The Oppo F7 may be branded as the Selfie Expert, but it is also a great smartphone for gaming. Check out our review to learn more.
Smartphone brand Oppo launched their F7 phone a few months ago, and it was a must have for users who are into selfies and anything for their Instagram posts with its powerful front camera and dual lens back camera. But not known to all, this midrange smartphone has a great performing processor that can run some of the latest mobile games with ease.
Before we proceed with the review, let us take a look at the tech specs of the Oppo F7*:
- OS: Android 8.1 (Oreo)
- Chipset: Mediatek MT6771 Helio P60
- CPU: Octa-core (4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A53)
- GPU: Mali-G72 MP3
- Display Type: LTPS IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
- Display Size: 6.23 inches
- Display Resolution: 1080 x 2280 pixels, 19:9 ratio
- Card slot: microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot)
- Internal Memory: 4 GB/ 6 GB RAM
- Storage: 64 GB/128 GB
- Primary Camera: 16 MP, f/1.8, PDAF, LED flash
- Secondary Camera: 25 MP, f/2.0, 1080p
- Video: 1080p@30fps
- Features: Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama
- Dimensions: 156 x 75.3 x 7.8 mm
- Weight: 158 g (5.57 oz)
*The tested unit for this review was the 6GB/128 GB Red variant
As a side note, this Oppo F7 review will focus more on the aspects of the performance in terms of mobile gaming, as there are already tons of in-depth reviews from our tech blogger friends that covers its other specialties. However, we will still cover some of the basic features such as build quality, etc.
The overall build of the F7‘s body is entirely made out of plastic, which makes it less durable from the occasional bumps of everyday use and feels less of a premium phone despite its price tag, so it’s recommended to give it a protective case. Not to mention that it is conventionally lighter than most of the newer smartphones in the market due to its plastic body so some users may have some mixed receptions to it. It has rounded corners which is pretty much a standard look to modern smartphones nowadays, which is nothing that is out of the ordinary in terms of design. It also features a plastic glossy back cover that gives it a simplistic yet stylish look, however its drawback for the glossy finish is that it becomes a magnet for visible fingerprints. On the brighter side, a jelly case is included in the package to protect the glossy part from unwanted prints.
The F7 has the standard buttons for the power and volume which are located on both sides of the phone. The Nano SIM and Micro SD card slot is placed on the side of the phone for easy access and without the hassle of removing the battery just to replace the SIM card or micro SD. Surprisingly Oppo decided to retain a micro USB for the F7 instead of shifting to the Type-C port for faster charging, but even with the micro USB, charging time doesn’t take that long.
The screen is at 6.23 inches and features an LTPS IPS LCD screen that can produce impressive image quality and can show 16 million colors. It makes watching videos or checking photos more appealing thanks to the LCD screen as image quality are crisp and great color accuracy, and with a 19:9 aspect ratio, it gives a bigger view when playing and watching. Most smartphone brands are borrowing some features from the newer versions of the iPhone, and Oppo doesn’t shy away from borrowing one new feature; the notch. Some may hate it and some may love it, the notch acts like an extension on your screen that depending on certain apps can provide additional information. However not all apps have support for the notch which just leaves the covered area blank, and can be an annoyance to some users.
The speaker is located just below the body, beside the USB port, sound quality is excellent as the audio has clarity especially on the vocals even on high volume. The place of the speaker can be a bothersome especially when playing games. As when playing games that requires the phone in a horizontal position, the palm of a player’s hand will likely be blocking the speakers which will be just obstructing the audio on the game.
The Oppo F7 features a 25MP front camera that uses the Sony IMX 576 sensor, giving high quality selfie photos. The camera software offers a range of special features and filters for added customization on photos. But don’t just ignore its back camera despite having fewer megapixels. After testing the camera in several occasions, the rear camera can capture great quality photos and the autofocus can detect objects quite fast. Even when doing close up shots for products and action figures, the rear camera can focus on the subject with great detail. When the HDR is turned on, it boosts the colors of the photos to make them look livelier, and it doesn’t overblown the saturation of the images. At low light scenes, the quality of the photos are very much decent, with less noise from the photos. We shared some photo samples during our Akihabara (Japan) and Computex (Taipei, Taiwan) trips to see the quality of the shots taken with the Oppo F7.
As for video quality, unfortunately the Oppo F7 can only record videos in 30 FPS, which can be a bit of a letdown for users who wants to do slow motion captures on their recordings, another drawback is the lack of video stabilization when recording, meaning any slight shakes while recording will be noticeable, so it’s recommended to have a monopod or tripod when doing Vlogs or other video recordings.
As for phone performance, the F7 has an Octa-core processor with the latest Mediatek MT6771 Helio P60 chipset that ensures high performance even on the high demanding applications. Just from the boot up speed, the F7 has load up in just a couple of seconds as well as loading apps when launching. We benchmarked the phone with a series of tools and so far the results are impressive. It is also noticeable when using the fingerprint scanner when unlocking the phone, it only in just a mere second to unlock the phone and opening the home screen.
In terms of games, we tested some of the latest and popular games to see how it performs if it can be a good smartphone for everyday gaming. The Mali-G72 GPU managed to perform well in running games that requires high processing power. Some high demanding games such as Lineage II Revolution managed to run smoothly at around 60 frames per second on highest setting and Honkai 3rd Impact managed to perform well on high settings with high framerate though there are cases that it dips at around 50 FPS. Some older games like Marvel Future Fight performs well with little to no dips on the framerate.
Battery has a decent lifespan that lasted longer than expected from its 3400 mAh capacity. During our test run for an entire day while travelling in Japan, the battery was just at 10% after around 12 hours of usage, which has a combination of photographs, internet browsing, social media updates, mobile gaming with WiFi turned on and auto brightness enabled.
Overall, the Oppo F7 is not just designed for people who likes to have selfies, but can work well as a gaming device. The camera performs well for selfies and for everyday photography, but may not be good for video recording due to the lack of stabilizer but still enough to be able to use for short clips on social media. As for gaming, it can run any of the latest games with ease. The Notch design may have a mixed reception to users not to mention the placement of the speaker as well with its plastic body that makes it feel less durable. But despite some minor issues on the design, the F7 is a good choice if you are looking for a smartphone that works well for both for gaming and photos. It is now available with an SRP of PhP 17,990 (4GB/64GB variant) and PhP 21,990 (6GB/128GB variant).
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