We recently reviewed OPPO’s latest smartphone with a 6.23-inch 19:9 display and 25MP AI front camera, the OPPO F7. That phone though packs 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The company is not satisfied with that though and released a 6GB RAM + 128GB storage option for heavy users.
Author’s Note: The OPPO F7 (6GB + 128GB) and OPPO F7 (4GB + 64GB) models are identical units except for the RAM and internal storage capacities, so we’re carrying parts of the original review here.
Table of Contents
Design and Construction
The OPPO F7, on the front, looks similar to its cousin in China, the OPPO R15. It has a large 6.23-inch display with a tiny notch that houses the 25MP selfie camera, earpiece, and sensor. The LED notification light is absent though, which is weird. Protecting them is Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 and a pre-installed screen protector.
The F7 uses on-screen navigation buttons so you won’t find any capacitive keys in the slim bezel at the bottom.
On the left are the volume buttons, while on the right is the power/lock button and the triple-slot tray for two nano-sized SIM cards and a microSD card.
Found up top is the secondary microphone, while down below are the loudspeaker, main, microphone, and the 3.5mm headphone jack. If you’re expecting a USB Type-C port, sad to say, OPPO equipped it with a microUSB.
Flip it on its back and you will see the protruding 16MP shooter, LED flash, oblong fingerprint scanner, and the OPPO branding.
When it comes to the design, OPPO obviously wants the F7 to be an eye-catcher. the F7 (128GB) only comes in two color options – Solar Red and Diamond Black. It has a glossy acrylic finish but is solid, well-made, and has a decent heft. The rounded sides also make the device easy to grip. You can still navigate the UI with one hand but you will definitely need two if you need access the upper part of the screen.
Our only complaint is that it’s a smudge and fingerprint magnet which makes it ugly to look at, forcing you to wipe it every now and then. The good news is, it comes with a jelly case in the package so you can save yourself the trouble.
Display and Multimedia
The OPPO F7 uses a 6.23-inch FHD+ (2280 x 1080) LTPS IPS display which equates to a good 405ppi pixel density. It has a 19:9 aspect ratio and an 82.5% screen-to-body ratio. So far, we like the viewing experience as it has accurate colors and good viewing angles, feels immersive and is vibrant enough for outdoor use.
The notch, however, can be distracting when watching movies or playing games as it can extend over it. The good news is you can turn off the notch area display inside settings to get a clean straight border. As for other display features, users can adjust color temperature and activate Night Shield to reduce blue light from the screen to prevent eye strain.
When it comes to its loudspeaker, it’s loud enough for hands-free voice calls, gaming, and casual listening to movies and music. It has weak bass though, so don’t expect really good quality. If you want a better listening experience, we recommend using the earphones included in the package or a Bluetooth speaker.
Camera
The OPPO F7 is equipped with a 16MP rear camera and 25MP front camera with AI features. It has scene recognition which supports 16 scenes and objects, HDR, Depth Effect, Panorama, Expert mode (Manual), AR Sticker, Vivid Mode, and Beauty. There’s an AI-assisted Beauty mode but is only available for the front camera.
Camera performance is good as it locks on subjects quickly and can produce images with accurate colors, high dynamic range, and plenty of details. Low-light performance is decent with noticeable noise. Blur can be avoided by holding the camera very still for a couple of seconds.
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- Low-light outdoor
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- Vivid mode
The Depth Effect isn’t perfect but produces decent results if there’s a good distance between the subject and background. AI-assisted Beauty mode is effective and was able to enhance our selfies by removing blemishes without erasing distinct facial features.
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- Auto
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- AI mode
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- Depth mode with beauty
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- Sticker
As for video recording, the F7 maxes out at 1080p at 30fps in MP4 format. Quality is sharp with smooth focusing. There’s no video stabilization so footage can be shaky if you’re not keeping your hands steady.
OS, UI, and Apps
Running the software department is ColorOS 5.0 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. It’s a clean, attractive, yet easy to navigate UI that uses multiple Home Screens to house the apps. Navigation is done via three basic keys at the bottom of the screen or by Swipe-up Gesture. You can also activate the Assistive Ball for easy one-handed navigation. Our Solar Red unit uses the Rouge Red Theme by default, while the Diamond Black uses the Elegant Grey theme.
It’s got plenty of features hidden inside settings like Smart Assistant which provides quick functions and information, Full-Screen Multitasking, Split-screen, Gesture & Motion commands, Clone Apps, Screen Recording, and Game Acceleration.
It also has a Phone Manager and Security suite that cleans your storage of junk, scans for viruses, detects device problems, manages your permissions, and protect personal information.
Pre-installed apps are present but kept to a minimum Facebook, WPS Office, and iReader. The rest are Google’s apps and the F7’s tools. Storage-wise, you’re getting 108GB of usable space out of the 128GB which is more than enough for a heavy user. You can expand it via USB OTG or microSD card.
Performance and Benchmarks
Powering the OPPO F7 is a MediaTek Helio P60 octa-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz, Mali-G72 MP3 GPU, and 6GB RAM. Performance is good as navigation is smooth and apps launch fast. The fingerprint scanner and Face Unlock feature are very responsive and can unlock our device instantaneously.
Given the large RAM, multitasking is easy for the F7. Gaming is not an issue as it can run PUBG Mobile in High HD settings, as well as Tekken, Mobile Legends, and Sky Dancer. Warming can be felt on the upper rear side but not too much to cause discomfort. When it comes to benchmarks, there’s not much difference in scores which means you’re getting the same level of good performance.
- AnTuTu v7 – 138,758
- Geekbench 4.2 – 1,522 (Single-Core), 5,841 (Multi-Core), 5,461 (RenderScript)
- 3D Mark – 1,086 (SSE – OpenGL ES 3.1), 940 (SSE – Vulkan)
- PC Mark – 7,985 (Work 2.0), 11,054 (Work 1.0)
- AndroBench – 306.36 MB/s (Read), 219.57 MB/s (Write)
Connectivity, Call Quality, and Battery Life
When it comes to connectivity, the OPPO F7 supports 4G LTE on both slots, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS. So far these features work well as it can connect to the LTE network quick while voice calls are loud and clear. Navigation apps like Google Maps, Waze, and Grab didn’t have any issues locking in our location.
The OPPO F7 carries a 3,400mAh battery pack that is capable of lasting a whole day of mixed usage consisting of WiFi connectivity, social media, photography, and gaming. It doesn’t support fast charging and takes us a little over 2 hours to charge from 0% to full.
PC Mark’s battery bench rated it at 11 hours and 20 minutes which is above average, while our video loop test, which involves playing a 1080p video on loop at 50% brightness and volume with headset plugged in, yielded an impressive 23 hours of playback.
Conclusion
One of OPPO’s strategy is to adopt the popular tech trends that are normally found in more expensive flagship devices, then implement them in their powerful mid-range devices at a lower price. They have successfully done that once again with the OPPO F7, and even released a 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant for heavy users.
For Php21,990, you’re getting a device with a good build, attractive design, large immersive display with a notch, powerful mid-range performance, good cameras, large RAM and storage, and above average battery life. It’s not perfect though as it lacks features like LED notification, image and video stabilization, USB-C, and Fast Charging. It’s more expensive than the standard model but if you really require the extra muscle, the OPPO F7 128GB will satisfy your needs.
OPPO F7 (128GB) specs:
6.23-inch FHD+ (2280 x 1080) 19:9 LTPS IPS display, 405ppi
MediaTek Helio P60 octa-core processor
4 x 2.0 GHz ARM Cortex-A73 + 4 x 2.0 GHz ARM Cortex-A53
Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Mali-G72 MP3 GPU
6GB RAM
128GB storage
Expandable via microSD up to 256GB (dedicated slot)
16MP f/1.8 rear camera
25MP f/2.0 AI front camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.2
GPS w/ A-GPS
Fingerprint scanner
MicroUSB
USB-OTG
Color OS 5.0 (Android 8.1 Oreo)
3,400mAh battery
156 x 75.3 x 7.8mm
158g
Solar Red, Diamond Black
What we liked:
* Solid build and attractive design
* Good performance
* Large RAM
* Good camera
* Large storage
* Dedicated microSD card slot
* Above average battery life
What we didn’t:
* No LED notifications light
* MicroUSB port instead of USB Type-C
* No fast charging
* No OIS and Video Stabilization
It’s a damn awesome phone. I’ve had one for a few months now, got it on sale at PHP 12k Its the best mobile phone I’ve had so far. 128GB + 6GB RAM means it will be a while until I’ll be needing additional storage.
One of OPPO’s strategy is to adopt the popular tech trends that are normally found in more expensive flagship devices, then implement them in their powerful mid-range devices at a lower price. – Not TRUE.