OPPO F5 Review: Is it the best Selfie smartphone in sub Rs. 20k?

OPPO F5 features a 20MP selfie camera with AI, a 6-inch Full HD+ screen and has 4GB of RAM. The smartphone is available at Rs. 18,200 in India.

By Rohit
|

OPPO needs no introduction when it comes to 'Selfie Smartphones'. The Chinese smartphone maker has been developing capable camera smartphones for masses from quite a while that comes with a promise to capture the best version of you for Snapchat and Instagram stories.

 

Rating:
4.0/5

OPPO F5 Review: Is it the best Selfie smartphone in sub Rs. 20k?

For most of the part, OPPO has managed to impress us with its selfie smartphones; however a smartphone manufacturer cannot thrive on just one feature set for a longer duration. The other important factors should also be taken care of such as display, design, storage, battery, etc. to keep the ball rolling.

Having said that, OPPO's latest selfie centered smartphone is by large a product in the right direction. In addition to an impressive front-facing camera, OPPO F5 also makes sure you experience the latest mobile technology trends that are making rounds in the smartphone world.

The smartphone is available at Rs. 18,200 and goes beyond that just a regular selfie smartphone. Let's find out how good or bad is OPPO's latest mobile innovation- the OPPO F5 with the help of the following review.

Specifications: What OPPO F5 has to offer?

Specifications: What OPPO F5 has to offer?

OPPO F5 is company's most advanced selfie smartphone till date. It brings forth the machine learning technology to selfie cameras for the first time. OPPO F5 sports a 20 MP front facing camera that utilizes complex AI algorithms to deliver improved selfie shots. The selfie camera also comes with updated Beautify technology that applies customized beautification enhancements for each face identified in a group selfie. Oppo F5 has a rear snapper with 16MP sensor and dual LED flash. The smartphone runs on company's ColorOS 3.2 deployed on Android 7.1.1 Nougat and sports a 6-inch FHD+ Screen with 18:9 aspect ratio.

The dual-SIM smartphone is backed by a humble 3,200 mAh battery unit, which is non-removable. OPPO F5 comes in two variants, 4GB RAM + 32GB ROM priced at Rs. 18,200 (best buy price) and the recently announced 6GB RAM + 64GB ROM variant priced at Rs. 24,900. The internal memory can be expanded via micro SD card by up to 256GB. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT6763T chipset which has four Cortex A53 cores running at 2.3GHz to tackle resource intensive tasks, and the other four cores running at max frequency of 1.65GHz.

Crisp 6-inch FHD+ Display
 

Crisp 6-inch FHD+ Display

OPPO and Vivo cannot just sell smartphones by offering a good selfie camera; other features like design, display, processor and battery are equally important and form the basis of a good overall product. In addition to a capable front-facing camera, OPPO has also added a taller 18:9 aspect ratio screen, which makes F5 the company's first handset with an edge-to-edge screen. OPPO F5 sports a 6-inch 1080p screen with a resolution of 1080x2160 pixels. The display is bright and colors look vivid. The edge-to-edge screen will not disappoint you if you watch a lot of movies and play graphical intensive games on your smartphone.

Sleek and Premium design

Sleek and Premium design

As far as design is concerned, OPPO F5 comes with 84.2% of screen-to-body ratio and is comfortable for single handed use. The conveniently located fingerprint scanner, curved edges and rounded corners gives it a comfortable grip in hands. OPPO F5 doesn't feel too heavy in hands and fits quite well in palms. The rear panel has been given a matte finish and comes with a minimal look and feel. There are shiny antenna bands that run along the top and bottom of the rear panel and blends with the Gold color of the smartphone. The power toggle is placed on the right side of the device whereas volume rockers are on the left side. A big mono speaker along with micro USB 2.0 port and 3.5 mm audio jack are positioned at the bottom edge.

How good is the Selfie camera?

How good is the Selfie camera?

OPPO has been developing selfie smartphones from quite a while and the smartphone manufacturer is doing a good job, if not in other departments but certainly in the selfie game. The new selfie-centered F5 is an important handset for OPPO as it brings along the power of ‘Artificial Intelligence' to company's selfie cameras. But how does it improve the camera performance?

Machine-Learning to enhance your selfies

Machine-Learning to enhance your selfies

As per OPPO, the machine learning technology powering the front camera on OPPO F5 self-learns and recognizes the differences between skin tones and color, age, gender of subjects within an image, and makes appropriate and relevant beautification enhancements to each subject. The company also mentions that the complex algorithm has the ability to differentiate male from female subjects, babies from adults, to make appropriate subtle enhancements to improve the self portraits.

In a way, OPPO F5 knows who is clicking the picture and will avoid unnatural enhancements such as feminine enhancements on male subjects. The 20MP front facing camera is said to record more than 200 facial recognition spots of a face. OPPO has also included the new improved Beautify technology that gives a customized beauty effect, no matter which environment or who you're taking the Selfie with. This ensures that everyone in the picture looks naturally beautiful with accurate skin tones and does not have any unwanted blemishes.

Selfie Camera Ouput

Selfie Camera Ouput

In a nutshell, OPPO F5 offers best-in-class selfies, in its respective price-point and even when you compare the output with smartphones priced higher. I am not much of a selfie fan but OPPO F5's camera made me click several of them during my review time with F5. Self portraits come out really good and you will click countless selfies if you are an active user of Snapchat and Instagram. The detailing is impressive and camera app is very fast and feature rich. The front-facing camera also creates a notable bokeh effect. Surprisingly, OPPO F5 does not come equipped with a selfie flash, but you get the screen flash to compensate the loss to some extent.

Rear Camera Output

Rear Camera Output

OPPO F5 sports a 16MP rear camera that works on Sony IMX 398 sensor. The camera works on an F1.8 aperture that works wonderfully in daylight. The colors look natural and images show good detailing and minimal pixilation even when zoomed in to maximum levels. The low-light performance is not good as images show too much of noise and loss in detailing.

OPPO’s ColorOS needs to be simplified for better usability

OPPO’s ColorOS needs to be simplified for better usability

Unlike Lenovo, Motorola and Xiaomi's recent MiA1, OPPO ships its smartphones with a customized skin deployed over Android. The ColorOS 3.2 running over Android 7.1 might give you a hard time if you are shifting from a stock android, iOS or some other android handsets with their own custom skinned UIs. Thankfully, OPPO has tucked in ‘Instructions' in additional settings section to guide you throughout the ColorOS.

And while you get some useful software features such as dual apps, three finger screenshot, OPPO cloud, etc. the software team has complicated some essential parts of UI which hampers the overall user experience. For instance, you cannot swipe the individual notifications from the panel, cannot change on-screen wallpaper by long tapping on display, cannot access accessibility feature in settings in one go, etc. Some unwanted apps are also added that populates the smartphone without any major advantage.

Hardware Performance

Hardware Performance

The selfie-centered OPPO F5 is not built to run heavy games and other resource intensive tasks. It is aimed at selfie lovers and swiftly manages camera usage, web browsing, casual games and other everyday tasks. If you plan to run games like Asphalt 8, Injustice 2, etc. you are bound to experience stutters and some level of heating issues. I did not face any judders while using multiple apps simultaneously on OPPO F5. There's enough RAM to run more than 12 apps simultaneously without any performance slowdown.

As far as battery is concerned, the smartphone can last a day on a single charge; however battery backup depends on your usage patterns. One big disappointment is the lack of OPPO's VOOC charging that could have added a great value to smartphone usage.

Is it worth buying?

Is it worth buying?

OPPO F5 is more than just a good selfie smartphone. The bezel-less design, crisp 18:9 aspect ratio screen, excellent selfie camera response and efficient multitasking makes it a good overall handset in sub Rs. 20,000 price-point. Yes, it's not excels in every department, but whatever it does, it does wonderfully. It's a great buy for millennials who love to create stories on social platforms.

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