Friday, March 29, 2024

REVIEW | Oppo F3 selfie smartphone

Not too long ago, we reviewed the Oppo F3 Plus — the Chinese brand’s sequel to their F series, living up to its “Seflie Expert” reputation. As Oppo tries to lure a wider scope of consumers, they are releasing F3 Plus’ younger brother — the Oppo F3.

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Of course, the better one between the two smartphones shouldn’t be the issue as these siblings do not belong to the same price range. While the Oppo F3 Plus is priced at P23,990, the F3 has a cheaper price tag at P16,990. The question heavily lies on your own preference and budget.

UNBOXING AND DESIGN

The F3 bundle comes with a free jelly case, SIM tray pin, product manual, a pair of earplugs, power adapter, and a micro USB cable. Fresh off the box, a protective film is already installed to its 5.5-inch screen, helping the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protect the surface from scratches. Although the film?s texture can attract fingerprints and can be uncomfortable at times, it?s better than nothing.

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The 5.5-inch screen projects 1080 x 1920 Full HD resolution like the 6-inch F3 Plus. But due to F3’s slimmer figure, a step back in height, and smaller battery capacity at — 3200 mAh vs 4000 mAh — the F3 weighs lighter at 153g and fits to hands better than its big brother.

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Right above the power-lock button, a triple-slot tray welcomes two nano SIM cards and a dedicated microSD card slot for up to 256GB expansion. The loudspeaker, microUSB socket, and the 3.5mm jack stays at the foot of the F3.

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The home button functions only as a fingerprint sensor and cannot be pressed nor clicked. Double tapping the sensor would take you to the home screen, a special feature than can be turned off in the settings.

PERFORMANCE and FEATURES

If we’re talking about this phone’s performance as a phone — not as a camera — you can find cheaper phones in the market that can provide the same amount of RAM (4GB) and more battery capacity than the F3?s (3200mAh).

Placing it side by side with the F3 Plus (4000 mAh), the F3 would be a downgrade when it comes to power management since the latter does not have a quick-charge feature that the former has. In this area, the F3 could be just another hefty smartphone without its dual front, wide-angle camera.

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The phone still runs the Android Marshmallow on Oppo’s ColorOS 3.0, too, and it looks like it’s skipping Android OS future updates since it does not even upgradable to 6.0.1 version.

Security is one of the main strengths of the F3. There was a moment when we downloaded the Google Messages (our preferred SMS app for our Android devices) and replaced Oppo’s default SMS messenger. The system prompted it had to turn back to its default app for “security purposes”. To cut the chase short, we were not able to use our preferred app.

CAMERA

The F3’s rear camera is equipped with an aperture of f/2.2, a LED flash, and shoots 13-megapixel resolution; while the front cameras have 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel resolutions with a larger sensor size to capture more detailed self portraits.

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Designed to cater to group pictures, the F3’s dual front camera technology invites the idea of trashing the selfie stick to capture the whole gang without getting cropped. However, in our opinion, this technology is also useful to those who travel alone and are shy to ask the passersby to take a picture of them. That said, the Oppo F3 definitely excels in the selfie field, giving its competitors a run for their money.

CONCLUSION

THE GOOD

  • Dual wide-angle front camera
  • Slimmer and lighter body
  • Triple-slot tray for SIM cards and microSD card

THE BAD

  • Smaller battery capacity than the F3 Plus
  • No fast-charging feature

At P16,990, selfie enthusiasts should absolutely write the Oppo F3 on top of their wish lists if they are not looking for something more than a selfie phone.

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