OPPO F5 Quick Review: An eye candy made for selfie lovers

OPPO has made a name for itself with its F-series selfie smartphones. On Thursday, the company announced a new phone that joins the portfolio, and it is a valuable addition that defines the company's future.

OPPO F5, the new selfie expert, brings new design and improvements to the table. We got our hands on the new smartphone and found some interesting developments OPPO has to offer. 

It's worth noting that the handset we are testing is a 4GB RAM model, and a 6GB RAM variant will be available at a later date - sometime in December.

Let's start with the obvious.

OPPO F5's design is the highlight of the phone. The lauded bezel-less design embraces the first-ever OPPO smartphone and does so elegantly. The feel of the smartphone is as pleasant as its look. The ultra-sleek body of the OPPO F5 feels light in hand and makes one-hand operations seamless despite sporting a large 6-inch display. But it's not the sleekness that gets the full credit.

OPPO F5's display has 18:9 aspect ratio, making it tall and narrow like the Samsung Galaxy S8+ and iPhone X. If you are thinking the feel of the F5 is as good as those flagships, it's not. But it doesn't come across as a low-priced phone.

Complimenting the bezel-less design is a Full HD+ display that shines really bright. It's great for watching movies in high definition, playing high-graphics games and even carrying out day-to-day operations.

But the concern that comes with such a bright display is its impact on the battery. Although we are yet to test the battery life of the OPPO F5, it packs a 3,200mAh battery, which is a reliable combination for a smartphone its specifications (octa-core CPU + 4GB RAM). We will be sharing more details about the phone's battery life and performance in our upcoming comprehensive review.

Our early hands-on the OPPO F5 allowed us to test the camera, and we weren't disappointed. The 20MP single sensor on the phone may seem like a downgrade from a dual camera seen in its predecessor, but it does an impressive work in capturing selfies – all thanks to the new AI-powered Beauty technology.

The rear camera has a 16MP sensor with f/1.8 aperture, which seems to be working on the same lines of the F3 Plus. There's a new Expert mode in the phone's camera, which we are quite keen to explore in our full review. Until then, relish on some samples we captured for you to see how good it is.

For our verdict on the camera, you'll need to get back to our full review later. But OPPO F5 seems to be going for a home run with its new selfie-expert. Low-light photos aren't excellent, but the details seem to be lost in the dark areas. Capturing colours in the low-light conditions seems to do quite the justice. 

Our first impressions of the OPPO F5 laid some foundation for our review. The UI is and the overall feel of the software is identical to previous OPPO phones. We are really waiting for the next version of Android or ColorOS make some splash on the user experience. OPPO F5 does try to take advantage of the larger screen estate by offering split-screen, which can be activated by tapping and holding the multi-screen soft button. When we tested the phone, most of the apps like Phone, Album, Browser did not support it.

We also had the chance to test the fingerprint scanner as well as facial recognition. Both seem to be accurate and fast, but we find the new facial recognition software to be more accessible. All you need to do is hold the phone up and it unlocks it as soon as it can scan the phone. But good lighting is essential for it to work flawlessly. The snappy fingerprint scanner is always there to the rescue.

Early verdict? Sure.

If you ask us, for the price of Rs 20,990, OPPO's offering in the form of F5 is quite impressive. We have to rate OPPO F5 its best-looking smartphone, which was clearly the F1 Plus until now, and the camera, of course, is satisfying. But it's disappointing to see the F5 lack OPPO's proprietary VOOC fast-charging solution.

Frankly, we are keen to test the 6GB RAM variant as well, and the red colour variant has a stunning visual.

We'll be testing the smartphone for its battery and performance, so stay tuned for our full review in the coming days to get a bigger picture of what the phone has to offer.