Just hours before the official introduction of this newest OPPO smartphone in the Philippines, we were happy to serve on what you can expect on the OPPO F7
I will gonna skip on the physical looks and specs as I already discussed in my previous blog post here.
In UI, it was a brand new learning curve once again as we will gonna be introduced to Color OS 5.0 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Goodbye to "pull up" control center as it shifted like in most of the Android phones by that classic pull down menu. That thing that can be customized from the basics down to their newest additon which is screen recording. On the app icon, it is now closer to stock Oreo with rounded background (except to those pre-loaded OPPO apps at rounded suqare) but still no app drawer. App transitions are much faster thanks to that more powerful Mediatek Helio P60 processor. I felt that the newest Color OS though is a bit thicker in terms of RAM management as even on fresh boot, I rarely saw the phone at least 2 out of 4 GB RAM remaining in the multi tasking manager
On display, the notch is the difference compared to OPPO F5 but it still has very good quality in angles and some longer viewing. You can also set the display in warm or cool view.
In connectivity, it was perfect from calls, texts, mobile data, OTG, Bluetooth and WiFi. You might never seen these but happy to share to you that the OPPO F7 can support both SIMS activated at 4G but a fair warning that it might lessen a bit on the battery life
In games, it was an easy ride for us in playing racing games like Asphalt 8 and Asphalt 8
In battery, the 12 nm architecture of the said SoC inside of the phone impressed me in this department with 22 1/2 hours in our video battery rundown test. In our usual medium to heavy real-life, I used to get between 1.75 to 2 days of battery life without the power saving mode on
In audio, the OPPO F7 just dipped a bit in a audio department compared to the F5 only if you are listening more on synth-pop or some electronica music (again, compared to OPPO F5) via 3.5 audio jack but the rest of available music genres, you are good to go on this one
I already mentioned the Antutu score so here are some more on the phone's benchmark part:
On camera, they introduced here the ver. 2 of AI Beauty Technology which honestly, not on my taste as I am more natural in that typical beauty level set at 1. The selfie cam though is more capable in terms of focusing, image quality and the proper blurring. The rear cam was also more than average in the number of camera samples that I produced in various lighting conditions
OPPO F7 rear camera samples:
OPPO F7 selfie camera samples:
Normal
AR sticker
Blur mode
In extras, the face unlock technology of F7 improved compared to F5 thanks to it's feature which the sensors will detect your face even in a very dark environment as it will activate first the display to give some light in your face and your phone's got unlocked.
Yes, OPPO F7's might-be headliner is still their selfie expert and AI Beauty Tech but for me, the newest Mediatek processor gave me a wow factor in terms of overall performance and battery life which it easily beat out the OPPO F5 in these two things. Yes, the newest in the F series got a Php 2,000 increase but it is still quite reasonable for a bit bigger 19:9 display, plus 200 mAh battery, new elegant body and almost the double in performance. OPPO F7 can match up with the likes of Snapdragon 636-powered phones. It's a 4.5 out of 5 for me on the OPPO F7
