The Oppo F7 was just released for pre-order on the market – are you thinking of buying one? This selfie-centric upper-midrange phone promises a premium feel and some new tricks up its sleeves. But is it worth its price tag?

Let’s get to know more about the Oppo F7 with this review.

 

The moment Apple sets a trend, you can expect competitors big and small to follow suit. When the American tech giant released its new notched design for its iPhone X, other brands soon enough made a beeline to get themselves their own notch.

One of these brands is Oppo. Never to shy away from a trend, the brand just released its latest offering, the Oppo F7, that features the familiar notch design.

But aside from the trendy notch, what else does this smartphone has to offer?

Let’s find out.

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Design: Sleek and Trendy All Over

From the get-go, the Oppo F7 does look and feel premium. It boasts of a gigantic 6.23-inch screen display that uses on-screen navigation buttons, so you get to maximize almost the entirety of the screen.

The side bezels are also minimal, though there is also a noticeable bit visible just at the lower end of the screen.

On the upper end, you can see the notch. Oppo has managed to keep just the essential parts within the notch – the 25-megapixel selfie camera, the earpiece, and the sensor.

The screen is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and coated with another layer of a pre-installed screen protector.

Oppo indeed pushed the envelope in terms of color with the Oppo F7. The selfie smartphone comes in two brilliant and eye-catching colors, Moonlight Silver and Solar Red (with Solar Red bearing a very uncanny resemblance to the new red iPhone 8).

The glossy acrylic finish can be a bit of a fingerprint magnet, though; thankfully, Oppo has included a free jelly case additional protection.

 

Display: Large and Generous

As mentioned earlier, the Oppo F7 boasts of a 6.23-inch screen with a Full HD+ resolution (2280x1080p). With an aspect ratio of 19:9 it definitely gives customers a generous viewing experience.

The colors are also vibrant and accurate and the screen is bright enough to be used outdoors. The glossy finish does pose a problem when encountered by direct sunlight.

One major deterrent, though, is (you guessed it) the notch.

The notch can be quite distracting as it tends to cover the display when you’re watching videos or playing your games. Thankfully, Oppo decided to include a toggle-switch that can turn the notch display off. If you switch off the notch, a thick black bar appears along the notch’s height and adjusts the UI elements below the bar.

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Camera: Amazing Selfies is Definitely the Priority

As the self-professed “selfie expert”, should we expect anything less from Oppo? If we look at the Oppo F7’s offering, with its 25-megapixel camera and f/2.0 lens, they definitely brought their best foot forward here.

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Oppo also invested in an AI-assisted Beauty Mode that effectively enhances your selfies by blurring out pores and other facial blemishes. It does this by detecting your skin type, skin tone, age, and other related factors.

Thankfully, the AI does not wash out or erase significant features, giving you a more natural-looking (though still obviously enhanced) selfies.

The rear-end camera, on the other hand, is 16-megapixel with f/1.8 lens. The Oppo F7 supports 16 modes, among these, are Panorama, HDR, Expert, Depth Effect, AR Sticker (with 14 different effects), Beauty Mode (with 6 adjustment levels), and a Vivid Mode.

 

Hardware: A Definite Improvement

The new Oppo F7 is powered by a MediaTek Helio P60 octa-core processor paired with 4GB of RAM. Because of this, the F7’s performance is fast and snappy. Transitioning from one app to another is also smooth. Even the Fingerprint Scanner operates smoothly and unlocks your phone instantly.

As for gaming, you don’t have to worry about lag times and reduced graphics outputs – the F7’s Mali G72 MP3 GPU makes sure that you can play your graphic-intensive games without any hitch.

The 3400mAh battery also ensures you have ample juice to last you well into the day, though the lack of quick-charge feature may be a cause of disappointment for some.

Read: Top 5 Smartphones with 4GB RAM under 15k

 

THE VERDICT

You’ve got to hand it to Oppo. Their strategy involves giving a more affordable spin to popular features that can be found in high-end flagship devices. With the Oppo F7, they have successfully implemented that strategy, hands down.

The P17,990 SRP might seem a little steep, but with its aesthetic build and buttload of features, the Oppo F7 certainly makes its price tag worth your hard-earned cash.

If you have some money to burn and are looking for a mid-range phone that won’t disappoint, this one is one candidate worth looking into.

Good news! The Oppo F7 will have its nationwide launch on April 17, though pre-orders have already started. Head over to Lazada to get yours now!