Oppo is now among the world’s top five smartphone vendors, and in India the brand has gained some recognition with its selfie-camera smartphones. The Oppo F1, Oppo F1 Plus were both launched in India this year with a focus on giving a great selfie experience to users. Oppo F1s is another take on the Oppo F1 series, and comes with the same 16MP front camera seen on the F1 Plus. The latter was priced at Rs 26,990, but had a higher resolution display and more storage on board. For Oppo, the focus on selfies as a niche is interesting. In case of smartphones, the specifications battle has all but died out, with 3GB RAM, 32GB storage space now being common, even in devices that cost just Rs 10,000 or under. But smartphone cameras are still one segment where manufacturers can hope to stand out from the crowd. In Oppo’s case, it has decided to focus on the front camera, and give this selfie-obsessed generation a reason to rejoice. The Oppo F1 Plus’ selfie camera had impressed us, but is the new Oppo F1s worth its Rs 17,990 price tag? Here’s our review. Oppo F1s Specs: 5.5 inches HD 720p display | MediaTek MT6750 64-bit Octa-core processor | 3GB RAM +32GB ROM with microSD support | 16MP front camera +13MP rear camera | 3075 mAh (Typical) Li-Po Battery | ColorOS 3.0, Android 5.1 Oppo F1s Price: Rs 17,990 Oppo F1s selfie expert has a design similar to the one we saw on the Oppo F1 Plus. Yes, this will remind people of the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 form factor and frankly it’s not such a bad thing. Oppo F1s has an all-glass front panel, dual CNC-drilled speakers at the bottom, chamfered edges. The rear camera is at the left hand corner of the phone, and doesn’t jut out as much from the rest of the body. WATCH VIDEO: Oppo F1s Video Review  Oppo F1s has a metal unibody design, a rectangular front home button a gold rim around it. The fingerprint sensor is part of the home button, and there is a back button and Overview button, both of which light up when in use. Oppo F1s is pretty light and will fit easily in your hand. I liked the fact that this 5.5-inch display smartphone doesn’t feel as bulky as some of the other options in the market. Also, the company has gone a good job on the gold colour, by not making it too blingy or too pinkish. Also read: Oppo F1s launched in India: Key specifications, features and price So are the selfies worth it? Since the point of this smartphone is the Selfie camera, let’s discuss this first. If you are a makeup buff, this might win you over as the results are pretty good. The selfie camera delivers images which are bright and crisp even indoors, where lighting might not always be ideal. I personally like the fact that your skin doesn’t look super weird (read unusually white and free of blemishes), as it does in other smartphones with beauty software in the selfie camera. Yes there are times when I would wonder: ‘Is my face really that small?’ But the Oppo F1s does the job quite well. And given the 16MP camera, you can easily substitute this one for a mirror, to see what makeup mistakes you’ve might made and then quickly erase them. Selfie buffs should note: I would say this is one of the best options in the market right now given the pricing. What’s good? After the selfie camera, I’d say the battery is the highlight of the Oppo F1s. It will easily last more than a day with moderate to heavy usage, and I didn’t find myself constantly charging this smartphone. The standby time on this smartphone is also quite impressive. I used this smartphone with a 4G SIM. On the overall performance front, Oppo F1 didn’t give any cause for complain. It doesn’t score highly in the benchmark tests, but the 3GB RAM and 32GB storage space is enough for daily usage and needs of most people. Running multiple tabs on Google Chrome, browsing the web, graphics heavy games like Asphalt 8 are not a problem for this phone. Nor did this phone heat up during gaming. The 13MP rear camera is also more than capable and can handle both low-light and bright daylight settings very well. I didn’t face any lag while using the camera, and there were no noticeable colour bleeds. However, in some cases I felt the reds were a bit washed out. But personally, I felt this camera is still better than what a lot of other phones are offering in a similar price range. What’s not good ? While the battery lasts long, I feel Oppo has missed out an opportunity by not adding its VOOQ fast charging technology. The phone still takes more than 3-4 hours to get to 100 per cent and at this price, I felt VOOQ technology should have been a part of this phone. The lack of a full HD display is disappointing, simply because there are cheaper phones with a better display on offer. The display on the Oppo F1s is not bad per se, but you really feel the difference if you want to watch Netflix or other full HD content on this phone. There are some other issues I faced with this smartphone. For instance, the phone faced connectivity problems and even though the WiFi was working, it would keep disconnecting and ask me to re-authorise my Google account. Also the phone kept saying Google Play Services need to be updated for Hangouts to run. This alert stayed for two days, even though I had updated the app, and Hangouts was running on the smartphone. Verdict Oppo F1s has a clear niche: Selfies. This is a slightly cheaper alternative to the Oppo F1, which has the same 16MP front camera. As an overall smartphone the F1s ticks all the right boxes, except the display is underwhelming. If selfies are the only thing that matter to you in a smartphone, then consider the F1s, but remember you are shelling out Rs 17,990 for these. Otherwise there are several options in the market where you can spend less to get more on the performance like Moto G4 Plus, Samsung Galaxy J7, etc. |
