OPPO has been pushing its smartphone design since the launch of the Find X last year. They were also one of the first smartphone brands to introduce the Watedrop screen design with the OPPO F9, which reduced the footprint of the dreaded notch.
The OPPO F11 Pro is the culmination their previous smartphone designs. With a pop-up camera and a notchless display, will the OPPO F11 Pro succeed like its predecessors? Let’s find out.
OPPO F11 Pro
| Chipset | MediaTek Helio P70, HyperBoost |
| Screen | 6.53-inch Panoramic Display, FullHD+ 2340 x 1080 |
| RAM | 6GB |
| OS | Android 9.0 Pie with ColorOS 6.0 |
| Rear Camera | 48MP f/1.8, 5MP f/2.4 depth camera, PDAF, LED Flash |
| Front Camera | Pop-up 16MP f/2.0, HDR |
| Storage | 64GB internal storage expandable via MicroSD slot |
| Network | Dual-SIM, 4G LTE |
| Connectivity | WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Dual-Band, Bluetooth 5.0, MicroUSB |
| Battery | 4,000mAh, VOOC 3.0 20W Fast Charging |
| Others | Rear-mounted Fingerprint Scanner |
| Colors | Thunder Black, Aurora Green |
Unboxing
The OPPO F11 Pro pretty much comes complete with the accessories you need from a smartphone. When opened, the quintessentially OPPO-designed box reveals the smartphone itself, a pair of earphones, a silicone case, a MicroUSB cable, and a VOOC 3.0 20W Fast Charging wall adapter.
Design and Features
One of the standout features on the OPPO F11 Pro is its display. The brand has gotten rid of the notch and instead placed a 6.53-inch Panoramic Display with a resolution of 2340 x 1080. The display comes with a screen protector to protect the screen.
Colors are well-saturated and provides an optimal viewing experience indoors. Viewing angles are also decent allowing users to view what’s on the screen in any angle possible. It is also bright enough to be used outside without having to fear the glare from the sun.
OPPO was able to maximize the screen real-estate by moving the front-facing 16MP f/2.0 camera to the top of the smartphone. The camera now pops out the top-portion of the device when the selfie mode of the camera app is chosen.
One might think that the mechanized pop-up camera of the OPPO F11 Pro is just another point of failure. In our experience, however, the pop-up camera is tough enough to endure the daily trials of the camera.
It is also swift enough to let us snap a quick selfie without much of a wait while the mechanism rises from the smartphone’s chassis.
The OPPO F11 Pro employs a rather simple back design compared to its contemporaries. Rather than having a flashy dual-tone color scheme like the OPPO F9, the OPPO F11 Pro has a subdued “S” wave design when the light hits it just right.
There is still a bit of a dual-tone design going on as the dark blue cascades into a light blue hue on the rear but it’s not as flamboyant as other smartphones in the market.
The rear of the OPPO F11 Pro houses its dual camera setup composed of a 48MP f/1.8 main shooter and a 5MP f/2.4 depth sensor. Near the camera setup are the flash and the fingerprint sensor.
Popping out the SIM tray at the right-hand side of the smartphone reveals a Dual-SIM tray. The tray can also house a MicroSD card as one of the trays is a Hybrid slot. It would have been nice if OPPO has thrown in a Triple-slot SIM tray to allow users to have two SIM cards together with a MicroSD card.
It seems that OPPO just can’t get rid of the MicroUSB port. At the bottom of the device is a MicroUSB port used for data transfer and charging. It’s quite disappointing as other smartphones in its price range are already using USB Type-C instead of the aging MicroUSB port.
While most of the features found on the OPPO F11 Pro are quite forward-looking like the notchless display and the pop-up camera, the brand is still clinging onto the past by including a MicroUSB port. Overall, however, the OPPOF 11 Pro is still a pretty looking smartphone.
User Interface
The OPPO F11 Pro runs on Android 9.0 Pie with the brand’s own ColorOS 6.0 skin. Not much has changed with the smartphone. Standard options are still there such as split-screen display and shortcuts.
The whole OS of the smartphone takes up quite a chunk of storage. Out of the 64GB of internal storage, almost 20GB have been reserved to the smartphone. This leaves around 44GB of storage for files, photos, and videos. 44GB is still a lot but 20GB just for the smartphone is still quite a bit.
Camera
The OPPO F11 Pro’s camera app offers everything you would need from a smartphone. Once launched, the camera app will allow you to experience fairly standard options such as Video, Photo, Portrait, Nightmode, Panorama, Time Lapse, Slow Motion, Google Lens, HDR, and Expert Mode.
Despite the “almost” complete camera app, the smartphone does lack 4K video recording. This is a bit of a disappointment since other smartphones below its price range can record 4K videos.
The 48MP f/1.8 main camera of the smartphone takes well-detailed photos with a lot of color the pop from the scenery. Colors are saturated and details, even when inspected closely, are preserved by the camera.
Nightmode requires the user to hold the smartphone still while the camera takes several photos. Once the photos are taken, the smartphone then stitches them together to produce a clean and decently exposed photo.
Like previous smartphones from OPPO, the beautification of the front-facing 16MP f/2.0 pop-up camera is still a tad aggressive to our liking. The skin is a bit too flawless although the camera does let the users’ lips to pop out with a bit of color. If you want natural-looking selfies, we advise you to tone down the beautification by a bit.
Performance and Benchmarks
The OPPO F11 Pro is powered by a Helio P70 from their friends at MediaTek. The chip is complemented by 6GB of RAM, which should be plenty on most occasions. Based on medium usage, the chip on the smartphone was able to keep up in all of our daily tasks such as browsing and a bit of gaming.
Thanks to OPPO’s HyperBoost, the chip is able to provide faster performance. This is especially helpful while playing games on the smartphone as it reduces the chances of dropped frames and lag that might turn a winning game into a losing one.
As far as benchmarks go, the Helio P70 on the F11 Pro was able to provide decent numbers. Taking it a spin on PCMark 2.0 and AnTuTu benchmarks garnered as score of 7542 on the former and 148958 on the latter.
Battery Life
The device gets its juice from a 4,000mAh non-removable battery. The smartphone is able to last just around a day with medium usage that includes browsing, watching videos, and light gaming. As far as battery benchmarks go, the OPPO F11 Pro is able to last 12 hours and 37 minutes in Work 2.0 battery life test.
While the smartphone still comes with a MicroUSB port, OPPO has implemented their VOOC 3.0 charging technology. This allows the F11 Pro to charge its 4,000mAh battery from 0 to 100% in just around an hour and a half.
Conclusion
Priced at PhP 18,990, the OPPO F11 Pro hits its mark with its design, camera performance, and processing capabilities. Given that the smartphone can also last a day with a full charge, it is one of the most feature-packed smartphones in the market.
In spite of checking a lot of boxes in the feature department, the F11 Pro still lacks some of the basic features that we expect from a smartphone at its price mark. The lack of 4K video recording and OPPO’s love for the MicroUSB port holds back the device from its full potential.
Though it does have its downsides, the things that the OPPO F11 Pro does right far outweighs its faults. With that said, we’re giving the F11 Pro our 100% Satisfying Mid-range Smartphone award. It might have some drawbacks, but the OPPO F11 Pro is still an impressive handset in its own right.
