Are you a millennial? Most likely you know the latest smartphone and you want the latest gadgets if permitted. But sometimes, you don’t always need to go with Brand A or B to experience the best. Take OPPO for example, a brand that was just a novice 2 years ago and now the Top 2 smartphone brand in the Philippines.
If you’ve heard or seen of their OPPO F1s, then you have experienced a smartphone that focuses on how you use every day such as taking a selfie instead of showering you with extravagant features. This 2017, OPPO kicked off their year by introducing the new F3 Plus featuring their dual-front camera setup.
OPPO F3 Plus Full Specifications
So what’s up with this smartphone? Our first impressions were great and we finally had time to share our full review. Check out what makes this smartphone stand out among the rest.
OPPO still continues with their full metal back finish with the F3 Plus, but now more minimalist with 6 thin antenna lines at the top and bottom. This gives maximum area for the phone to have a metal back, a better-looking implementation versus the old plastic top and bottom.
The F3 Plus is available in gold and black, but honestly, we are already in love with the black color. Perhaps it’s just that we’re used with gold since it was the prevailing color for smartphones since 2014.
The F3 Plus is a 6″ Full HD JDI InCell display which produces more vibrant colors than the average IPS display. Outdoor visibility is also outstanding as you can see in the photos, it’s crazy thin as well at just 7.35mm.
The unit feels nice to hold with rounded edges and a 2.5D front glass to assist with your grip. Despite the larger than usual 6″ size and 185g of weight, it’s easy to type with two hands quickly and navigation with one hand is fairly challenging.
The ultra-fast fingerprint sensor is also located at the bottom as a home button. OPPO opted to change this into a static based button with vibrations replacing the hardware mechanism, as a result, it’s faster and feels similar to the iPhone 7. It even has an oleophobic coating to repel water, so it can even work if your finger is wet, call it marketing but it’s more accurate than the iPhone 7 in our experience.
Down below are the 3.5mm audio jack, Micro USB port and speaker grill. All of them are conveniently placed for unity, a much-appreciated gesture as it’s not a hassle to use earphones and charging at the same time.
The left side showcases the volume buttons while the right has the power button and sim ejection tray. Overall grip is nice where your thumb will place into the power button, though reaching for the home button below with you thumb might need some stretching as needed.
OPPO includes everything in the package except an earphone. But we’re glad that the small details like a jelly case and screen protector are included, unlike other brands that will leave you on an adventure to look for your own. Oh, the screen protector is a premium hard plastic with oleophobic coating to mimic the glass screen.
It’s powered with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage by default, this is a nice gesture as other phones at this price is just for 32GB storage. So you have the luxury to use the dual-sim tray if needed.
OPPO’s Android Marshmallow 6.0 with Color OS 3.0 implementation is simple. It feels and acts like an iPhone, but utilizing the advantages of android such as widgets, google assistant, drop down menu and even app permission management.
The COLOR OS user interface is one of the lightest and snappiest overlays we have experienced, it’s smooth with no ugly transitions and all apps of OPPO are carefully designed with a pleasing teal / white color tone. Fonts are clear and the menu is just organized to the way they should be, so everything is intuitive.
We know the OPPO F3 Plus is a selfie smartphone, but OPPO partnered with Sony for an exclusive version of the Sony IMX398 sensor to deliver sharper photos. Now, OPPO made significant efforts to get your attention as a smartphone camera brand and the F3 Plus is a worthy contender for that.
So here are some camera sample shots of the 13mp rear camera
Overall, the camera responds fast and take sharp photos. There is just an encounter of white washed photos when there is too much light, we double checked for any smudges in the camera and we assure you that there isn’t.
Even digitally zoomed photos are nice and the flash gives decent lighting when needed, overall the OPPO F3 Plus has a great camera that is online-shareable anytime.
Now, this is where the dual-camera kicking in. OPPO opted to use a two independent camera implementation as compared to the Vivo V5 Plus’ Bokeh camera. As a result, you can have 120-degree 8MP wide selfies and still have 16MP bokeh selfies when needed.
It’s not every day that you can climb a cell site and take a selfie. Well, you should call it Cellfie I guess. (I think its a bad joke).
Overall the beautification software of OPPO in the F3 Plus is darn flawless, there isn’t any lag in response as compared to other beautification smartphones. OPPO nailed the “Selfie” division as you can now include scenery, more people with your photo and add context and story.
The OPPO F3 Plus has a 4,000 mAh battery that isn’t removable but will last a day with you. Despite the bigger screen, the Snapdragon 653 processor proved itself worthy to be a predecessor and it’s definitely power efficient.
Leaving the OPPO F3 Plus over 12 hours with data-standby depletes around 8% of battery, so it’s nice to know that there isn’t any bloatware eating up your precious battery. We can technically start our day at 8am and still have battery of 20% by 9pm.
VOOC charging is also present with the OPPO F3 Plus, just remember to always bring the head unit and charger with you when needed. Of course, you can charge with other cables but the maximum current will be at 2.0A or 2.4A based on our experience. So you can technically say that the VOOC is kinda a proprietary hardware for the F3 Plus.
Unfortunately, if you are looking for the regular Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0/3.0, OPPO opted to use their own technology. But it would be a killer combo if they have done this. Moving forward, hope OPPO could advance with USB Type-C cables and make the VOOC charging compatible via USB Type-C for better compatibility.
So what are our complaints about the OPPO F3 Plus that might make you hesitant? Well, so far only one.
It does have 700MHz LTE capability but no carrier aggregation capabilities. This method is already implemented by competitors like ASUS and Huawei on a similar or even cheaper price point, so we think OPPO shouldn’t have removed it.
We can’t help it but say, this one is a keeper. Everything about the OPPO F3 Plus is just fast, complete, clean, simple and intuitive. The setbacks are minor and can be forgiven and that’s what is important about a smartphone. There are circulating words that the F3 Plus is overpriced, but we think it’s balanced at Php23,990.
If you’re looking for a no-nonsense phone that you can show off and be part of your personality…then the F3 Plus is a worthy consideration. OPPO have outdone themselves to give another lifestyle-centric smartphone.
That’s why we give the OPPO F3 Plus our seal of approval recommendation award.
Now if OPPO can implement IP68 waterproofing into their smartphones, that would be the winning combination similar to flagship smartphones today.
