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| OPPO F3 Review; The Group Selfie Expert |
INTRODUCTION:
OPPO has been in the Philippines since 2014, but back then, the brand did not enjoy as much popularity and attention as they are getting today. Thanks to the F series, particularly the OPPO F1s, and the selfie-centered marketing efforts, their name has earned a mark in the hearts and minds of Filipinos. In fact, research and analytic firm GfK, cited the F1s as the best selling smartphone last year.
Since then, the top global phone manufacturer continued to bank on its success, starting with the so-called F1s Upgrade, and recently followed by the F3 line-up, which includes the F3 Plus and its sibling, the center of this review, the OPPO F3.
PHYSICAL:
OPPO F3 Unboxing and Hands-on
The OPPO F3 has striking similarities with other devices in the F family, especially with its bigger brother, save for the lack of six-string antenna design. But, it is not just OPPO phones that the F3 looks similar with, there are other handsets, just like the one from its main rival, poses strong resemblance! See for yourself below.
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| Vivo V5s versus OPPO F3 |
Do not get me wrong here, the OPPO F3 is a nice looking handset, however, due to the commonality of its design, it will have a hard time standing out of the crowd. But then again, this is a lower mid-range offering, and we really do not expect to see remarkable physical attributes found on high-end devices like the Samsung Galaxy S8.
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| Front |
The F3 has the same screen size with the F1s, both handsets have 5.5-inch display, albeit, the former has an upper hand for having Full HD resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection as compared to the HD and CGG4 of the latter. Moreover, it is sleeker in all aspects (153.3mm x 75.2mm x 7.3mm versus 154.5mm x 76mm x 7.38mm) and lighter too (153 grams versus 160 grams). The same can be said when it equates to its competitor, the Vivo V5s (153.8mm x 75.5mm x 7.6mm and 154 grams).
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| Display Information |
Moving forward, the front is mainly dominated by the display, it offers good quality, nice viewing angles, 10-point multitouch, and has thin bezels. Above, the screen you will find the dual front-facing cameras, the earpiece grill, and hidden sensors, while the bottom is occupied by the haptic-type fingerprint sensor that doubles as the home button planked with capacitive keys. By the way, the front has pre-installed plastic film for added protection.
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| Back |
Flip the phone over, and you will find the primary camera along with its LED flash positioned at the upper left corner. The left side has the volume keys, while on its opposite side is the power button. The top has nothing on it except the secondary microphone, while the bottom is the most busiest part keeping the loudspeaker grill, micro USB port, primary microphone, and 3.5mm audio jack.
To learn more about its outside appearance, we have prepared the unboxing and hands-on video above.
SOFTWARE:
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| Software |
The OPPO F3 runs on Color OS version 3.0.0i based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, which is exactly the same with F3 Plus. Although, it is based on a slightly newer Android variant, the look, feel and experience are basically identical to the F1 Plus and F1s which are based on Android Lollipop. The only added feature is the Google Assistant, which works as it should. To learn more about OPPO software, you can visit http://www.oppo.com/en/coloros/
PERFORMANCE:
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| CPU-Z Information |
This handset uses MediaTek MT6750T chipset, the T signifies Turbo. Basically, it is almost the same with the MT6750 SoC found in the OPPO F1s Upgrade, except for two differences. First, the higher GPU and RAM frequencies, which are up to 650MHz and 833MHz respectively, and secondly, the greater amount of pixels it can push, which is 1080p versus 720p of non-turbo variant. Both devices have 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, so, expect similar, if not the same performance. Speaking of storage, only 52.4GB is available out of 64GB, which pretty close to 52.27GB of its F3 Plus sibling.
Below are the scores it got from the popular benchmark applications that we usually used.
Antutu - 53,239
Quadrant - 22,825
NenaMark2 - 60.0fps
Geekbench - 757(single core)
Geekbench - 2,787 (multi core)
Geekbench - 2,156 (renderscript)
PC Mark - 2,822
3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme - 378
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| OPPO F3 Benchmark Results |
Looking at the above numbers, we can safely say that its raw computing power is greater than the Exynos 7870 chipset found on Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime. But, less powerful than phones that are using Snapdragon 625 chip like the ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL, in fact, the scores it got were close to the Snapdragon 430 SoC found on ASUS ZenFone 3 Max ZC553KL. This is the reason why most specs-conscious consumers regard the OPPO F3 a bit expensive. However, OPPO does not focus on this sole feature alone, as the F3 targets different set of audiences.
In real life, it is able to accomplish day to day tasks and activities quite smoothly, such as navigation between apps, browsing web pages, and even playing less resources-hungry games. Overall, it does what should a mid-range phone supposed to do. Of course, hiccups and stutters are to be expected, especially when you push it to perform beyond its capabilities.
CAMERA:
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| OPPO F3 Camera Interface |
The camera interface is also customized or skinned with ColorOS, the UI looks exactly the same with that on the F3 Plus, except for one thing, the option to shoot in 4K, as the F3 is only limited up to 1080p. In general, it is easy to use, with little to no learning curve at all. We will not go deeper with this section as we have covered it extensively in the past, but if you want to know further, you can read the camera section of our OPPO F3 Plus review HERE.
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| Indoor Selfie |
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| Selfie |
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| Wide Selfie |
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| Blur Mode Selfie |
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| Night Selfie |
The F3 and F3 Plus use the same set of cameras, the primary one with f/2.0 aperture, 3.57mm focal length, 16MP resolution, and the secondary one that has f/2.4 aperture, 1.7mm focal length, 8MP resolution, and wider aperture. The latter allows users to frame more people or greater subject at once, for that group selfie shots, or popularly known as 'groufies'.
When there is ample light source, the images produced by either the 8MP or 16MP camera are pretty good with enough details and more than acceptable quality. The latter provides better output due to higher resolution, while the former gives wider FoV, but with noticeable fish-eye effect. Meanwhile, activating 'blur mode' put more weights on the foreground while blurring the background, giving users the bokeh effect for their selfies.
Under poor lighting or not so ideal circumstances, the front cameras struggle, but still manage to deliver decent output. In addition, none of the front camera is auto focus, which results to overexposed or underexposed outcomes when shooting against the light or bright environments.
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| Day without HDR |
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| Day with HDR |
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| Close-up |
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| Hanamaruken Spare Ribs Ramen |
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| Gloomy Afternoon |
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| Rainy Afternoon |
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| Night |
The main camera is equipped with 13MP phase detection auto focus shooter with f/2.2 aperture and accompanied by an LED flash. On paper, it is the same camera system found on the F1s and F1s Upgrade. We are not sure if their components are identical, but expect it to have similar performance. Besides, its main rivals the Vivo V5 and Vivo V5s are equipped with much alike module (13MP f/2.2). Do not get me wrong here, it still provides great quality images with good dynamic range, realistic colors, nice contrast, and enough depth.
Overall image quality is lesser when compared to F3 Plus, which is to be expected given the fact that its bigger sibling is more premium, not to mention comes with better camera too (16MP f/1.7). But, that's only noticeable when viewing the picture in full size or on a computer, and the rendition is not miles apart. When viewing on mobile or smaller screen, it is hard to distinguish the difference. The good thing is that it inherits the same 'expert mode' that allows power users to experiment or adjust the camera settings to suit their taste. By the way, video recording is max at 1080p.
CONNECTIVITY:
The handset can accommodate two Nano SIM cards that come with multiple bands LTE frequencies, and it is good to note that users do not need to sacrifice either slot for storage expansion as the OPPO F3 has a dedicated slot for that. If you have no data plan or just saving those precious data allowance, you can rely on its dual-band (2.4GHz/5GHz) WiFi. The global positioning system is accurate, especially with A-GPS active, the Bluetooth v4.0 works just fine, the micro USB port supports OTG function, and the 3.5mm audio standard is still present. What is missing is the FM receiver, yeah, we may be in the age of music streaming, but lots of people still listen to free radio.
BATTERY:
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| OPPO F3 Battery Life Score |
It comes with 3200mAh non-removable battery, that's about 125mAh larger than that found on the F1s. In PC Mark Work Battery Life test, it scored 11 hours and 19 minutes, that's around the same league with that of F3 Plus that has considerable bigger 4000mAh battery. Everyday use usually last more than a day provided that the use of WiFi or mobile data connection is not excessive, otherwise it drains before the day ends. What's obviously missing is the VOOC Flash Charge, OPPO's proprietary fast charging technology.
CONCLUSION:
The OPPO F3 is one of the company's fastest selling smartphone in the country, and it is not hard to see why. It may have a slightly dated SoC, but its overall performance is quite decent, or shall I say more than acceptable. Its design may not stand out in the crowd, but it still feels premium and nice to look at. The battery life is considered above average too. But, those are just fillers, as OPPO markets it with specific audience in mind, the selfie generation. And, with the amount of sales its cashing in, it is obvious that the brand and marketing department done their homework pretty well.
Of course, it is not just praise and glory, it also has a fair share of criticisms, for one, many critics say its asking price it is a bit expensive. Thankfully, OPPO responds, and slashed off 1000 pesos on its SRP, at least temporarily, hopefully it will be a permanent one. Another thing is the lack of VOOC Flash Charge, which simply means longer charging time.
OPPO F3 Specifications:
- Dual nano SIM, dual standby, supports LTE connectivity
- 5.5-inch IPS capacitive FHD (1920x1080) touchscreen display, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection
- Dimensions: 153.3mm x 75.2mm x 7.3mm
- Weight: 153 grams
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow with ColorOS 3.0
- 64-bit octa core CPU Cortex-A53 (4x1.5GHz + 4x1.0GHz), ARM Mali-T860MP2 GPU, MediaTek MT6750T chipset
- 4GB of RAM
- 64GB internal storage, expandable up to 256GB via micro SD, dedicated slot
- 16MP f/2.0 + 8MP f/2.4 front cameras
- 13MP f/2.2 PDAF back camera with dual-tone LED flash
- Multimedia player
- 3.5mm audio jack
- GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
- Micro USB 2.0 with OTG
- Bluetooth v4.0
- Sensor: fingerprint, accelerometer, light, proximity, compass
- Battery: 3200mAh lithium-ion, non-removable
- Price: Php16,990
- Color: gold, rose gold, black