OPPO F1s Review

You saw the official launch of the OPPO F1s here in the Philippines and showed you its unboxing video as well. Today, we give you our full review of the company’s latest selfie-centric smartphone.

Is it really a selfie expert as the company claims it? Read on our experience and find out.

Design and Construction

The F1s sports a 5.5-inch display with fairly slim bezels. Also seen here is the fingerprint scanner for added security — making sure that your selfies aren’t easily accessible by just anyone. It is rounded which, together with its entire face, reminds us of some of the previous Samsung Galaxy handsets. The scanner is in between two capacitive buttons with back light when pressed.

OPPO F1 Plus

If you still haven’t noticed, the design is pretty much like the F1 Plus so if you’ve been a fan of how the previous model looks, then you’d have no gripes with the new F1s, aesthetics-wise.

Up top and a bit to the left is the unassuming front camera that packs a 16-megapixel sensor. It’s been equipped with an F2.0 aperture which should help provide more than decent selfie shots.

The right side has the power/lock button seated next to the SIM tray. It’s easily accessible by the thumb which makes it convenient to unlock and lock even with just one hand.

Meanwhile, on the left is the volume rocker with separate buttons. Apart from those, the sides are embedded with chrome accents that add a bit of bling on its overall physique.

The rear is populated with a lower but still capable 13-megapixel camera for non-selfie shots and is accompanied by a single LED flash for use during low light situations. The company designed it to have a segmented back which is divided by the same chrome strips we see running around the device.

Its back panel is neat with the company’s logo placed on the upper half of the handset.

Checking down under, we have the port for charging and transferring files. OPPO still stuck with a microUSB instead of a Type-C which is slowly becoming the trend for newly-released phones. Also situated here is the speaker grille but it’s important to note that only the right grille throws sound. The holes left of the port appear to just be for aesthetics purposes.

We also see here the 3.5mm port for plugging in additional headphones. It’s pretty much squeezed to the leftmost corner giving off a visually uneven setup.

The device generally has a curve, although minimal, that makes it sit at the hands comfortably.

We like how the back looks with its elegant metal design. As for the front, however, we’re not fans of how OPPO made it safe and carried over the generic look of the previous models.

Additionally, we first thought that the F1s is thick to hold but after spending more time using it, it actually is just right and makes the device easier to grip.

Display and Multimedia

Carrying a 5.5-inch HD display, its resolution maxes out at 1280 x 720 but the implementation of IPS panel makes viewing angles sweet — as seen on the image above. There are glares present when used outdoors so it’s still enjoyable to watch content indoors.

Its speakers provide decent audio throughout the spectrum. It could also output pretty loud volume which is sufficient when you’re watching in a quiet room. If you demand better quality, you could always opt to plug in your headphones.

OS, UI, and Apps

The F1s is still running on an Android 5.1 Lollipop and is layered with the company’s ColoOS 3.0. The icons are flat, drop down menu has that frosted look, and doesn’t have an app tray.

What we like about its OS is that it doesn’t come with pre-loaded apps that are actually more of a burden than useful. Out of its 32GB internal storage, about 24GB is usable for media files and games.

If you demand more storage space, you can always use an additional microSD card for expansion.

Camera

Armed with a 16-megapixel front camera, OPPO showed how serious they are to up their selfie game. This pixel-packed shooter is also equipped with an F2.0 aperture so it could still perform well even under low light areas.

The photo above was taken at a bar in a dimly-lit setting. Prior to this shot, we used a different phone from a well-known brand but we couldn’t see our faces well so I tried using the F1s. As you can see, there are digital noise present but overall it was still a decent photo.

More sample shots below:

As a selfie-focused handset, it comes with the company’s Beautify 4.0 feature that tweaks the skin tone using a slider. It goes from ‘Fair’ to ‘Rosy’that adds a bit of red color to the skin and also has a 10-level beautification that basically blurs the details of your face — hiding any blemishes for that perfect #wokeuplikethis post.

Performance and Benchmarks

Vanity aside, the OPPO F1s sports a 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6750 octa-core CPU with Mali-T860 MP2 in the graphics department. This tandem, in addition to its 3GB RAM, keeps things running smoothly when we use the device to play games like NBA 2K16, browse the internet, check our social media sites, and edit photos using Snapseed.

Overall, we didn’t experience any major lags or crashes that would turn us off while using the handset. It was actually snappy and kept up with all the tasks that we demanded of it.

Of course, we subjected it to our usual benchmarking apps to give you a point of comparison against other devices. Check out the scores it got:

• AnTuTu: 41,429
• Quadrant Standard: 20,155
• Vellamo: 1,561 (Multi-core), 1,257 (Metal), 1,923 (Chrome Browser)
• 3DMark: 239
• PCMark: 3,307

Battery Life

The F1s uses a non-removable 3,075mAh battery and upon running our PCMark Battery test, it was rated at 9 hours and a minute. Additionally, when we looped a video on Airplane mode with 50% brightness and volume, the F1s resulted to almost the same time at 9 hours and 21 minutes of continuous playback before the juice ran out.

Connectivity and Call Quality

You’d be glad to know that while other companies employ a hybrid dual SIM setup (meaning SIM 1 + either SIM 2 or microSD) for their phones, OPPO went for a full two-slot so you could have two SIM cards plus a microSD card to expand your storage.

As for connectivity, there’s 4G LTE onboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and USB-OTG. We had no problems using the F1s for voice calls as things went smoothly and audio quality was interrupted.

Conclusion

OPPO indeed created a selfie expert with the F1s. Its 16-megapixel front camera not only takes detailed shots, but also performs very well in dark areas. We wouldn’t mind it not having a dedicated front flash since it could capture decent images thanks to its F2.0 aperture.

As an everyday device, the F1s also didn’t disappoint as it could take on normal tasks and doesn’t choke when a lot of apps are open.

It is also priced competitively. At Php12,990, you get a pair of nice cameras, capable processor, ample 3GB RAM, and dual-SIM plus an extra space for a microSD card.

It’s not much of a looker when you view it up front and only has a maximum display resolution of 720p, but the pros overweigh the cons so we’re fine with that. It’s no wonder the F1s got sold out only 3 days after its availability.

OPPO F1s specs:
5.5-inch HD IPS display @ 1280 x 720 resolution
1.5GHz MediaTek MT6750 octa-core CPU
Mali-T860 MP2 GPU
3GB RAM
32GB internal storage
microSD up to 128GB
13MP rear camera, f/2.2 aperture
16MP front camera, f/2.0 aperture, Beautify 4.0
Dual-SIM (nano)
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS, A-GPS
USB OTG
Fingerprint scanner
ColorOS 3.0 (Android 5.1 Lollipop)
3,075mAh battery (non-removable)
154.5 x 76 x 7.38mm
160g
Gold, Rose Gold

Pros:

• Detailed selfie camera/F2.0 aperture
• Elegant back design
• Dual-SIM slot + microSD slot
• Decent battery life
• Competitive price

Cons:

• Uninspired design up front
• HD display only