Last week, Oppo F5 was launched in Nepal with the tagline “Selfie expert and leader”. Priced at Rs 33,990, the Oppo F5 features the much hyped AI-powered selfie camera and a bezel-less display with 18:9 aspect ratio. But what more does it have to offer and how does it perform? Let’s find out.

Design

In terms of design, the Oppo F5 is quite alluring with its slim streamlined body and a sleek finish. Although the device comes with a plastic shell, the matte metallic finish gives it a premium feel. There are also some shiny chrome antenna lines on the top and bottom, which has further embellished the design. With the weight of 156 grams, the device does not fall on the heavy category and is not uncomfortable to hold or use.

On the right edge, alongside the power button, resides a triple card tray. The triple card tray holds two Nano SIM cards and a MicroSD card. Among the two SIM cards installed, one operates under the 4G ecosystem, whereas another operates in the 3G system. The volume rockers are placed on the left. The top of the device is blank except for a mic hole, whereas, the bottom end is quite crowded with 3.5mm audio socket, Micro-USB port, mic, and speaker grille. With the bezels reduced, the fingerprint sensor has shifted to the back on this phone.

Display

With the bezels narrowed, the Oppo F5 has the space for a taller (6-inch) display in the same form factor to its predecessor. And with the 18:9 aspect ratio, the Oppo F5 has matched the trendy display standard of 2017. LTPS IPS LCD display is used on the device, which features a Full HD+ (2160 x1080 pixels) resolution, which translates into a pixel density count of 402 PPI. Although the LTPS IPS LCD lacks contrast ratio and colour reproduction of the AMOLED displays, the Oppo F5 display has decent viewing angles and does not fail with natural colour tones.

In terms of the display, there are no issues while using the phone indoors. However, in broad daylight outdoors, one has to struggle to view the display. In addition, the device lacks an ambient light sensor. So the users have to pre-plan on adjusting display brightness before shifting from one light setting to another. The absence of the ambient light sensor is a disappointment, considering the price. Its absence is definitely felt when using the phone on a daily basis.

Camera

Camera had always been the ultimate selling point of the Oppo smartphones and it is no different this time around. The Oppo F5 comes with 16MP rear camera, which captures a fine amount of details. However, sometimes the rear camera fails to replicates the true colour tones and the images lack the required colour vibrancy. And night or low light shots are prone to noises and grains. Furthermore, the phone cannot shoot 4K videos and the Full HD videos it records are very grainy, which is quite disappointing.

Up front, there is a 20MP selfie shooter, which comes with an aperture of f/2.0. Oppo boast integrated Artificial Intelligence on the front camera with the promises to capture beautified selfies. The tagline “capture the real you” and the promise of beautifying the subject is not very convincing though. While taking selfies, the face is smoothened and is made a little ‘whitish’, though the results seem quite natural. And while taking selfies on the Bokeh mode, the subject lacks fine edges and the image seems to lose the genuine quality of the subject. So, the AI-powered selfie seemed little more than a gimmick here. And the absence of an Image Stabilisation system makes the Oppo F5 far from a good camera phone.

Performance

Powering the device is MediaTek Helio P23 chipset aided by 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The graphics portion is handled by a Mali-G71 GPU. While multitasking with light games and apps, the device operates fluently. However, while playing graphic intensive games, the device stutters at times and struggles with a drop in the frame rate. The phone can heat up easily during gaming sessions. Also, the device is not compatible for playing 360-degree videos and VR gaming because it lacks the essential gyro sensor.

Software

The smartphone comes with Android Nougat with ColorOS 3.2 UI on the top. The firmware of the device takes nearly 10GB of internal storage, which shrinks the already low usable memory further. The Colour OS is heavily customised and resembles iOS in many respects. The device also lacks an app drawer and has given space for some unnecessary bloat ware.

Security

Excluding the conventional security means, there are two additional biometric means to evade data vulnerabilities. The two new layers of security added are fingerprint sensor and Face Unlock. The fingerprint sensor resides on the back and is fast and snappy. .

It seems the Oppo has tried to mimic the Face Recognition technology in the iPhone X, but comes short. When I used the phone, the device took multiple failed attempts to register a face in the setup process. During the unlocking process, the phone refused to unlock at several attempts telling me that the face was too blurry, too close or too far. It also struggled in low-light scenarios and with changes in appearance.

Battery

The phone comes with a 3200mAh battery, which is not on par with the smartphones available for a similar price range. It also lacks software optimisation for increasing battery efficiency. During normal use, the battery failed to back me up for a complete day. In addition, the device lacks fast charging support and takes more than two hours to be fully juiced up.

Verdict

Although the OppoF5 seems to frame some wonderful specs, the performance of the device, by in large, is not up to the mark. And with so many other phones—OnePlus3, Huawei Nova 2i, Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro and the Xiaomi MI A1—vying for attention in the same price bracket, it will be interesting to see how the phone fares in the Nepali market.