the many strong points of the device.
Performance
The phone houses an octa-core MediaTek Helio P60 processor backed by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The Oppo F7 was easily able to handle everything that I threw at it. From the basic tasks like scrolling through Facebook to more demanding tasks like gaming, the phone effortlessly handled it all. Speaking of gaming, the phone was able to bust some graphics intensive games like PUPG, Modern Combat 5 in medium settings with ease. Overall, the performance of the Oppo F7 is highly impressive.
Software
The phone comes packed with Color OS 5.0 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The user interface on the device is clean, minimalistic, and functional. I am genuinely surprised by how smooth the UI of the phone is. Oppo definitely has come a long way, at the software front, from the days of its past. Running a custom skin, the F7 brings tons of useful features like Smart Assistant, Clone Apps, Game Acceleration and split-screen multitasking. Although the icons are a bit old school, the UI is markedly functional. All in all, the software experience of the phone has been quite pleasant.
Camera
The Oppo F7 packs a f/1.8 16MP rear camera accompanied by an LED flash. The picture quality from the camera is excellent with great details, contrast and sharpness. Even in low-light, the snapper performed extremely well with great clarity and a minimal amount of grain.
The phone also has a whopping 25MP front-camera with a f/2.0 aperture. The picture quality from this camera, just like its rear counterpart, is great. Besides being pixel-packed, the sensor is backed by A.I technology to produce more ravishing selfies. The camera makes use of Artificial Intelligence to detect your face and the environment and apply various beautifying effects accordingly. If you are a selfieholics you will, without a doubt, fall in love with this feature. It works that well!
The phone, however, takes the whole beautification to a bit of an unnatural realm. Although the tagline of Oppo is to “capture the real you”, the phone does the opposite of just that. Some might prefer the highly air-brushed photos, but I for one found it a bit excessive. This, however, is not a big problem as the beautification settings can be turned off if desired. But having a feel of realism as default would have been nice!
Biometrics and others
The F7 has an active fingerprint scanner embedded into its back panel. It works flawlessly as I was easily able to unlock the phone in a jiffy. Besides the fingerprint reader, the phone offers Face Unlock, combining the front camera and software, for an added layer of security. It works surprisingly well to the point that the phone unlocks at the press of the power button. Indeed, a great feature to have!
The device also has a bottom firing speaker which is plenty loud for media-consumption. Compared to other smartphones at the same price point, the F7 offers a more variable level of sound with plenty of bass.
Connectivity
Connectivity wise the F7 offers a dual-sim card slot and a memory card slot combination. The storage of the phone can be upgraded up to 256GB from the already 64GB of inbuilt storage the phone comes with. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 4G and USB 2.0.
Battery
The phone packs a 3400mAh non-user removable battery. Battery life on the Oppo F7 has been great! I was able to get 5-6 hours of on-screen time with my medium to heavy usage of the phone. Moderate users will easily be able to get a full day worth of battery life out of this device. That said, one major drawback with the phone is the lack of a USB Type-C port. Oppo instead of opting for the new standard has decided to go old school, which is quite a bummer.
Verdict: Oppo F7
The Oppo F7 is an alluring smartphone that performs as good as it looks. For a price of Rs 36,590, the phone has a lot to offer like a notched near bezel-less display, feature-packed software, capable selfie-camera, and an eye-catching design. Selfie enthusiasts, heavy multimedia consumers, and almost anyone looking for a top of the line mid-tier smartphone will find the Oppo F7 most appealing. The phone, however, falls shorts in certain areas like the build, lack of a USB Type-C port and fast charging capabilities. The price too is a bit more expensive compared to the competition out there.
That said, the phone is still an awesome piece of technology that has much to offer. For someone looking for a great mid-tier smartphone which performs well and can take some kick-ass selfies, the Oppo F7 will be a great choice.
Also Read: Huawei Y9 2018: Nepal Reviews
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