Over a week ago, Smart Communications rolled out a news straight on their official about the current list of available smartphones with 700 MHz devices but my eyes popped out when I saw a phone that I had a first-hand that it does not really there on the list.
That one is the OPPO F1s (see Smart's post here)
Way back in August 2016 launch of OPPO F1s which in that time the 700 MHz LTE band was a big news in the local tech scene as also inquired by one of the mediapersons that attended, I turned on the engineering mode and the band 28 aka the 700 MHz support (see link here!)
We approached both the OPPO Philippines and Smart Communications side but as of this time, a representative from said smartphone brand gave us a clarification on this one.
According to Ester Monteroso of OPPO Philippines, the OPPO F1s (both the 3 GB and 4 GB RAM) do not support 700 MHz LTE. Only the units from Smart postpaid plans are 700 MHz LTE. In some of their stores that it comes with a free Smart SIM, it is still not that have the said LTE band.
Bottomline is if from OPPO PH's side, you need to get the OPPO F1s on a Smart postpaid plan to take advantage of the 700 MHz LTE band. There must be a clarification too on the part of that said site section by Smart. We are still waiting for Smart's response so expect an update on this