In 2017, Oppo is looking to reach out to more customers with the new F3 series. The company is aiming to attract selfie enthusiasts with the F3 Plus. The Oppo F3 Plus is the first smartphone to feature a dual front camera. Unlike the Vivo V5 Plus (Review), the second camera is not used for depth of field. Instead, the Oppo F3 Plus has a wide-angle lens for group selfies.
Oppo has usually been trying to attract people to buy in the Rs 20,000 segment. So, it might be a bit difficult to want to buy the F3 Plus for Rs 30,000? But does it justify its high price? Let’s find out.
Oppo F3 Plus design and build quality
Oppo has always done a good job when it comes to design and the same is true with the F3 Plus. The metal unibody feels sturdy and the rounded edges make the phone easy to hold. Despite the soft-touch finish, we never found the phone slippery during use. The soft gold colour is attractive. The 6-inch display occupies the front of the phone. Just like the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro, it is impossible to use it with one hand without the risk of the phone falling. The company has tried something different by providing antenna bands on the rear. Perhaps the reason for this is to look different from the competition. At 185 grams, this phone feels a bit heavy and due to the 6-inch display, it is not easy to keep it in the pocket. Thankfully, Oppo has managed to keep its phone slim.
The fingerprint sensor works quickly to unlock the device. And as before, you can also unlock apps and files with it. The phone has backlit capacitive buttons for navigation. There are dual front cameras and sensors at the top. The buttons on the sides are a little difficult to reach. The headphone socket, speaker and micro-USB port are provided at the bottom. There is a SIM tray above the power button. This phone comes with a hybrid SIM slot.
Images and text look sharp thanks to the full HD resolution and viewing angles are also good. However, colours are over-saturated and sometimes look too bright. Touch response is also good and there is Gorilla Glass 5 to protect the display. But the lack of a Type-C connector in the phone is a bit disappointing.
Overall, we have no complaints about the design and finish of the phone. The phone isn’t the easiest to use due to its size. The lack of USB Type-C on the phone is disappointing, especially considering that this is an upper mid-range 2017 smartphone. In the box, you get a headset, ear tips, a silicone case, instructions, a SIM ejector, a USB cable and a power adapter, which is Oppo’s VOOC Flash Charge Mini standard. The phone comes with a screen protector pre-installed.
Oppo F3 Plus specifications and features
The F3 Plus has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor and 4GB of RAM. The inbuilt storage is 64GB. The storage can be expanded via microSD card (up to 256GB). These specifications are pretty impressive. The benchmark numbers may not be as good as those of phones powered by Snapdragon 821 processors, such as the similarly priced OnePlus 3T.
The F3 Plus has shown impressive benchmark performance. Other specifications include dual-band Wi-Fi B/G/N/AC, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, USB-OTG and standard sensors like gyroscope. The phone has features like FM radio and NFC.
The phone has features like F Radio and NFC which some people may like a lot. The fact that the phone runs Color OS 3.0 based on Android Marshmallow instead of Nougat is disappointing. However, the phone has Google Assistant and the custom skin looks polished and fresh. The phone also has Google Assistant and it works well on the phone. Apart from this, not much has changed in ColorOS compared to the previous phone. We also saw this OS in the Oppo A57 during our review. The interface and icons feel like iOS but it is not a complete copy like other phones by Chinese manufacturers. Most system apps like gallery and camera can be accessed by going to the main Settings app.
The phone comes with Google Suite, Facebook, Instagram and WPS Office pre-installed. Oppo has also provided its own app store for those who don’t want to sign in to the Play Store.
Oppo F3 Plus performance
The ColorOS is well optimised, the general performance and specifications of the phone are quite good. Apps load quickly. There are also additional features like theme store and motion gestures. The one handed mode allows the F3 Plus to be used with one hand. Performance is very good and there were no issues with multitasking and playing 3D games. RAM is always free and the phone never hung. 4G networks always worked well for us and VoLTE support also worked fine. Call quality was also not an issue with the phone during our review. The top and edges of the phone get heated up while charging and downloading apps or files. The phone gets heated up during regular use.
The advantage of the bigger screen on the F3 Plus is evident during video playback. The audio quality from the speakers is also not too bad. The bundled handset is a bit small but the Direct Audio helps.
The secondary front camera is for practical use and works well. Instead of the depth-of-field trick on the Vivo V5 Plus, the F3 Plus has an 8-megapixel sensor for a wider field of view. This makes it easy to take group selfies with multiple people in one frame. Photos taken in good light are well detailed but there is a fish-eye effect. The secondary front camera aperture is f/2.4 which is not good enough to take noise-free shots.
On the other hand, the 16-megapixel front camera takes good pictures even in low light and the credit for this goes to the aperture f / 2.0. One can easily switch between the two cameras with an icon near the shutter button. The screen flash is very useful at night and we liked that it adjusts automatically.
Apart from doing well with both the front cameras, Oppo has also done a good job with the rear camera. The phone has a 16-megapixel sensor but it comes with dual PDAF and aperture f/1.7. The rest of the camera specifications are similar to the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Moto G5 Plus, the wide aperture helps in reducing noise and taking bright shots in low light. But the performance is far from the Samsung Galaxy S7.
Macro shots taken in low light are good. But the textures are not very sharp. Photos look good without zooming. Video recording up to 4K is possible and the quality is also good. However, we had problems with focus. However, stabilization can also be used.
The camera app has a little less features but all the necessary apps are available. There is an expert mode for manual control, filters, panorama and tilap video. Focus speed is good and we did not face any problem of it being slow even in low light.
The 4000mAh battery lasts a full day with normal usage. In our HD video loop test, the battery lasted for 17 hours and 12 minutes. The phone comes with VOOC Flash Charge Mini technology for faster battery charging.
Our verdict
At Rs 30,990, Oppo has managed to offer a more premium device than what it usually offers. The F3 Plus faces stiff competition from the OnePlus 3T and the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017). Apart from this, it also competes with the LG G5 priced at Rs 32,000.
The F3 Plus offers a lot for its price. It is a well-built device with a stylish look. The phone has a sharp display, great battery life, a powerful processor and good cameras.
The lack of NFC and FM radio in the phone is disappointing. Apart from this, the oversaturated colors of the display are also a bit disappointing. But, the biggest drawback we found was that the phone does not come with Android Nougat. Because now Android O has also been announced.
However, at this price, we believe that users should get at least two years of proper software support. The Oppo F3 Plus is a great option for those who are looking for a high-performance phone that can also take good selfies. The price of the phone may put some people off, but if Oppo starts providing timely software updates, then the F3 Plus is not a bad option.
#oppo #review