OPPO F5 First Impressions, Hands On Review

OPPO F5 – OPPO’s first “full-screen” smartphone

With 18:9 phones coming out like fresh-glazed doughnuts, one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers, OPPO, followed suit with the OPPO F5. With it being their first “full-screen” smartphone, is it actually worth the attention that other 18:9 phones have been getting?

Yes, it is – at least for selfie enthusiasts. I’m no self-proclaimed selfie enthusiast since I prefer medium shots more. With an AI in tow for processing, learning, and memorizing your face, the OPPO F5 will make the best enhancements possible for your face. While the idea may be off-putting for people like me, the age of selfies is far from its end.

I spent almost over a day with it as a secondary phone of sorts, and I just said to myself, “If this is going to be priced under P15k, it’ll be a formidable contender in that price range.”

Specs; After 24 Hours of Use

No, it wasn’t priced below P15k – P15,990 exactly. OPPO Philippines hasn’t told us anything in detail about the specifications, so we had to dig in a bit with tried-and-tested tools.

There’s  not much detail about the chipset, which is Mediatek MT6763. Performance metrics are a bit wonky, so we’re stuck to waiting ’til OPPO issues an update so that ColorOS v3.2 performance becomes stable. Some AnTuTu runs got us thinking that MT6763 is built to tackle SD625 and SD630. The Mali G71 in it is still unspecified, but it seems to be way below MP8.

Generally, ColorOS v3.2 is ‘stable’ in itself, so to speak. It’s somewhat refreshing to see an OPPO phone with an 18:9 display. The obvious absence of an app drawer is still prevalent along with annoying off-screen gestures.

The navigation keys can be hidden with a tap or be completely replaced with swiping motions. In landscape mode, fiddling around can be a bit tricky since it’s meant to minimize accidental swipes.

Design Designation

The same old OPPO formula is still there, down right to the ‘gold’ color fans have grown accustomed to. What’s new is that an elongated fingerprint scanner is on the back now, centered and right above a rather shiny logo.

Another difference compared to the F3 would be the textured hard plastic casing with an elevated ‘Designed by OPPO’ text. I do find it suitable to use over the mostly-plastic unibody. With the color that we got it in, it’s far from being sleek.

With a white face, the inner bezels are my pet peeve so far with the OPPO F5. I don’t find them reasonable, to begin with, even if this is going to be a $300 smartphone. The panel type may still be an IPS LCD like the one on the F3 save for the resolution. Colors are seriously washed out and are far from being pleasing.

Oh, and the OPPO F5 can accommodate two nano-SIMs and a microSD all at the same time.

Camera..s?

With the F-series being selfie-centric, it is the front camera that gets the special treatment. And instead of donning a secondary lens, Depth Effect is purely software-based on a single lens.

And so far, with what I’ve gotten, I’m pretty satisfied with how it picks me out and blurs the rest without noticeable artifacts. The Beauty mode does its job well enough to make me still look natural.

The solo protruding rear camera surprisingly works well but focusing becomes a chore in extreme low-lighting scenes.

However, this might just be with how raw ColorOS v3.2 is, but even under daylight, underexposed areas of an image is bombarded with too much noise.

Yay or Nay?

If I were on the fence of an F5, I’d be pretty disappointed myself. Then again, we’re running ours on a pretty experimental ColorOS v3.2, allowing for a spacious room for improvements. The only question is – how long will it take OPPO to address the elephant in the room?
As always, this has been Caesar of ManilaShaker, and thank you for reading. And oh, watch out for our full review of the OPPO F5. ‘Til then!