OPPO F1s

FEATURE

• The Oppo F1s is an upgraded F1 with a 16-megapixel selfie camera
• The fingerprint sensor is quick and battery life is also good
• The Oppo F1s is priced at Rs. 17,990

Specifications:

• 64-bit octa-core MediaTek MT6750 processor
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB storage + up to 128GB microSD
• 5.5-inch display (1280 x 720 pixel resolution, 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 4, Glove and Wet Touch input)
• 13MP rear camera (f/2.2 aperture, LED Flash, Phase Detection Auto Focus) + 16MP front camera (1/3.1-inch sensor, f/2.0 aperture)
• Measure 154.5 x 76 x 7.38mm, weighs 160g
• Features fingerprint sensor built into front home button, dual Nano-SIM 4G LTE, free case + protective film, USB 2.0
• Supports 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS connectivity
• Android 5.1 + ColorOS 3.0
• 3075 mAh battery

Design and build quality: 

The F1 Plus was a blatant copy of the iPhone 6S. So is the F1s. In fact, there's very little difference between the F1s and the F1 Plus when you keep them side by side. You will have to observe very carefully to be able to make out the  differences. Chinese brands taking inspiration from Apple's iPhone surely isn't a taboo. Oppo is just one tip of the iceberg. Moving on, not only does the F1s look every bit like its top-tier sibling, it also inherits its build material and quality, to some extent. This means, you get an all-metal body and Corning's Gorilla Glass on the frontwhich is by the way accentuated by a 2.5D curve). The top and bottom ends house the antennas and therefore bask in a brushed metal finish The F1s certainly looks premium from afar. Sadly the same can't be said when you actually hold and operate the phone. When in the hands, the F1s doesn't entail the same amount of confidence that a certain F1 Plus or even the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and LeEco Le 2 (that cost way less) give you. It doesn't feel all that premium and robust. The F1s' body gives you the same feel that say the LG G5's does, which means it doesn't feel all that metallic when you're actually holding it. It feels plastic. Of course the LG G5 has its own reasons to be that way. It is modular and everything. The Oppo F1s doesn't, which makes it a bigger let-down. It's still super slippery though, which is something that afflicts almost all "metal phones". 

Display: 

The F1s comes with a 5.5-inch HD IPS display with a 720x1280 pixels resolution that roughly translates to 267ppi. While the F1 Plus's 1080p AMOLED screen was nothing short of brilliant, the screen of the F1s is disappointing. Its viewing angles are all over the place while its brightness levels make you want to cringe in disbelief. Yes, it's that bad. 

An odd tinge or two is observed every time you tilt the device and view it from different angles. Meanwhile, the phone's average brightness levels keep you asking for more when you are out in direct sunlight. It also doesn't help that the phone doesn't ship with any colour correcting mode by default. It does however ship with an eye protection mode that filters out the blue light and turns colours to the warmer end of the spectrum when on. Other phones call it night mode. 

Camera: 

Oppo's new camera phone comes with a 13-megapixel rear shooter with f/2.2 aperture, phase detection autofocus and LED flash. On the front you get a whopping 16-megapixel camera, but there's no LED flash. You do get a screen lighting effect, much like it was in the case of the F1 Plus as well for low light situations. The rear camera is nothing special to talk about. It does the basics right in good lighting. Photos clicked in good lighting come out with lots of detail and little or no metering issues. The dynamic range, however, leaves a lot to be desired. In order to capture more detail, the sensor often tries to take in more light resulting in blown out highlights. Macros or close-up shots are handled well. 

Tricky and low light photos are just about average with noise creeping in as the intensity of light decreases. Also such photos tend to come out dull and lifeless on occasions. The showstopper here isn't the rear camera though. It's the front cam that's supposed to be the F1s' stellar feature. Oppo has beefed it up with lots of megapixels which on paper should entail in excellent detail and super crisp selfies. And it does, mostly. Selfies taken with the F1s' front camera boast of lots of detail in well-lit situations. But it's often inconsistent in the way it handles the subject. Every now and then especially in tricky light photos tend to come out soft and mushy. Don't take me wrong. The F1s still is a plentiful for all your Facebook and Instagram needs, but it was supposed to do more. Sadly it doesn't. 

Fingerprint Scanner:

The fingerprint scanner is also one of the pleasant surprises of the OPPO F1s. Truth be told, this is actually the defining feature that distinguishes it from the OPPO F1 and the OPPO F1 Plus, not the selfie camera that it shares with the F1 Plus. The OPPO F1 didn’t even have a fingerprint sensor and, while the F1 Plus does have one, the F1s’ sensor is actually more capable. For one, it is extremely fast. Just 0.22 seconds, though admittedly just a tad slower than the F1 Plus’ 0.2 seconds. More often than not, the speed and sensitivity of the sensor is taken for granted. But every millisecond you wait adds up to wasted time. And despite being fast, it is still accurate, which can’t be said of some fingerprint scanners, even those from big brands. 

But that’s not where the OPPO F1s’ fingerprint reader excels. It is impressive because of how OPPO has utilized its speed and accuracy to offer a unique feature on the smartphone. Just as you can easily register more than one, usually up to five, fingers to unlock your smartphone, you can actually assign different actions to each of those five fingers. So while your thumb unlocks your OPPO F1s as normal, your index finger can immediately take you to Facebook the moment you unlock your smartphone. Or your other thumb will let you jump to the camera up in a flash. Huawei and honor may have their swiping gestures on their fingerprint scanners, but OPPO takes off the gloves with this “One Touch” feature. 

Battery: 

The one rather disappointing aspect of the OPPO F1s is its battery. Not that the 3,075 mAh isn’t enough. Indeed, we got nearly 9 hours of use in a single charge. And that’s with rather heavy use. Of course, if you’re going to take selfies all day long, mixed with the rear camera, you’re bound to run empty sooner. And when you do need to reach out for a charge, that’s when a missing feature will hit you hard. The OPPO F1s doesn’t have the company’s much touted VOOC fast charging capabilities, which means charging that rather large pack is going to take a while. This is one of the ways that the OPPO F1 Plus, with near identical specs, trumps the Selfie Expert, as it has that VOOC technology available to its admittedly smaller 2,850 mAh battery. 

Performance: 

The F1s' performance was met with expectations, it is able to play games like Asphalt 8:Airborne easily, surfing social apps is smooth, battery life is commendable which could last you at least a day, and YouTube viewing on the 5.5-inch Gorilla Glass 4 display gets a thumbs up even though the resolution is 720p only. However, during the first two weeks or so, it did have some issues playing Pokemon Go, as the Pokemon animation tend not to appear often, and the display doesn't go black when held upside down (battery saving mode). Luckily, OPPO sent two update patches to fix the phone to be compatible with the app, so it's working fine now, but you could still feel a little bit of line "laggyness" when compared with other phones (my iPhone 5 has better GPS accuracy). 

Vanity aside, the OPPO F1s sports a 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6750 octa-core CPU with Mali-T860 MP2 in the graphics department. This tandem, in addition to its 3GB RAM, keeps things running smoothly when we use the device to play games like NBA 2K16, browse the internet, check our social media sites, and edit photos using Snapseed. The F1s uses a non-removable 3,075mAh battery and upon running our PCMark Battery test, it was rated at 9 hours and a minute. Additionally, when we looped a video on Airplane mode with 50% brightness and volume, the F1s resulted to almost the same time at 9 hours and 21 minutes of continuous playback before the juice ran out.

You had be glad to know that while other companies employ a hybrid dual SIM setup (meaning SIM 1 + either SIM 2 or microSD) for their phones, OPPO went for a full two-slot so you could have two SIM cards plus a microSD card to expand your storage. As for connectivity, there’s 4G LTE onboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and USB-OTG. We had no problems using the F1s for voice calls as things went smoothly and audio quality was interrupted.

OPPO indeed created a selfie expert with the F1s. Its 16-megapixel front camera not only takes detailed shots, but also performs very well in dark areas. We wouldn’t mind it not having a dedicated front flash since it could capture decent images thanks to its F2.0 aperture. As an everyday device, the F1s also didn’t disappoint as it could take on normal tasks and doesn’t choke when a lot of apps are open. It is also priced competitively. At 17900, you get a pair of nice cameras, capable processor, ample 3GB RAM, and dual-SIM plus an extra space for a microSD card. It’s not much of a looker when you view it up front and only has a maximum display resolution of 720p, but the pros overweigh the cons so we’re fine with that. It’s no wonder the F1s got sold out only 3 days after its availability.

Overall, we didn’t experience any major lags or crashes that would turn us off while using the handset. It was actually snappy and kept up with all the tasks that we demanded of it. 

Positives: 

• 4GB of RAM 
• 64 GB of storage 
• Fingerprint reader 
• Great rear facing camera 
• Possibly the best selfie camera out there 
• VOOC fast charging 
• Thin bezels 
• Corning Gorilla Glass 4 

Negatives: 

• Color OS might be not be to everyone's liking 
• Could do with a slightly better CPU 
• Looks too similar to the iPhone 
• No NFC

Verdict:

Priced at Rs 17,990 it seems a bit to much to ask for, but then that’s how Oppo smartphones have always been. You get similar a performing smartphones at about Rs 10,000. Rs 15,000 with almost a similar premium design. Justifying the cost with superior front camera might not be the best way to go. Having said that, if you are a selfie lover, the F1s is something to go for. There aren’t a lot of smartphones on the market that provide a 16MP front camera that can take selfies as good as this smartphone. As an overall performer, the smartphone is pretty good in terms of battery life and daily tasks. We were also impressed with its design, the super fast fingerprint scanner and the smooth and stable ColorOS UI which imitates Apple’s iOS quite well. It might not be able to compare with smartphones in terms of benchmark performance, but it is certainly not a slow device, so thumbs up on the performance as well.